Scandinavian-Canadian Studies/Études scandinaves au Canada is an interdisciplinary journal aimed to promote research in Canada about Scandinavia and the Nordic countries. Volume 23 is a good representative of this interdisciplinarity, with articles emerging from a range of disciplines including archaeology, cultural studies, history, and literature.

Two years ago the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada [L’Association pour l’avancement des études scandinaves au Canada] set up two new publication prizes: the Gurli Aagaard Woods Undergraduate Publication Award and the Marna Feldt Graduate Publication Award. I am pleased to announce that the inaugural Gurli Aagaard Woods award was presented in 2016 to Amanda Gilmore for her paper “Trees as a Central Theme in Norse Mythology and Culture: An Archaeological Perspective.” As journal editor, I am delighted to publish this outstanding undergraduate paper, and I encourage instructors to continue to send in nominations for the two publication prizes in the future. It is a great pleasure to be able to publish the work of emerging scholars. Alongside Amanda Gilmore’s paper, this volume includes five additional articles. By examining Nordic border crossings, Silke Reeploeg’s contribution to the journal investigates 18th-century cultural and economic connections between Nordic Countries, including Canada. This is followed by a special-themed section on “Nordic Responses to the Holocaust and WWII.”

The special-themed section included here brings together new scholarship about the Holocaust and WWII from a multi-disciplinary and multi-regional perspective. Historically, each of the Nordic countries occupied a unique political position during the war years: Denmark and Norway were invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany; Iceland and the Faroe Islands were invaded and occupied by Great Britain, with American troops taking over the defence of Iceland shortly thereafter; Finland collaborated with Nazi Germany; and Sweden claimed neutrality. The persecution, deportation, and murder of the Jews also differed in each location. In the postwar years, the way each country confronted and presented its past also varied. Narratives of resistance, for example, continue to be part of the national image of many Nordic countries, the most well known of these being the flight of Danish Jews by boat to Sweden and the work of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Recent scholarship and memorial projects have begun to challenge some of the tidy narratives that developed in the decades following the war, highlighting the failures to accept Jewish refugees fleeing other countries or the ambiguities of collaboration under occupation. This special-themed section continues this important research: Robert Delong examines the language used when referring to the flight of the Danish Jews to Sweden in 1943, Klas-Göran Karlsson details how the Holocaust and WWII have gained significance as “crucial historical landmarks” in Sweden in the 1990s, Daisy Neijmann investigates the depiction of the occupying soldier in Icelandic fiction, and Antero Holmila and Jouni Tilli explore continuities, ruptures, and debates in Finland’s understanding of its role in the Holocaust and WWII. You will notice that unfortunately there is no contribution on Norway in this themed section. I ask that you do not view this as an intentional gap but rather as an invitation to researchers to send further contributions in this area to the journal.

In Volume 21, the previous journal editor, John Tucker, implemented a new initiative to include scholarly editions and translations in the journal. Realizing that it is often difficult to find quality translations that are accessible to students, Scandinavian-Canadian Studies/Études Scandinaves au Canada is an important venue for these types of publications. In this volume, we have the distinct honour of including a modern translation and adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt by Errol Durbach. This award-winning adaptation brings Ibsen’s Norwegian context together with a modern Canadian one in a bold and vibrant manner.

The journal volume concludes with ten book reviews on a range of topics. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the authors and book reviewers for the time and energy they put into their submissions. I would also like to thank the members of the Editorial Board, who continue to graciously and wisely help me make decisions affecting the future direction of the journal, and to all of the article reviewers, who ensure that the quality of publications remains high. A big thank you and “merci” is also in order to Valérie Duro, our French translator. Above all else, I would like to thank Natalie Van Deusen, the journal’s book review editor, who has consistently brought together a wide variety of quality book reviews, and Martin Holmes, the technical editor of the journal, who handles all the technical aspects of the editing process. These two colleagues make my job so much easier; I cannot thank them enough for their patience and collegiality.

 

Helga Thorson,
University of Victoria