Thyra Dane

IKEA Deletes Women from Catalog

Thyra Dane

October 2, 2012

I`m angry. And I`m disappointed.

IKEA, a Swedish furniture company which has done so much good for minorities, at least here, has decided to delete women from their catalog. Not world-wide, of course, but from their Saudi-Arabian catalog.

IKEA stands for family values but has decided women are not a part of those values. They`ve gone through their catalog and have carefully taken away pictures of women. Even a female designer (one of four designers) disappeared from the Saudi-Arabian catalog. I`m so in shock. Making women invisible is the ultimate oppression – we`re not even there to be seen. Let alone heard.

Money more important than liberty

IKEA may claim that they have to do this to sell their furniture in Saudi-Arabia but would the world really have gone under if Saudi-Arabians couldn`t buy Billy-shelves or the chair Ektorp? Maybe IKEA should have taken a hard look at the values of the country the company comes from? Women are SO not invisible in Sweden. They are a natural part of all levels of politics, business and culture. Steps have been taken to ensure than men and women have equal rights and equal opportunities. Swedish men stay at home for months when their babies are born, for Pete`s sake.

But money is apparently more important to IKEA than the Swedish values. IKEA likes using the Swedish colors of blue and yellow everywhere in their stores but when it comes to the cash register, IKEA will do anything to make a few Saudi-Arabian Riyals – even sell their soul.

I`m embarrassed

I`m embarrassed on behalf of IKEA. My house is full of IKEA products but I have a foul taste in my mouth when I look at them. I`ve always loved IKEA but now I feel betrayed. What happened to a company with great values – coming from a country in the forefront of the fight for gender equality?

Money talks, apparently 🙁

Vikings: Masculine women and feminine men?

Thyra Dane

3 comments

October 1, 2012

Mama_Lovis gave me an interesting article where five myths about Vikings are discussed. I`ll come back to the other four myths but will deal with the one about what Vikings looked like first.

Tall, muscular and blond or redheads

I`m sure it`s no surprise that Vikings were tall (though not entirely as tall as the Scandinavians of today), muscular due to their physical everyday life and that they had blond and/or red hair. At least most of them. Apparently the hair color was different from area to area. In the north of Scandinavia they were more blond and in Denmark, which is to the south of Scandinavia, they had more red hair. Since the Vikings traveled quite a bit and brought people home with them (slaves, wives, husbands etc) there were also quite a few Vikings with darker hair. On Iceland they`ve found that at least one woman of Native-American origin had children in the Viking age.

The Vikings ate well even if they didn`t have as different kinds of foods as we do today and because of their good diet they grew taller than people a couple of hundred years later. But they worked hard and many of them had osteoarthritis.

Feminine men and masculine women?

The most surprising part is probably how difficult it is to determine if it`s a male or a female grave archaeologists have found. The male and female sculls were much more alike back then than what they are today. The sculls from Viking women had more pronounced jaws and eyebrows than what they have today and the sculls from men had less pronounced jaws and eyebrows. I`m sure it`s a surprise to many that Viking men may have looked more feminine than what men do today but the fact that men and women looked more alike in the Viking age may explain how shieldmaidens did well on the battle field.

The article about what Vikings looked like (in Danish)

Blond, naive and rich – because of the Vikings?

Thyra Dane

11 comments

September 30, 2012

I found this incredibly interesting article which links the current good economy in Scandinavia all the way back to the Vikings. No, we do not still live off the gold and silver stolen from churches and monasteries by hordes of Vikings back in the days. The reason for our current high GNP is apparently the fact that we trust each other. Others would call it our being so blond and naive.

All the way back to the Viking age Scandinavians have trusted one another. The Vikings from Denmark and Norway would go on well planned attacks on England, Scotland and Ireland with over 50 longships with no central power controlling them. They all came from different places and all trusted one another to keep to their agreements and risk their lives on the attacks.

The Vikings would also send goods far away – from Denmark to Iceland or from Gotland and far down the Volga river – and not expect payment until the boats came back months later. They trusted the recipient to pay the the goods.

The Oseberg Viking Ship – and her Copy

Thyra Dane

12 comments

September 28, 2012

In 1903 a farmer close to the Norwegian city of Tønsberg – a large city in the Viking age – stumbled over part of a Viking ship from around 834. The ship was used in a burial and was almost in one piece when it was found. Two women were buried there and speculations have run wild as to whom these two women were. There is no doubt that they – or at least one of them – were rich since they`ve eaten plenty of meat all their lives. Poorer people ate more fish.

Woman from the Middle East?

There is a bit of debate about one of the women and whether she was old and rich as well or if she was younger and possibly a slave. I think the latest research has concluded that both women were older and rich. An interesting side-story is how one test showed that this woman was probably from the Middle East but since they haven`t been able to find this result in newer tests, they don`t find that theory entirely credible.

The ship was excavated very carefully and one can now watch it in the Viking ship museum in Oslo. You can read more about it on Wikipedia: Oseberg Ship on Wikipedia

Building the copy

A group of people have worked long and hard with building a copy of this ship.

They`ve tried it before a couple of years ago but made a huge mistake and that ship sank. So it was with baited breath that they launched a new one this summer. You can watch a small video of the launch here. The large white boat next to the Viking ship is the royal boat and the older gentleman is the Norwegian king.

It was hard work because they wanted to do everything the Viking way. A lot of the people working on the Viking ship copy even made Viking clothes for themselves and their family.

I saw the copy – yay!

Last week I was lucky enough to be going on a business trip to the city of Tønsberg and I even stayed at the hotel next to the Oseberg ship copy. I skipped a few speeches because a Viking ship copy is more important, right? These are my pictures of the ship.

When I was there a group of kindergarten kids came down to the ship, apparently to go aboard and probably to go for a short ride. I secretly wished I was five years old and could join them 🙂

I`m in love

Thyra Dane

20 comments

September 25, 2012

Yes, yes, I`m married and not looking for anything on the side but you watch this and tell me that the Viking throwing axes here isn`t making your heart beat an extra beat:

Now you`re probably wondering what this silliness is – why are all these Americans going to Norway? This is a Norwegian feel-good reality about Norwegian-Americans – Americans with Norwegian roots – who come here to compete in “Norwegianess”. They are given traditional food to eat (yikes), skis to ski and various tasks to fulfill and the winner will meet his or her Norwegian relatives at the end of the series. It`s a popular show and they`ve tried to keep it nice and sweet and have the competitors be friends instead of enemies. I think two of the competitors even ended up as a couple.

My reason for watching this is simple: Alf.

If you thought Vikings disappeared around the 11th century then you`re quite wrong. This guy lives the Viking ideals to such a degree that you can`t be anything but impressed. He follows the old gods and seems very preoccupied with honor and doing the right thing. And he`s strong and emotional at the same time. He can even throw an axe – who can do that in 2012?

Alt for Norge Alf Herigstad

If you click here and on “Alf Herigstad” you`ll find a little film where he talks about himself: Alf Herigstad

He is even writing Viking poetry (and talking about his trip to Norway) on his blog: Alf Herigstad`s blog

So now I only need to find a way to get my husband to braid his beard 🙂

Scandinavia – the area of boredom and suicide?

Thyra Dane

7 comments

August 3, 2012

A little while back Vanity Fair had an article about Scandinavia that left me both laughing and feeling insulted. Those are the best articles, aren`t they, the ones that inspire a multitude of emotions? Apparently A.A.Gill was annoyed with the “Scandinavian wave” sweeping over the world lately (I didn`t know there was one but then I`m supposedly riding the wave) and he had this to say:

Nordic Exposure

We’re having a real Scandinavian moment: Nordic thrillers piling up on the best-seller list and on TV. The Scream, by Norway’s Edvard Munch, fetching $120 million. H&M colonizing Western malls, alongside Ikea. Even global recession hasn’t dented the region’s smugness. So what’s the downside?
By A. A. Gill

An androgynous figure stands on a bridge, mouth agape, hands on its head, eyes piercing with shock. In the background, a blood-red, malevolent sky. If ever there was an image of our time, this is it. It grasps us like the mad fortune-teller gripping a palm. There is a fascination that goes beyond its mere museum merit. It is a glyph, graffiti of angst and dislocation, emblematic of this topsy-turvy, compassless era. In May, The Scream, the mystical 1895 drawing by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, sold for $120 million at a Sotheby’s auction and instantly became the ghostly face of the Scandinavian invasion blowing out of the North. At least this time they’re not slaughtering monks and taking wenches from behind while wearing the sexually ambiguous combination of beard and braids.

Continue reading

Write your name in Runes

Thyra Dane

11 comments

August 1, 2012

Check out this cool converter where you can see what your name looks like in Nordic Runes.

This is what Thyra looks like in Runes:

What does your name look like?

For Spanish-speaking readers

Thyra Dane

no comments

August 1, 2012

The lovely Eva Villa contacted me and asked if she could translate Eric the Viking or How I Met the Man of My Dreams. I was flattered and said yes, of course. Here is her translation:

Erik el vikingo (o Cómo conocí al hombre de mis Sueños)

Ella observó fijamente su estómago firme y su pecho musculoso. “¡Oh Dios mío!”, exclamó.

Sí, ¡Oh, Dios mío!- repetí.

Yo estaba sentada frente a la chimenea, bebiendo una taza de café y disfrutando de la última novela de la serie “Eric el Vikingo”. Me habían llamado desde la librería aquella mañana para decirme que ya lo tenían, e inmediatamente fui a recogerlo.

Era mi día libre y estaba encantada de tener un libro más sobre Eric para leer.

Sookie the Shieldmaiden has to wait a little longer

Thyra Dane

2 comments

August 1, 2012

Hi,

Just a quick little message about Sookie the Shieldmaiden. As I wrote earlier this summer I was having problems with my laptop and couldn`t write while I was on vacation. Well, I can write now but I`ve come to the conclusion that I want to finish the story before posting any more chapters. I think I have about four chapters left to write and since I`m going on vacation again next week, it might be a little wait.

Thank you to everyone who`s been asking me about this story. I appreciate that you want more of it and that is definitely a great inspiration for me!

In the meantime: A lovely picture of a Valkyrie – the shieldmaidens of Valhalla. She does look like Sookie, doesn`t she? 🙂

Thyra in Heaven – or Viking festival, as it were

Thyra Dane

17 comments

July 22, 2012

I`m still on vacation and just came back to Denmark from a nice trip to Poland where we visited Poznan (don`t go there) and Gdansk (a very beautiful city).

But what do you know – Mama Lovis sent me a picture of a Viking festival taking place very close to our cabin. Of course, I had to go. And like all annoying people who`ve been to places, I will share my pictures. The quality is rotten because all the pictures are taken with my iPhone 🙁

The place is called Trelleborg and it`s an old Viking fortress which was escavated in the 1930s and 1940s. It was mainly used for soldiers and wasn`t a “normal” city as such and it wasn`t used for very long either. But it`s an interesting place because they found little bits of wood from the longhouses which made it possible for them to see exactly how the houses were set up.

Festival

Usually this is just a place to see the fortress walls and a copy of a longhouse but this week “Vikings” from near and far came to the place, set up Viking tents, dressed up themselves and their children and lived a Viking life, selling things, making things and going into the odd battle. When we were there Harald Bluetooth was fighting his son Svend Forkbeard.

Here are the pictures. I hope you find them interesting.

Here are some pictures of the tents with the people who`d been living there for a week. Some of them just lived there and some of them were showing their crafts or selling things. Yes, I drooled over the helmet but it cost 2000 Danish kroners which is pretty close to $400US. There are also pictures of the longhouse copy they`ve made and from the battle.

Here is a model of Trelleborg. The houses inside the fortress were for living in and the houses between the fortress and the outer wall were the ones they used to work in.

Here you can see how the longhouses were set up and with the fortress walls in the background.

They made a copy of one of the longhouses back in the 40s but they`ve later found out that the copy was wrong. The poles my children (aren`t they cute? 🙂 ) are leaning on were supposed to support the house itself – not an extra roof going out from the house.

Viking warriors waiting for battle inside the fortress. And yes, they included quite a few shieldmaidens in the battle too 🙂

I`ll upload a film or two as soon as I can get YouTube to cooperate with me.

I hope you`re all having a great summer. I know I am!