Joy at Norway's royal wedding

The princess and the commoner kiss after the ceremony

TRONDHEIM, Norway -- The 30-year-old daughter of Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja has wed a controversial commoner, feted by exultant crowds who bucked concerns the match may undermine support for royalty.

Wearing a white silk dress decorated with lilies and with a three-metre train, Princess Martha said "Yes" to Norwegian author Ari Behn in Nidaros cathedral in the central city of Trondheim on Friday. She used a handkerchief to dab away tears.

Under grey skies, the streets were decorated with shocking pink and mint green flags -- the wedding's theme colours -- and with white flowers.

The two exchanged white gold rings before members of royal families around Europe.

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Guests included Queen Margrethe of Denmark, Spain's Crown Prince Felipe, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Britain's Prince Edward and, from the Netherlands, Prince Willem-Alexander and Crown Princess Maxima, who themselves wed in February.

Instead of the commoner winning the heart of the princess and his place among royals, Princess Martha Louise is to surrender some of her royal privileges to live more or less as a commoner with the 29-year-old man she loves.

He will remain a commoner wth no title or royal duties. She will pursue a career that has included reading fairytales on television.

But the Norwegian public treated the day as their own fairytale. Spectators, many wearing colourful national costume and waving Norway's red, white and blue flag, crammed the narrow streets of Trondheim, founded by the Vikings.

Young girls dressed up as princesses danced and showed off plastic gold crowns. Some had joined Martha on her wedding eve in sitting a light-hearted "princess test" -- the fun included kissing a toy frog, though none turned it into a prince.

Behn, often criticised for too flashy a taste in clothes that once included going skiing in a pink shirt, wore sober black tails with lily of the valley in his lapel. Behn is the author of a short-story collection called "Sad As Hell."

Gifts to the couple included a book made of chocolate with the joking title "Behn: Sweet as Hell."

Members of most of Europe's royal families watched the exchange of rings

Behn, whose 1999 book won rave reviews, upset some Norwegians by once making a television programme showing prostitutes taking cocaine in Las Vegas. He also made a documentary in Pakistan in which he told Taliban supporters that he opposed the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan.

Behn is often portrayed in the media as rather boastful and aloof, unwanted traits in a society where modesty is prized. His one book has just 44 pages of text -- too few, his critics say, to make him a real author.

The storybook match strips Martha of the title "Her Royal Highness" and some privileges. Though she will keep the title "Princess Martha" rather than becoming plain "Mrs Behn."

An opinion poll this week indicated 43 percent of Norwegians reckoned the young royals' choices of partners had weakened the monarchy. Just nine percent reckoned it had been strengthened.

Last August, Martha's younger brother Crown Prince Haakon stirred deeper controversy by marrying Crown Princess Mette-Marit -- who has confessed to a wild partying past and has a five-year-old son by a man convicted of cocaine possession.

Still, more than two thirds back the monarchy and newspapers said it was time to stop carping. In the streets of Trondheim, people hailed the royal match. Those against it went home.

"The monarchy is coming to an end. This wedding is like a fairy tale -- completely unbelievable," said 79-year-old pensioner Ragna Pedersen before going home in protest.

Last August the princess's younger brother, Crown Prince Haakon, married the single mother and former part-time waitress Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

Norway's royals rode out the initial public disapproval over the crown prince's choice, but the latest romance has proved more unpopular.

Martha' father, King Harald, broke with royal tradition in 1968 and married commoner Sonja Haraldsen.

Her great-grandfather, King Olav, also stirred controversy by marrying Princess Martha of Sweden in 1929 -- barely two decades after Norway won independence from neighbouring Sweden in 1905.