We all know Glima is legitimate, but what of loose-grips Scandinavian wrestling, weapon arts and the proper method of going berserk?
Stav doesn’t enter into it. I consider it racist, as a person with my Danish heritage.
I think the problem is that people of the olden days did not think “martial arts”. They wrestled, trained weapons, and got in condition by doing hard manual labor. Knowing how to fight was expected from freeman. Nothing like “Hey Olaf, what do you call your axe-style?” “Sukiyakishodenmazda-ryu.” 
Hmm
A sort of ancient Scandinavian throwdown.
I will investigate the Heimdall club in Brisbane re: my project
(And yes I know it’s pronounced “Yihm-dahl”)
My atavistic building torching, axe swinging mead drinking genes will thank me.
Danish is a filthy language. Its pronounciation is very different from all other nordic languages.
I can say that there probably have been both real Finnish wrestling and knife fighting styles…
But if anyone claims to teach either to you now… just say ‘NO’.
RACIST! :mad:
You should ask ARMA people around here. They seem to have some references to viking combat-styles. :hello:
Egil Skallagrimson is my idol.
Off-topic: :5bullwhip According to Lounasheimo (sports announcer), Savate competed with Boxing for popularity in Finland before WWI. It died off because French professeurs here went to war, and got killed in that stupid slaughter. Interesting. Maybe I should take this as project if there is more info on subject. :5baby:
Ah, Scandinavians mocking eachother ^^
I have to remember the throat disease. Over here we mostly believe Danes learn to talk with a potato down their throat. This causes constant regurgitation and gives them their unique dialect.
From my anecdotal knowledge Glima was all over Scandinavia in medieval times. It was eradicated by the Roman Catholic church from everywhere but Iceland ca. 1200 AD. It was regarded as a heathen practice by the church.
After the viking age, Scandinavian military were usually trained by instructors recruited from continental europe, primarily german language areas. This was the case maybe untill the 1700s, 1800s or so.
Everyone in Norway were allowed to own weapons, and carry them. However, packing weapons for personal protection generally fell out of favour during the 1500s. This was when they made murder a criminal offence. Previously murder had only been illegal if you did not publicly ackonwledge your deed. If it was an “honest” murder, the resulting complications had untill then been settled by family feud or financial compensation.
The only weapons that are really particular to Norway are axes.
In eralier times certan areas in Norway where known to be very violent. The city of Bergen in the 1500s had an alarmingly high murder rate. Also certain places had a culture of knife dueling, particularly Telemark was famed for this. In some remote valleys they carried swords openly for a long time, and the people had a basically medieval lifestyle well into the 1800s.
Knife dueling was not totally unheard of in Norway in the 1900s, but had been slowly dying for a long time. The last time the police in Norway arrested someone for traditional style knife dueling was in 1982. There are certain knife methods associated with this. There probably are older people in Norway today who “lived” the knife culture. The knife culture finally died out, because the minority group it survived in the longest turned born again christian. I`d be highly suspicious of anyone claiming to teach this stuff.
Before the age of container ships, Norwegian sailors were known for streetfighting. But i guess that the same is the case for any country in the world.
On a side note, many Scandinavians think of headbutting as something primarily Danish for some reason.
YA SEE?
It’s GENETIC!
I’M GENETICALLY PREDISPOSED TO HEADBUTTING! :BangHead:
That wasn`t meant to be an insult. Many people in Norway/Sweden refer to headbutting as “dansk skalle”. Also i have early 1900s danish manual on boxing, in some add on self defense pages this manual describes how danish thugs do the headbutt…
I know it wasn’t an insult. I take it as a compliment!:icon_thum
Review of a book by Swedish Glima exponent Lars Magnar Enoksen:
http://www.swedishbookreview.com/showreview.asp?id=9185057320
Another Enoksen link:
This thread sheds light on my mother’s side of the family.
I’m yawning just THINKING about Xmas.
I have new sig material, though.
Bah, everyone knows it’s because thy have mashed potato in their mouths!
Or at least that is what we used to say when I grew up in Stockholm.
Well so far we have Icelanders, Norwegians, Sweeds and Fins in this topic…all mocking the Danes. Are there no Danes here to protect themselves from this massive ownage?
Scandinavians always mock each other… But it isn’t really serious, it’s like USA vs Canada.
Finns are drunks
Swedes are gay
Norwegians are satanists… and rich (-> OIL; attn Bush)
Danish are… I don’t know… fuck do something…
Icelanders rule just for having a country there, hah.