Norway is often shown as a long strip of land running down the edge of Scandinavia. But maps like this remind us that people imagine the country’s divisions in many other ways. Here, Norway is redrawn eight times, each version shaped by food, climate, speech, or everyday habits.
One version splits the country by traditional holiday dishes – pork ribs in one part, steamed mutton in another, lutefisk somewhere else. Food might not appear on official maps, but it marks cultural boundaries just as strongly as rivers or mountains.
Another version plays with dialects. Some people insist there’s really just one, while others argue there are hundreds, maybe thousands.
Weather also redraws the borders. In some places, heavy snow dominates the year. In others, violent storms roll through. And further north, summer nights bring clouds of mosquitoes.
Not all of the categories are serious. One map shows where state liquor shops are within reach. Another sorts people into “yokels” and “fancy boys.” And the final one highlights language in its most colorful form, with regions defined by everyday expressions and spectacular outbursts.
What’s striking is how these maps take familiar details—meals, weather, speech, habits—and stretch them into bigger symbols. They’re exaggerated, yes, but the exaggeration grows out of things Norwegians instantly recognize. Borders here aren’t political; they’re cultural, shaped by the little things that make daily life distinct from one place to the next.
If the design feels recognizable, it’s because it echoes Yanko Tsvetkov’s Atlas of Prejudice — an atlas of maps that reimagine countries through satire and stereotype. If you’d like to explore more, the book is available on Amazon [affiliate link].
So if you had to redraw Norway yourself, where would you draw the lines? By food? By weather? Or by the way people speak?
