(CNN) — As soon as upon a time in Scandinavia, a rustic emerged the place the Covid restrictions that many different nations are nonetheless residing beneath had been utterly lifted.
Denmark’s determination to grow to be the primary European Union member to completely loosen up Covid-19 guidelines is thanks largely to the profitable method native traditions of samfundssind or “social mindedness” have helped cease the unfold of the virus.
With Covid passes not required to enter eating places and nightclubs, Copenhagen is open and prepared for enterprise, its pleasant residents primed to welcome new and returning guests to get pleasure from its understated allure.
A fairy story ending to a darkish chapter? It will actually be apt within the Danish capital the place few issues are as central to tradition as fairy tales. Particularly these by Hans Christian Andersen.
A go to to the enchanting homeland of Hans Christian Andersen is certain to reignite one’s creativeness.
Though the creator of classics corresponding to “The Little Mermaid” and “The Emperor’s New Garments” died almost 150 years in the past, his spirit could be very a lot alive in trendy Denmark.
And anybody encountering performer Torben Iversen may very well be forgiven for considering Andersen could be very a lot alive in individual.
Iversen, who can repeatedly be discovered dressing and talking like Andersen, together with a band of fairytale fanatics have taken it upon themselves to maintain the creator’s tales alive for future generations.
“Anyone has to behave Andersen, to journey the world to current the tales,” says Iversen, wearing full nineteenth century garb. “I don’t say to individuals ‘I’m Andersen’. I play Andersen as a result of Andersen stated ‘to journey is to reside’. I say to play is to reside. So, that’s what I do.”
Torben Iversen: “All the time make your personal life a fairy story.”
CNN
Iversen based the Hans Christian Andersen Parade in 1988 and has taken his present, that includes 20 characters from Andersen’s fairytales, all all over the world. It’s again house in Denmark, nonetheless, the place he has chosen to proceed his work, in the present day conducting particular guided excursions across the Andersen Museum in Odense, west of Copenhagen.
Andersen’s writing and tales are, says Iversen, all about making certain we preserve our sense of marvel and creativeness past the early years of childhood.
“I’ll inform you that you just shall all the time make your personal life a fairytale. Should you keep in mind that, that will probably be crucial factor.”
The tales, of their stability between mild and darkish, are a part of the human spirit.
“[People] get nutritional vitamins for his or her life, for his or her thoughts, for his or her considering, for his or her coronary heart, for his or her emotions,” says Iversen of Andersen’s work. “That’s what artwork is all about, that’s what tradition is all about, nutritional vitamins in your life.”
A date with a Viking
Richard Quest discovers his inside Viking.
CNN
If tales of mermaids, bare emperors and princesses are deep inside Danish tradition, then so too is the lengthy and storied historical past of the Vikings. These marauders had been dominant all through a lot of northern Europe all through the early Center Ages, touring so far as Russia, Greenland and North America. Their pillaging has led to a status which endures to this present day, one which has violence at its coronary heart.
It’s a status that flamboyant artist, designer and photographer Jim Lyngvild is making an attempt to alter, making an attempt to shift perceptions and showcase the Vikings’ Norse beliefs and pagan rituals.
For Lyngvild, that is private. He’s descended from Viking royalty and has the household tree to show it. However his abilities as a designer imply he’s taken issues to the subsequent stage, constructing his personal Viking fort and even a temple to the Norse gods which is, he says, the primary to be constructed on Scandinavian grounds in a thousand years. It was accomplished in 2016.
Denmark and Vikings are linked in historical past and lore. CNN’s Richard Quest finds himself transported whereas visiting a modern-day Viking fort exterior Copenhagen.
“My purpose right here in life is to not promote, that’s the flawed phrase, however to inform individuals about outdated Norse beliefs and Vikings. And make them much less stereotyped.”
“Vikings have been taken hostage by the stupidest of individuals,” provides Lyngvild. “The Nazis used the symbols… So, I’m torn between being extraordinarily pleased with my inheritance, but additionally being extraordinarily conscious that nothing evil will come from it.”
Jim Lyngvild lives in his personal Viking fort.
CNN
Lyngvild’s extravagant tackle Viking historical past has seen him grow to be one in every of Denmark’s most famed individuals. He wears the garments, he has taken on the non secular beliefs and has created magic round this usually misunderstood a part of Danish historical past. However he has additionally invited Syrian refugees to a reconstructed Iron Age village in Odense to provide them an expertise of Danish tradition. It speaks to his singular strategy to displaying off one of the best of Denmark.
“We’ve got this very conservative, ‘you need to do that in a really strict outdated method’ [approach]. However we additionally love the cracks within the canvas the place the wild horses can run by,” he says.
Science difficult historical past
DNA scientist Eske Willerslev has uncovered some surprises about Vikings.
CNN
Whereas Lyngvild’s proud tackle Denmark’s Viking historical past is difficult stereotypes, new analysis means that a lot of what we learn about these plunderers and empire builders will not be as concrete as as soon as thought.
Step ahead Eske Willerslev, a DNA scientist and director of the College of Copenhagen’s Centre for GeoGenetics. Eske, a former adventurer who as soon as led expeditions by Siberia and Greenland, has been blowing up a thousand years of Viking historical past by his cutting-edge analysis.
His work has proven that Vikings weren’t simply Scandinavians. Evaluation of 400 skeletons from burial websites from throughout Scotland and Greenland has the truth is discovered that lots of these buried had no Scandinavian genetic historical past, with some being locals and others even having connections to southern Europe and Asia.
“In fact there are Scandinavians, Danes, which might be Vikings, lots of them. However there are additionally Vikings that haven’t any genetic ancestry coming from Scandinavia,” explains Eske.
It seems that Viking was extra of a job description, a lifestyle moderately than a quirk of beginning. These skeletons had been buried utilizing Viking rituals, with the identical swords and shields you’d anticipate finding in Scandinavia.
“Our complete identification as Scandinavians… relies on the Viking fantasy. However you understand as a researcher, what’s your purpose? Your purpose is to search out out what really occurred moderately than ‘what can we consider occurred or think about occurred.’”
And Eske has one different shock.
“[They] had been much less blonde and blue eyed than Scandinavians are in the present day.”
It appears our preconceptions about this cornerstone of Danish historical past have been effectively and really blown out of the water.
A rebellious aspect
In a land of long-standing beliefs, even the rule breakers embody the essence of Denmark.
Copenhagen has developed a status internationally for its simplicity, consensus mentality and reasonableness. However that’s to not say it doesn’t have a rebellious aspect. And nowhere is that extra in proof than Christiania.
The Danish capital’s well-known freetown dates again to 1971, when a gaggle of free minded settlers broke into the Bådmandsgade navy barracks and arrange what has grow to be one of many world’s most well-known experiments in collective residing.
Throughout that point, Christiania has grow to be recognized for its free and simple way of living, with critics highlighting points with open drug use and the world’s hyperlinks with organized crime. Guests are warned to not take photos round its notorious Pusher Road, with an inventory of guidelines seen to all those that enter this distinctive nook of Copenhagen.
Since 2011, nonetheless, the world has been owned by the Basis Freetown Christiania, a gaggle dedicated to defending their lifestyle and the place they’ve referred to as house for 50 years.
So, what makes it so alluring in spite of everything these years?
Tanja Zebell is a very long time resident and stays dedicated to the reason for communal residing and doing issues in a different way. Slipping by Christiania’s quiet streets on curler skates, she is an image of the insurgent spirit that also endures right here. She is passionate concerning the commune the place she lives and particularly the artwork which adorn the world’s partitions. The graffiti, she explains, is all a part of the allure of the place.
“You have a look at what’s already painted there, and you then ask your self, ‘can I do that higher?’ If the reply isn’t any, then you’ll not overpaint,” she says, firmly.
This well mannered rebel is especially Danish in its sensibility. One aspect rebels, the opposite aspect tolerates. One aspect pushes, the opposite aspect acknowledges. It’s what goes to make Copenhagen and Denmark at massive such a heat and welcoming place.
Ulla Terkelsen: “It’s a very stunning nation.”
CNN
Within the much less rebellious environment of a conventional Danish bakery, globetrotting Danish correspondent and creator Ulla Terkelsen, is in a reflective temper. Ulla has labored and traveled all around the world, however nonetheless has a deep affection for the place she referred to as house for the primary 20 years of her life. Like Tanja, she loves this metropolis.
“I feel it’s a very stunning nation. I feel it’s also a really pragmatic, smart nation,” she says over conventional Weinerbrod.
“When you find yourself right here, you’re as when you’ve stepped off the world. The world is harmful and completely different and also you step off it and step into a really fairly backyard. Thoroughly-kept the place all the pieces is good and good. However exterior the backyard gate, there’s one thing else happening.”
Terkelsen says that, as she wanders the gorgeous cobbled streets of her house metropolis, she grows emotional considering of the connections to household and her previous, tapping right into a wider sense of Copenhagen being a spot to come back again to.
That sense is maybe greatest summed up within the fairytales which originate from these shores. The security, enchantment and marvel of house, however with a twist within the story, whether or not it’s in rebellious Christiania or the brand new science revealing the reality concerning the Vikings and Denmark’s previous. It’s truthful to say that when you go to Copenhagen, you’ll be able to reside fortunately ever after.
