The Norwegian Legend of the Friendship Knot

There once lived in Norway, facing the North Sea, a fisherman and his daughter. The child was lonely. all day and long into the evening, her father was on the water fishing. Her mother had died when she was only five years old. She was alone so much of the time. to help her idle away the lonely hours, her father taught her the art of knotting, lacing and braiding and she spent many a happy hour doing this work. Her favorite knot was one her father called the knot of friendship. It fascinated her because it looked so much like a four-leaf clover, which she had read about and which was supposed to bring much luck to a person who found one. She was fascinated also because se could not understand what friendship was. Her father could not explain "friendship" ... he could not relate it to a person .. place ... or thing. He could only say a friend was 'good' ... 'kind' ... 'sincere' .. and so on; these things she understood.

When the child was eleven years old, the sea claimed the life of her father and she was sent into the city to live live with an elderly distant relative. The woman did not understand the needs of a young child and once again, she was lonely and afraid. Across the street from the house in which she lived, was a small park and each week the child watched a group of young people gather there. They all looked so happy and there was so much laughter and singing. She decided that the next week she would go and sit on the bench and be there when the girls arrived .. so she could hear what they said and see what made them so happy.

And so the very next week, she was sitting on the bench when the group came trouping down the walk. She watched and listened and found it was a group of Girl Guides and they were working with a map and compass. All seemed unaware that she was even around. In her deep interest in what was going on, she did not see the tall blonde girl leave the group and come to her bench .. only when the girl said, "Come, join us and be our friend." ... did she become conscious that she was there. There was the magic word, friendship, now perhaps she would find out what it meant. Time passed; the child did join the group and did become their friend and on one lovely evening during a campfire ceremony, the child presented to each member of the group a light blue rope neck tie and on the end of each, she had carefully made her knot of friendship as her token of love and friendship. She finally understood the word, friend.