NORWAY’S THUNDER SHIELD
During the romantic Age of Sail in the early 18th century, Peter Wessel Tordenskjold became the embodiment of naval heroism and derring-do. A daredevil combination of dashing warrior and gentleman adventurer, his exploits against Sweden turned him into the Scandinavian equivalent of Admiral Lord Nelson. His brief life story was a meteoric blaze of fire during the Great Northern War that consumed the regions around the Baltic Sea for over 20 years. However, like a curiously high number of young people who achieve rapid achievements, Tordenskjold became a self-destructive victim of his own success. An obscure figure in international history, he is nevertheless a national hero in both Norway and Denmark.
Ambition in a dual kingdom
The future ‘Tordenskjold’ was born as Peter Jansen Wessel in 1690 to a wealthy merchant family in Trondheim, Norway. He was the 14th of 18 children and as a youth he was reputedly uncontrollable and involved in many fights. Eventually, the teenage Wessel ran away to sea with hopes of becoming an officer in the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy.
Denmark and Norway had been united since 1523 with Denmark being the dominant country. Consisting of the two countries as well as Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the German duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, Denmark-Norway was a formidable Scandinavian power. Much like the union between England and Scotland, Denmark-Norway was
