Well-known Danes

[Kassiopeia]

Andersen, Kierkegaard, Bohr (a quote by him in regards of quantum mechanics pops to my mind every now and then), Bering (the man behind the Bering Strait).

Karen Blixen sounds familiar, is s/he a writer of some sort?

[Stefu]

Oh please. You didn't include the truly great Danes.

Thorknutvald Rasmussen-Rasmussen, the Almost-Viking: Thorknutvald Rasmussen-Rasmussen, the Almost-Viking, lived there around 1000ish. While the Norwegians were being terror of the West and Swedes the terror of the East, Thorknutvald Rasmunssen-Rasmunssen called himself terror of the Down. To prove this, Thorknutvald attempted to dig a hole in middle Jylland so he could attack mole kingdom underneath Denmark and steal their gold and women. Hey, you can't blame him - Norwegians found America and Swedes Russia, what did Danes ever find? With all the bacon they eat, they can't even find their toes these days. To cut a long story short, Thorknutvald was never heard again, and today Danish government uses the hole in the ground for disposement of tax money - hey, policy might seem stupid, but it's an essential part of Nordic welfare state!

Morten Rasmussen-Rasmussen, pre-eminent Danish general: Morten Rasmussen-Rasmussen lived in 1600s. His greatest achievement was continually losing battles to Holstein, who kept occupying and eventually annexed Jylland. (Come on, they do that all the time when I'm playing Europa Universalis. There's gotta be some explanation.) It's taken vast amounts of Danish money to keep information about that under cover, but for the most part, they've succeeded. (Unlike their industries except for bacon, pornography, and Tuborg.) Morten Rasmussen-Rasmussen finally died during one of those eternal wars against Swedes, when he was surrounded by group of evil Finnish Hakkapelits who stuffed him into a Tuborg bottle.

Vigurd Rasmussen-Rasmussen, great Danish war hero. Vigurd Rasmussen-Rasmussen bravely led the Danish resistance during Second World War. Danish resistance wasn't nearly as known as, for instance, French resistance. When French resistance blew up buildings and fought against Germans and French resistance, Danish resistance consisted of cutting ahead of Germans in donut line. Once Vigurd Rasmussen-Rasmussen and hit team of commandoes on crack managed to pose as Wermacht soldiers and bravely ate whole lunches of a whole division. Vigurd's brave acts of heroism can be cited for eventual saving of Denmark, and it's been estimated that Denmark would have remained under German heel at least until 1947 if it wasn't for him. Sure, Nazis would have been gone, but this is Danes we're talking about.

Öröröröygh Rasmussen-Rasmussen, Danish black metal singer. Denmark hasn't produced much in way of music - we have Lars Ulrich, Aqua, and, um, Dr. Bombay? Öröröröygh Rasmussen-Rasmussen set out to correct this problem by establishing his black metal band. Danish is a good language for black metal, since you don't even have to growl to be undecipherable. Also, against common misconception, Danish is easy to speak - just grease your tongue, put a hot potato in your mouth, and try to say "Rasmussen Rasmussen Rasmussen Rasmussen", and you've just ordered a sandwich. Anyway, Norwegian black-metallists burn churches, and Öröröröygh felt he had to do the same - but Danes aren't much in for religion, so he tried to burn Legoland instead. For some reason, it didn't catch fire as well as wooden churches do, and Öröröröygh had to return home in shame. Eventually, since his band had broken up and any True Norsk Blak Metalist has to try to kill at least one bandmate, his left hand tried to drown his right hand, and was sentenced to jail, along with rest of Öröröröygh, except for right hand, which was given new identity and currently serves as Provost Harrison's right hand. It's not easy to be Provost Harrison's right hand - there's this one guy you have to meet who's constantly spitting white streams and being a real dick about it.

[Stefu]

Amdersen, Kierkegaard, Bohr. I've heard the name Uffe Elleman-Jensen but can't be arsed to remember who he is.

[Dauphin]

Marmeduke was a Great Dane.

[Winston]

ROFL @ Stefu!

Thanks man, I haven't laughed so much since Yeltsin was in office.

[Monk]

Hey, everybody's who has played Civ2 must have heard about Canute!

Stefu, you're really one of the funniest guys I've ever encountered. Your post is priceless.

[Paul Hanson]

I thought Piet Hein was Dutch?

[Monk]

He's Danish and he's the author of the "Denmark Globe" where Denmark is amazingly large, because as he said "Denmark as the Danes concieve it is so large you won't believe it". I'm surprised to see his stuff has been translated into English.

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No - not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.

Beautiful!

[Paul Hanson]

Maybe I'm thinking of a different Piet Hein, but I vaguely remember reading about a Dutch admiral with that name (or at least a similar one).

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Monk
This could turn out interesting. The only ones I'd really expect a generally well-informed foreigner to know the basic stuff about are Hans Chr. Andersen, Kirkegaard and Bohr.

The list is almost exactly like I would have made it, possibly with the addition of composer Carl Nielsen, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and relatively well-known football dude (or so I hear) Morten Andersen.

Morten Andersen I have heard of.

Lars Ulrich I have met (along with Jason Newsted)

Oh yeah, I have heard of Hans Christian Anderson as well.

[Monk]

OK, there was a Dutchman named Piet Heyn.

[Imran Siddiqui]

What about the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe?

[Dauphin]

I would have thought Brian Laudrup is more famous than Michael.

[Winston]

This poll is rigged, I'm afraid. I voted myself (for Uffe Ellemann-Jensen and Carl Th. Dreyer) to compensate for Oldenbarnevelt's omissions. Didn't quite realize it'd skew the percentages for the others.

Thought I'd mention it if anyone was surprised to see Andersen not having a full 100%. Well he would have had if I had an IQ that didn't resemble my shoe size so much.

[Winston]

Lots of other famous Danes could have been included, but I had to limit myself to 16 choices.

Carl Nielsen, Tycho Brahe, Ole Rømer, H.C. Ørsted, Jacob Gade, Arne Jacobsen, von Spreckelsen, Niels Finsen, Bille August, Lars Trier and lots of football players as well.

Maybe Monk could do a sequel sometime...

It'd be fun if we could have similar polls for other countries by the way.