Embodying ‘the Nordic race’: imaginaries of Viking heritage in the online communications of the Nordic Resistance Movement

ABSTRACT

Kølvraa’s article focuses on the cultural imaginary of the Scandinavian extreme right by analysing the online presence of the so-called Nordic Resistance Movement. He seeks to show how the cultural imaginaries of this National Socialist organization make use of the Scandinavian Viking heritage in three distinct ways. First, to produce a distinctly Nordic form of National Socialism and thus potentially make this ideology palatable to Nordic publics. Second, to differentiate their racially oriented political project from a wider far-right or populist right concern with the defence of European Christian heritage and/or civilization against Islam. And, third, to thematize and perform a certain hyper-masculine identity, especially in the context of martial and sporting competitions arranged by the organization.

KEYWORDS:

• National Socialism
• Nordic Resistance Movement
• race
• racism
• Scandinavia
• Sweden
• Viking heritage

ORCID

Christoffer Kølvraa http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8600-914X

Notes

1 See, for example, John T. Lauridsen, ‘Nazister i Danmark 1930–45: En Forskningsoversig’, Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 16, no. 4, 1995, 99–142.

2 See Ernesto Laclau, Emancipation(s) (London and New York: Verso 1996), 36–46.

3 Katrine Fangen, ‘Living out our ethnic instincts: ideological beliefs among right-wing activists in Norway’, in Jeffrey Kaplan and Tore Bjørgo (eds), Nation and Race: The Developing Euro-American Racist Subculture (Boston: Northeastern University Press 1998), 202–30 (223).

4 See Claus Bryld and Annette Warring, Besættelsestiden som kollektiv erindring: Historie- og traditionsforvaltning af krig og besættelse 1945–1997 (Roskilde: Roskilde Universitetsforlag 1998).

5 Fangen, ‘Living out our ethnic instincts’, 223.

6 Anders Hellström and Tom Nilsson, ‘“We are the good guys”: ideological positioning of the nationalist party Sverigedemokraterna in contemporary Swedish politics’, Ethnicities, vol. 10, no. 1, 2010, 55–76.

7 Susi Meret, ‘From the margins to the mainstream? The development of the radical right in Denmark’, in Nora Langenbacher and Birtta Schellenberg (eds), Is Europe on the ‘Right’ Path? Right-Wing Extremism and Right-Wing Populism in Europe (Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung 2011), 243–67.

8 Aleida Assmann, ‘The Holocaust—a global memory? Extensions and limits of a new memory community’, in Aleida Assmann and Sebastian Conrad (eds), Memory in a Global Age: Discourses, Practices and Trajectories (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2010), 97–117.

9 Aleida Assmann, ‘Europe’s divided memory’, in Uilleam Blacker, Alexander Etkind and Julie Fedor (eds), Memory and Theory in Eastern Europe (New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2013), 25–41.

10 Benjamin Teitelbaum, ‘“The path of dreams”: Breivik, music, and neo-Nazi skinheadism’, in Jan Sverre Knudsen, Marie Strand Skånland and Gro Trondalen (eds), Musikk etter 22 Juli (Oslo: Norges Musikhøgskole 2014), 119–38 (123).

11 Markus Lundström and Tomas Lundström, ‘Hundra år av radikal nationalism’, Arkiv: Tidskrift för Samhällsanalys, a special issue on ‘Det vita fältet III: Samtida forskning om högerextremism’, no. 5, 2016, 39–66; Katrina Hirvonen, ‘Sweden: when hate becomes the norm’, Race & Class, vol. 55, no. 1, 2013, 78–86.

12 This is made clear in the organization’s manifesto, Nordiska Motståndsrörelsens, Vår väg: Ny politik för en ny tid (Grängesberg: Nordfront Förlag 2015). An English version, Nordic Resistance Movement, Our Path: New Politics for a New Time (Grängesberg: Nordfront Förlag 2016) is available at www.nordfront.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Our-Path.pdf (viewed 13 April 2019).

13 For example, one of the most extreme right of activist organizations in Denmark, Danmarks Nationale Front (Denmark’s National Front), completely avoids National Socialist symbolism. For its website, see www.danmarksnationalefront.dk (viewed 13 April 2019).

14 Michael Kimmel, ‘Racism as adolescent male rite of passage’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, vol. 36, no. 2, 2007, 202–18 (206).

15 Ibid.

16 Tina Askanius and Yiannis Mylonas, ‘Extreme-right responses to the European economic crisis in Denmark and Sweden: the discursive construction of scapegoats and lodestars’, Javnost—The Public, vol. 22, no. 1, 2015, 55–72 (58).

17 Linnea Eastman, ‘Neo-Nazi groups are more active in Sweden than ever before—and they’re quickly adopting new methods’, Business Insider, 12 May 2017.

18 Tom Michael, ‘Nazis on the march’, The Sun, 12 December 2016.

19 Lucy Pasha-Robinson, ‘Swedish neo-Nazis stage biggest ever march in wake of Donald Trump’, Independent on Sunday, 13 November 2016.

20 Lundström and Lundström, ‘Hundra år av radikal nationalism’, 50–1; Hirvonen, ‘Sweden: when hate becomes the norm’.

21 Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason (London: Verso 2005) and Ernesto Laclau, New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (London and New York: Verso 1990). For a broader discussion of the idea of cultural imaginaries, see the introduction to this special issue; see also Bernhard Forchtner and Christoffer Kølvraa, ‘Extreme right images of radical authenticity: multimodal aesthetics of history, nature, and gender in social media’, European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, vol. 4, no. 3, 2017, 252–81.

22 Cornelius Castoriadis, L’Institution imaginaire de la société (Paris: Seuil 1975); Paul Ricoeur, Lectures of Utopia and Ideology (New York and Guildford, Surrey: Columbia University Press 1996).

23 Laclau, On Populist Reason.

24 See Slavoj Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology (London: Verso 1989).

25 Laclau, Emancipation(s).

26 Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power 1933–1939 (New York and London: Penguin 2006), 253–4.

27 Stanley G. Payne, A History of Fascism 1914–1945 (Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press 1995), 373–4.

28 Teitelbaum, ‘“The path of dreams”’, 123.

29 Kimmel, ‘Racism as adolescent male rite of passage’, 214.

30 See Jens Rydgren and Patrick Ruth, ‘Voting for the radical right in Swedish municipalities: social marginality and ethnic competition?’, Scandinavian Political Studies, vol. 34, no. 3, 2011, 202­­–25.

31 Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, Lions of the North: Sounds of the New Nordic Radical Nationalism (New York: Oxford University Press 2017), 104.

32 See, for example, Editorial, ‘Medeltidsmarknader och vikingatida evenemang under 2016’, Nordfront.se, 24 May 2016, available at www.nordfront.se/medeltidsmarknader-och-vikingatida-evenemang-2016.smr (viewed 14 April 2019).

33 See, for example, Simon Holmqvist, ‘Aktivist bar Tyrruna på norsk vikingafestival—eskorterades ut av polis’, Nordfront.se, 19 August 2017, available at www.nordfront.se/aktivist-bar-tyrruna-pa-norsk-vikingafestival-eskorterades-ut-av-polis.smr (viewed 14 April 2019); and Editorial, ‘Flygbladsutdelning på vikingamarknad i Stallarholmen’, Nordfront.se, 12 July 2017, available at www.nordfront.se/offentlig-flygbladsutdelning-pa-vikingamarknad-stallarholmen.smr (viewed 14 April 2019).

34 See, for exmple, Editorial, ‘Ragnar Lodbroks dag’, Nordfront.se, 28 March 2017, available at www.nordfront.se/ragnar-lodbroks-dags.smr (viewed 14 April 2019).

35 See, for example, Editorial, ‘Stort vikingaläger hittat i England’, Nordfront.se, 21 May 2017, available at www.nordfront.se/stort-vikingalager-hittat-england.smr (viewed 14 April 2019); and Editorial, ‘Vikingafilm gör stor succé i Ryssland’, Nordfront.se, 20 January 2017, available at www.nordfront.se/vikingafilm-gor-stor-succe-ryssland.smr (viewed 14 April 2019).

36 Editorial, ‘Hakekorset var svært populært blant vikingen’, frihetskamp.net, 22 February 2014, available at www.frihetskamp.net/hakekorset-var-svaert-populaert-blant-vikingene (viewed 14 April 2019).

37 Magnus Söderman, ‘Till den svenska ungdomen’, Nordfront.se, 13 January 2007, available at www.nordfront.se/till-den-svenska-ungdomen.smr (viewed 15 April 2019). All translations from the Swedish, unless otherwise stated, are by the author.

38 Nordic Resistance Movement, Our Path, 14.

39 Matthew Feldman and John Pollard, ‘The ideologues and ideologies of the radical right: an introduction’, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 50, no. 4–5, 2016, 327–36 (329).

40 Simon Lindberg, ‘Rasen—inte landet’, Nordfront.se, 27 October 2010, available at www.nordfront.se/rasen-inte-landet.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

41 There are an abundance of examples of this use of Viking imagery of which only a few can be referenced here: Christian Hamilton, ‘Hur hängiven är du?’, Nordfront.se, 20 January 2013, available at www.nordfront.se/hur-hangiven-ar-du.smr; Sebastian Elofsson, ‘Radikal och kompromisslös kamp är enda vägen till seger’, Nordfront.se, 3 April 2015, available at www.nordfront.se/radikal-och-kompromisslos-kamp-ar-enda-vagen-till-seger.smr; ‘Caesar’ (anonymous contributor), ‘Kamp mot folkförintelsen!’, Nordfront.se, 4 December 2015, available at www.nordfront.se/kamp-mot-folkforintelsen.smr; Mikael Karlsson, ‘Att sätta hästen framför vagnen—en analys av Nordiska motståndsrörelsens invandringspolitik’, Nordfront.se, 18 December 2015, available at www.nordfront.se/att-satta-hasten-framfor-vagnen-en-analys-av-nordiska-motstandsrorelsens-invandringspolitik.smr; Editorial, ‘Nationell.nu tar strid mot kristna influenser’, Nordfront.se, 14 September 2012, available at www.nordfront.se/nationell-nu-tar-strid-mot-kristna-influenser.smr; and Joakim Blixt, ‘Seger genom revolutionär kamp’, Nordfront.se, 6 September 2015, available at www.nordfront.se/seger-genom-revolutionar-kamp.smr (all viewed 16 April 2019).

42 Editorial, ‘“Vikingar” mot rasism’, Nordfront.se, 5 August 2014, available (without comments) at www.nordfront.se/vikingar-mot-rasism.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

43 Mikael Karlsson, ‘“Vikings” blir mångkulturell’, Nordfront.se, 20 February 2016, available at www.nordfront.se/vikings-blir-mangkulturell.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

44 Mattias Gardell, ‘Crusader dreams: Oslo 22/7, Islamophobia, and the quest for a monocultural Europe’, Terrorism and Political Violence, vol. 26, no. 1, 2014, 129–55 (131).

45 See Matt Carr, ‘You are now entering Eurabia’, Race & Class, vol. 48, no. 1, 2006, 1–22.

46 Ulvhild Aarthun, ‘Innan kristendomen “visade oss ljuset”’, Nordfront.se, 15 February 2013, available at www.nordfront.se/innan-kristendomen-visade-oss-ljuset.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

47 Magnus Söderman, ‘Den mörka religionen’, Nordfront.se, 27 February 2008, available at www.nordfront.se/den-morka-religionen.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

48 John Pollard, ‘Skinhead culture: the ideologies, mythologies, religions and conspiracy theories of racist skinheads’, Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 50, no. 4–5, 2016, 398–419 (409).

49 See, for exmple, Editorial, ‘Lars Lindström: Oden var “inskränkt” och “trångsynt”’, Nordfront.se, 10 April 2016, available at www.nordfront.se/lars-lindstrom-oden-var-inskrankt-och-trangsynt.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

50 Bror Vakur, ‘Den nordiska hedendomens resning; Asatemplet på Island’, Nordfront.se, 4 May 2015, available at www.nordfront.se/den-nordiska-hedendomens-resning-asatemplet-pa-island.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

51 Editorial, ‘Klas Lund svarar’, Nordfront.se, 16 January 2012, available at www.nordfront.se/klas-lund-svarar.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

52 John Pollard, ‘Skinhead culture’, 410.

53 See Editorial, ‘Nordendagarna 2017’, Nordfront.se, 29 August 2017, available at www.nordfront.se/nordendagarna-2017.smr (viewed 16 April 2019).

54 Mattias Ekman, ‘The dark side of online activism: Swedish right-wing extremist video activism on YouTube’, MedieKultur: Journal of Media and Communication Research, vol. 30, no. 56, 2014, 79–99 (92).

55 Kimmel, ‘Racism as adolescent male rite of passage’.

56 Ekman, ‘The dark side of online activism’, 84–5.

57 Klaus Theweleit, Male Fantasies, 2 vols, trans. from the German by Stephen Conway with Erica Carter and Chris Turner (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1987, 1989).

58 Barbara Spackman, Fascist Virilities: Rhetoric, Ideology, and Social Fantasy in Italy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1996).

59 George L. Mosse, The Fascist Revolution: Toward a General Theory of Fascism (New York: H. Fertig 1999), 191.

60 Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Tendencies (Durham, NC: Duke University Press 1993), 48–51.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christoffer Kølvraa

Christoffer Kølvraa is Associate Professor in the School of Culture and Society at Aarhus University, Denmark. His recent publications include: ‘Psychoanalyzing Europe? Political enjoyment and European identity’ (Political Psychology, 2018), ‘Limits of attraction: the EU’s eastern border and the European neighborhood policy’ (East European Politics & Societies, 2017), and ‘Extreme right images of radical authenticity’ (with Bernhard Forchtner in European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 2017). Email: [email protected]