Brno, June 13 (CTK) – King of Norway Harald V has decorated Czech Nordic studies scholar and translator Milusa Jurickova as a knight of the Norwegian Royal Order for her contribution to the cultural relations between Norway and the Czech Republic, Barbora Janoutova, from the embassy of Norway, has told CTK.
Jurickova mainly contributed to the cultural relations in the sphere of language and literature, Janoutova said.
Jurickova will receive the order in Prague on Wednesday.
Jurickova, 61, is a graduate from the Faculty of Arts in Brno where she still works.
“My first trip to Norway changed my attitude to the life, as has also often happened with my students,” Jurickova said.
Along with culture, she admires the atmosphere and human relationships in Norway.
Norwegians may look rather reserved, but the established friendships are firm and durable, Jurickova said.
Along with her work at the university, Jurickova translates both fiction and non-fiction from Norwegian into Czech.
Two years ago, her translation of Helga Flatland’s novel Stay If You Can. Leave If You Must appeared.
In the past years, Jurickova also examined the life of psychiatrist Leo Eitinger, a native from Lomnice, south Moravia, who fled before the Nazi regime thanks to the Nansen passport to Norway.
Eitinger then helped tens of Jewish children from Czechoslovakia escape to the Nordic countries.
Jurickova said in modern history, Norway repeatedly behaved in a very positive way towards Czech refugees.
Along with 1939, she mentioned the aftermath of the 1948 Communist coup and the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Norwegian Royal Order is awarded to foreigners and Norwegians with a long-term stay abroad.
Within her academic work with the Norwegian language and literature, Jurickova has actively spread the knowledge of the Nordic model of society and Western, liberal values, Ambassador of Norway Siri Ellen Sletner said.
Vaclav Fencl, chairman of the Brno branch of the Nordic Society, said this was an exceptional decoration no Czech had received before.
