{"id":58814,"date":"2016-05-17T11:30:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T16:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=58814"},"modified":"2016-05-17T08:39:02","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T13:39:02","slug":"58814","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=58814","title":{"rendered":"Syttende Mai<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today,\u00a0Syttende Mai<\/em>,\u00a0is the 111th\u00a0anniversary of the Norske Revolusjon – <\/em>when Norwegian patriots, chafing under decades of Swedish\/Danish tyranny, rebelled, casting off the brutal, authoritarian Swedish monarchy in an epic cataclysm that ended in\u00a0a titanic battle in the hills outside Kristiansand, a crushing victory for the grossly-outnumbered Norwegians that sent the demoralized Swedes into a panicked retreat in the short term, and a social tailspin in the long run.<\/p>\n


\nAfter the battle, and when the treaty was signed that granted Norway its hard=earned independence, General Olaf Haraldsson proclaimed:<\/p>\n

Med allmektige Gud som vitne i dag, jeg sverger f\u00f8r du at fra i dag fram til slutten av tid og norsk skal noensinne baugen ned f\u00f8r en svenske. Det er bare galt<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Words we cal all live by?\u00a0 I think we can all agree on this.<\/p>\n

So happy birthday, Norway!<\/p>\n

I know\u00a0– other than the dates and the flag picture, nothing in the story above is real.\u00a0 Syttende Mai<\/em> is really the anniversary of the 1814 adoption of the Norwegian Constitution<\/a>, which didn’t really make the country independent.<\/p>\n

And there was\u00a0 <\/em>no Norwegian revolution; indeed, Syttende <\/em>is an exceedingly non-martial holiday, mostly involving people wearing bunad\u00a0<\/em>(traditional garb) and kids’ parades.<\/p>\n

Pictures really don’t get much more Norwegian than this, do they?<\/p><\/div>\n

Still, there\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>a bit of a fight for independence – nothing like their battle in the 20th century, naturally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And occasionally they still ponder the ramifications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(And while we ponder the ramifications, here’s the title theme from “Occupied”. \u00a0Because I can, that’s why).<\/p>\n