The Swedish national anthem, which I was told is the only one in the world that does not mention a country at any point but instead speaks vaguely of “the Nordic region”, leaving it open to interpretation. I think this is mainly because we are always prepared to reinvade Norway, should they get too annoyingly condescending towards us. You were once poor, remember that! And we can take away that statehood just as quickly as we gave it to you!
When trying to find a version to link to on YouTube, surprisingly (?) many were interpretations by different “nationalist” (read: racist) bands. Sadly, that is what the national anthem usually stands for these days. That movement has tried to hijack it and they have done a pretty good job.
My grandfather actually worked in Kiruna for several years. My mother used to tell me when I was a little girl how much it helped the family financially that he went to Sweden. They later lived in Gothenburg as well. Some of us are very thankful to Sweden ;) I like that we can return "the favour" now.. who knows, one day it might be the other way around again.
SvaraRaderaI didnt know that! Yeah, I think we have a long tradition of doing that...
SvaraRadera