Kdo je Šved in kaj je švedsko
»God dag, jag heter Sven Larsson«, slišim pri sosednji mizi reči pravkar prispelega gosta v ljubljanski kavarni Union. Visok, plavolas gospod vitke postave se rokuje s Slovencem ki mu z veselim nasmehom vrača pozdrav; »Dobrodošel«! » Posel«, si rečem, popijem svoj dvojni espresso z mlekom, vzamem klobuk in obrnem pete ven na ulico. Zunaj na Miklošičevi slišim mladega Štajerca, ki nagovarja svojo spremljevalko, pozdravim nekega Nemca, ne Avstrijca, Korošca, sklepajoč po dialektu, in opazujem dva Italijana, ki živahno komentirata vsak svoje pripovedovanje. Štajerce poznam bolj malo , le tisto da so dobri pivci in da se radi stepejo, Korošce malo bolj, ker sem se z njimi kar nekaj let družil, Italijane pa sploh ne. Rim sem obiskal kot turist, moje Italijane iz Kalabrije in Sicilije pa sem prvič srečal že sredi šestdesetih let kot kuharje in natakarje v restavraciji in zabavišču Berns sredi Stockholma, kjer sem kot študent začel svojo kariero na stroju za pomivanje posode.
Švede pa poznam kar dobro! Živel sem sredi njih, več kot štirideset let. Gospod Sven Larsson ni tisti malce robati Kalle, tihi in previdni Erik, dolgolasi, neurejeni Pelle ali kot moj trdni in zanesljivi prijatelj Lasse, tudi ne kot hladni, formalni, uradniški Kurt, ne ni eden od teh Švedov, katere srečaš konec tedna pri nakupovanju v bližnjem centru. Ta gospod je uglajen, samozavesten, zadržan, vajen mednarodne scene in pogovora v tujem jeziku.
»In kakšni so Švedi?«, me je vprašal sosed, ki sem ga s soprogo in dvema živahnima naslednikoma povabil na popoldansko »tipično« švedsko kosilo. Razumel sem da Švede pozna približno tako dobro kot jaz mojega Štajerca, torej so redkobesedni, zadržani, plavolasi, modrooki, dekleta so vedno mlada, vitka in zapeljiva, dežela je bogata, ABBA je najboljši band, Stenmark pa napol Slovenec. In seveda, Švedi so pijanci tako kot Rusi, Norvežani in Finci. Bravo!
»No, taki so kot večina ljudi tukaj v Srednji Evropi, le malce drugačni«, odgovorim. Pred kratkim sem na računalniku našel študije, da smo si Evropejci genetsko zelo blizu. Razlike so nekoliko večajo z geografsko razdaljo, predvsem v smeri jug–sever. Ljudje so se zadnja tisočletja po ledeni dobi selili veliko več z juga proti severu, kot iz vzhodna na zahod. Švedi zato nosijo največ genov, ki jih najdemo v severnih nemških deželah, nekaj manj teh na Norveškem in na Danskem. Finci pa naj bi bili pravi otok v evropskem morju genskih variacij. Švedi imajo kar nekaj skupnega z Britanci in jugovzhodno Evropo. Tudi z nami Slovenci. Bral sem, da že vse od bronaste dobe naprej raziskave genetike kažejo zelo stabilno sliko, v Evropi večjih selitev ljudstev vse do pred kratkim, do dvajsetega stoletja, verjetno ni bilo.
Who are the Swedes and what is Swedish
»God dag, jag heter Sven Larsson«, I hear the newly arrived guest to the Union coffee house in Ljubljana say at the next table. The tall, fair-haired and slender gentleman shakes hands with a Slovenian who bids him welcome with a smile. ‘’Business’, I say to myself, drink my double espresso with milk, take my hat and go out into the street. Outside, on the Miklošičeva Street, I hear a young man from Styria who talks to his girlfriend, I say hello to a German, no, he is Austrian, from the Koroška region, which I conclude from his dialect, and I observe two Italians who dramatically illustrate their individual stories. I don’t know much about people from Styria, except for the fact that they love to drink and enjoy getting into fights, I am more familiar with people from Koroška with whom I spent quite a few years in close company, and I know absolutely nothing about Italians. I visited Rome as a tourist and met my Italian colleagues from Calabria and Sicily in the middle of the sixties in the Berns restaurant and hang-out place in Stockholm, where as a student I had started my carrier behind a dish-washing machine.
But I know Swedes pretty well! I lived among them, for over forty years. Mr. Sven Larsson doesn’t resemble the slightly rustic Kalle, the quiet and careful Erik, the long-haired, messy Pelle, my solid and reliable friend Lasse, or even the cold, formal, official Kurt, he is not like any of the Swedes whom you can meet in the nearest shopping-centre during weekends. This gentleman is well-mannered and refined, self-confident and reserved, used to being on the international scene and to communicating in foreign languages.
‘’And what are they like, the Swedes?’’, a neighbour asked me when I invited him over to a typical Swedish lunch together with his wife and two vivacious children. I understood that he knew just as little about them as I know about my Styrian, believing that they are reticent, reserved, fair-haired, blue-eyed, the girls are without mistake always young, slender and seductive, that the country is rich, Abba is the top band and Stenmark is half Slovenian. And of course, according to him the Swedes are drunkards just as the Russians, the Norwegians and the Finns! Well done!
‘’Well, they are just like most people here in Central Europe, but also a little different’’, I told him. Not long ago I read studies on the internet about the fact that the Europeans are genetically very close to one another. The differences tend to increase with the geographical distance, primarily in the south-northern direction. During the millenia following the Ice Age people have migrated primarily from the south to the north and not as much from the east to the west. The Swedes therefore carry most of the genes that can be found in northern German countries, a lesser number of these can be found in Norway and Denmark. The Finnish are considered to be a genuine island in the sea of European genetic variations. The Swedes have quite a lot in common with the British and the South-Eastern Europeans. Which includes also us, the Slovenians. Ever since the Bronze Age, the genetic research consistently shows a very stable picture, in Europe there probably haven’t been any larger migrations up until recently, i.e. the 20th century.