"Tredelt er Nordens stamme – men Roden er dog én"
Ragnar Lodbrók died in a snake pit, laughing. At least, that is what the sagas tell us. The Danish antiquarian Thomas Bartholin the Younger (1659-90) presented Ragnar's remarkable demise as a prime example of the contempt for death that he deemed typical of the people he called the 'ancient Danes', but whom we would now... Continue Reading →
Today a piece about an artwork that is no longer there. The mural Ragnar Lódbrok plundering Paris in Rosendal Palace, Stockholm, was consumed by a fire in 1819. We are left with the above sketch from the inheritance of the artist, Anders Hultgren (1763-1840). The sketch gives us some impression on how the mural most have looked... Continue Reading →
Between the years 1812 and 1821, the Danish art world was entangled in a heated feud on the "usability of Norse mythology in the arts." Main players in the "Yes! Norse mythology should be used in the arts!" camp were the theologian Jens Møller and the antiquarian Finnur Magnússon; they considered the Norse gods to... Continue Reading →
In the Summer of, say, 1864, a young Norwegian student hiked through the mountains of Hallingdal, all alone. The weather had been wonderful, unbearably warm even. But all of a sudden our student saw dark clouds appearing behind the snowy peaks of the mountains. A mighty storm was approaching, and with some pace. Just in... Continue Reading →
In 1769, Johannes Ewald made the acquaintance of his literary hero, the great German poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who at that time resided in Copenhagen under the patronage of Count Bernstorff. Klopstock introduced his young Danish colleague to the world of British literature: to Shakespeare, Milton, and Ossian, who in his eyes offered a more authentic,... Continue Reading →
Blog van Jona Lendering
words by r. brantley
February 22- 23, 2019, Berkeley, California
and I had to go
Scandinavism 