"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 →
In these wildly spectacular and simultaneously incredibly boring times, I have come across a lot of speculation concerning life in the after-time. One question I saw raised repeatedly on various social media platforms is the following: Will we ever shake hands again? Suddenly something so mundane as extending your hand to greet someone has become... Continue Reading →
In my previous blog I recounted of Per Adolf Granberg, the poet with the wooden hand. I have been somewhat unkind to him. Although he may be forgotten today, in his own time he was quite successful. His opera Jorund (1812) won a prestigious prize and his piece Freyas högtid (Freya's Feast) was performed at the occasion... Continue Reading →
Is this a blog about failure? The question popped up in my head when I was browsing through my last few posts. I mean, I wrote about the poor Høyer, who owing to his pigheadedness lost his membership of the Royal Art Academy, his workshop, his clientele, and his good name. And I wrote about... Continue Reading →
The Danish-Norwegian naval hero Tordenskjold and the Swedish "Father of Modern Taxonomy" Carl von Linné - perhaps better known as Linnaeus - are connected through the taxidermied remains of a seven-headed hydra. The mysterious beast indirectly caused the young Tordenskjold's death and forced Linnaeus to leave Hamburg in a hurry. Hannover, 9 November 1720 After... 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 →
In the Norwegian TV series Okkupert - the first episode aired in 2015 - Norway is in a near alternative future occupied by Russia, with the approval of the European Union (no irrelevant detail in the Norwegian context). Direct cause is the coming to power of the Green Party and its policy to stop the production... 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 →
Blog van Jona Lendering
words by r. brantley
February 22- 23, 2019, Berkeley, California
and I had to go
Scandinavism 