Felag, the root of modern words such as Fælles(-skab) and Fellow(-ship), in Danish and English respectively, is a concept that explains much of the Viking mindset, and thus our modern Nordic DNA.
All crew members on a ship, or all residents of a village, are cogs in the machinery, and are necessary; deserving of attention, respect and trust.
We depend on each other, for survival, and for optimal performance.
A head chef is nothing without a committed dishwasher, and vice versa.
When one needs help, the other steps in, supports, mitigates and helps the one to perform again, regardless of social or professional status.
In an Iron Age village, the rule was that when a farm was hit by misfortune (e.g. lost its harvest or its animals), the closest family would take responsibility. If this was not possible, the next-of-kin would take over, and if this was still not possible, the entire village (or a “unit” of at least twenty farms) would take joint responsibility for helping the needy until they could survive on their own again.
In Sweden and Denmark, this was an unwritten rule, while in Norway and Iceland it was enshrined in law.
Today, this has been transformed into the so-called social safety net, where the entire country contributes to a common fund that supports those who cannot support themselves.
Not only is the social safety net in the Nordic countries the best in the world, it is also the most effective in the world in terms of retraining and redeployment (though without the personal attachment that the social safety net of the Viking Age implied).
At the same time, the high degree of redistribution ensures that everyone has equal access to the health care and education system.
The result is that the Nordic countries have better basic education and lower crime rates than the rest of the world, so when you start a business, you already have access to the best workforce in the world – in a well-functioning society.
At the same time, this means that there is a flat structure that is unseen in the rest of the world, so that, for example, the person who actually operates the machine is heard when investing in new machines.
A mutual humility towards each other – known as the Law of Jante – is the logical consequence: “You should not think that you are more important or better than the rest of us…”
It would be a long shot to claim that Viking Age women enjoyed the same respect as men in all areas, but they could own land, be single mothers without stigmatization, seek divorce, and participate in legal and religious actions. All of these rights disappeared with the introduction of Christianity, and have only returned within the last century. But equality – or rather: equal value – landed softer and more naturally in the Nordic countries than it did in many other places in the world.
Today, the Nordic countries are at the top of international measurements in terms of gender equality, transparency in public administration, the quality of the courts, crime and corruption prevention, security (the so-called “Happiness Index”), work-life balance, welfare and prosperity, health, life expectancy, human rights, freedom of expression and the press, and in many other areas.
At the same time, the Nordic countries have some of the best and most stable economies in the world.
The right to move freely is also unique in the Nordic countries. In Denmark, you cannot own the waterfront, and can, for example, walk along the water around an entire island, or around the inner harbor in Copenhagen, without encountering fences or other obstacles. In the other Nordic countries, you have the right of public access, which means that you can freely move and camp on public or private land or forest, provided that you do not disturb or destroy anything.
In Copenhagen, this means that the CopenHill power plant offers skiing on the roof and free access to the elevator that leads up to the bar at the top.
One of the main reasons why Copenhagen was named the World Capital of Architecture was actually all the so-called “edge zones”, where everyone is free to settle down with a can of beer and a sandwich (the most obvious examples are perhaps Kalvebod Wave and the areas around Paper Island and the North Atlantic Harbour).
The fact that schools in Denmark are not surrounded by a wall or fence, because the school playground also functions as the local area’s playground, is another good example of freedom of movement that surprises visitors from other countries.
You may have seen films or TV series with Vikings fiercely defending a fortress. But fortresses were not common in Viking-age Scandinavia, and therefore we have reason to believe that freedom of movement is a Nordic cultural phenomenon with long roots.
All this to explain the concept of Felag – a community where we treat each other like family, and our surroundings like our home.