Someone is reading in the state of Denmark

I decided to start this blog a couple of months ago to share my views, my stories and my lists with friends, family and anyone else who was interested. I have been encouraged by the strong feedback as well as the high number of pageviews. There is only one thing that strikes me as odd and that is the number of international readers. Over the past month, my blog has had exactly 100 pageviews. As expected, majority of them came from the United States but 26 were from Denmark.

I have Danish heritage but had never mentioned it on the blog. In fact, when someone asks me about my specific ethnicity, I usually respond Danish first (followed by English and Cherokee Indian). When I watch the World Cup or the Olympics I usually root for the team or athlete from Denmark just behind the United States.

My Danish ancestors who came to the United States

One of the stories that has been passed down from my family was about my Viking ancestors from Denmark is The Red Hand of Österblad. I tried very hard to research the story online and there is a story known as the Red Hand of Ulster that appears to be a slight variation on the story passed down from my relatives. From the best of my recollection, the story involved my ancestor in a dispute over a piece of land that may or may not have been an entire island. It was decided that the ownership dispute would be settled by whomever would win a race to the land and the first man to touch the soil would win the race. As the story goes, it was a very close race but as my ancestor approached the shore he realized that he was going to lose so without hesitation he cut off his hand and then flung it onto the sand to best his competitor and claim the land for his family.

The video above is Danish singer Nanna Øland Fabricius whose group Oh Land recently played on The Late Show with David Letterman.


Jeg værdsætter mine læsere fra Danmark.


Farvel,
Nolan