Old55
I always wondered who was the first one to try Lutefisk. Let's soak this stuff in one of the most poisonous elements on the planet. "Hey Leif, give this a try."
I'm one of the few Norwegians that doesn't like fish all that much, so I'm staying way from Lutefisk and that other stuff. My mom used to make sursild (pickled herring) when I was young and I'd eat all the onions and leave the herring. I'll have tuna salad, fish and chips or a fish taco once in a while. I negate and health benefits by adding too much mayo or tartar sauce; so I don't even do that so often.
My Guess is that there once was a woman who wanted to kill her husband and prepared and served a piece of fish like this, hoping that he would die a horrible and very ugly death. BUT the guy didn't die and actually yelled at his wife:
"This, I will eat, but get me some potatoes, bacon and peas! And pass the mustard that we stole from some unsuspecting English guy!"
He ate up and was probably a little nicer to his wife so she decided to make it for Christmas (or juleblot as it was called back then before Christianity) every year, to have a bit of piece and quiet for the holidays. Of course, women like to talk and back then there were no such thing as "Sex and the city" or "Desperate Housewives" so she shared this knowledge and the dish spread of natural causes.
I am probably entirely wrong but I will always see it as an attempted murder weapon
Wasn't much of a fish eater my self, never really liked it until I discovered sushi some years ago. That's the only fish dish I'd eat and actually enjoy. The past 8 months or so I've been having a harder and harder time eating meat, pork and chicken so I discovered some ways to make fish that I actually enjoyed. I'm getting there. But I'm not much of a Norwegian to be honest, so I eat it and be happy afterwards. Heck, it only took me 31 years!