Crossing the Skaggerak or the Kattegat depending upon your point of origin, you come to Denmark.
It is not just water that divides the Scandinavian neighbours (and do not forget the wonderful bridge now joining Denmark to southern Sweden).
OK - think of a Danish stereotype.
Attractive young blonde women (one-track mind, anyway what makes them any different from Norway or Sweden?).
Pastries. Yes, OK, fascinating. Next.
Beer (Carlsberg, Tuborg etc). Yes, and the Carlsberg brewery trip was one of the highlights of my mini-Euro tour in 1974. But the Germans and Belgians and Czechs have at least as much to offer in this regard, so hardly a stereotype.
Hans Christian Andersen. So Danish women go round kissing frogs which turn into handsome princes (not sure incidentally whether that is Andersen or the German Brothers Grimm incidentally)? Not exactly.
Religious scepticism - 40% of Danes are either atheists or agnostics, indicative if nothing else of an open-minded society. But that is hardly a stereotype.
Pornography ..... Once upon a time the Danes became the first country in Europe to legalise porn (in 1969 actually). For Europeans at least that is the nearest thing to a stereotype you get. The man in the dirty raincoat pushing sleazy pictures of .... THAT ....
A bit old-hat these days though, isn't it? Check the Internet, how much of the material of that type is produced in Denmark? Not a great deal, I would imagine.
I met a Danish guy in Sweden on our camping trip in 1976. He spent loads of time mocking the Swedes for being "serious" and implied the Danes were far more jovial and outgoing. On my trip to Copenhagen two years previously, I had experienced the joviality of the Tivoli Gardens, and generally found the people friendly enough. My encounters over the years since though (including working visits to Stockholm and Copenhagen in 2001) did not indicate a great deal of difference in attitude and culture.
So back to porn - this must, of course point to the fact that the Danes have a very liberal attitude to all matters sexual. Right?
Well "free love" was no more common-place among the Danes than anywhere else in Europe. Teenage kids doing what they do in the "permissive society" existed in Denmark as well as elsewhere, but the adult society is pretty much the same as elsewhere.
As for the ladies of the night, there are some obvious places in the vicinity of Copenhagen's main railway station, which are pretty obviously pick-up places for the like (and not a Danish woman to be seen in them apparently - though reputedly the odd person from Sweden might be found "working" there), but they cannot by law operate as such.
Liberal, but not that liberal, in other words. In a modern sophisticated society you know such activites take place, you just do not acknowledge them. The unsophisticated strangely find ways round the rules, which look like they were intended to be bent in the first place!
I personally have something of an affinity with Denmark as my surname is originally derived from Old Norse (Danish version), my home town was founded by Danish Vikings, and most of the area around there was part of historical Danelaw. I did all the interesting tours round the Viking burial sites, the Viking ship museum etc (there is also an excellent Viking ship museum in Oslo incidentally). It was an interesting (that word again) country to visit. And of course there was the Carlsberg Brewery tour.
Perhaps there ought to be stereotypes that work with the Danes. The curious thing, for me at least, is I am still struggling to think of any. Maybe I need to contact friends in Norway and Sweden to be reminded as to what they are!
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