Indulge me for another word on my favorite (bogus) theory as to why the Scandinavians have such a reputation for cooperation. You may recall my answer: it's the Viking sailing-vessel which some have called the greatest technological innovation in Europe in the dark ages. Apparently these sea-flyers were communal projects: the boys would be hanging out down at the pub when somebody would say "hey gang, let's build a longship!" They'd all yell the Scandinavian equivalent of "great idea!" and run out to gather up their tools, to chop down a few trees (there were plenty) and to start chipping and caulking. Then they'd go practice in the friendly waters of the Baltic. And then...
Well, that's another thing. Somewhere along the Nordic merrymaker achieved a reputation for misbehavior on holiday. Oh boy, haven't we all been there, but my friend Ignota says they explained it to her in a somewhat different way. "We don't think of it as 'loot, burn and pillage,' oh nej nej nej. We just wanted to go on walkabout. We'd go off to the sunshine, maybe chat up the local lassies, maybe an øl or two (those Germans make a mean pint, did you know?). But we meant no harm, just havin' a bit of a good time."
It would be tendentious to try to draw a moral about the unintended evils of imperialism. But it is amusing to reflect that if Gustavus Adolphus hadn't taken a musket ball in the ear at the Battle of Lützen in 1632 we might all be praying tonight for the good health of a Lutheran Pope.
Well, that's another thing. Somewhere along the Nordic merrymaker achieved a reputation for misbehavior on holiday. Oh boy, haven't we all been there, but my friend Ignota says they explained it to her in a somewhat different way. "We don't think of it as 'loot, burn and pillage,' oh nej nej nej. We just wanted to go on walkabout. We'd go off to the sunshine, maybe chat up the local lassies, maybe an øl or two (those Germans make a mean pint, did you know?). But we meant no harm, just havin' a bit of a good time."
It would be tendentious to try to draw a moral about the unintended evils of imperialism. But it is amusing to reflect that if Gustavus Adolphus hadn't taken a musket ball in the ear at the Battle of Lützen in 1632 we might all be praying tonight for the good health of a Lutheran Pope.
3 comments:
My mother was a full-blooded Swede: her parents came over from the old country in the early days of the last century. Yet she was fully blackhaired. She always said that the family legend was that it was due to the French flickas their Viking ancestors had brought back from walkabout...
My mother also was a Swede, though not dark-haired. The family name was "Lindquist," and I at one time suggested that it was really "Linkowich" and we were really Polish Jews; she was duly amused.
But any chance the DNA could be Central Asian, Mongol-Tatar horde? I met a woman up near Arkhangelsk a few years back who was a dead ringer for Genghis Khan. Her favorite novel was Atlas Shrugged, go figure.
Thank you: looking at some photos and drawings of my mother, there is indeed more than a hint of the Tatar. See the photo essay my sister-in-law put together a few years ago: there's a striking photo of my mother in her youth that definitely suggests some Eastern DNA. http://www.daryllancaster.com/Webfiles/Parallel_Threads.pdf
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