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January 2014

Danish Vikings, or how to find Vikings in today’s Denmark

I play a little game sometime when I look at Danish people. I imagine them as Danish Vikings. It’s easy now that big beards are in fashion on young men. Sometimes on the metro I’ll look up at the hipster guy playing with his iPhone next to me and imagine him wearing a big fur cloak. Maybe a rope belt, with a sword dangling from it.

I imagine him stepping off the boat in Newfoundland in the year 1000, freaking out the local American Indians.

Imagining Danish women as Vikings is a little harder. They don’t usually have the long braids or wear the big golden brooches that Viking ladies used to fasten their dresses. They don’t wear the headscarves the married women used to wear. Of course, you can still see plenty of headscarves in Denmark, but usually not on the Danes.

January 31, 2014 by Kay Xander Mellish

Stories about life in Denmark

Danes and Taxes: “I’m happy to pay”

When I first moved to Denmark and people asked me how I liked it, I used to say that I liked everything here except for the weather, the food, and the taxes.

Everyone agreed about the weather – particularly if the conversation was taking place during one of Denmark’s sad, rainy summers. And some made a half-hearted attempt to defend Danish cuisine – fashionable Nordic cuisine aside, we are talking about pork, more pork, a little eel, and a bit of reindeer – before mentioning the wide availability of Thai restaurants.

But nearly everyone defended the taxes. “I’m happy to pay,” many people said. Taxes in Denmark are a sacred duty, in a society where very little is sacred. In a recent survey, 90% of Danes said it would be embarrassing to be seen as someone who does not pay their full tax bill.

Fear the taxman

Not that cheating is any simple matter: unlike the rarely-seen and largely passive Danish police force, the Danish tax authorities are ruthless and take no prisoners. They go so far to as use air surveillance to make sure everyone is reporting the right square footage on their real-estate taxes.

January 12, 2014 by Kay Xander Mellish

No planned hangovers: 13 years after moving to Denmark, here are some ways I won’t fit in

More than a decade after moving to Denmark, I am pretty well integrated into Danish society.

I’ve learned to speak Danish, I pay my taxes, I bike everywhere, I send my daughter to a Danish school. I enjoy a nice slice of dark rye rugbrød – even when I’m on my own and don’t have to impress anyone with how healthy I’m eating.

But there are a few ways I simply refuse to integrate. I will not do things the Danish way.

January 9, 2014 by Kay Xander Mellish