‘How can you support a bunch of barbaric robbers who raped and plundered?’ they shout, completely wild-eyed. It actually happened to me some years ago in a conversation with childhood friends.

Rowing among Norwegian football fans has gone viral. From the Viking rowing in the stands, to taking over Times Square, and even rowing up escalators.

It did not take long before politicians and other leaders jumped on the wave, so to speak. Now the politicians who did the Viking rowing in the Storting are attracting attention abroad.

Those of us who have always been proud of our Viking heritage and culture look at this with wonder. For many of us have experienced being met with condemnation and shock when we express pride in our ‘Vikingness’.

‘How can you support a bunch of barbaric robbers who raped and plundered?’ they shout, completely wild-eyed. It actually happened to me some years ago in a conversation with childhood friends. More on that later in the text.

But who can forget when our dear cultural monument, Christian Krohg’s famous painting of Leiv Eiriksson discovering America, was put in the basement at the National Museum. How many politicians in the Storting, who are now doing the Viking rowing, said anything then?

Chair Eivor Evenrud (Labour Party) of Oslo City Council’s Committee for Culture and Education did, but I cannot remember many others publicly expressing their indignation.

But the fate of the Leiv Eiriksson painting in 2023 is a symbol of how we Norwegians have not been allowed to show pride in our heritage. Instead, we must relate to woke leaders at the National Museum who tell us that the discovery of America hundreds of years ago was a romanticisation of Norwegians who went to America.

‘It is a colonialist image,’ said department director Stina Högkvist at the National Museum at the time. The museum had decided that more women, Sámi artists, and people who do not happen to have been born with white skin colour should be given more space.

There is nothing wrong with that, but why could they not have been shown together with Leiv Eiriksson, instead of his being thrown down into the basement?

Instead, we are to give way to other cultures. Always. There are only around 4.4 million people on earth who are regarded as genuine Norwegians. And we share one of the most interesting cultural heritages on earth. Yet we have not been allowed to celebrate it until now.

‘We are to have a socially relevant, fresh view of art history,’ Högkvist said at the time.

Högkvist, a Swede, represents the elitist, woke, and self-righteous part of Norway, including most of our politicians, who would rather promote other cultures than our own, and who are now sitting in the Storting rowing a Viking ship.

Even Sylvi Listhaug, who got chills from national conservatism, is joining in the rowing. I hope that she, should she become prime minister, becomes tougher, like a Viking woman. No more ‘I would have held my nose and voted for Kamala Harris’ and other such statements that go against everything the party and the voters stand for.

But the hypocrisy is clear. And when the World Cup is over, we shall certainly see more absurd decisions, such as Leiv Eiriksson in the basement, Edvard Munch as a ‘racist’, or exhibitions at Midgard Viking Centre that prettify the Islamic State.

Long live hypocrisy

I wonder whether my childhood friends have put on plastic Viking helmets with yellow plaits and taken part in the sudden Viking celebration.

If not, I at least think they see nothing wrong in the sudden wave of pride in our Viking past. But it was not always like that.

Some years ago, two of my best childhood friends visited me in Florida. We had sporadic contact over the years, but we were never together for any length of time. They stayed with me for two weeks, which I had insisted on.

One evening during happy hour, I suddenly said that I was proud of our Viking heritage. I do not quite remember the context, but I shall never forget the reaction. They reacted with anger and bombarded me with questions: How can you be proud of the barbaric Vikings who raped and plundered?

A very pleasant and lovely evening suddenly turned into a horror show. I was completely taken aback that my friends could react like that, and began to wonder how far apart we had actually grown. The conversation eventually moved on to something else, but inside I was upset that they could turn on me in that way over such an innocent thing.

But that was unfortunately not the only such incident during the two weeks they were visiting. A couple of days later we were talking about childhood and how things change over time, and I, without thinking, said that I was worried about mass immigration to Norway.

I should of course have known better after the catastrophe over the Viking heritage. But one of them, with whom I had had the most contact, had herself often expressed frustration over people who came to Norway without following Norwegian customs and learning the language.

But here both reacted with shock and anger, and even worse: ‘What do you know about it when you do not live in Norway?’ Then one of them said: ‘My children have many Muslim friends, and they are wonderful.’ I had not said anything about Muslims; I was only talking about immigration in general.

I went to bed that evening and understood that we had definitely grown apart. What troubled me was the harsh attack simply because I had made an apparently reasonable observation.

What I ought to have said was: ‘I am sure their Muslim friends are wonderful, but what do you really know about Islam? You criticised me for being proud of the Viking heritage, but we have developed; Islam has not.’

But how many of us have not lain awake at night and thought that I should have said this and this. Sometimes one is so surprised that one is struck dumb. It is, incidentally, much easier behind the keyboard.

But the next day was to prove the bottom of the wreath cake, when one of them told me about when she and her cohabitant sold their house in Oslo and moved to another part of the city.

I remembered the beautiful, older house that had been renovated, with a lovely garden, and asked her why they moved.

There were almost no Norwegian children in our daughter’s primary school, so we had to move to another district, she said.

I was literally speechless.

It was only one day after they had bombarded me with accusations because I said something about immigration. All I could say was in English: Not in my backyard, I guess.

There was no reaction, no comment. Perhaps they themselves did not see their own hypocrisy. The conversation quickly changed subject, to what they would buy in the luxury shops in Palm Beach the next day.

This is the mentality of the same people who today ‘celebrate’ our Viking heritage by rowing for our national team.

Long live hypocrisy.

I USA feirer de Leif Erikson-dagen – i Norge blir han satt i kjelleren