Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1945-09-01

in all. Jutland rises out of the
European continent like a huge
statue of libery with an arm raised
and finger pointing north. On
the island of Zealand lies Copen-
hagen with it's million people, and
on the next largest island Fyn
(Fuen) lies Odense, birthplace of
Hans Christian Andersen. To Den
mark belong the Farce Islands
north of Scotland, and the colos-
sus Greenland in the Arctic. The
Danish flag, the Dannebrog,
white cross upon a red cloth, is
725 years old.
The Danes have remained raci-
ally the same for at least 1000
years. They have changed much
during those years. Before this
great war, Danish travel posters
featured Denmark as Land of
Peace and contentment. Writers
called Denmark Cooperative Com
monwealth; Kingdom of Reason;
Land of Balance. Today, the cap
tive Danes are known for their
continuous and efficient sabotage
and their intermittent general
strikes against the common enemy
which has soiled their fair land
since the 9th of April, 1910. For
sabotage and strikes, born of their
passionate devotion of freedom
and democracy, and to Allied
cause, have been the main Weap-
ons of this disarmed people, eX-
cept for their volunteers with the
Allied forces and their 5000 sail
ors on 100000 tons of Danish ships
who sail for the United Nations.
Denmark is constitutional
monarchy. Her king is Christian
the Tenth. To the four million
Danes living in a country about
twice the size of the state of
Massachusetts, Denmark is the
most important country in the
world. Their national anthem is
King Christ an" Longfellow
translated it into English. Beloved
among national hymns are There
is Lovely Land" by Oehlen-
schlaeger; and I'm Denmark I'm
Born" written by Hans Christian
Andersen, he who said that life
is a fairy tale written with Gods
finger" and through whom all
things spoke Danish and, through
the medium of the Danish tongue,
to all the world.
The Danes have a very long
memory. 1t has long since crys-
tallized into myths. The first his
torically recorded King of Den
mark was CORN the Old. He
reigned more than a thousand
years ago. His Queen Thyra, called
"Donebod," let build across South
Jutland a line of Notifications,
"Danevirke," to keep the Ger
mans out 1t served last in a mill
tary way in 1864. Remnants of it's
grass-covered walls still stand.
Miles and miles of German me-
chaniZed divisions poured over it
on that spring day of 1940 for
it had long since lost military
significance. But it remains
spiritual line that separates the
German "Geist" and the Danish
mind. and as such it is indestructi-
BILE.
The Danes lost that war of 1864
to Bismarck's Prussia, but they
revolted against defeat, and
sense of defeat, and rose out of it.
They determined to win within
what they had lost without, And
from that spiritual pattern, as
from the blueprint, rose a new
Denmark, land of balance and
contentment The salt of Danish
character had not lost its SAVIOR
Denmark's Bishop Grundtvig, sur
veying Danish history during a
thousand years, saw it was Den
marks fortune and Gods loving
grace"
For the Danes did not look for
conquest of others but themselves.
They did not covet "Lebensraum'
or the property of other people,
Instead they sang
Turn the barren heath and Moor