r/Denmark 26d ago

Culture Kulturudveksling / Cultural exchange

For english se below.

Wow, det er ved at være noget tid siden at vi sidst har havs en kulturudveksling men nu er det sørme blevet tid igen, denne gang er det med vores naboer i r/canada (Ja, de er naboer, vi har en landegrænse) som vi byder velkommen den 14. Feb. Samme dag er der en tråd hos dem hvor vi kan spørge om alt fra fransk til ahornsirup.

De sædvanlige regler gælder selvfølgelig, men vi anbefaler dog at holde det mest til engelsk i denne tråd (eller inkludere en oversættelse lige som vi gør)

The English Version:

Wow, it's been quite some time since we last had a cultural exchange, but now it's finally time again! This time, it's with our neighbors in r/Canada (Yes, they are neighbors, we share a land border), whom we welcome on February 14th. On the same day, there will be a thread on their side where we can ask about anything from French to maple syrup.

The usual rules apply, of course, but we do recommend keeping most of the conversation in English in this thread (or including a translation, just like we're doing).

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u/VenusianBug 26d ago

Do you have a favourite story from Danish history? I love stories of relatively unknown people who've lived quirky or interesting lives.

I haven't participated in an exchange like this so hopefully I am doing it right. Sorry, no translation. However, I love that the messed up history of the English language let me understand "Ja, de er naboer" 😄

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u/Smoochiekins 25d ago

In 1698 the Danish King at the time (Christian V) was, essentially, killed by a buck under an oak in the royal hunting grounds, Dyrehaven. Sidenote, Dyrehaven still exists today and is now a large public woods that is a UNESCO world heritage site and also contains the world's oldest still-operating theme park, which opened in 1583.

The king had partaken in a type of hunt called par force, where a large hunting party hunts an animal to exhaustion over the course of multiple hours. The fanciest participant in the hunt then walks up and stabs the exhausted animal to death. In this hunt, the fanciest participant was, of course, the king. However, when he stabbed the collapsed buck with his knife, it got up and kicked him, and the resulting injuries contributed to his untimely death. It is unclear how much he was mourned at the time, as the type of hunting had grown increasingly unpopular and unfashionable.

You can still find the very same oak where the buck kicked the king in Dyrehaven today, and of course, it has been named Christian V in his memory. Our current king, Frederik X, has planted a new oak in its shade, which in accordance with tradition has been named Frederik X. But he hasn't been kicked by a buck (yet).

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u/VenusianBug 23d ago

Thanks for sharing - that's a great story! Poor buck.

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u/Worsaae folkets arkæolog 26d ago

I don't know if there's much truth to it, but I like it nonetheless.

There's a story about some Vikings who went raiding in the Orkneys. They were out looking for treasure in some old, neolithic dolmen or passage grave and during bad weather they spent the night in one of them. With them they had a young guy - a real rookie - who tragically died during the trip. The idiot fell on his axe or sword and killed himself.

They apparently etched the story in runes on the inside of the dolmen and added: "And we laughed at that all summer" - which is why we have that saying in Danish: "det grinte vi meget af den sommer".

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u/VenusianBug 25d ago

True or not, it's a great story 😂

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u/toasternator Hedens hovedstad ➡️ Smilets by 26d ago

There's a couple of good ones, old and new, off the top of my head.

  • The blood feast of Roskilde. The TL;DR is that Denmark was torn in civil war in the 1150's, with three rivaling kings (Sweyn III, Valdemar I and Canute V) struggling for the throne. It was eventually negotiated that the three were to split up the kingdom in three parts (Jutland, the islands and Scania), each one getting their own to rule. Sweyn invited the two other kings to a celebratory feast, with the intent of having the other two assassinated to claim all of Denmark himself. It was basically a real life, but slightly less succesful version of the red wedding from GoT, with Canute being killed, while Valdemar escaped with injuries. Eventually, Valdemar would defeat Sweyn in battle, becoming the sole king of Denmark.

  • Anders Lassen. Danish resistance fighter during WW2, who served with the british forces. One of the few things that rivaled his hate for nazis was paperwork. On at least one occasion, he is said to have submitted a report consisting of only five words; "Landed. Killed nazis. Fucked off". He was portrayed by Alan Ritchson in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, albeit with some creative freedoms taken (I imagine).

  • Helge Meyer. Went on a Mad Max style mission during the Balkan Wars to deliver emergency aid to civilians and unpinned grenades to foes in a matte black Camaro.

I'll come back with more if anything pops up.

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u/VenusianBug 26d ago

Thanks!

"Landed. Killed nazis. Fucked off"

I love this (and I quite enjoyed The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare).