I don’t want to be too specific, and exhibit a person or a club, so I have chosen to modify the facts slightly, to keep the involved parties uninvolved.
I was recently asked to make a banner for a Nordic show event for a certain kind of pet. In this case we will say it was a dog show. One of my suggestions was a dog wearing a viking uniform, as it is a Nordic show and I imagined that Vikings was one of the common denominators.
The club was thrilled, and they used the banner to invite members from multiple Scandinavian countries. I got several positive replies and comments from multiple members saying that they thought the image was really cute!
Some time later, the Swedish delegation protested, saying that they could not publish the invitation banner to their members, because viking helmets with horns were a symbol of right wing extremists and that they represented Nazis.
Initially I thought that this was a joke, but i don’t want to judge before knowing if this indeed is the case in Sweden. Do people look at horned viking helmets and think “Nazi” instead of “Viking”?
And yes - this is made with AI. Love it or hate it, it makes for very affordable illustrations for clubs and groups that have no money and make no money
When I look at horned helmets I just think it looks silly, childish in a way. I don’t think it has something to do with Nazis??
Horned helmets have more in common with German operas than vikins as well
This is not true at all. We are not offended by hornd helmets. Just Google “Swedish viking merch” and your find plenty of "junk"😁. Or look at any international (specially hockey) game. Swedes are dressy in blue, yellow and toy helmet whit horns and braids.
But it so true that some right wing groups trying to use viking as symbols, especially the “Tyr” rune.
I agree - this is the same here in Denmark. I did check online, but would not want to make the same mistakes as others did, if indeed this was a mistake. It would seem from this thread that the general attitude is more or less neutral towards viking helmets with horns
I think we have the same idea in the whole of Scandinavia, helmets whit horns are a novelty but Vikings are cool and we are proud of our heritage. The one whom told you we get offended may have hated a bad experience personally.
Eh, I would say not really.
It’s true that the far right broadly embraces symbolism from the pre-christian era, much the same way they embrace general nationalism and Swedish flags.
As long as you keep it on a decently tasteful level with regards to the viking helmets, I see no reason why it would give me far right-vibes.
I guess in an effort to avoid doubt, you could play up the cuteness of the animal in question. The far right are not really known for cuteness, which would distance the symbolism from that group.
Thanks. I would say that the image in question was as cute as images can get! Really a sweet little pet that (imo) would have nothing to do with any political or ideological standpoint
Certainly not! Horny viking helmets have always been a staple symbol of Scandinavian culture, memery and other general fun.
This is also my thoughts. Why and how should right-wingers take ownership of vikings. They are as much part of the rest of the population
Nazis will try and appropriate any European culture symbols. Specially Germanic but also Celtic, Roman, Greek… Some say you can’t do anything to avoid it, I disagree but since this is .world I’m gonna tell it subtly: nazis tried to take on punk symbols, aesthetics, and music back in the day but you don’t see many nazi punks anymore, do you? ;)
Good point! They only get to appropriate symbols if we recognize them as such
As far as I know, vikings never had helmets with horns, so it might be controversial from a historical perspective :)
Never heard of viking helmets being used as neo-nazi symbols, but I’m not very up to date on the subject and occasionally they claim new symbols as theirs. Tried looking it up and could not find anything other than one being present on Soldiers of Odin’s logo
You might want to be a little bit careful if the AI puts a Thor’s hammer in the image, as it is popular symbol among neo-nazis. It’s also used without racist connotations, but it depends on the context how it comes across, kind of like the US Confederate flag.
Oh ok! This is interesting! Would the use ofThor’s hammer in Sweden be similar to a Confederate flag in the US?
I am in Denmark and Thor’s hammer is Thor’s hammer. As far as I know, no one would think of you as an extremist if you showed up with a Thor’s hammer t-shirt or tattoo here.
No is not! In Sweden Tors hammare is just Tors hammare. You can wear the hammare in Sweden to.
Torshammare
I en tingsrättsdom 1998 dömdes den tilltalade för flera symboler, bl.a. en torshammare, men även hakkors.
Med hänsyn till de andra symbolerna och de mycket korta domskälen går det inte att avgöra hur endast en torshammare hade bedömts.
Liknande bedömning gjordes i en tingsrättsdom 2000.
Även i en annan tingsrättsdom 2000 dömdes den tilltalade för flera symboler och i domen angavs att en torshammare förstärkt det budskap om rasism som andra symboler förmedlade.
Torshammare
I ett beslut 2019 bedömde JK att en bild av en t-shirt med motiv av en örn och en torshammare, som publicerats på en webbplats, inte gav anledning att anta att hets mot folkgrupp hade begåtts.
Torshammaren förekom, tillsammans med en tröja med texter och bilder, i ett beslut 1999.
Det är oklart vilken betydelse som JK lade vid torshammaren.
JK uttalade att den som är insatt i användningen av symbolerna kan förknippa klädseln med antisemitism och rasism, men ifrågasatte om en bredare allmänhet skulle uppfatta klädseln som uttryck för hot mot eller missaktning för en bestämd grupp av personer.Did people get sentensed for wearing tors hammer?
Nope! The closest is the judgment stated that a hammer reinforced the message of racism that other symbols conveyed. in 2000.
Also, The Chancellor of Justice stated that those familiar with the use of the symbols may associate the clothing with anti-Semitism and racism, but questioned whether the wider public would perceive the clothing as an expression of threat or disdain for a specific group of people. in 2019.
So I guess you could call it a symbol that racist groups tried to take but haven’t succeeded.
I don’t know what that would be referring to. I would probably have liked your design as well :) // 28 year old born and raised swede
The Swedish delegation tried to explain that they felt that they would risk offending people by sharing a picture og a pet with a horned viking helmet, because it would refer to Nazis. I don’t know if this was a reply from just one member/leader or if it was an official reply from the whole club.
I want to be open and accommodate for any local issues, but I don’t think I should accommodate for individual persons
I agree with you.
Tell them you made a search to find what they were on about and came up empty handed.
Ask them why they think people would think of nazis. Ask them to elaborate.
The story I always heard was that the horned helmet was an anachronism from opera, specifically the operas of Richard Wagner, who expressed anti-Semitic views and whose works were co-opted by the Nazis after his death, maybe that’s where they formed the idea?
wow! That would be a really long stretch, if this is true! and should have pulled in a lot more symbols than just the horned viking helmets?
Yeah, though in respect to this image I don’t see any other symbols that would qualify (Thor’s Hammer, runes come to mind)
