Scandinavians: In Search of the Soul of the North - Hardcover

There can be few outsiders who know as much about the Scandinavians as Robert Ferguson.--Liv Ullman

An eye-opening history of a region and culture 'vibrant with people, noise, chance, life.' In this valuable study--not merely a recounting of the stereotypes regarding Vikings and their rampaging ways--award-winning writer and translator Ferguson searches for the deepest soul of Scandinavia. Much of this lucid book unfolds like a series of short stories, tales told to Ferguson by friends, literary connections, and even strangers. . . . What Ferguson is really searching for is the essence of their psyche and how the idea of the melancholy, brooding man replaced the specter of the bloodthirsty conqueror. . . . Ferguson astutely examines the idea that history isn't always what you think it was; it depends on the recorder, and the past can change its shape. A delightful history in which the author truly captures 'the soul of the North'.

A free-wheeling love letter to the essence of Scandinavia . . . Whether he's waxing poetic about the works and impact of playwright Henrik Ibsen, examining how differently each Scandinavian country acted and reacted during WWII, or contemplating the mystique and strength of Scandinavia's women, Ferguson combines the factual and the intimate.

Told with deep knowledge and intoxicating passion.

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden must by several measures be the richest, happiest, and most successful societies the world has ever known; yet their inhabitants are famous for melancholy . . . Scandinavia is famous for hedonism and sexual freedom; yet the plots of Scandi noir stories often turn not on crimes but on old sins: adultery, incest, abuse. What causes these extreme clashes of light and darkness? Robert Ferguson tries to get to the bottom of it through a combination of personal memoir, literary and cultural analysis, and episodic history. . . . Ferguson has brought them all back to life, and very engagingly so.

A delightful book chock-full of surprises, fascinating anecdotes and insights into the region's rich history and culture.

Ferguson's stroll through more than one thousand years of Scandinavian history offers an enchanting glimpse into the region's political, economic, social, and cultural past.

A delightfully free-roaming exploration of the myth of the brooding Scandinavian. This isn't the book to read for glowing paeans to parental leave or foraging chefs; instead, it's a rarer offering: an engaging, layered look into a complex culture.

[An] enormously entertaining, fact-jammed . . . enthralling read . . . For this, Ferguson deserves a medal or two.

Scandinavians is essential reading.--Sir Richard Eyre, former director of the National Theatre, London

Scandinavia is the epitome of cool: we fill our homes with Nordic furniture; we envy their humane social welfare system and their healthy outdoor lifestyle; we glut ourselves on their crime fiction; even their strangely attractive melancholia seems to express a stoic, commonsensical acceptance of life’s vicissitudes. But how valid is this outsider’s view of Scandinavia, and how accurate our picture of life in Scandinavia today?Scandinavians follows a chronological progression across the Northern centuries: the Vendel era of Swedish prehistory; the age of the Vikings; the Christian conversions of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland; the unified Scandinavian state of the late Middle Ages; the sea-change of the Reformation; the kingdom of Denmark-Norway; King Gustav Adolphus and the age of Sweden’s greatness; the cultural golden age of Ibsen, Strindberg and Munch; the impact of the Second World War; Scandinavia’s postwar social democratic nirvana; and the terror attacks of Anders Behring Breivik.Scandinavians is also a personal investigation, with award-winning author Robert Ferguson as the ideal companion as he explores wide-ranging topics such as the power and mystique of Scandinavian women, from the Valkyries to the Vikings; from Nora and Hedda to Garbo and Bergman. This digressive technique is familiar from the writings of W. G. Sebald, and in Ferguson’s hands it is deployed with particular felicity, accessibility, and deftness, richly illuminating our understanding of modern Scandinavia, its society, politics, culture, and temperament.