None of my Norwegian friends have ever heard of themselves described as
"singing Danes". It is not a term used in the vicinity of Norway or
Norwegians. Where have you heard this?
One of my Norwegian friends, not singing, has noted:
"After 1385 there was no such thing as a purely Norwegian
king. We talk of the United Kingdom of , first, Norway, Sweden and Denmark,
later Norway and Denmark only. The Danish king was elected in Denmark, but
in
Norway the Danish king had a hereditary right to the throne. Recent
historians agree that the reign from Copenhagen was much more benign than
what it has hitherto been "politically correct" to assume - the two
countries complimented each other quite nicely and both drew advantages from
the union. It was in particular after 1905 (breakaway from Sweden) that
Norway had her own motives for bolstering her own nationalism -
unfortunately in many cases through belittling the impact from Denmark. And
don't forget that in May 1814, the ad hoc-assembled group of people who
formed the Norwegian constitution elected the Danish crown prince-to-be,
Christian Fredrik, as their King (of Norway only!) with the secret agenda
that in due course, when things calmed, the two countries would be
re-united.Unfortunately, this lasted only until October 1814, when our dear
friends to the east rattled their sabres ( with good help from their
friends in Whitehall) and said enough is enough, and a very unhappy union
with Sweden was a reality.
And as to 1536, this was the Reformation and had a lot to do with
ex-Catholic land holdings and Crown claims in this connection."
Iain
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sinclair" <labehotierre@wanadoo.fr>
To: <sinclair@quarterman.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: Son of Agnes Sinclair, 4th Earl of Bothwell
> Norwegians are often referred to as singing Danes.
[ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@quarterman.org
[ To get off or on the list, see http://sinclair.quarterman.org/list.html