Scandinavian History Podcast

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Scandinavian History Podcast

A journey through the history of Scandinavia from the last ice age to the dawn of the space age.

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28/05/2026

So-called Christmas seals are labels that look a lot like regular stamps. They can’t be used for postage, though. Instead, they’re sold in the leadup to Christmas in order to raise money for charity.

They were first issued in Denmark in 1904 to raise money to fight tuberculosis. King Christian IX thought it was an excellent idea, and the first seals portrayed Queen Louise. (The attention-grabbing image shows this first Christmas seal.)

The Christmas seals became a great success, and in 1911 a tuberculosis sanatorium funded through the campaign could open. The idea of Christmas seals spread, first to Sweden and Iceland and later to 130 countries.

Christmas seals are still issued in Denmark, and the money goes to various charities connected to children in need.

27/05/2026

On this day, but in 1660, Denmark and Sweden sign the Treaty of Copenhagen.

It ended a war that Karl X Gustav of Sweden had started in an attempt to wipe Denmark off the map. Instead, the war ended with Sweden having to hand back the island of Bornholm (green) and the province of Trondheim (green) to the Danes.

The peace held for 15 years, until the Scandinavians were at each others' throats again.

26/05/2026

Today is the birthday of King Frederik X of Denmark. All of us here at the Scandianvian History Podcast wish His Majesty a happy birthday!

Tillykke med fødselsdagen!

24/05/2026

Denmark has been shrinking in the last few episodes, but it still clung to its North Atlantic possessions, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland. But in the 1800s, more and more Icelanders were growing tired of Danish rule. Students who had spent time in Copenhagen and absorbed nationalist ideas returned to Iceland, arguing for independence from Denmark.

In 1874, Christian IX agreed to give Iceland a constitution of its own and limited autonomy. In 1904, that autonomy was expanded further, and a minister of Iceland was appointed to sit on the Danish government.

The first person to hold this position was a certain Hannes Haftein (pictured).

23/05/2026

Unlike last time, we have a clear result from the Spotify poll from episode 133, "Ill-Fated Rematch". The question was: What doomed Denmark in 1864?

The options were:
1) Political overconfidence
2) Misplaced belief in Scandinavist solidarity
3) Military incompetence

The majority of you felt that the blame for the defeat should be placed at the feet of the politicians, and you voted for option 1.

I was a little surprised, though, that your second choice was 3, military incompetence. Honestly, I don't think the Danish army had a snowball's chance in hell once the full military might of Prussia was unleashed against it.

Also, I'm a little surprised that so many of you are willing to overlook the Swedish betrayal when they failed to send the promised troops to aid Denmark. Or perhaps you're cynical enough to blame the Danish politicians for being naive enough to actually believe that the Swedes would show up this time.

If so, I can see your point.

Anyway, the attention-grabbing image is a winter depiction of the Danevirke defensive line.

22/05/2026

In today's episode, we see what happened in what was left of Denmark after the disaster of 1864. The war may have been over, but for the new king, Christian IX, the struggles had just begun.

Links in the comments, as usual.

19/05/2026

As I mentioned in the latest episode, Christian de Meza was the commander of the Danish army during the 1864 war. To save the army from destruction, De Meza ordered the withdrawal from the Danevirke. From a military perspective, this was the only sane thing to do, but since Danevirke was so symbolically important to Danish nationalists, the move shocked the Danish public and resulted in de Meza being relieved of his command. The government even appointed a commission to investigate and document the reasons for abandoning Danevirke. The commission concluded that de Meza had done the right thing, and handled the retreat with great skill. But their report blamed the War Ministry for lack of preparation and negligence. De Meza was reinstated, but died a few months later.

17/05/2026

Happy May 17! As I'm sure you know by now, today is Constitution Day in Norway, celebrated in memory of their summer king Christian Frederik signing the first Norwegian constitution on May 17, 1814. In case you want further details, go back and listen to episode 125.

11/05/2026

One of the sites lost to Denmark in the 1864 war was the Viking Age town Hedeby. The town was first mentioned by the Franks because Charlemagne stayed in Hedeby in 804. Four years later, the king of Denmark destroyed a nearby Slavic trading town, and moved its merchants to Hedeby, significantly boosting its importance.

With time, Hedeby expanded into an important market town because of its location on the major trade routes between the Frankish Empire and Scandinavia, and between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.

But when a traveler from Muslim Spain visited in 965, he wasn’t impressed by what he saw. He admitted that Hedeby was big, but he noted disapprovingly that women could divorce, both men and women used eye make-up, and that the singing of the locals sounded worse than the howling of dogs.

Hedeby was sacked by king Harald Hardrada in 1050. He set the town on fire by sending burning ships into the harbor. These charred remains of these ships have actually been found by modern day archeologists. 16 years after the Norwegian visit, Hedeby was attacked again when West Slavs burned it down again.

The town never recovered, and people started to move to the nearby town of Slesvig instead. The exact location of Hedeby was forgotten, and thanks to that the site was basically intact when it was rediscovered in the 19th century. Hedeby has now been excavated and partially recreated. A museum opened there in 1985, and since 2018, it’s a part of the UNESCO World Heritage.

10/05/2026

The votes from the Spotify poll for episode 132 ("To the Eider!") have been counted, and the results are in. I know you've hardly been able to sleep out of excitement to find out, so with no further ado, let's get to it.

The question was: Who, in your opinion, had the right to govern Slesvig in 1848?

The options were:
A) The Danes, based on historic rights
B) The German Confederation
C) The locals themselves, independently

For the first time in Scandinavian History Podcast history we have a three-way tie between all three options! So no clear winner this time around--a bit like the result of the Three Years' War.

09/05/2026

Just as I promised, but about 27 hours later than expected, here's a map to help you make sense of what was going on where during the Second Slesvig War 1864.

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