DENMARK AND THE DANES 



125 



he decided to dedicate the book to me. 

 Prudently, I asked the name of the 

 heroine who was to be the subject of his 

 volume. "The American Cleopatra," he 

 said proudly, naming- a young woman at 

 that time the central figure in a notorious 

 murder case in New York City. 



This is not really so absurd as it seems, 

 for, during several months, the Danish 

 newspapers had copied from the Amer- 

 ican journals the reports of the scanda- 

 lous occurrence. It had blotted out, in 

 the opinion of many foreigners, owing to 

 the space that our newspapers gave it, 

 every other subject of interest! 



It is very hard to dispel the effect of 

 a tradition which exists in our country, 

 that Scandinavia is made up of a people 

 thinking alike, believing alike — politically 

 and socially — practically one, and with 

 similar national aspirations. When we 

 speak of Scandinavia we think, as a rule, 

 of three countries — Sweden, Denmark, 

 and Norway — as we would think of three 

 New England States, containing inhabit- 

 ants speaking the same language and 

 actuated by similar fundamental ideas. 



It comes with rather a shock to many 

 persons, who take their geography casu- 

 ally from the surface of the maps, that 

 these three Scandinavian countries have 

 not very much in common, except their 

 ancestry. 



The bases of their languages are sim- 

 ilar, but a Dane does not find it always 

 easy to read Swedish, while he does find 

 it easy to read Norwegian. There is a 

 great party in Norway, however — a party 

 which has gained some political power — 

 pledged to the substitution for modern 

 Norwegian of the ancient tongue spoken 

 by the Vikings. 



For many years there was no love lost 

 among the three countries. In 1397 they 

 were united for a brief period by Queen 

 Margaret, who, by the Treaty of Kalmar, 

 joined them into one great Scandinavian 

 kingdom. At this time she was already 

 Queen of Denmark and Norway, and the 

 Swedes were so impressed by the results 

 of her energetic administration that they 

 united with the other two countries ; but 

 the union was dissolved after her death, 

 under the reign of her nephew, Eric of 

 Pomerania. 



In Sweden, women enjoyed certain 

 voting privileges earlier than in any other 



country; and one cannot read her history 

 without being impressed by the influence 

 of such women as Saint Birgetta, who 

 taught the Swedish women to make lace, 

 the patterns of which are still retained ; 

 Kristina Gyllenstierna, and Ebba Brahe, 

 one of the best administrators of her 

 time, who did much to introduce effective 

 methods of agriculture into Sweden. 



SWEDEN AND DENMARK LONG HEREDITARY 

 ENEMIES 



Sweden and Denmark were until re- 

 cently hereditary enemies. The Castle 

 of Kronborg, which in the tragedy of 

 Hamlet takes the name "Elsinore" from 

 the little town (Helsingor) near it, was 

 built, or rather rebuilt, by Christian IV 

 of Denmark, who was contemporary 

 with Elizabeth and with James I of Eng- 

 land. Pie erected it to frown upon the 

 Swedish shore, as well as to exact tolls 

 from passing ships. 



Sweden and Norway were alternately 

 friendly and unfriendly; the unfriendli- 

 ness culminated in 1905 with the seces- 

 sion of Norway from Sweden. For a 

 short time Sweden threatened war and 

 began to mobilize her army; but the 

 Scandinavians have one quality in com- 

 mon ; they possess an unusual portion of 

 common sense, and it was decided to let 

 Norway go rather than court the un- 

 necessary evils of war. 



Norway chose as king the son of Fred- 

 erick VIII of Denmark, who was the son- 

 in-law of Edward VII of England. He 

 took the name of Haakon. This proceed- 

 ing enraged the Swedes, who saw the 

 rule of their own King Oscar, descendant 

 of the French General Bernadotte, re- 

 placed by a Dane. 



The dislike of the three countries for 

 one another awoke again, but a desire for 

 common safety during the late World 

 War induced them to join in certain 

 agreements, ratified by meetings of the 

 three kings at Malmo, to stand by one 

 another if they were attacked in a mili- 

 tary or commercial way. 



Denmark's rueer related to most 

 monarchs of europe 



It is no unusual thing for Denmark to 

 give a king to another part of Europe. 

 A glance at the pages of the revised 

 Almanack dc Gotha will show that the 



