On 2 October the Norwegian Storting opens its 171st session, and it will be the first time Mette-Marit stands before MPs as queen. Until now she was a crown princess consort, a title that grants plenty of room and few obligations. Now there is no room.

In the chamber with her will be King Haakon VIII and Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra. The three of them together are the entire new generation of the Scandinavian crown in one place - a dynasty that went from a funeral to the opening of parliament within a few months. Queen Sonja, who held precisely this role for decades, will not be there this time.

Is her attendance certain? No. Mette-Marit has pulmonary fibrosis and a transplanted lung, and the palace says openly that her schedule is made with a reserve - engagements can fall away at the last moment. When Haakon took his oath as king, she was not there. Her daughter Ingrid Alexandra was.

That is the detail worth holding on to. The Norwegian monarchy has spent years building an image of normality - a royal family that cycles, that sends its children to ordinary schools, that talks about mental health. And then comes an illness that does not ask about protocol, and the institution has to learn to function with absence as a possibility rather than a scandal.

There is something in that which Balkan institutions rarely master. Here an absence is usually hidden, called a "working visit", or not explained at all. The Norwegians simply say the person is ill and may not come.

The opening of the Storting is a ceremony - the king reads a speech he did not write, parliament listens, nothing is decided there. But that is exactly why the role matters. The monarchy in Norway does not make laws; it provides continuity. And continuity this time will be measured by whether a woman with a transplanted lung can get through one ceremonial day.