Is it really true that viking helmets are controversial in Sweden?
Is it really true that viking helmets are controversial in Sweden?
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
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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.