Olavstanken - Fascistisk retorikk rundt historie, nasjon og biologi

This is a close reading of a text authored by an important ideologist in the Norwegian National Socialist party during the war. His name is Eyvind Mehle and the book is called Olavstanken – fra stiklestad til stiklestad. This thesis investigates his rhetoric in order to identify the ways in which Mehle uses history, gender and race to argue his case for national socialism. The book poses as an history book, but it is clearly more ideological than historical. The examples and metaphors illustrate how historical figures and customs can legitimate practices, racism and misogyny of National Socialism. Using this method, historical figures, events and customs are appropriated and adapted to his cause. The malleability of history is of ‘History’ is significant as Mehle manipulates its conception into a structure that fits his worldview. He claims ideological kinship with figures, such as Thor, the ´god of thunder´ and the historical king Saint Olaf to his cause. ´Such examples can be very flexible and adapted to nearly any cause with some imagination. The rhetoric and language in the book is clearly gendered. Mehle spends some time attacking his enemies and, whenever he does, he describes them in feminine terms. ‘Hysteria’ is especially prominent in descriptions of his foes, both explicitly and by description of behaviour. The condition of hysteria is usually associated with female constitutions. Hysterical men and women stand in contrast with the masculine ideal Mehle holds for ‘real men’. These men are strong, calm, powerful and withstand heavy responsibilities, while protecting the family, the nation - and its history - out of a sense of duty. Mehle also imposes anachronistic knowledge of fascist ideology and pseudo-sciences onto people living in the Viking era. He does so with examples of Viking era practices and situates modern ideas in history. Mehle speculates on a previous Norwegian invasion of India, which supposedly explains the similarities between deities like Indra, Zeus and Thor. Although there was research, especially linguistic, investigating a Indo-European connection, Mehle´s narrative is obviously fiction. Mehles argument is telling: it shows how little information he actually needs to reach quite spectacular conclusions. In the end Mehles ideology is a quite ordinary strain of fascism. It has all the conventional ideas of fascism. It is anti-marxist, anti-capitalist, anti-liberalist, mysogenist, antisemitic, racist, anti-egalitarian, authoritarian and nationalistic. What is most significant about Olavstanken is the surprising way it communicates, exemplifies and argues those ideas