HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: stoer@hal.nta.no (Stoer Mechthild FNT)
Subject: Re: Christening & colonization of the north-east Europe.
Organization: Norwegian Telecom Research
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 92 12:16:20 GMT

In <1992Sep2.135516.22665@nntp.hut.fi> c34657b@saha.hut.fi (Tuomas Viljanen)
writes:

(... about the Teutonic Order ...)

> Finally, Poland and Lithuania grew fed up with the Germans and
> crushd the armies of the Order in the battle of Tannenberg (the one and only !)
> 1410.  Too bad the Allies did not employ the opportunity, and the Teutonic
> Order, the Waffen-SS of the Middle Ages, survived until the Reformation, when
> the last Landmeister became Lutheran, ceded the Ordenstaat to Poland and
> became the Duke of Prussia (later King ?), founding the Hohenzollern Dynasty.
>
> Of course, calling the Teutonic Order as the Waffen-SS of the Middle Ages, is
> an insult towards the Waffen-SS: _they_ did not succeed in wiping out a whole
> people, as the Knights succeeded with the Prussians, Frisians and Livonians :(

The Teutonic Order cannot be called "the Germans", as in the first sentence.
-- Although the leaders (Grossmeister?) belonged to German nobility,
   the members came from all sorts of countries.
-- At that time the concept of nationality did not yet exist.
   The Teutonic Order and its opponents were at that time
   not "German" and "Lithuanian", but "Christian" and "heathen", 
   or "Grossmeister xxx" and the neighboring dukes.
-- To interpret the Teutonic Order and its activities
   as "German superiority" or "German imperialism"
   has been a favourite play of German and Polish historians some time ago
   (I wouldn't wonder if Nazi propaganda called the Teutonic Order
   "the Waffen-SS of the middle ages", as Tuomas ironically wrote),
   but this is not followed by serious historians any more.

Ok, maybe Tuomas Viljanen's remark about "the Germans"
was also meant ironically.
In this case take it as an interesting piece of information.

Another issue: I heard that the Teutonic Order still exists,
maybe under a different name,
with headquarters in Vienna, or do I mix them up with another order?

(Hope I got nothing wrong here. My sources are two books about
Polish history, one written by N. Davies, and the other by some German,
which I read some time ago.)

Mechthild Stoer
Mechthild.Stoer@nta.no    or   stoer@sc.zib-berlin.de
From: rancke@diku.dk (Hans Rancke-Madsen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: There is no "Santa Claus"
Date: 1 Sep 92 18:46:07 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, U of Copenhagen

ewillims@unix1.tcd.ie (Emma Williams) writes:

>In <1992Aug31.090812.5981@ugle.unit.no> jafitv@termo.unit.no (Julenissen) writes:


>>Of course there is no Santa Claus - but how do you translate a word
>>like "tomten", or in norwegian "nissen" to english ?

>       How about "gnomes"?  That's usually an accepted translation.
>They are small and bearded wearing high pointed hats in red or grey
>with round red-cheeked faces and "lederhosen".  They help animals
>who are injured and bring good luck to farmers who leave out milk
>and food for them.

The english creatures of folklore who coresponds to 'nisser' is
the brownies. Their look and behaviour is practically identical.
The only difference is that brownies wear brown clothes, which
makes perfect sense to me; same species, different culture.

Ithink that using "gnomes" for these creatures is the result of a
mistranslation of a Dutch or Belgian book about them, but I could
be wrong there. Possibly english gnomes also behave like that.

      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     rancke@diku.dk
------------
"I know there are some people in the world who do not tolerate their
fellow human beings, and I just can't _stand_ people like that!"
                                (after Tom Lehrer)
From: jafitv@termo.unit.no (Jan Arne Fagertun)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Norway claiming NY (too late)
Keywords: Santa
Date: 1 Sep 92 07:03:24 GMT
Reply-To: jafitv@termo.unit.no (Jan Arne Fagertun)
Organization: SINTEF, Norwegian Institute of Technology

In article <sooz.715302308@vincent1.iastate.edu>, sooz@iastate.edu (Susan F Bradley) writes:
|> 
|> How does this work for everybody: Norway will send Oslo, Bergen and some nice,
|> small village on a fjord over here and, in return we _won't_ send New York, Los
|> Angeles or Washington D.C. (After all, what has Norway ever done to us to 
|> deserve that?)  AND - if anybody over there wants it - we will send as much of 
|> Texas as their Nordic hearts desire.  
|> 
|> Susan Bradley
|> sooz@iastate.edu
|> 
--


You could at least send me one of the HUGE T-bone steaks from Texas
that I've heard so much of. (-:


+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Jan Arne Fagertun, Research Engineer, SINTEF Division Thermodynamics|
| E-mail: Jan.A.Fagertun@termo.unit.no                                |
| Phone : +47 7 596890                            Fax  : +47 7 944513 |
| Mail  : SINTEF/Varmeteknikk, 7034 Trondheim, Norway                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: mimir@milton.u.washington.edu (Al Billings)
Subject: Re: Tyr,Odin,Thor,Frey?
Keywords: weekdays
Organization: The Friends of Loki Society
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 04:00:22 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.200647.20136@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> johnson@sleipnir.mnesouth.corp.mot.com writes:
>=)
>Frigg was Aesir, and Freyja Vanir.  If I remember, I think there were some
>whispered rumors that Odin and Freyja once had a thing going on the side.
>I read a theory that the Aesir and Vanir were originally from different
>religions, and that the war between them which starts out the Eddas is an
>allegory for the actual conflict between the religious systems.  If that
>is the case, it may be that Freyja and Frigg were once very similar
>entities, performing similar functions in different religious systems,
>and only after becoming members of the same theology did they
>differentiate into the characters we're familiar with.  This could also
>explain the rumored details of Odin's love life.

 They are considered to have come from the same people these days, not
from some invaders comes and conquers scheme. Heck, an Indo-European
invasion of India is even in doubt now. It doesn't look like anyone really
came and conquered there.

Wassail,
Al Billings

                           mimir@u.washington.edu
    /\  /\       +----------------------------------------+
   /__\/__\      | "I know that I hung on the windy tree  |          |
  /\  /\  /\     |  all of nights nine, wounded by Gar,   |          |
 /__\/__\/__\    |   given to Odhinn, myself to myself,   |          |
    /\  /\       | upon that tree of which none can tell  |          |
   /__\/__\      |      from what root it rises."         |    ______|______
                 +----------------------------------------+
From: rorschak@daimi.aau.dk (Jesper Lauridsen)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Danish Mountaineering Vacation
Date: 26 Aug 92 00:27:41 GMT
Organization: A mythological place called Bramming

cindy@solan10.solan.unit.no (Cynthia Kandolf) writes:

>It was around this time that i discovered what the word "bageri"
>means.  Visiting Denmark is hazardous to your waistline...

I know. I have gained cirka 90 kg while being there.
-- 
I neither can nor will at this or any other (previous or coming) moment
in time respect anyone or anything wearing a baseball cap and/or a pair
of boxershorts, unless the wearing of these artifacts is an important
part of a contract giving said individuals or creatures an income of more
than 10 times the average for people with similar educational background.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: steve@oceania.com (Steve Dakin)
Subject: Re: Greenland claiming residence of Santa Claus
Reply-To: steve@oceania.com
Organization: Oceania Health Care Systems
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 20:38:13 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.173300.29880@tdb.uu.se> t88swa@tdb.uu.se (Sven Wallman)  
writes:
> I'm sorry. There is no Santa Claus. He's a fake.

I agree.

>I learned the truth when I was six 5 years old.
                                ^^^^^
However, it didn't take me quite as long - ;-).

Cheeriow,

Steve

-- 
    Steve Dakin                      Oceania Health Care Systems 
 steve@oceania.com (NeXT mail)       Palo Alto, CA (415) 322-0127
 jester@oceania.com                  "That one deserves a ... WOW!"
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: euaaen@eua.ericsson.se (Anders Engwall)
Subject: Re: Santa Poll - informal (Re: Greenland claiming residence of Santa Claus)
Organization: Ellemtel Telecom Systems Labs, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 12:18:44 GMT

Look, there's been all sorts of amusing lies on this subject but you
might as well cut right here. You see, the fact is that Santa lives
in Uppsala, Sweden. I ought to know -- he lives next door to me, and
boy, would I like to see him evicted! Not only does this miserable old
wino practice his "HO-HO-HO":s until the middle of the night, but he
also insists on keeping his reindeer -- stupid, smelly critters -- in
the parking lot, leaving their droppings everywhere for you to step
in.  

If you want him you can have him, I say.

--
Anders Engwall				Email: Anders.Engwall@eua.ericsson.se
ELLEMTEL Utvecklings AB			Voice: +46 8 727 3893
"Alvsj"o, Sweden			Fax: +46 8 727 42 20
		"Bryna nuppa fj{ssa sp}nken" - Razor
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic


        I can't help say something reguarding the employment of foreigners
in Sweden (I can't say anything about other nordic countries).  I spent two
years in Sweden, much of my time in Uppsala, as a missionary for my church.
I knocked on a lot of doors, and so got a rather unique opportunity to meet
the people, especially those at home during the day.  Many of these, espe-
cially the males, were out of work foreigners.  I don't get the impression
that most of them were lazy, but simply could not find a job, or were not
allowed to get one until they learned Swedish.  This seemed not to be a good
blanket policy, as many jobs require very little Swedish be spoken.  Many that
I knew could speak fairly good Swedish, but expressed dissatisfaction that
they had to go to school to learn the language, rather than working.
        Also, there seems to be no effort to integrate them into the society.
They most often end up in low-income type housing with others from their
homeland.  They don't speak Swedish with their friends, so the language never
becomes second nature to them.  Having learned Swedish, I can relate with
the difficulty that they face.  These micro social groups knit tighter and
tighter together due to the common bond of language.  The Swedes get the
impression that they don't want to fit in it seems.  While this is sometimes
the case, most of the utlaaningar just wanted friends, something made even
more difficult due to the Swedes' stand-offish behavior to strangers, whether
foriegners or fellow Swedes.  I have no suggestion to how this nature can be
altered.  Saying to a Swede that they should be more open and friendly is
about as effective as saying to a smoker,"Just quit."  People find it diffi-
cult to change what they are, like breaking bad habits.
        My intent with this post is not to suggest reform or change, but to
act as a catalyst for understanding of a group of people trying to make a
new home for themselves, many of which are political refugees with horrors
at home that they are trying to cope with.  I can't begin to relate all of
the awful stories that I have heard about the atrocities that these people
from all over the world have endured in their home countries.  So, to all
Swedes out there, you have no idea how you will make an utlaanning's day
by just saying,"heysan."

                        Ha det sa bra!
                        Steve Myers (former Swensk).



Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: mk59200@cc.tut.fi (Markku Kolkka)
Subject: Re: Unnecessary polluation
Keywords: Tho Most Polluating Event of Finland
Organization: Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 09:59:02 GMT


In article <1992Aug28.060210.22080@jyu.fi> ryyti@jyu.fi (Jarmo Ryyti) writes:
>
>The Most Polluating Event of Finland started  yesterday in my home town,
>The Rally of Thousands Lakes. Adult men and some ladies are driving
>cars around polluating forests and making terrble noise for four days.

There are _hundreds of thousands_ cars driving around polluting forests
and making noises, 366 days this year. The Rally doesn't really make
a difference.

--
	Markku Kolkka
	mk59200@cc.tut.fi
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: seeger@oceania.com (Seeger Fisher)
Subject: Re: Tyr,Odin,Thor,Frey?
Reply-To: seeger@oceania.com
Organization: Oceania Health Care Systems
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 23:24:44 GMT

In article <pockling.714768852@sfu.ca> pockling@fraser.sfu.ca (richard  
pocklington) writes:
> 	Does anyone know how the days of the week got named after
> the Norse gods?  Tyr-tuesday, Odin-wednesday, Thor-thursday and 
> Frey/Freya/Frigga-friday  which of these gods is friday named after?
> Why is saturday still named after a Roman deity, Saturn?
> 
it would follow that friday is after Freya, since in French, Spanish, Latin,  
etc. the day is named after Venus. Freya is the closest in character to  
Venus...

The Romans,French,Spanish,etc. presumably named the days of the week after the  
seven "planets", which in turn were named after gods (or vice-versa!?)...

What's more curious, why are there seven days in a week? And why aren't there  
thirteen months in a year??

Seeger

-- 
|     seeger@oceania.com     |
| NeXT-mail happily consumed | 

Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: izahi@bsc.no (Raul Izahi Lopez Hernandez)
Subject: Unemployment in Norway
Organization: Bergen Scientific Centre, Bergen, NORWAY
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 11:42:18 GMT

   Who is part of the 7.6% unemployment rate in Norway?
   What are the careers that have been displaced, the qualifications not
met, or the training needed, in this phenomenon?
   Is it feasible to reduce unemployment to zero?
-- 
         -----> All opinions expressed here are my own, not IBM's <-----
Raul Izahi Lopez	Izahi Engineering
izahi@bsc.no		IBM Bergen Environmental Sciences and Solutions Centre
			Thormoehlensgate 55, 5008 Bergen, NORWAY (47-5)54-4653
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: kurt@dna.lth.se (Kurt Swanson)
Subject: Re: Emailing Ice Land
Organization: Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 18:06:27 GMT

einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason) writes:
>In <mad-celt.715620015@cwis> mad-celt@cwis.unomaha.edu (Andrew Patrick Booth) writes:
>>I have some relatives that just got stationed in Ice Land and was wondering if 
>						  ^^^^^^^^
>BZZZZZTTTT!!!!   It is Iceland!  (we don't need to have the country refered
>to as Ice Land :-)

Gee, Ei nar, you prob ab ly hear man y peo ple mis pro nounce I
celand, since it is a coun try far in the hin ter lands...

>>there was a way they could send/receive email from the U.S.  Is there some kind
>>of email or internet service they can get access to?
>Hmm.  I think it would be best for them to check at some information place
>at Keflavik. 
>Personally, I don't know about it.
>einari@rhi.hi.is

Well, Ein ar, we cer tain ly hope that some day your litt le coun try
will get in ter net so that you can read this mess age. . .
-- 
Kurt Swanson, Dept. of Computer Science,
Lunds universitet.  Kurt.Swanson@dna.lth.se
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Tyr,Odin,Thor,Frey?
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 16:22:53 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Keywords: weekdays

In article <1992Aug26.001209.28861@daimi.aau.dk> jbuhl@daimi.aau.dk (Jesper Buhl) writes:
>f90-len@byse.nada.kth.se (Lars Engebretsen) writes:
>
>>In article <pockling.714768852@sfu.ca> pockling@fraser.sfu.ca (richard pocklington) writes:
>
>>>Why is saturday still named after a Roman deity, Saturn?
>
>>But it isn't in Swedish!  In Swedish, Saturday is "l|rdag" which comes
>>from "l|gardag", which means "the day you wash yourself".
>
>Do. in Denmark. For some reason or another, the norse word for
>saturday wasn't adopted by the english. Maybe they only washed once
>a year?

	There is actually a medieval English text, which complains about
the excellent washing habits of the vikings.  Apparentlly the squeaky clean
Scandinavians were enticing all the Saxon girls away from the
not-so-well-washed Saxon guys!

Carl
From: d9bertil@dtek.chalmers.se (Bertil Jonell)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: translation wanted
Date: 28 Aug 92 17:14:22 GMT
Organization: Chalmers University of Technology

In article <WD.92Aug26125603@sam.cs.tu-berlin.de> wd@cs.tu-berlin.de (Wolfgang Diestelkamp) writes:
>Hold it. Namedays are a catholic tradition. A person used
>to get the name of the saint on whose birthday he/she was
>born.

  In Sweden this is seen as a strong indication of lack of imagination on the
parents parts:)

>Wolfgang Diestelkamp

-bertil-
--
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political view or
 strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof is left as an
 exercise for your kill-file."
"This is the famous Hasan B Mutlu-trigger, insert it in your .sig file today!"
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: ryyti@jyu.fi (Jarmo Ryyti)
Subject: Re: Santa Poll - informal (Re: Greenland claiming residence of Santa Claus)
Organization: University of Jyvaskyla, Finland
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 06:30:17 GMT

In article <CINDY.92Aug26223242@solan10.solan.unit.no> cindy@solan10.solan.unit.no (Cynthia Kandolf) writes:
>Obviously, Santa lives at the North Pole.  The North Pole belongs to
>no country.  If Santa did live in Finland, Greenland, or any of the
>other places that have been brought up, that would be playing
>favorites, and as we all know, Santa would _never_ play favorites.
>
>-Cindy Kandolf
> cindy@solan.unit.no
> Trondheim, Norway
>
Dear Cindy,
Do not let you to be be misled, I am from Finland

Santa Claus
From: wd@cs.tu-berlin.de (Wolfgang Diestelkamp)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: translation wanted
Date: 26 Aug 92 10:56:11 GMT
	<1992Aug20.165303.1@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi>
	<1992Aug25.094917.26448@jyu.fi>
Organization: Technical University of Berlin, Germany

In article <1992Aug25.094917.26448@jyu.fi> sakkinen@jyu.fi (Markku Sakkinen) writes:
> In article <1992Aug20.165303.1@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi> ksavolai@tnclus.tele.nokia.fi writes:
> >> ...
> >In Finnish calendar every single day is dedicated for someones name. Only
> >first of January is date that's nobodys nameday. Have any other countries
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
How about Sylvester ?

> 
> Christmas Day is another.
> 
> >that kind of namedays? (according to previous text it seems that there's 
> >namedays also in Norway).
> 
> Hungary!  And Estonia, I think.
> It appears that namedays are celebrated by nations that are
> geographically Scandinavian (Nordic) or/and linguistically Fenno-Ugric.

Hold it. Namedays are a catholic tradition. A person used
to get the name of the saint on whose birthday he/she was
born. In fact I have a friend whose nameday is his birthday,
because he was named after "his" saint.
It seems the protestant church in Sweden (don't know about
other nordic countries) has taken over quite a few catholic
traditions (i.e they also have priests, as opposed to other
protestant churches); so namedays obviously had a meaning
in protestant Sweden, not only in catholic South,
at least for a while.
-- 
Wolfgang Diestelkamp
wd@cs.tu-berlin.de
wolfgang@first.gmd.de
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: petrus@stacken.kth.se (Lars Petrus)
Subject: Re: Computerized news feeds
Organization: Stacken Computer Club, Stockholm, Sweden
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 22:00:59 GMT

In article steinarb@idt.unit.no (Steinar Bang) writes:
>
>I was thinking at one time about editing postings consisting of short
>headliners of Norwegian news for ex-patriate Norskies and interested
>foreigners alike, preferably in english to accomodate everybody.
>However, I found that it would take too much of my time.

   I've been thinking about exactly the same thing (except that it would
be swedish news). If you just write down the top three headlines on TV-TEXT
each night during your late night net session, it should not be much work.
Still, I do not intend to start this. I already have more to do than I
am able to, but here is how it would look tonight:


* Trading in SKANSKA, Swedens biggest construction company was stopped today
on the Stockholm stock exchange, after it was discovered that the company's
finance director had engaged in currency speculation during the summer,
losing the company 500-600 million kronor (100 M$). This means that about half 
of this years profit is wiped out. The man has been fired.

* The parliamentary commision working on a new pension system today presented 
its suggestions. The main points are that the ATP pension will be based on
your full life income, not as now on your income during your 15 best paid
years, and that you should be able to choose when you will ertire, between 
the ages of 60-70 years. The later you retire, the higher your ATP pension 
will be.

* Johan Egelstedt, a 19 year old swedish au pair in London has been allowed
to stay a month in Great Britain after being given a special permit by the
interior minister Kenneth Clarke. Egelstedt was about to be expelled since,
according to british law, an au pair must be an unmmaried girl without 
children between 17-27 years old. Since he was a boy, Egelstedt didn't qualify.



   There. That actually took me more that 12 minutes, even though I simplified
some things. That's longer than I expected, and reinforces my desicion
not to go ahead with this scheme. But maybe someone else wants to?


  -  -  -  -
Wise Quote: "You want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. 
Make yourself perfect and then just paint naturally. That's the way all the 
experts do it." - Robert M Pirsig in ZATAOMM.
From: ray@ole.cdac.com (Ray Berry)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Danish lang question
Date: 1 Sep 92 18:01:41 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Cascade Design Automation, Bellevue, WA


     This is an off-the-wall question- but here goes..
     I have no knowledge of Nordic languages.  However- I need to know if the
following syllabic sequence, given in English, is suggestive of a verse of
a (presumably) Danish xmas carol:  " too-be calct lecht ". 
     Please respond via e-mail.  And thanks in advance for helping, should you
choose to respond.
-- 
Ray Berry kb7ht ray@ole.cdac.com 73407.3152@compuserve.com /* inquire within */
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
From: etxmow@garboc34.ericsson.se (Mats Winberg)
Subject: Re: Sociology in Scandinavia
Organization: Ericsson
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 15:44:41 GMT

landstry@tpki.toppoint.de (Michael Schack) writes:

>perhaps this is the wrong place but I want to ask if
>there are some scandinavian sociologists who are

     This reminds me of a North African gentleman I had the
     pleasure to meet in a youth hostel in Zurich in 1978.
     When he heard that I was from Sweden he asked among other things:
	"Do you study sociology at Swedish Universities?"
     I confirmed: "Yes, there are such courses, but I have never
	attended any".
	"Do they do it on tables?"
	"????"
	"Do they have intercourse on tables?"
	"What do you mean?"
	"Does a couple have sex on a table while the students sit and
	take notes?"
     Then it dawned on me, he hadn't meant "sociology" but
     "sexology". I sensed that he would be immensely dissatisfied
     if he was informed that this was not the case, so I said:
	"Yes, there are places where this happens...
	(This was in the seventies, when "live shows" weren't
	outlawed, so I didn't lie)
	"Some day I will go studying in Sweden" he explained
	with a great smile.

  Mats Winberg
  etxmow@tore.ericsson.se

>-- 
>/ M. Schack /  / landstry  /  landstry@tpki.toppoint.de
>             / Kiel      /               --internet--
>           / Germany   /   gif01@rz.uni-kiel.dbp.de

>            

>	    
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic