On one of my annual treks to Denmark to visit family and do research in Danish literature, I noticed a huge stack of identical books arranged in the shape of a pyramid in the airport’s 7-Eleven Read & Fly shop. The book covers announced The Little Book of Hygge (Penguin) with a pronunciation guide {pronounced: HOO-GA} and subtitle Danish Secrets to Happy Living. It was in 2016 when author Meik Wiking launched his first book on the ‘hygge’ theme, and the stack, along with its companion piece My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place, has grown ever since.
The books are written in English, not in Danish, and my first reaction was rather confrontational. After all, what would a non-Dane know about this very Danish and deep-rooted cultural concept? It turned out I was wrong, for Mr. Wiking is indeed Danish and CEO of The Happiness Research Institute and The Happiness Museum located in Copenhagen, and with his clever talent for marketing he has chosen to address incoming tourists and readers abroad hungry for tips on how to find happiness and create a cozy home. It didn’t take long before other writers abroad took up the cause and cashed in on the hygge idea. In my local library in Western Canada, there are more than a dozen nonfiction books on the subject – from advice on cozy living to cozy home design and cooking, and the cultivation of happiness in the everyday – all referring to the secret ingredient of hygge.
One title in particular caught my eye in the library, not the least because it was fiction: Anna and Elsa’s Hygge Life. A Comfy, Cozy Story, a Disney book for ages 6-8. Who hasn’t been moved by Elsa’s song “Let It Go” in the Nordic-themed musical Frozen and been entertained by the adorable snowman Olaf, the very embodiment of innocence. I took the extra step to listen to the read-along ebook version, which was a mistake as the reader’s pronunciation of hygge made me cringe (hugh-guh). While the theme in the picture book deals with comfy-coziness, fuzzy socks, hot chocolate, candles, board games and snacks – some of the marketed staples of hygge – the happiness message here had gone completely off the rails, grammatically and semantically speaking.
The problem lies in a form of Disneyesque Danglish where Danish words are used in English sentences without the writer giving any attention to the inflections and nuanced meanings of the original words.
In this American book for kids, Elsa says to Olaf in one breath: “To know Kristoff thought of me and bought me the chocolates just because he loves me filled me with happiness. Even after I ate too many of them and my stomach was a bit upset, I was still hyggeligt, or filled with contentment, for the rest of the day.”
Hyggelig is an adjective, and adjectives are inflected according to gender, number, definiteness and position in relation to the noun (attributively or predicatively). Inflecting hyggelig (with –t) seems to be a random choice here, and even though hyggeligt sometimes functions as an adverb, it does not work in this instance. Semantically, a person can be hyggelig or hyggeligt, as in “min onkel er en hyggelig mand” (my uncle is a nice/kind man) or “min onkel er et hyggeligt menneske” (my uncle is a nice/kind human being), but Elsa cannot be hyggelig or hyggeligt in the sense of her feeling fine, filled with contentment. If a person is hyggelig, he or she is nice, kind, warm, sociable, radiating warmth and care. Your hyggelige (attributive adjective) uncle might be a bit of a storyteller, maybe he even smokes a pipe. He would not be hot-tempered, and he would be of a certain age, not an inexperienced youngster, and he would definitely not use the descriptor about himself, as he is neither vain nor self-centered. The adjective is typically a compliment bestowed on him by others.
Hygge and happiness are related concepts but not exactly the same thing. If the first part of Elsa’s utterance were to be translated into Danish, it would be “Det at vide at Kristoff tænkte på mig og købte chokolade til mig fordi han elsker mig, gjorde mig glad / lykkelig.” And the second part of her statement could be phrased as: “jeg var stadigvæk glad (not hyggelig) og tilfreds resten af dagen.” Had she insisted on using the new trendy word in the Danglish sentence, she could have said “the rest of my day was still hyggelig” (predicative adjective), because a day, a meeting, a party can indeed be hyggelig (or hyggeligt, depending on the gender of the chosen noun), implying nice and pleasant. Obviously the Walt Disney Company had not consulted with a human translator, which shows their linguistic ignorance, arrogance and disrespect for the ‘other’ language.
The Disney title Anna and Elsa’s Hygge Life is also odd. Hygge can be a noun, an intransitive verb or a reflexive verb, each category with its own specific inflections, but in Olaf’s snow-filled head it probably translates into an adjective connoting ‘happy’ or ‘cozy’. Moreover, living a hygge life makes little sense to a native speaker of Danish; it is semantically off. In modern Danish hygge is a special form of happiness, not a continuous state or a life style, but an atmosphere that can occur spontaneously under the right circumstances. You cannot plan or buy hygge and rely on it being a success. It just happens – or it doesn’t. You can light the candles, put on pleasant music, serve lovely food and drinks, but your guests might still go home feeling that the evening was not very hyggelig.
In the real world of Denmark, hygge is a complex concept that doesn’t always carry the same degree of positivity it has acquired in English. An unspoken contract among members of a social gathering that have succeeded in creating a sense of hygge is not to break the spell. Hygge requires consensus. Participants will avoid conflicts, serious disagreements and unwanted intrusions, and political discussions are usually discouraged unless the opinions voiced are shared. Hygge is a fragile balloon that can easily be pricked by a critical remark. It is a subtle form of social control.
Various informal organizations – church groups for instance – appeal to the coziness factor and often call their club Hyggeklubben. In this safe haven people can count on a welcoming space where hugs (cognate of hygge) are in plenty along with pleasant small-talk (hyggesnak) and most definitely coffee and cookies. Any sort of discord is discouraged.
At the same time, too much hominess and uncontroversial conversation tend to generate a closed-in ambience of fimset enighed (stuffy-stinky consensus), to use a much-quoted phrase coined by Danish philosopher and writer Suzanne Brøgger.(1) That being said, it is entirely possible to enjoy a hyggelig gathering where discussions are lively and opinions many. But maintaining hygge in a space where diversity and differences reign necessitates trust and openness as well as a willingness to tackle controversial subjects.
According to Moussa Mchangama, former chairperson of non-profit Mino Danmark that represents ethnic minorities, the national Danish soul suffers from conflict avoidance as seen in the disturbing silence that surrounds problems facing migrants and Danes of colour.(2)
In fact some Danes are known for cultivating a type of ‘soft’ racism that they protect by means of hygge. It’s called hyggeracisme, a supposedly harmless form of bigotry. The official Danish dictionary gives the following definition: “Hyggeracisme is a type of discourse where the speaker uses racist words and expresses bias towards people of another ethnic origin, done in a way the speaker believes is funny and unproblematic but that is hurtful and offensive to those who listen to the utterances and/or are directly subjected to the bias.”(3) Even in my childhood in the 1960s when migrants were less common, people would banter words around that were not only racist but also sexist if not misogynist and pornographic in their hyggelige get-togethers. One uncle at family lunches, I recall, would jokingly ask for someone to pass the platter with indianerpigelår (meat from an Injun girl’s thigh(4)), a term that was probably half understood as being transgressive and for that reason received with a quiet tee-hee. It wasn’t till years later I realized how disgusting that particular expression was and how harmful the easy delivery of it would be in a room with children present. With repetition and acceptance, the discourse of hyggeracisme becomes normalized and hard to root out.
Yet back in the mid-nineteenth century when the noun hygge was still relatively new in Denmark, while common in Norway, the central meaning connoted domestic safety, shelter and comfort as opposed to the brutal outdoors, especially in the winter that was and still is long and dark with storms, rain, sleet and snow. In a narrative poem from 1867 by Danish poet Christian Winther, the raging December storm, the cold and gloomy streets of Copenhagen are juxtaposed with the sitting room where “… der var hygge, luun og god; / I ovnen lystigt ilden brændte, / Og aftensbordet dækket stod” (… it was comfy, warm and fine; / fire danced with joy in the stove, / the table was set for folks to dine).(5)
No wonder the hygge concept was greatly valued by city folks and rural dwellers alike for whom hygge by the stove was a physical and emotional space that would mitigate the gloominess and rawness of winter. At the same time, the desirable cozy enclosure with its intimacy and conflict-free atmosphere can also lead to a tightly controlled club mentality that oozes exclusivity and where undesirable humans become the equivalent to harsh weather conditions. Hygge as such does not encourage change and diversity, and it can easily take a 180-degree turn when cultivated in closed groups.
NOTES
1 Suzanne Brøgger, Tone. Epos (Rhodos, 1981), p. 105. My translation.
2 https://www.alt.dk/artikler/moussa-mchangama-om-racisme
3 “hyggeracisme,” Den Danske Ordbog. My translation. https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=hyggeracisme.
4 A type of cold cut, thinly sliced smoked beef typically cut from a bottom round roast.
5 Christian Winther, three lines from ”Onkels Lise” (1867). My translation. https://kalliope.org/en/text/winther2018082649.
Marina Allemano, St. Albert, Alberta