Bridging Scottish and Danish heritage.
Photographs: Pexels
Text: Heather Storgaard
Scotland lies just across the North Sea from Jutland, as I’ve written many times since starting at The International three years ago. It shouldn’t be a big surprise, then, that shared culture, history, and traditions crop up, but somehow it still is. Many Scots see Denmark as a utopia to dream of, basing their whole perspective on images of Nyhavn on Instagram. Danes have a corresponding tendency to imagine the whole of the British and Irish Isles as a sort of London-ish blob somewhere out to sea. Real cultural understanding is complex to build up from such starting points. Still, a rich shared heritage is waiting if you look for it – this is epitomised in Jutlandic writer Jeppe Aakjær who wrote the song 'Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo' based on Rabbie Burns Auld Lang Syne.
Auld Lang Syne
Maybe you sang Auld Lang Syne at New Year? A tradition around the English-speaking world, it was penned by the Scottish bard Robert Burns in 1788, based on old Scots songs. As well as ushering in the New Year, it welcomes the month of January, when Scots end with panache celebrating Burns Night on the 25th of the month, complete with feasting, whisky and song. But it’s also possible that you heard a different version if you spent the holidays in Denmark, thanks to 20th-century Jutlandic writer and translator Jeppe Aakjær. He translated Burn’s most famous song from Scots to Jutlandic, taking the first line as the title 'Skuld gammel venskab rejn forgo' (Should Old Acquaintance be forgot). In both languages, the song asks us to remember long-standing friendships. Perhaps a particularly fitting call to those of us living busy, international lives?
Jeppe Aakjær & Rabbie Burns
Aakjær was a key figure in Det folkelige gennembrud, also known in English as The Jutland Movement, a literary movement from around the turn of the 20th century. It was characterised by attempts to portray a greater sense of realism, coming closer to the lives of ordinary people. This was the first time that literature written by figures from outside of the cultural elite had been widely published and consumed in Denmark.
Although their lives took place a century apart, Burns and Aakjær had a great number of similarities. They were both the sons of farmers and drew on that world of long summer days and hard graft in their work. However, they were also far from simple or one-dimensional in their romanticism. Both penned works that rallied against the injustices of life in the downtrodden class of rural labourers, with Aakjær even briefly imprisoned for his political views. Later in life, he visited Scotland to learn more about Burns, who he quoted as inspiring some of his most important works.
"Although their lives took place a century apart, Burns and Aakjær had a great number of similarities."
Scots and Jutlandic
Robert Burns is now the most famous Scot the world over. But his choice to write in the Scots Leid (Scots Language) rather than English was controversial in his lifetime. Aakjær similarly wrote in the Jutlandic dialect of his home region in many poems. This dialect can still be heard, as any Copenhagener will tell me at length when I open my own mouth. But still, with a nationwide media landscape and an ever-growing movement towards urban living, Danish is becoming increasingly standardised towards a more Zealandic-resembling norm. Having literature written in Jutlandic, then, is a powerful tool to preserve and celebrate the dialect.
Celebrations?
So raise a toast to Burns this January! Even if you don’t have a connection to Scotland, then for his indirect contribution to Danish literature. You could even treat yourself to rye whisky from the fields of Aakjær’s local region, made at the award-winning Thy Distillery. Since I pitched this idea a couple of months ago, the Danish-Scottish Society have announced a talk by Bodil Jacobsen of Aakjærselskabet in the English language on 8th January, available online and completely free. If you are in Copenhagen, the St Andrew Society of Denmark is hosting a grand Burns’ Supper on Saturday, 25th January, for members and non-members alike.
Literature today
A hundred years on from The Jutland Movement, I found it hard to find any Danish literature that really reflected my rural Denmark while learning the language. Trendy Nordic noir was the main recommendation at language school five years ago. I eventually stumbled across Thomas Korsgaard’s works, set ‘in communities where everyone knows everyone – and not always for the better’ (according to the synopsis of his most recent novel, Snydt Ud Af Næsen). If Aakjær and Burns wanted people to grasp the reality of rural, forgotten corners of the country, I don’t think anything could be more fitting today than Korsgaard’s works. While the picture they paint is far from glossy, it depicts my Denmark more than any other works I’ve found.