In this episode of the How to Live in Denmark podcast, host Kay Xander Mellish shares his passion for antiquarian books about Denmark and recommends two classic titles that remain useful for modern visitors. He first describes How to Be a Dane (1950) by Danish cartoonist Bo Boysen, highlighting its self‑ironic humor and satirical portrait of the stereotypical Dane, including jokes about Copenhagen’s Town Hall Square and the Thorvaldsen Museum’s quietness. Mellish then introduces Danish Delight by English expatriate Monica Redlich, a 1930s memoir of her arrival in Christianshavn, her struggle with the Danish language, and her observations of cultural change. The host interweaves personal anecdotes—confusing a turkey (kalkun) with a rabbit (kanin) while shopping, and realizing he can now navigate Danish transactions without a dictionary. He also notes that many historic sites described in old guidebooks still exist unchanged. The episode concludes with a call for listeners to suggest other old Danish books and a promotion of Mellish’s own guidebooks on living and working in Denmark.
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Hello and welcome to the How to Live in Denmark podcast. I'm Kay Xander Mellish. I love old books. I love the kind of old books you get at antiquariats— antique bookstores— or on the Internet Archive. And I have a good collection of old books about Denmark. I like old travel guides, most of which are still pretty useful because Denmark doesn't tear a lot of things down the way they do in, say, Los Angeles or Hong Kong. In Denmark, you'll pretty much find most castles and monuments right where somebody left them hundreds of years ago. If you want to see a famous church or square or the Yelling Stone, your Baedecker guidebook from 1895 will work just fine for you in most cases. But I can also recommend 2 great old books on Denmark, which you can probably find at your local antique bookshop. Or on DBA, the Danish auction site owned by eBay. I'll put links in the text on howtoliveindenmark.com. One is called How to Be a Dane. It's from 1950 by a cartoonist called Bo Boysen, who is Danish. The tone is lightly humorous, what the Danes like to call self-irony. Bo writes, How to Be a Dane. This book is designed to present a general picture of the average Dane, Mr. Middleman, a character who in his own opinion is well above the average in almost everything. As every Dane knows, Denmark is the center of the universe. Should anyone doubt this, let him stand in the middle of the Town Hall Square in Copenhagen. Here, with his own eyes, he will be able to confirm that the world revolves around this square. The further from this spot anything lies, the more insignificant it appears. The many things beyond the horizon will therefore pass quite unnoticed. Again, this is Danish cartoonist Bo Boysen writing in 1950. Bo goes on to write, as the smallest Danish child knows, the people of Denmark are educated beyond the wildest dreams of less enlightened people. This is inevitable in people born at the same latitude and longitude as Hans Christian Andersen, the sculptor Thorvaldsen, and Søren Kierkegaard. The works of Kierkegaard, Denmark's greatest philosopher, are to be found in every Danish home, with a possible exception of 98% of them. And Thorvaldsen's sculptures can be admired by foreigners in a special museum. Under quite favorable conditions. And the Danes are so considerate that they wouldn't dream of crowding the foreigners by visiting the place themselves. That's Bo Boysen writing in 1950, and I can tell you that in 2021, the Thorvaldsen Museum is still mostly empty most of the time. As I said in a previous podcast, if you want to meet up with a secret lover, make a date at the Thorvaldsen Museum. Because you will not meet anyone you know from Denmark there. Another old book about Denmark I can recommend is called Danish Delight. It was written by a woman who came to Denmark for love in the 1930s, right before the Second World War. Monica Redlich was from England, and she settled down on Christianshavn in Copenhagen with her husband Hugo. The book is about how she experiences Denmark as a newcomer. and learns about Danish culture. Now, over the years, some of the details about Christianshavn and Copenhagen have changed. I mean, the sound of Copenhagen is no longer the sound of seagulls or the clanging bells on trams. But some of it is still familiar today. Monika struggles to learn Danish just like the rest of us. This is Monika writing: Danish, when one first sees it, looks like some nightmare wilderness, full of sharp-pointed rocks and stones and unexpected puddles. Its pages bristle with O's and U's and A's and unsayable sequences ending in J. Just to make things harder, there are occasional words which look exactly like English, but of course cannot be. And when one hears it spoken, one doubts one's sanity. But with time and the help of her husband, Monica does slowly learn Danish. And she realizes how much she has learned one day as she's coming home from shopping. This is Monica writing again. It struck me suddenly while coming back over the bridge that I had bought several things without a dictionary, and that for several weeks now I have quite forgotten to take either a dictionary or a notebook of essential words with me when I went shopping. The shop people can still floor me easily if they are too amiable and talk a lot, but in the simple transactions that begin with "I will willingly have." You have again, ha? They can't frighten me anymore. Kay here. I remember when I first started shopping in Denmark, I confused a kalkun turkey with a kanin rabbit and wondered why there was so much bunny meat in the supermarket. Anyway, if you know any other great older books about Denmark, let me know at howtoliveindenmark.com. Until then, you can always enjoy my books, How to Live in Denmark, How to Work in Denmark, Working with Danes: Tips for Americans, or Top 35 Mistakes Danes Make in English, on Amazon, Saxo, Apple Books, Google Play, and Barnes Noble Nook. That's the How to Live in Denmark podcast for this week. See you next time. Mmm.
