History Stories: The Norwegian Flag - A 200th Anniversary!

Day 4,926, 15:14 • Published in Norway Norway • by Zinitus

Norwegians loves anniversaries!

Seven years ago we celebrated the Constitution from 1814 (200 years), the year before we celebrated full suffrage for women (which was approved in 1913). Last year we celebrated the 75th anniversary for the end of WWII (in modesty because of Covid though).

Anyting to celebrate this year?
Absolutly not the second year of Covid......

Why not celebrate the Norwegian flag?
These days it is 200 years since The Norwegian Parliament approved our Flag as we know it today.

In 1814, Norway had been in common union for more than 400 years with the Kingdom of Legoland (ehh.... Denmark). As the underdog in this political construction, most of our national symbols were mostly turned down, and forgotten. The only pure Norwegians symbol still in use was a yellow Lion on red background - today`s King`s Flag (dont ask why Lions became a symbol of Norway - it had not been any of these species in the country on this side of The Ice Age - A muskox would have been more relevant I think).

In the years after this union with Legomark was dissolved in 1814, we still used the old Danish flag, but differed it by using the old medieval Norwegian Lion in the upper corner. But in long distances this flag on Norwegian ships was often confused to be Danish. Something had to be done, and after all, our connectionss to Lego... Danmark was broken of. A flag quite different was needed.







Several alternatives was presented for the Parliament of 1821, and some of them was quite imaginative, must be said. Here are some examples....



Not so bad in my opinion, but it would be a tricky one for small children to draw...







If this choosen, which choice would Finland then have made 100 years later....? 🙂






Her we have that....mammal again. Remark: The five stars did represent the 5 parts of the country. Clearly inspired by the stars in the US flag.






Well.... I liked the face of the.... ehhh lion. It looks like a frog.... And green is always beautyful and suitable for every occation, dont you agree?





A combo of danish and swedish......





OMG! If this choosen, we all get dark and depressive I think...



In the beginning of the Parliaments debate the old Norewegian Lion was an important symbol in several alternatives, but they soon admitted it was an complicated heraldic symbol which was impractical in use, and impractical in making. And some of these figures hardly looked like a lion, hardly a mammal at all, must be said.

One by one the alternatives were rejected.
After some debate some principles was choosed to be used..

No.1:
It should use the three colours of freedom, red, white and blue, inspired from the French, Dutch and American (US) flags.

No.2:
To show the affiliation to the other Nordic Countries, which then was Denmark (red and white) and Sweden (blu and yellow), and with a cross formed flag to also show affiliaton to these countries christian traditions.

It ended up with the alternative we all do know today, with a blu/white cross on red background. It was also an practical approach to it. It was a lot of Danish flags around. Instead of using money to make complete new flags, the old Danish ones around could be reused by cutting it up and added with dark blue fabric in the centre of the white cross. I will not claim this the deciding factor, but Norwegians has always had an practical approach to costs. 🙂



And the winner is.....



This was the choice of the Norwegian Parliament. But we were still in an union with Sweden, and they also wanted to influence this matter. During the 19th century, this should be a matter of much controvercy towards Sweden until this union gets it`s dissolution in 1905. But that is an other History Story....

Wish You all

Happy Constitution Day everybody!
(And remember to eat some ice-cream and hot dogs today)