Nordic Battle Group had a "big" problem!

[rattmuff]

Army castrates heraldic lion

Published: 13 Dec 07 12:34 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/9398/

Protests from female soldiers have led to the Swedish military removing the penis of a heraldic lion depicted on the Nordic Battlegroup's coat of arms.



The armed forces agreed to emasculate the lion after a group of women from the rapid reaction force lodged a complaint to the European Court of Justice, Göteborgs-Posten reports.

But although the army was eventually happy to make the changes in the interests of gender equality, the artist who designed the insignia was less than pleased.

"A heraldic lion is a powerful and stately figure with its genitalia intact and I cannot approve an edited image," Vladimir A Sagerlund from the National Archives told Göteborgs-Posten.

Sagerlund blasted the army for making changes to the coat of arms without his permission.

"The army lacks knowledge about heraldry. Once upon a time coats of arms containing lions without genitalia were given to those who betrayed the Crown," said Sagerlund.

But the castrated lion has already won the day and is now worn on the arms of all soldiers in the battle group's Swedish battalions.

"We were given the task of making sure the willy disappeared," Christian Braunstein from the army's 'tradition commission' told Göteborgs-Posten.

"We were forced to cut the lion's willy off with the aid of a computer," he added.

The Nordic Battlegroup is one of eighteen such military groups in the European Union. Some 2,000 of its 2,400 soldiers come from Sweden, with the rest coming from Finland, Norway, Ireland and Estonia.

Paul O'Mahony ([email protected]/08 656 6513)

http://www.thelocal.se/9398/20071213/ nfloorl:

 

[mysterious]

Gender equality in modern times gets the better of any heraldic lion it has become certain!

 

[barra]

We need a "before" and "after" image of the lion to properly assess the......uuhhmmm.........situation. nfloorl:

BTW Notice the top five stories, woman catches fire during hemoroid operation(?), 14 year old fathers and castrated lions..... those crazy Swedes!!!!! nfloorl:

Barra

 

[Grand Danois]

We need a "before" and "after" image of the lion to properly assess the......uuhhmmm.........situation. nfloorl:

BTW Notice the top five stories, woman catches fire during hemoroid operation(?), 14 year old fathers and castrated lions..... those crazy Swedes!!!!! nfloorl:

Barra

And this is only the local news???

Hehehehaha.

Good one.

 

[rattmuff]

We need a "before" and "after" image of the lion to properly assess the......uuhhmmm.........situation. nfloorl:

Barra

Before and after.

BTW Notice the top five stories, woman catches fire during hemoroid operation(?), 14 year old fathers and castrated lions..... those crazy Swedes!!!!! nfloorl:

Barra

It say: "Todays most read". People only read the ones with a strange headline.

 

[kato]

Somewhat serious take:

"The army lacks knowledge about heraldry. Once upon a time coats of arms containing lions without genitalia were given to those who betrayed the Crown," said Sagerlund.

Gotta be something specific about Swedish heraldry then. Heraldic Lions in large parts of Germany haven't really had genitalia showing in centuries now. It's actually harder to find one with one than without.

Armoires with genitalia are still for some reason relatively common in Hesse (in current times even), while in Baden-Württemberg (where the Lion is extremely common), the Lions afaik never really had visible genitalia.

 

[rattmuff]

Some examples:
http://www.goteborg.mil.se/elfsborgsgruppen/photo.php?id=39007&nid=12713
Home guard unit, heraldic lion.

http://www.statensarkiv.se/Sve/Bildarkiv/Filer/heraldik/Sodertornsgruppen144.jpg
Home guard unit, heraldic griffin.

http://www.statensarkiv.se/Sve/Bildarkiv/Filer/heraldik/Logistik144.jpg
Swedish Armed Forces logistics unit, heraldic horse.

http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ing2fargheadlz4.jpg
Göta Engineers, heraldic lion.

Some civilian authorities.
http://www.statensarkiv.se/Sve/Bildarkiv/Filer/heraldik/ystad-tingsratt-stor.jpg
http://www.statensarkiv.se/Sve/Bildarkiv/Filer/heraldik/Gota-hovratt-144.jpg
http://www.statensarkiv.se/Sve/Bildarkiv/Filer/heraldik/Lansratten-Kronoberg144.jpg
http://www.statensarkiv.se/Sve/Bildarkiv/Filer/heraldik/Varbergs-tingsratt144.jpg
http://www.statensarkiv.se/Sve/Bildarkiv/Filer/heraldik/NJamtlRaddningstjanst144.jpg

It's very, very, VERY common in Sweden.
Some of these were made by Vladimir A Sagerlund. (the guy who also made the heraldic lion for NBG)

 

[Waylander]

Instead of removing the problem they could have added some fine breasts. nfloorl:

 

[regstrup]

The swedish Nordic Battle Group has already been renamed to NOdick Battle Group by a great part of the public in Scandinavia

Some of the male soldiers of the NBG is talking about making a complaint about the lion carrying female things like red nail polish

 

[riksavage]

Apparently the designer of the original symbol, complete with genitals, is massively offended by the revised design. According to heraldic history such heroic symbols MUST display genitals, ‘gelded’ versions were only given to traitors and/or disloyal subjects of the crown!

 

[SlyDog]

riksavage: That seems to be correct. I reed about this "issue" *sigh*.. I get so tired of all this quarral about nothing really.....so typical swedish, with all this political correctness. :lul