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Nowhere else in Europe does good design make itself so universally felt. The north has produced few great artists of the stature of Edvard Munch; but architects such as Finland's Alvar Aalto and Denmark's Arne Jacobsen are among the world's most admired. Dozens of northern artisans—ceramists, glass blowers, weavers, cabinetmakers and silversmiths—have made Scandinavia an international synonym for elegant functionalism. Whether in a car or a carpet, Scandinavian artisans at their best blend traditionally solid craftsmanship with a daring use of form or clever technique.
To U.S. eyes, Scandinavia, like its handicrafts, is a happy union of past and present, of comfortable conformity and bold innovation. Skyscrapers live in harmony with magnificent 8th century castles; sleek new streetcars glide silently over cobbled streets. In Sweden, the visitor may be whisked from a new nuclear power plant outside Stockholm to 500-year-old Uppsala University, where the founder of modern botany, Carolus Linnaeus, studied in the 18th century. ("God created," say the tidy Swedes. "Linnaeus put things in order.") Stockholm cops, though issued guns during Khrushchev's visit, normally cling grimly to their accustomed sabers. Proud Viking longboats are lovingly preserved in an Oslo museum. At Drottningholm, a summer palace across Malaren Lake from Stockholm, 18th century operas are staged for the public with their original sets in the only surviving court theater of the period.
Chest of Tattoos. The three royal families are themselves a pleasantly nostalgic reminder of Scandinavia's great conqueror-kings. Long since shorn of all power, the democratic monarchs are universally liked by their subjects and show none of the condescension that surrounds the British throne. Danes seem happy enough that King Frederik lives in a wing of the Amalienborg Palace in downtown Copenhagen rather than in the gloomy, inconvenient Christiansborg Castle where the royal family lived in the past. And they did not revolt when a too-candid picture revealed that the towering (6 ft. 4 in.), rugged King had a chestful of tattoos. Norwegians felt genuinely sorry for King Olaf, a dedicated yachtsman and onetime Olympics champion, when Khrushchev's visit forced him to forgo a regatta at Hanko Island last week.
Princess Margrethe, Denmark's heiress apparent, was the hit of the evening on TV recently when she gave a lively, informal account of an exports-building trip she had made through the Far East. Danes have had a warm spot for Margrethe's kid sister ever since the King allowed in public years ago that the little girl was "strong-minded" and had "bad habits." They worry that the princess may be in for political unpleasantness as Greece's Queen. Many Danish parents sided with their Queen when she tried to make Anne-Marie wait another year before getting engaged. As it was, the wedding was originally set for next January, and was only moved forward when Constantine mounted the throne after his father's death last March.