{"id":1079,"date":"2014-05-31T20:45:21","date_gmt":"2014-05-31T20:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1079"},"modified":"2014-05-31T20:45:21","modified_gmt":"2014-05-31T20:45:21","slug":"denmarks-great-little-gift-to-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2014\/05\/31\/denmarks-great-little-gift-to-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Denmark\u2019s Great Little Gift to the World"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"There<\/a>

There isn\u2019t a thing you can\u2019t build with LEGO! (Shared at Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Did you watch the official LEGO movie this spring? It might be due time to dedicate some lines to Denmark\u2019s most cherished opfindelse<\/strong> (invention, literally \u201dfinding-up\u201d)\u2026<\/p>\n

Der var engang en snedker, der hed Ole Kirk Christiansen. Han boede i den lille by Billund\u2026<\/strong> (Once upon a time there was a carpenter, called Ole Kirk Christiansen. He lived in the small town of Billund\u2026) Ole loved making leget\u00f8j<\/strong> (toys, literally \u201dplay-toy\u201d) for the kids to play with, so in 1932 he founded his own firma<\/strong> (firm), specializing in tr\u00e6leget\u00f8j<\/strong> (wooden toys). One day the opfindsom<\/strong> (inventive) man found the perfect name for his firm: He took simply took the first letters of the words leg godt<\/strong> (play well), and combined them like two LEGO bricks.<\/p>\n

Shortly after anden verdenskrig<\/strong> (WW2), when Denmark was occupied by German troops, Christiansen experimented with plastic materials. This led to the launch of the first legoklodser<\/strong> (LEGO bricks), with four and eight knopper<\/strong> (knobs). They didn\u2019t connect very well, however, so it was only in 1958, when Ole\u2019s son Godtfred introduced the modern LEGO brick, that the company won national, and soon international, fame. Godtfred\u2019s bricks contained little r\u00f8r<\/strong> (tubes) that helped them stick together, even when a kid turned her little LEGO house upside-down\u2026<\/p>\n

Ten years later, in 1968, Legoland<\/strong> opened in Billund. This was the first major forlystelsespark<\/strong> (amusement park) based on LEGO bricks. Sculptures and miniature European cities were built entirely out of LEGO bricks, making Legoland the biggest Danish tourist attraction outside Copenhagen (and bolstering up Billund lufthavn<\/strong> as Denmark\u2019s second most busy airport). Today there are Legolands even in California, Florida, London, Germany and Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Hvorfor er lego s\u00e5 popul\u00e6rt?<\/strong> (Why is LEGO so popular?) Well, with LEGO you can make alt<\/strong> (everything)! With just a few basic shapes, children can build everything from biler<\/strong> (cars) to huse<\/strong> (houses) and space stations. Fantasien kender ingen gr\u00e6nser.<\/strong> (The imagination knows no limits.) It\u2019s almost like having a white stykke papir<\/strong> (piece of paper) and a lot of farver<\/strong> (colours).<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a bit geeky, it\u2019s fun to notice how the colour palette of LEGO has been expanding through the years. The first LEGO bricks used only the basic colours of sort<\/strong> (black), hvid<\/strong> (white), bl\u00e5<\/strong> (blue), r\u00f8d<\/strong> (red), gul<\/strong> (yellow), then gr\u00f8n<\/strong> (green) and gr\u00e5<\/strong> (grey) were added, then came brun<\/strong> (brown). Today\u2019s LEGO sets have every colour imaginable, even lyser\u00f8d<\/strong> (pink) and orange<\/strong> [orANGshurh] (orange).<\/p>\n

Computerspil<\/strong> (computer games) almost killed LEGO. But then the Kristiansen \u2013 as it is now spelt \u2013 family got the glimrende id\u00e9<\/strong> (brilliant idea) of making deals with Hollywood. They started to make LEGO packages with scenes from movies like Harry Potter, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Furthermore, \u201dnon-brick\u201d products like children\u2019s clothes, computer games and movies went into production\u2026 Nu ser du hvordan det gik!<\/strong> (Now you see how it went!)<\/p>\n

Do you or your children play with LEGO? What is the most remarkable thing you\u2019ve built? (Feel free to share photo links in the comments section!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Did you watch the official LEGO movie this spring? It might be due time to dedicate some lines to Denmark\u2019s most cherished opfindelse (invention, literally \u201dfinding-up\u201d)\u2026 Der var engang en snedker, der hed Ole Kirk Christiansen. Han boede i den lille by Billund\u2026 (Once upon a time there was a carpenter, called Ole Kirk Christiansen…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[336325,336322,336321,336324,336323],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-billund","tag-brick","tag-lego","tag-legoland","tag-ole-kirk-christiansen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1082,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions\/1082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}