Greatest [insert your nationality] Person

[-Jrabbit]

Here's what they think in the UK...

Who is the greatest American?
Homer Simpson - 47.17%
Abraham Lincoln - 9.67%
Martin Luther King Jnr - 8.54%
Mr T - 7.83%
Thomas Jefferson - 5.68%
George Washington - 5.12%
Bob Dylan - 4.71%
Benjamin Franklin - 4.10%
Franklin D Roosevelt - 3.65%
Bill Clinton - 3.53%

37,102 Votes Cast

From the BBC News website.

[Gangerolf]

Top 10 Northmen, according to me

1 Fridtjof Nansen
2 Thor Heyerdahl
3 Helge Ingstad
4 Roald Amundsen
5 Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
6 Henrik Ibsen
7 Christian Michelsen
8 Olav Tryggvason
9 Leif Eiriksson
10 Ludvig Holberg - Winston pwnz0r0d omfg


Not a very well thought out list though. But it's not like you guys have heard about any of them anyway

[Winston]

No Edvard Grieg, no Tryggve Lie, Alexander Kielland, Knut Hamsun, Edvard Munch?

You really don't need to feebly attempt to claim Holberg as your own, in order to make a comprehensive list of famous Norwegians.

And Sonja Henie!

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
9 Leif Eiriksson

Is he the cell phone guy?

[Mercator]

He was the Viking who discovered America.
Rather a lot of explorers on that list, with Heyerdahl and Amundsen too... Well, those are the only ones I know anyway.

Originally posted by alva
You'll get your own back when we do this thing next year....I can't wait!!

You know whom my vote would go to...

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Is he the cell phone guy?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Winston
No Edvard Grieg, no Tryggve Lie, Alexander Kielland, Knut Hamsun, Edvard Munch?

You really don't need to feebly attempt to claim Holberg as your own, in order to make a comprehensive list of famous Norwegians.

And Sonja Henie!

Astonishing that he could leave off Munch.


And the dramatically gifted Liv Ullmann, too.


I suspect that for many non-Norwegians, Norway has the Belgium/Canada Syndrome- people mistake gifted Norwegians for Swedes or Danes.

[Winston]

Yes that's true molly. Some of them are a bit interwoven also, to mix it up even further. I will occasionally get semi-wellknown Norwegians and Swedes mistaken for oneanother as well.

Liv Ullmann is worthy of mention, certainly.

I'd also like to make a case for comedian Rolf Wesenlund, aka. Marve Fleksnes, though I doubt many people outside the Nordic countries have heard of him. Their loss! Boy he used to crack us up back in the 70's and 80's.

[Kuciwalker]

I suspect that for many non-Norwegians, Norway has the Belgium/Canada Syndrome- people mistake gifted Norwegians for Swedes or Danes.

I assume you mean Canadians are mistaken for Americans and Belgians are mistaken for Frenchmen, not Belgians are mistaken for Canadians, right?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

I suspect that for many non-Norwegians, Norway has the Belgium/Canada Syndrome- people mistake gifted Norwegians for Swedes or Danes.

I assume you mean Canadians are mistaken for Americans and Belgians are mistaken for Frenchmen, not Belgians are mistaken for Canadians, right?

Possibly, I forget.

[Gangerolf]

Sure I could have put those people on the list as well. Well not Liv Ullmann, the annoying *****. I now notice that the top four plus Leif and to a certain extent Olav are "explorers". I guess the list reflects my interests. Any "official" list would look quite different. But Nansen would probably be very high up.

Greatest people from the 20th century, according to the newspaper VG: http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=17193

Winston, Holberg was Norwegian AND Danish. Happy now? Have you read Niels Klim? You should. Everyone should. I've probably read it five times. (Full English title: "The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground")

[Gangerolf]

Fleksnes

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Gangerolf


Greatest people from the 20th century, according to the newspaper VG: http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=17193

The Norwegian Inferiority Complex

"Having played little brother to Sweden for almost 200 years, Norway suffers from a slight inferiority complex. Sweden has twice as many people, a third as large land area (with less mountain plateaus), more successful artists (ABBA springs to mind), a more impressive history, Volvo and Saab. And, let's face it, Norwegians have always payed much more attention to Sweden and Swedes than the other way around.

A result of this is the strong focus on everything Norwegian and a patriotism that borders on the ridiculous. Very important to Norwegians and disappointingly (to Norwegians) unimportant to foreigners are the following facts:

The paperclip is a Norwegian invention
The aerosol can and the cheese slicer are Norwegian inventions
Cross-country skiing as a sport originated in Norway and slalom is a Norwegian word
a-ha is a Norwegian band
The first man to the South Pole (Amundsen) was a Norwegian
The first Europeans in North America were Norwegian Vikings6
The Nobel peace prize is awarded in Norway
Ford Motor Company's electric car 'Think' is produced in Norway

Every time Norway is mentioned in the international press it is big news in Norway, and Norwegians are very disappointed when they discover that foreigners they meet don't all memorise every mention of Norway in the papers. And they will take it as a grave insult if a foreigner confuses Norway and Sweden in any way. If you have to guess whether something is Norwegian or Swedish, go for Norwegian. If you're wrong, the Norwegian will still be annoyed, but not so much as if you had erred in the other direction."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A803422

Norwegians:

[Gangerolf]

Fleksnes is actually based on a British series, "Steptoe and Son", btw. I learned this 1 minute ago.

[Winston]

Yes, we'll claim joint ownership of ol' Holberg.

Although I do think it would be more correct to say that he was originally a Norwegian from the 17th/18th century, hence Danish by the most basic of definitions. pwnsoxorz

I've read Niels Klim back when I was a boy, but I must say I don't remember it at all here in my old age... I might look into getting it again, now that you recommend it so warmly.