In "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings," why is the angel described by characters as Norwegian?

The characters
in the story are rural and not overly-familiar with the outside world. They exhibit a sense that
might be termed xenophobia if it were more overt and hostile, but instead it is simply amiable
ignorance; they are not concerned with other places and countries and so see nothing wrong with
assumption. Referring to the "angel" as a Norwegian is simply their way of explaining
his foreign language and his seeming affinity with the ocean, as he has a "strong sailor's
voice."

...they skipped over the inconvenience of the wings and
quite intelligently concluded that he was a lonely castaway from some foreign ship wrecked by
the storm.[...]
[Rome] spent their time finding out... whether he wasn't just a
Norwegian with wings.
(M¡rquez, ","
salvoblue.homestead.com)

The easiest method of crossing the seas at
the time was by boat, and the people of Norway are legendary for their oceanic and sailing
skills. To the rural citizens of the story, a Norwegian is almost as foreign as an angel, so
they assign an easy nationality to him and leave it at that. It is not a term of insult or
derision, but seems rather to be a term of convenience. In addition, the Vatican seems
determined to disprove the angel's status as spiritual, and so the assignment of a nationality
is one more Earthly status to confirm his being simply a strange human (as the spider-woman
seems to be in turn).