Scandinavia

  • Princess Caroline Matilda-   Unhappily Ever After

    Despite what the fairy tales tell you, the life of a princess is not happily ever after.  A prime example of this is the life of Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain.  She was born on July 22, 1751 the daughter of the Frederick, the Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.  In keeping with Hanoverian tradition, Frederick and his father King George II hated each other as hard as they could.  However, Frederick died suddenly three months before Caroline Matilda’s birth.  She was named after her grandmother, Queen Caroline, and her paternal aunt, Princess Caroline.  (Read more about Princess Caroline in this post:   http://www.historynaked.com/princess-caroline-great-britain/ )  To keep things…

  • Vidkun Quisling-  The Norwegian Benedict Arnold

    Most people know about Benedict Arnold, the general during the American Revolution who sold out to the British because his wife was a gold digger.  (For more on that, please see post http://www.historynaked.com/benedict-arnold/ ) Well, Norway had one too.  Vidkun Quisling’s name has gone down in the popular vernacular as a byword for collaborator and traitor.  In fairness, he was a Nazi scumbag, so I am fine with this. Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was born on July 18, 1887 in Fyresdal, Telemark, Norway.  He was the son of a minister who was also a famous geologist and the heiress to a wealthy ship owner.  He was sent to school…

  • Sigyn

    Little is know about the Norse goddess Sigyn (pronounced SIG-in) what we do know is she had great love for her family and incredible endurance and compassion. Being the wife of the trickster God Loki had to be difficult. Her name means “victory woman”. The only known tale of her involves Loki’s punishment for killing Baldur. In that tale, when the gods captured Loki, they turned one of their two sons, Vali, into a wolf. The wolf then ripped apart their other son Narfi/Nari. The boy’s entrails hardened into an iron chain, and the gods used them to bind Loki in a cave deep beneath the earth. The gods also…

  • Erik the Lawgiver-   Myth or Man

    One of the medieval saints of the Catholic Church was Erik the Lawgiver.  He was also called Erik Jedvardsson, and was said to rule Sweden from 1150 to May 18, 1160.  There were no contemporary Swedish accounts of his reign, although he is briefly mentioned in the Sverissaga, a Norwegian epic written around the time he was said to be alive.  All of our information comes from later legends that were written with the aim of making him a saint.  However, there have been recent developments that Erik was an actual person. Erik was a rival king to Sverker the Elder, and like most Swedish royalty came from Geatish nobility.…

  • Ingjald the Ill-Ruler

    Taken from the Ynglingatal, and the Latin Historia Norwegiae and written in the 12th Century Ynglinga saga as part of the Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturluson, is the legend of the King of Sweden circa 7th Century, Ingjald Illrade (the Ill-Ruler), son of Anund. When Ingjald was around six years of age, he had occasion to be a playmate of Alf and Agnar, sons of the Viceroy of Fjadrundaland who were of an age with him. One day around the time of the Midwinter sacrifices and festivals, whilst playing with Alf, Ingjald realized to his horror that Alf was the much stronger of the two of them, and this knowledge greatly…