Growing Up in Svendborg

My parents got married in 1965, bought a house in the outskirts of Svendborg (and I do mean it was the outskirts of Svendborg back then), my mum was working in a bank and my dad had just started up his own business - pretty normal stuff for our parent’s generation.  Got married and settled down much earlier, and life was much less stressful too.

A few years later my sister was born.  I know, I shouldn’t be mentioning a lady’s age, but I didn’t say she was born in ’68, did it?  Sorry sis!

I followed a few years later, in the beginning of the summer, and on the same date as the Prince of Denmark.

Being Us

Being a person is easy enough.  There are no predetermined expectations or opinions of you.  As a person, most people don’t care about colour or religion either, and not even from which continent you come from.  It would be great if everybody treated each other like persons and not because of stupid old myths, such as the Jews have all the money, Muslims always wage holy war, the Scandinavians are naked, the Irish are drunk, Americans are gun raving hillbilly lunatics (some of them are!) and Asians only eat rice.  Where do all these stereotypes come from?

I’m not the person to solve the World’s problems.  I can only do my best to combat them in my own space; at work, with friends and in my family.  You might consider this as very narrow-minded, but if you think about, what is the last thing were you made an impact in relations to racism, poverty or war that really made a difference.  The war in Iraq still wages on, soldiers on both sides are dying (rebels or allied), despite me having marched down the main streets of Dublin, protesting with 100,000 other people against the war.

But, consider this, if everybody makes small changes in their social environment, then the ripples will spread and we will make an impact on a Global level.  It just takes time and a lot of committed people.

My Svendborg

Like the rest of Denmark, Svendborg goes way back and was founded in 1229.  At least that’s when it was first mentioned in a document.  Sydfyn, which includes Svendborg, was actually given to Princess Eleonora, the wife of Valdemar the Younger, as a wedding gift.  It has changed names several times, depending who the ruler of Denmark was, but rumor has it that it got its name from “Svine” (= pig in English) or “Svend” (= ruler of the area) and “Borg” (= castle).  Apparently there used to be a lot of pigs in Svendborg, but not too sure that it is the reason for the name.  “Svend” is more likely, as there actually was a ruler in that region back in the old days called “Svend”, and primitively enough, he had a castle – hence the name Svendborg!  It was so much simpler back then.

Svendborg’s privileges as a merchant town is first documented in a letter written by Christoffer I in 1253, to his fiance and celebrated its 750th anniversary in 2003.  What’s even more amazing is that it was voted town of the year in 2000, the year of the millennium.  Fantastic way to start a new millennium.

Even the people where named based on their relations/familes, so my name would have been Mikkel son of Keld and my sister would have been Marina daughter of Marianne.  This is still seen in Iceland, where last names are still linked to their parents, e.g. Hamasdottir = Hamas daugther.

Anyway, I’m getting carried away with some boring details, sorry.

I’m from a small coastal town in Denmark called Svendborg.  Svendborg has less than approx. 30,000 inhabitants, but approx. 45,000 including the surrounding counties.  It is very small indeed, but we still have shops (even if they close at 12.30 on Saturdays), supermarkets, theatre, cinema, several schools and sport clubs, and of course harbors with plenty of opportunity for sailing.  It is actually very beautiful spot and a place that I want to retire to.  Unfortunately many young people leave the area to seek new adventures and fortune elsewhere, such as Copenhagen, Aarhus or abroad – I myself have moved to Ireland.

I was born on Wednesday the 7th of June 1972 in the local hospital, at 06.00ish in the morning.  My parents mentioned recently that it was a bright, sunny and warm summer morning when I was born, but that’s no surprise - I’m great.

It was a wonderful place to grow up, as it was very secure.  Not much violence, if any, and plenty of space for us kids to explore.  My parents bought their first house in 1965, the year they were married, on a street that was just being build in the outskirts of Svendborg.  It was right next to a giant forest - a forest with magical creatures, paths covered by tall pine trees, giant mythical animal stuck in a lake between the trees - a magnificent playground for us kids.  The coolest thing is that it had a tree, which had been hit by lighting and one can still see the tracks it had carved into the bark.  It was my special tree and I still go to see it as a grown up.

We, the Great Danes

So, what are Danes know for?  Well, the most obvious things are B&O, Carlsberg, Lego, the Little Mermaid, HC Andersen, Tivoli, furniture, pastry (which Obama Barrack loves) and tall blond girls - the last one is also associated with Sweden, so I think that’s more a Scandinavian thing.

Danes are actually very traditional.   One of the things very really enjoy is spending time with family and friends.  My mother always said, show me your friends and I’ll know what you are like.  It might be a silly saying, but it’s actually true - just think about yourself.

We are brought up in safe environments, but we have some different ideas in regards to e.g. sleeping the baby.  It is very common that babies sleep in their pram, but we Danes believe that fresh air is good for you, especially babies.  So, most babies sleep outside during the day, no matter time of year.  You will therefore often see buggies parked outside houses, restaurants, etc., even in the winter time.  This freaks out many people, especially in the US, where a Danish woman was arrested for leaving her baby in the pram outside a restaurant while she lunch.

During the early years, kids attends mainly public schools for 10 years.  Then they move into colleges and thereafter universities.  The norm is that you go to school to get a job to secure your future.  It is not normal to travel around the World for months or years, but instead settle down after college or university.  Get a good job, married, kids and house.

Throughout childhood, and moving into the teens, we meet a lot of people who in turn becomes our friends.  Hence many Danes have a lot of friends, which they stick with for life.  An example, my dad still meets his old primary school buddies for guys nights.  Friends are a very important aspect of our lives and we would share a lot of personal items with each other.

Denmark - Quick and Dirty History Lesson

Denmark is the beautiful country between Skagerak and Kattegat, just below Norway and Sweden.  It is also the home of the old Nordic Gods Odin, Thor, Loke, Valhalla, Fenris and the famous Vikings that caused havoc in the North of Europe.  Don’t get me wrong, I‘m not trying to claim that Denmark is the center of all the Nordic mythology or the vikings, but we were pretty cool back in those days.

The Vikings plundered, raped and burned lands far away from home.  Some areas across North Europe are named after old Scandinavian words, slightly modified through time to fit better in with the languages and pronunciations.  As an example Howth in Ireland comes from Hoved, which means head, and Leixlip in Ireland comes from Laksehop, which means Salmon (leix-) leap (-lip).  It might be far fetched, but it does actually make sense that the Scandinavian forefathers left their marks on the country they “visited”, perhaps similar to Solvang in California (US) - or was this just settlers in 1880’s?  However, the vikings did sail into the Berings Strait, between the US and Russia.  Acient viking artifacts have been found around the Columbia river in the state of Washington - fascinating.

According to legends, the Danish flag fell from the skies during a battle in the Baltic region and was brought back to Denmark, where it became the national symbol and flag.  The country was officially founded under one flag, meaning that all the tribe kings joined and fought for the flag.  Truthfully, Denmark ruled many parts of the Scandinavian countries, but many of these regions were given back to the respective countries.

It is well known that the Danes and Swedes always have had some sort of of feud going on, which started back in the dark ages.  Back then, men were men, and fought bravely for their country.  Denmark captured parts of Sweden and held then for several decades, but then we lost them again.  In the end we called it a day and we gave them back Skåne - who wants Skåne anyway?  Today the feud still continues, but now it is more like a mud throwing feud.  If you see a drunken, long haired guy in Copenhagen, then he’s a Swede.  Swedes have no sense of humor and are always depressed.

We have had many great kings in our time and today we have a great Queen.  The Queen’s father rode across the German border on a white house to proclaim the new region to belong to Denmark, and that’s not too long ago.  It is even said that he use to go into the kitchen in the evenings, to have some food with his staff.  And, he had tattoos!  The current Crown Prince will eventually become a fantastic king.  He has been through so many things and has inspired many people in- and outside Denmark.  His military records are amazing and he crossed the ice on Greenland with dog sleds - how cool is that.

In the mid / late 1930’s, a little ugly guy from Germany decided that he wanted World domination.  He was of course known as Adolf Hitler, or as some of supporters today calls him ”88” - stands for Heil Hitler, H is the 8th letter in the alphabet.  Anyway, he captured Denmark on 5th of May 1940 and held it for 5 long years.  Even during the occupation, many young and old Danes fought an underground war, which I think was absolutely amazing.  They fought the occupier, with what they had, and made life difficult for them.  Railroads were sabotaged, supply depos blown up, ship sunk, weapons smuggled to the resistance army and Jews shipped to Sweden for protection.  Many of these brave people were killed in camps across Europe or shot during battles, but yet they continued.  Watch the movie “Drengene fra Sct. Petri”, then you will understand.  Finally, WWII ended and Denmark was free 9th of April 1945.  To this day, most Danes around the World celebrate the occupation and liberation, and this tradition is passed down to the next generations.  This just shows how much it meant to the Danes to be occupied.

So, it is in our (the Danes’) genes to travel and explore the World – not necessarily causing damage to every country as the vikings did, but to explore.  However, most Danes return home to Denmark within 2 years.

For further online information about Denmark, please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark