Waving flags and talking of national pride can be controversial in the UK. Not so in Scandinavia, or the wider Nordic region. Everywhere you go, you’ll see flags billowing from flagpoles on buildings and even in people’s private gardens, and not just on high days and holidays. On 17th May, Norway’s national day, there’ll almost certainly be more flags than people.
The 17th May is ‘grunnlovsdagen’ – the day the Constitution was signed, back in 1844. But what Norwegians are really celebrating today is their independence, at last, after four centuries being ruled from Denmark. They had to endure a further century being ruled from Stockholm, though Sweden was a more benign overlord, before finally achieving full nationhood in 1905. We need to remind ourselves that nationhood is little more than a century old for Norway.
During the 19th century, when independence seemed an increasingly achievable aim, Norwegians had to (re-)build a sense of national identity. Danish was the language of government and the speech of Norwegians had evolved and diversified since it had been last used for literature in Viking times. Norwegian had to be recodified as a formal language rather than as a collection of dialects. (Therein began one of the biggest and longest-running conflicts in Norwegian modern history, but that’s a subject for another time.) Christiania, renamed Oslo, regained its status as the national capital. Even the king was chosen, Prince Carl of Denmark becoming Norway’s King Haakon VII. And a national flag was designed.
The Norwegian flag we know today is modelled on the Danish flag of a white cross on a deep red background, with a dark blue cross on top. Those are colours from the national flags of the two neighbours of Norway – Denmark and Sweden – by whom it had been administered, and with which it would continue to be closely associated. All the Nordic states, including Iceland, Faroes and Finland, share the same offset cross design.
For Norwegians, the flag represent the realisation of a national dream – independence, nationhood, and self-determination. Many here in Wales will recognise those feelings. And this year it is hard not to think of the yellow and blue flags flying elsewhere in Europe today and note that those flying them are seeking the same freedoms that Norway celebrates on each and every 17th May.
Welsh Norwegian Society 