Editorial Foreword

• Main Author: Silviu Miloiu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies 2021
• Subjects: scandinavia; baltic sea region; heathen groups; expatriates; language and cultural rights; “soft” and “hard” boundaries; demo; info; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.53604/rjbns.v13i2_1; https://doaj.org/article/a2304cd3d7c24cffa79959d97b038a68

As this issue of The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies illustrates despite the fact that Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region are sometimes perceived and self-perceived in terms of otherness, they share many of the assumptions, values, fears, and inconsistencies of the European continent, albeit in their own terms and with numerous nuances. Irina Manea’s article, which opens the second issue of the 13th volume of the journal, investigating the resurgence of Neopaganism and Heathen groups in Scandinavia, is a good illustration of this point. The völkish and ethnicist perspectives, which are generally seen as matrices of generic fascisms, are persistently represented throughout Scandinavia, despite the fact that Norse symbols and mythology provide them with a number of distinctive characteristics. The author’s focus on the Asatru Association in Iceland and The Old Way in Sweden reveals very intriguing characteristics of these movements, which exhibit significant regional nuances, but are comparable to other European movements in their pursuit of “a heritage discourse that can become acceptable and normalized in society, reflecting an open and inclusive attitude.” A common European feature of the post-Communist period in former Eastern Europe is the migration to the Western better-off countries. Maruta Pranka, Ilze Koroeva, and Ginta Elksne of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia investigate the migration of Latvians to Sweden, a society often seen as an epitome of tolerance and openness. The study indicates, despite this, that the ability of expatriates to maintain and transmit their language to their children is contingent on a variety of conditions. Among them are the practical use of language at home, the ethnicity of the émigré’s spouse, the continuous connection with relatives in the mother country, in this instance Latvia, and the activities and events that bind together the expatriate communities overseas. Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea Region were often ...