Thursday, April 26, 2012

Why “Fjordman”?

Fjordman

Fjordman’s latest essay has been published at Vlad Tepes. Some excerpts are below:

Why I Chose the Name Fjordman

I have previously written a brief review of Bruce Bawer’s latest ebook The New Quislings: How the International Left Used the Oslo Massacre to Silence Debate About Islam. I am now preparing a longer text with some comments about the subjects the author discusses in his book, but will first say a few words about why I started using the name Fjordman. Bawer has some nice things to say about me, which is appreciated, but also a few critical comments, among other things about my writing under the pseudonym Fjordman.

Bruce Bawer thinks that my pseudonym is “silly.” He is, of course, well within his rights to think so. I have been asked several times why I picked that pen name, and the answer is that there is no particular reason.

I opened my old blog in February 2005, when I was already very familiar with the world of Internet websites related to Islamic issues. I even did my master’s thesis at the University of Oslo in 2004 on the subject of English-language Iranian blogs and how communications between Iranians in exile might affect the debate behind the censorship wall of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The government of Iran has copied some of the censorship measures employed by Chinese authorities. I have also seriously toyed with the idea of writing a PhD on Internet censorship, but even if you are accepted this takes years. One has to be 100% motivated before starting on something like that.

The reason why I picked the name Fjordman is partly coincidental. I wanted something that was short, easy to remember and vaguely Norwegian. I have lived next to fjords for most of my life, with a few exceptions such as the years I spent in the Middle East. I grew up in the town of Ålesund on the west coast, which has a high concentration of Art Nouveau or Jugendstil architecture due to a major fire in 1904, after which the entire town center was rebuilt in stone over the period of a couple of years. Ålesund is situated on a fjord close to the Atlantic Ocean, and has a long and living maritime history. The spectacular Geirangerfjord, one of the most famous among tourists, is located in the same district.

I began my studies at the university city of Bergen, which is a famously rainy but also very beautiful city. Founded nearly a thousand years ago at the end of the Viking Age, it was Norway’s most important city until the nineteenth century, and was a Scandinavian center of trade for the Hanseatic League in the Late Middle Ages. It, too, is situated next to a fjord. The Oslofjord may be less spectacular than some of those on the west coast, but it’s still a scenic one with plenty of nice islands to go along with it. Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream (Skrik) shows an agonized figure with the Oslofjord viewed from Ekeberg in Oslo in the background.

It was thus natural for me to pick this name. I may be critical of my country’s politics sometimes but I have a deep appreciation for its natural beauty, at least when it’s not too cold or dark.

Read the rest at Vlad Tepes.


For a complete archive of Fjordman’s writings, see the multi-index listing in the Fjordman Files.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

What better name than one that expresses who you are and where you come from. Through your writing, it has come to stand for the people and values that grew and developed along the fjords, long before the vicious and dangerous Lilliputians who are so eagerly binding up the giants they fear: vision, wisdom and knowledge of history.

jlh

Unknown said...

Silly?!
I think it is a wonderful name
What associations Bawer has with it I don´t know, but from where I´m standing it sounds fine.
I hope you are doing well Fjordman, and that your troubles are over.

Centera said...

It is so true! How the left used Breivik to try to scare us to be silent about islam. But we won't let them and we will never be silent!

Anonymous said...

It works for "Elder of Ziyon".

A nom de plume is standard practice. Especially in light of murderous Musselman Jihadists. I'd prefer to think of yours as a nom de guerre though.

Anonymous said...

@ JLH so brilliantly said, the "blog name" is evocative of the culture that forms the thinker that is Fjordman. Each of us is formed by a "home turf" ; and it is that locale, our national and cultural pride that we accept as the norm. We grow up, and see, and experience other cultures, but we have our touchstone always.

The PC/MC bunch can not have this; nor can Eurabia. It is a lose lose scenario for those who oppose both 'culture enrichers' and their useful, Western idiots. By our individuality, we are damned; by our collective cultural memory/experience we are damned. Hence,Fjordman must be damned...his own name is a hated subtext to these rootless, spiritless wanderers in the desert of indifferent morality and false equivalency.

So, what's in a name? or pseudonym?....our dernier cri of identity....that which defines us, separates us from the everyman, yet brings us to that touchstone...the one that MANY an indifferent reader may have not yet met?


Sincerely, Prospero

Dymphna said...

Hmm...well, y'all have exposed my choice of Saint Dymphna, healer of lunatics.

Chased by evil as she was, she never gave in. Because there ARE worse things than dying.

Some names are fated. I never heard of her till her card fell out of a used book of poetry I bought online.

It suits my Celtic spirit to think she chose me.

And Bruce Bawer can go sit on a tack. Anyone who thinks Charles Johnson had the truth on Vlaams Belang without bothering to read the thorough refutation made against Chazzer's assertions...well, can that a serious person?

Charles & Mr. Bawer have grown to deserve whatever it is they need to believe.

imho.

X said...

It'll sound silly but I do suspect dymphna is the only person in the world who can actually have a humble opinion. :D

I've found, rcently, there is still fracturing and re-alignment going on in the whole right-wing blogosphere. Two camps. The people who genuinely seek freedom an those who just want to exchange one set of dictators for another.

Fjordman, GoV and most of the posters here fall into the former. The latter tend to out themselves and start attacking after a while. It's going to be a fun few years.

Col. B. Bunny said...

I fail to see how Fjordman's pseudonym could be seen as "silly."

Anonymous said...

I reckon it's a brilliant name keep it.
Breivik a False Flag to Discredit the Right
http://www.henrymakow.com/this_is_a_drawing_shown.html

AliceNorthernLights said...

For the last Anonimus# - the link you posted is from an anti-zionist site. Did you read posts in it?

I love the name Fjordman, i believed it was you real name (also because that name does exist).

Anonymous said...

I enjoy your writings, but I don't really care which name you use, or why

roses smell as sweet, etc.