Heart in a Heartless World

From mid 19^th century, liberals and socialists occasionally draped their ideals in the clothing of the Viking. Richard Wagner and William Morris are probably the most influential radicals celebrating the simple and solid way of the Northmen, Icelandic anti-monarchism and Scandinavian beauty. In 1896, artist Walter Crane depicts the Valkyrie of Socialism as Nike defeating Liberalism and Toryism.*

After the victorious federal election in 1912 the Social Democratic Party of Germany presented this postcard with a red Siegfried slaying his draconic political opponents.** Thereafter socialist Viking romanticism has vanished, utterly impeded by Nazi and neo-Nazi use of Viking symbolism. Today, however, I found this picture, apparently from something called “The World of Munchkin”.

 

* From: Crane, Walter (1896). Cartoons for the Cause. London: Twentieth Century press. ** From: Deutsches historisches Museum, Berlin