Tag Archives: Vikings
Two Ways of Giving Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Dec 17, 2020
Julen er gavernes tid. (Christmas is the time of gifts.) While many of us are still pondering to whom to give what, let’s look at the Danish grammar of giving. The Danish verb at give [at gheew’] is historically related to the English to give. Fortunately, it works in similar ways. Jeg ved ikke hvem…
Hooray! A border turns 100 Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 22, 2020
100 years ago, the northernmost part of Germany became Danish – once again. To loud cheers, king Christian X rode his white horse across the old grænse (border) to claim his new land, July 10th 1920. What’s the fuss all about? Away from the border region, many Danes don’t really know – but the celebration…
What’s this thing about Greenland? Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 31, 2019
Although this is an apolitical blog, it’s hard to ignore that there has been a lot of talk about Denmark this month – or rather about Greenland. Without going into politics (which I’ll leave for others), I thought this might be a decent moment to re-highlight the Danish-Greenlandic connections a bit. 🙂 In 2019, Grønland…
Wild Danish Mammals Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 30, 2019
A hare [ha-a] jumping mysteriously across the street in front of you. A ræv (fox) stealing your sausages at the beach barbecue party. A pindsvin (hedgehog) going for a moonlit stroll. As urban as Denmark is, the country has a lot of wildlife. 🙂 The Vikings believed in Ratatosk, an egern [e-yern] (squirrel) that was…
Describing Looks Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jan 31, 2019
Hvordan ser han/hun ud? (How does he/she look like?) You might not carry around photos of everyone you know in din mobil (your mobile phone), so now and then you’ll need ord (words) to describe somebody’s udseende (appearance, literally ”out-looking”). Høj, lav, stor, kraftig, lille, tyk, tynd (tall, short, big, strongly built, small, thick/stout, thin)…
Your name is what? Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 21, 2017
Hvad hedder du? (What’s your name?) Jeg hedder… Talking about navn/e (name/s) is important when making new friends. Let’s look at Danish naming traditions! H.C. Andersen is probably the most famous dansker (Dane) of all time… Like all danskere, he’s got a • fornavn [fore-naoon] – in this case: Hans Christian – and an •…
Are Danes Equal? Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Mar 9, 2017
I går var det Kvindernes Internationale Kampdag (”the Women’s International Day of Struggle”), and Danish kvinder (women) and mænd (men) gathered in the streets to fejre (celebrate) and demonstrere for ligestilling (demonstrate for equality). Danmark is among the world’s most egalitarian countries – still, it lags behind the other nordiske lande (Nordic countries) in international…