Norway's World Cup Viking antics – a faux pas?
Before setting off to play in the World Cup, Norway's football team posed for a photo dressed as Vikings. Fans quickly embraced the symbolism and now have a "Viking row" routine at games where they make a rowing movement in unison while shouting 'Ro!' (row) during games. While reactions to this spectacle in Scandinavia's press are mixed, Turkey now wants to emulate the Norwegians.
It was the Swedes who rowed - not the Norwegians
Svenska Dagbladet says the Norwegians are not really entitled to use the Viking row:
“Norwegian Vikings crossed the open sea to reach the British Isles, Iceland, Greenland and North America, and in such waters oars are no match for sails. But it was a different story for the Vikings on Sweden's east coast. The Baltic Sea is not that big, and Swedish Vikings who wanted to travel beyond it had to use rivers such as the Dnieper and the Danube. By rowing along these rivers, they reached as far as Gårdarike (Kyiv) and (via the Black Sea) Miklagård (Istanbul). ... In short: the Vikings who set sail from the Norwegian coast sailed, while those who began their journey on the Swedish east coast had to use their oars not long after setting off.”
Turkey should celebrate its roots, too
Turkey should follow suit and market itself with its Ottoman past and the Bozkurt symbol – even though it's a gesture used by the Turkish far-right – pro-government columnist Oğuzhan Bilgin argues in Akşam:
“Ever since the World Cup began, I've been stressing that football is not just football but an arena for political and cultural struggles between nations. The Norwegians are even glorifying their barbaric, plundering, primitive ancestors, thrusting them into the global spotlight and turning them into a brand. ... It is incomprehensible that by contrast we Turks – one of the peoples with the greatest history of civilisation and statehood – are still hesitating to embrace the Bozkurt grey wolf symbol, our Central Asian roots or the Ottoman Empire as the pinnacle of Turkish history.”
Utterly cringeworthy
Author Alex Schulman deplores the cringeworthiness of this trend in Dagens Nyheter:
“Sorry, but if I'd had to watch [the Swedish players] Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyökeres engaging in similar Viking antics, I'd have died of embarrassment. But the Norwegians seem wildly enthusiastic, because now they're joining in: loud chanting can be heard from the stands, with everyone suddenly pretending to be galley slaves and shouting 'RO! RO!'. … So the crowd consists of Vikings too! Watching the footage, I can hardly believe my eyes. They all lean forward together, as if they were holding a giant oar, and the whole time they chant 'RO! RO! RO!'. What is going on in Norway? How did it all go so wrong?”
Nordic symbolism is completely innocent
Berlingske warns against jumping to conclusions:
“This is a popular campaign that not only highlights Norway's cultural heritage but also reinforces its citizens' sense of identity in relation to their country's unique history. However, with Pavlovian predictability, the Norwegian left is horrified. In their view, presenting the national team as proud Vikings is an expression of Nazism, fascism and nationalism – and even a shocking exhibition of 'hypermasculinity'. The fact that the Nazis exploited Nordic symbolism for their depraved ideology cannot be held against a culture that disappeared almost a thousand years before the rise of National Socialism.”