Harald V (born 21 February 1937) is the King of Norway. He succeeded to the throne of Norway upon the death of his father Olaf V on 17 January 1991. The son of the then-Crown Prince Olaf and of Princess Märtha of Sweden, Harald was born at the Crown Prince Residence at Skaugum, Akershus, Norway.

A member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, originally from Northern Germany, Harald became the first Norwegian-born prince since Olaf IV, who was born in 1370. Harald V is the formal head of the Church of Norway and the Norwegian Armed Forces. He has two children, Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Märtha Louise. His grandchildren are Maud Angelica (2003), Leah Isadora (2005), Emma Tallulah (2008), Princess Ingrid Alexandra (2004), and Prince Sverre Magnus (2005).

Harald has two older sisters: Princess Ragnhild of Norway, Mrs. Lorentzen (Ragnhild Alexandra, born Oslo, 9 June 1930), who lives in Brazil, and Princess Astrid of Norway, Mrs. Ferner (Astrid Maud Ingeborg, born Oslo, 12 February 1932), who lives in Oslo.

Norway ⁱ/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian:  Norge (Bokmål) or  Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.

Emil Hegle Svendsen (born 12 July 1985) is a Norwegian biathlete. He skis with Strindheim IL, based in Trondheim. He is 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) tall, and weighs 170 lb (77 kg, 12 st 2 lb).

The 2005/06 season was Svendsen's first season on the World Cup tour, before then he competed as a junior in the European Cup. During his first season in the World Cup Svendsen finished fifth in three races, two of them in sprints (Brezno-Orsblie and Ruhpolding), and the other in a mass start (Holmenkollen). He also finished races in seventh, ninth, and four more within the top twenty (14th, 15th, 17th, 19th). He finished the overall season in 22nd place. He was 32nd in the pursuit, 21st in the sprint, and 7th in the mass start, only seven points behind Sven Fischer in fourth place.

Svendsen was selected for the Olympics, to compete in the mass start, in which he came sixth, after hitting 18/20 targets and finished 53.8 seconds behind winner Michael Greis of Germany. As a junior Svendsen won four gold medals in junior World Championships, his first and second gold was in the pursuit, and the relay in Haute Maurienne in 2004, and the third and fourth gold in the individual and the sprint in Kontiolahti in 2005. He also has two bronze medals from the individual and the pursuit in Kościelisko in 2003. During his three seasons in the European Cup, Svendsen won two races (individual and pursuit), one second place (sprint), and came third three times (all in the sprint).

Finn Wagle (born 19 June 1941 in Oslo) is a theologian and a former bishop of Nidaros in the Church of Norway. He was also the Preses (Primus inter pares, “first among equals”) and thus presided over the Bishop's Conference in the Church of Norway from 2002 until 2006.

Wagle enrolled as a student at MF Norwegian School of Theology in 1962, and graduated in 1968 with the cand.theol. degree. The following year he graduated from the Practical Theological Seminary at MF. He also studied in 1966-1967 in Berlin with a Willy Brandt Scholarship.

His first post was serving as an army chaplain (1970) before working as a vicar in Sørreisa in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland from 1970-1975. From 1975 until 1981, he worked as an assistant professor at the Practical Theological Seminary at MF Norwegian School of Theology, while at the same time working for the Association of Ministers in the Church of Norway. From 1981-1988 he worked as director of the institute Church Educational Center (IKO), and in 1988 he became the Dean of the Nidaros Cathedral.

Queen Sonja of Norway (née Sonja Haraldsen, born 4 July 1937) is the wife of King Harald V of Norway.

Sonja was born in Oslo on 4 July 1937 as the daughter of clothing merchant Karl August Haraldsen (1889–1959) and Dagny Ulrichsen (1898–1994).

Queen Sonja grew up at 1B Tuengen Allé in the district of Vinderen in Oslo and completed her lower secondary schooling in 1954. She received a diploma in dressmaking and tailoring at the Oslo Vocational School, as well as a diploma from École Professionelle des Jeunes Filles in Lausanne, Switzerland. There, she studied accounting, fashion design, and social science.

She returned to Norway for further studies and received an undergraduate degree (French, English and Art History) from the University of Oslo.

She became engaged to then Crown Prince Harald in March 1968. They had been dating for nine years, although this had been kept secret because of opposition to her non-royal status. The Crown Prince made it clear to his father, King Olav V, that he would remain unmarried for life unless he could marry her. This would in effect have put an end to the rule of his family and probably to the monarchy in Norway, as he was the sole heir to the throne. Faced with having to choose one of his relatives from the Danish Royal Family, the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein or even the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg as his new heir in place of his son, Olav V consulted the government for advice and the result was that the couple were wed on 29 August 1968, at Oslo Domkirke in Oslo. She thus acquired the style of Royal Highness and the title of Crown Princess of Norway.