The Norvegr journey is threaded with stories, recorded in our journal. Read on and discover more about our rich history, exclusive design insight and the latest pieces of sleep thinking.
The Stene Legacy
The Stene family, with three generations of expertise, has woven a legacy of sleep excellence into the fabric of Norvegr. Their story began in 1956 and has travelled from grandparent, to child, to grandchild. Their unwavering focus on down duvets and pillows showcases their commitment to crafting products that transcend the ordinary.
The Stene family’s passion for their craft extends beyond product excellence. They take pride in understanding their customers’ individual needs, offering personalised recommendations and tailoring their crafts accordingly. This commitment to customer satisfaction has earned Norvegr a reputation for creating advocates who cherish their products as heirloom essentials.
Drawing inspiration from Norse seafaring traditions, Norvegr has redefined the luxury sleep experience. Their distinctive channel construction technique, filled with the finest down, offer unparalleled temperature regulation and comfort. Beyond their exceptional quality, Norvegr duvets and pillows are built to last. Their refurbishment promise allows products to be sent back to Trondheim for rejuvenation, ensuring they remain as luxurious as the day they were purchased.
Rooted in Norwegian values of modesty, simplicity, and a deep connection to nature, Norvegr embodies the essence of Scandinavian living. Their products are a testament to an unwavering pursuit of quality, comfort, and sustainability. As Nils Stene, CEO, aptly states, “We believe that our products carry that Norwegian way of life that will win you over.”
“Elevating the essentials of your sleep”
The Missing Piece
Of Your Sleep Puzzle
Paradise found, without ever having to leave the sanctuary of your bed. There are so many decorative and ephemeral parts of life where we feel compelled to invest – our technology, our clothes, our travels. However with each passing year we increasingly understand that the most important investment is in ourselves and our wellbeing, and nothing is more fundamental to both than a good night’s sleep. Your choice of bedding is the missing piece, enabling a blissful, uninterrupted night.
At Norvegr we believe in elevating the essential. Taking that most foundational, yet overlooked, part of your nightly routine and transforming it into a lifelong luxury. In every way our duvets are a tribute to the timeless.
We have stayed true to our roots, honouring the lessons taught to us by the natural world. We use hand-gathered eiderdown for its miraculous heat regulating properties and its astounding lightness. We honour our Norse heritage; the craft, ingenuity and respect for the wilderness that made us connoisseurs of comfort, wherever we travelled.
Today it is our family’s gift to share with you. Each Norvegr product is made to order, using our signature channel construction technique, and tailored to your needs to ensure your sleep is supremely comfortable and blissfully undisturbed. Ensuring that each night is a true journey to tranquillity, and each day begins rested and ready for whatever adventures await.
A Journey to the North
At Norvegr we are shaped by our surroundings, building upon the legacy of the Vikings with a pioneering mindset and adventurous soul. Follow our journey and discover the true meaning of the Norvegr name – ‘The Way to the North.’
Svalbard
Svalbard, a remote archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, is the pristine habitat of a unique type of eider duck known formally as Somateria Mollissima Borealis. These resilient birds have adapted to the harsh climate by developing thicker, heavier down to insulate their nests. This exceptional down is the source of Norvegr’s luxurious eiderdown duvets. After the spring the eider ducks leave their nests, which are then carefully harvested by local experts. The down is meticulously hand-picked, a sustainable practice that requires nimble fingers and infinite patience, preserving the untouched beauty of Svalbard while providing a precious natural resource.
Trondheim
Positioned beside the Trondheim Fjord and surrounded by the dramatic beauty of central Norway, Trondheim is the home of the Norvegr factory and the heart of the Stene family legacy. Since 1956, this historic city has been the base for our mission to craft the world’s best down duvets. Inspired by the rugged landscapes and rich national tradition, Norvegr’s artisans put time-tested Norse craft techniques to practise and work fastidiously on each duvet and pillow. From the selection of the finest down to the precise stitching of every seam, their dedication to quality is evident in every product.
Hålogaland
Hålogaland was the home port of Ottar the Viking, one of the first Norwegians to travel into the unmapped north and into the land of Bjarmers, what we would now call Russia. As he journeyed with his crew he collected pelts, feathers and precious down, finding riches with which he could trade while spreading his tales. After his unprecedented journey he travelled back south, through Norway and Denmark, eventually to the court of King Alfred in Wessex. His tales captured the Anglo Saxon imagination, and were added to Alfred’s Compendious History of the World. His ‘journey to the north’ – his ‘Norvegr’ – remains as one of our continual sources of inspiration.
Agder
In the autumn of 834 AD, Queen Asa of Agder was discovered buried inside the beautiful Oseberg Ship. Archaeologists uncovered an ornate bed dressed with the most beautiful textiles ever seen from the Viking Age. Between the fabric covers and inside the exquisite pillows were thick layers of a soft, luxurious resource that was to become known as a true treasure – pure eiderdown. Royalty and nobility alike then knew that down and sable were not only hard to obtain, but of exceptional quality. Centuries later, power still commands privilege, and there are few truer privileges than the bliss of a perfect night’s sleep. At Norvegr we continue to pursue the time-honoured tradition of creating bedding fit for royalty.
Cloud Lightness
Eiderdown is one of nature’s greatest masterpieces. A material so refined it feels almost unreal, with warmth and lightness that are completely unparalleled. Unlike other down, eiderdown is plucked from the female eider’s breast to insulate her nest. This remarkable insulation is so effective that she can leave her eggs unattended for hours in the arctic conditions of Svalbard, trusting in the eiderdown’s ability to maintain a constant temperature.
The tactile experience of eiderdown is truly extraordinary. To hold it is to know true softness, where a little goes a very long way. Unlike normal feathers there is no central quill, instead it is made up of a unique structure of light and fluffy filaments that naturally hook together. The result is a perfect product for heat and moisture regulation, a filling that is admirably hard wearing while still feeling as light as a cloud.
“An heirloom item that feels like a dream and lasts for decades”
Perfect Duvets For couples
Quite often there are two people sharing a duvet, so what happens when their ideas of ‘perfect’ are different?
It is possible to simply purchase Norvegr duvets online in a range of sizes, down percentages and fill-powers, however Norvegr encourages each customer to take up the offer of a sleep consultation with every purchase. The family business takes pride in understanding each customer’s individual needs to create their perfect, forever duvet.
This commitment to customer satisfaction extends to couples – after all, how can one half be happy if the other half is not? Everyone has a unique sleep temperature and sleep preferences and may require a different weight or fill-power. Both partners take part in the sleep consultation and Norvegr offers personalised recommendations and fills each side of the duvet differently to suit both parties.
This genius idea of a dual-fill duvet is made possible by the unique channel construction of Norvegr duvets. The channels run lengthwise from chin to toe for optimum air circulation and temperature regulation. Because of these straight lines, it is possible to fill differently on each side with no crossover or compromise.
There is no charge for the sleep consultation or the dual-fill option – the price is calculated for each fill for a whole duvet, divided in half and then added together.
Norvegr recommends that the duvet is returned every ten years to be restored and re-filled, so it can adjust the fill-power and weight as sleep preferences change over the years.
Polar Days, Perfect Nights
Svalbard is a place of mystifying extremes. Lunar-like tundra unfolds beside reflective fjords, buffeted by biting arctic winds. Snowy peaks, slate grey and coiled in cloud, reach up into crystal clear skies. In the summer the sun never sets, whereas winters are a perpetual midnight, with the periods between marked by endless hours of mystic twilight.
On good days in July the temperatures might reach single digits; in January, they may plummet beyond -20 degrees Celsius. It is a land that feels untethered from time, where the height of the natural beauty is matched only by the depth of the potential peril.
Survival here is a game of change; those that have adapted have thrived. Svalbard is home to polar bears, reindeer, arctic foxes, puffins and more, each able to teach us a unique way to overcome the cold. But it is the lesson of the humble eider duck which has made arguably the biggest impact. The magical properties of their down were first utilised by Norse explorers over eleven centuries ago, and today are harnessed by Norvegr to create the missing piece of your cosy sleep puzzle.
A thousand miles south in Trondheim, Norway, the experts at Norvegr’s factory use the eiderdown, carefully hand harvested from abandoned nests, in duvets designed as the ultimate somnial indulgence. The fluffy, flexible filaments capture heat while remaining light as a cloud, making it the inimitable best choice for duvet fillings in terms of temperature and moisture regulation. Combined with Norvegr’s iconic channel construction to keep heat modulated from top to toe, the result is a perfectly temperate and undisturbed night’s sleep. Each item is created to order, with a customised size and weight.
Designed for the coldest climates and the chilliest sleepers, our polar duvets are a love letter to the beauty of the arctic landscape. Visually striking, deeply filled channels are an homage to the frosted and undulating skyline of Svalbard. The weightiness of the product echoes that sense of reassuring cosiness that can only be experienced while faced with such extreme chill. A dream, framed by tufted snow and glacial skies.
Much like the magical endless twilights of the far north, our polar duvets are the perfect companion to those ‘between times’; the dusky evenings bundled by the fire, the hazy weekend mornings, and the duvet days that you hope will never end. An ideal gift for those who matter most; even if that happens to be you yourself, and the ultimate way to introduce an element of enduring Norse luxury that promises to take your sleep to uncharted new heights.
