Oslo - Sunday was a day of remembrance and self-examination for Norway, a small country shaken by the massacre of at least 93 of its people, many of them children, by one of its own.
The royal family and average citizens alike, some traveling long distances, came to a memorial service for the dead in the Oslo Cathedral. Long lines of people of all ages and colors waited patiently and quietly, some of them crying, to lay flowers or light candles at the spreading blanket of bouquets in front of the cathedral. Someone propped up a radio on a post so those waiting could listen to the service inside.
At the same time, the Norwegian police and security services faced numerous questions about their slow response to the reports of shooting on the island of Utoya, where the country's governing Labor Party was holding its annual political summer camp, considered Norway's nursery school for future leaders. The police took an hour to arrive on the island after the first reports, and officials said that it was hard to find boats and that their helicopters were only capable of surveillance, not of shooting down the killer.
Anders Behring Breivik, 32, the only suspect arrested, admits to the shootings on Utoya and the fatal bombing of government offices in Oslo, his lawyer, Geir Lippestad, told Norwegian news media, but rejects "criminal responsibility." Mr. Lippestad said that Mr. Breivik insists that he acted alone, and alone wrote his mammoth manifesto - rambling from a hostile historical look at Islam to recipes (and price lists) for bomb manufacture to his family's pressure on him to date.
"He has said that he believed the actions were atrocious, but that in his head they were necessary," the lawyer said. "He wanted a change in society and, from his perspective, he needed to force through a revolution. He wished to attack society and the structure of society."
He also clearly wants to leave a legacy and thinks he will create some kind of mass following, said Tore Bjorgo, one of Norway's most respected scholars of right-wing extremism. "He had this strange idea that he will provoke a mass following, despite the violence, which is why I put it in a Christian frame," said Mr. Bjorgo, a professor at the Norwegian Police University College.
Mr. Breivik, who has cooperated with the police, has asked for an open hearing in the City Court of Oslo on Monday morning, when the police will seek to detain him for another four weeks on suspicion of terrorism - longer if necessary for the investigation - before the prosecution brings formal charges.
Some speculated that Mr. Breivik is seeking another public platform for his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim ideas, which center around the conservation of cultural and Christian values in the face of what he sees as a continuing effort by Islam to conquer Europe since the Ottomans were stopped at the gates of Vienna in 1683. His manifesto, called "2083 - A European Declaration of Independence," seemed intended to reflect the 400th anniversary of the siege.
Mr. Breivik was said by analysts to have been an occasional commenter on a blog, Gates of Vienna, which is topped by these words: "At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war."
According to the police, when he surrendered, Mr. Breivik was carrying an automatic rifle and a pistol and he still retained "a considerable amount of ammunition." Doctors have said that he was apparently using dumdum bullets, expanding rounds designed to inflict the deadliest wounds possible in unarmored victims.
With no death penalty and the longest prison term possible in Norway set at 21 years, some Norwegians wondered how best to punish Mr. Breivik.
Hedda Felin, a political scientist and human resources manager, said that giving Mr. Breivik an open platform "was more of a reward than a punishment." He said in his manifesto that he considered killing Norway's top journalists at their yearly meeting, she said, for not listening to him and his arguments.
"He wants an open trial to be listened to, so journalists will now write about his ideas," Ms. Felin said. "A real punishment would be not to write about him at all."
There were church services all over Norway on Sunday. At the Oslo Cathedral, King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway were both in tears, and they were hardly alone. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who knew many of the dead, said, "We are crying with you, we feel for you." The brief period since the killings "feels like an eternity - hours and days and nights filled with shock and angst and weeping," he said.
"Each and every one of those who has left us is a tragedy," Mr. Stoltenberg added. "Together, it is a national tragedy."
Outside, among the mourners, Tured Mong, a pensioner, said she drove 40 miles with her husband to bring flowers from her garden and a candle she wanted to light. "I only want to lay them down here," Ms. Mong said. "I am sorry for all the parents waiting to find some news who don't know about their children." She added: "I wanted to bring the flowers and light a candle. It's very hard to just sit and watch the TV. I feel like I'm doing something."
Another mourner, Evy Andersen, from Oslo, brought a sunflower from her garden. "I have a niece who has been to this camp twice, and she has many friends who are missing," she said. "She is wondering about them. I did this for her and for myself."
Ms. Andersen said there would be useful introspection for a country that thinks of itself as favored and far from the world's worst problems. "We've been in such a favorable position, we've forgotten a bit about the others among us," she said. "We're a bit spoiled."
Borge Wilhemsen, a Labor Party activist, said he drove for five hours to be at the memorial service, along with his 6-year-old daughter. "You can't take them away from everything," he said, referring to his daughter. "They have to learn that life is sometimes hard. I have not told her everything. I told her that there were two big accidents."
Mr. Wilhemsen said he knew a number of those killed at the island camp. Some of them were as young as 12, he said.
There were also many mourners who were immigrants or children of mixed race. Le Lemeo, a refugee from Vietnam 21 years ago, said: "Norway helped the Vietnamese people to come here. They were very welcoming." Mr. Le said he was a well-known sushi chef here. "I have a job and a family, and I wanted to come," he said. "It is very sad for all the young people."
Marina Heier, 15, is the product of a Norwegian mother and a South African father; she was born here and is a native Norwegian speaker as well as fluent in English. She, too, brought flowers from her garden. "It's important that everyone in Norway stands together," Marina said. "This is a reminder of the danger of hatred."
Elisa Mala contributed reporting.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: July 24, 2011
An earlier version of this article misattributed this quote: "With 9/11 in America, people could ask, ‘Who are they?' and could pour their rage out on someone else," he said. "But we can't disavow this person, he's one of us." The quote was by by Anders Romarheim, not Kristian Ulrichsen, a researcher at the London School of Economics.
