On November 30, 1718, Karl XII was killed under mysterious circumstances during the siege of Fredriksten Fortress. Even today, "the young hero king" remains one of the most debated personalities in Swedish history and is often highlighted as an example of courage and sacrifice.
Karl XII, one of Sweden’s most legendary kings, whose reign was marked by military triumphs and a dramatic, mysterious death, continues to fascinate both historians and the Swedish public. His short but eventful life is a tale of courage, sacrifice, and a tragic final act.
This article was originally published on The Nordic Times on December 2, 2023.
Born in 1682, Karl XII ascended to the throne at the age of fifteen following the death of his father, Karl XI. He was the last monarch of the Swedish Empire, an era built up by his predecessors, and a king of his time, deeply influenced by military culture and a profound sense of duty to his kingdom.
His reign quickly became dominated by the Great Northern War, where his leadership and military prowess were put to the test. His most famous triumph was the Battle of Narva in 1700, where a smaller Swedish force defeated a Russian army more than three times its size. This victory, achieved through what is often described as tactical brilliance and personal courage, cemented Karl XII’s reputation as one of history’s great military leaders.
In the following years, Karl XII continued to lead his country in war against several European powers. He was a combative monarch, personally leading his troops in the field and often participating in battles. His tactics and courage on the battlefield made him a feared opponent and a symbol of Swedish strength and resilience.
Karl XII in the Battle of Narva. Painting: David von Krafft
The Battle of Poltava in 1709 marked a fateful turning point well-known to most Swedes. The Swedish army suffered a crushing defeat against the Russians under Peter the Great. This setback was followed by a period of difficulties and defeats. Karl XII spent several years in exile in the Ottoman Empire, a time when his kingdom simultaneously struggled to maintain its position as a European superpower.
Mysterious death
The death of Karl XII on November 30, 1718, during the siege of Fredriksten fortress in Norway remains one of the greatest mysteries in Swedish history. The details surrounding his death are still disputed and have given rise to many theories. According to some reports, he was hit by a bullet in the temple while observing enemy positions, leading to immediate death. There has also been speculation about whether the king died in an accident, an assassination, or perhaps even a murder organized by his own in some form of conspiracy.
According to investigations carried out by Finnish researchers as recently as 2022, it is most likely that Karl XII was killed by canister shot ammunition made of iron with a diameter of over 20 millimeters. They also consider it likely that the bullet was fired from the enemy in the Norwegian fortress.
Karl, who had no wife or known children, was succeeded by his sister Ulrika Eleonora, who soon abdicated in favor of her husband Frederick of Hesse. They also had no heirs, and the next Swedish king became Adolf Frederick of the House of Holstein-Gottorp. The warrior king’s death definitively marked the end of Sweden’s status as a great power, and the country became a less influential actor on the European stage.
Hero king or tyrant
More than 300 years after his death, Karl XII is still remembered in many circles as a bold, self-sacrificing, and uncompromising leader. His military exploits have been praised for bravery and strategic genius, but the exhausting wars have also been criticized for draining the kingdom’s resources and leading to its decline as a superpower. Historians usually say that Karl’s death marked a definitive end to an era and the beginning of a new phase in Swedish and Nordic history.
Karl XII is often regarded as one of Sweden’s most important monarchs. Photo: Alexey M/CC BY-SA 4.0
The life and death of Karl XII have inspired numerous cultural and literary works. He has been portrayed as both a hero king and a tyrant, and his decisions and personality have been analyzed and debated for centuries. His sudden death is a legend in itself and continues to attract new generations of history enthusiasts.
In summary, it can be said that Karl XII’s reign was a time of dramatic changes in Sweden and Europe. His military achievements and personal sacrifice, along with the mystery surrounding his death, make him one of the most memorable and discussed figures in all of Swedish history. His life and death are not only a part of the national memory but also an important chapter in European military history.
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Spotify founder Daniel Ek’s investment in the German defense company Helsing is now prompting several international artists to leave the music streaming service in protest. The Australian psychedelic rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is the latest name to remove their music from the platform.
Daniel Ek, who is also chairman of the board at Helsing, led an investment of €600 million earlier this year in the German company that specializes in AI-driven autonomous combat solutions. The technology is used for drones and underwater surveillance systems, among other applications.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard announced the decision on Instagram with the words “Fuck Spotify”, explaining that their latest demo recordings will only be available on Bandcamp.
“Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in Al military drone technology. We just removed our music from the platform”, the band wrote.
The California-based band Xiu Xiu and San Francisco group Deerhoof have made the same choice. Deerhoof expressed their position clearly: “We don’t want our music killing people. We don’t want our success being tied to AI battle tech”.
The protest reflects the music industry’s long-standing ambivalence toward Spotify’s dominant position and impact on artists.
British metal icon Ozzy Osbourne has died at the age of 76, just weeks after his farewell concert with Black Sabbath in Birmingham, England. “It is with indescribable sorrow that we must announce that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love,” the family announced according to Sky News.
Osbourne rose to fame as the frontman of Black Sabbath during the 1970s and became one of the founders of the heavy metal genre. The band was formed in Birmingham in 1969 and revolutionized music with dark lyrics and heavy guitar riffs. Classic songs like “Paranoid,” “Iron Man,” and “War Pigs” defined an entire genre.
After leaving Black Sabbath in 1979 due to drug and alcohol problems, Osbourne built a successful solo career with albums like “Blizzard of Ozz” (1980). During the 2000s, he reached new audiences through MTV’s reality series “The Osbournes.”
Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease as early as 2003, something he first made public in 2020. On July 5, he performed his final concert at Villa Park in Birmingham together with Black Sabbath.
— You have no idea how I feel – thank you from the bottom of my heart, he told the audience then.
Osbourne is survived by his wife Sharon and five children.
In just a few years, El Salvador defeated the brutal gang crime that had plagued the country for decades. President Nayib Bukele has been accused of being “undemocratic” by his globalist opponents, but among Salvadorans themselves he has achieved near-heroic status and is now spearheading a Bitcoin revolution.
El Salvador, literally “the Savior” or in other words “the land of the Savior”, formally became an independent country in 1842. The liberation of the Latin American country came after a civil war in the relatively newly formed country of the Central American Federation, which in 1823 had freed itself from the Mexican Empire, a Mexico that just two years earlier, in 1821, had proclaimed its independence from the Spanish crown.
The article was originally published in The Nordic Times on February 2, 2025.
Despite its name, the tiny nation would have to wait patiently for its salvation. El Salvador would come to be dominated by corrupt forces and has been known more than any other in modern times as part of Central America’s so-called “banana republics”, not only because of the presence of US-based corporate giants where the country went so far as to adopt the US dollar as its own currency, but also because El Salvador has long been known as a particular den of brutal and literally devil-worshipping criminal gangs, such as MS-13 and Barrio 18, which still have a strong presence even in the organized crime world.
Before that, the country was mainly associated with the protracted civil war that raged there for 13 long years between 1979 and 1992 in one of the many Cold War proxy conflicts between pro-American and pro-Soviet forces in the country.
Two years after theoutbreak ofthe Salvadoran civil war, Nayib Bukele was born in 1981 in the capital, San Salvador. His father, Armando Bukele Kattán, was a prominent Palestinian businessman and Muslim leader who arranged for his first-born son to study law at the Central American University in El Salvador. Nayib never completed his degree, however, and instead went into business. According to him, this experience would allow him to develop two skills that he later described as crucial to his political career – communicating and leading with clarity.
Bukeles’ political career began in earnest in 2012 when he was elected mayor of Nuevo Cuscatlán, a small municipality outside the capital San Salvador. His successes there – including economic reforms and social programs – led him to become mayor of the capital San Salvador in 2015. During this time, he distinguished himself as a simultaneously pragmatic, outspoken and visionary leader.
Despite the enormous risks involved in challenging the political establishment, which was completely infested by the tentacles of gang crime, Bukele came to increasingly openly criticize them for destroying the country and for betraying their voters.
Bukele meets the people.
In 2017, Bukele was expelled from his then-party, the FMLN, following internal conflicts, and founded his own party, Nuevas Ideas, which would become the platform for his daring campaign to run for president on a message of renewal and modernization. Despite difficult obstacles put in his way by political opponents, Bukele eventually won the 2019 elections by a historic margin, becoming the first president since 1992 not to belong to the two dominant parties, the socialist-oriented FMLN or the more bourgeois-conservative ARENA.
“They can kill anybody”
However, the difficulties were not over despite the electoral victory of the Salvadoran president, with his opponents sparing no means to stop him. They still controlled the Supreme Court and 90% of the legislature.
– I had to veto everything, and they override my vetoes. And they enact, they approved over 70 laws that I veto, Bukele explains in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.
The only solution Bukele saw was to also win a majority in the country’s Congress, which he would also succeed in doing. Today, only the electoral court, controlled by the liberal opposition, tried unsuccessfully to have the president impeached and jailed, which Bukele himself believes failed only because of the establishment’s fear of a large-scale popular revolt if he were to be removed from office.
Bukele tells Carlson that his first priority was to fulfill his election promise to tackle organized crime once and for all.
– You can’t do anything unless you have peace. And once you achieve peace, then you can struggle for the other things, like infrastructure, wealth, well being, quality of life. So we had to start with peace. And in the case of El Salvador, we were literally the murder capital of the world, says Bukele.
Bukele salutes the Salvadoran army.
One of the first things he did was to double the number of soldiers in the country’s army, equip them with modern equipment and then systematically deploy them to fight organized crime with a determination that had previously been lacking. The gangs, understandably, did not appreciate this and tried to fight back – including a murder wave that killed 87 people in the small country in just three days.
– They can kill anybody. And if the state goes after them, the state has no intention of killing or harming anybody but the gang members. So you have 70,000 objectives, which were the 70,000 gang members, but they have 6 million possible targets (the population of the country). So it was almost an impossible task, said the president.
El Salvador’s new high-security prison CECOT, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo – or “terrorist prison” in English, houses the most serious gang members with a capacity for 40,000 prisoners. Life in the prison is extremely strict, with the only leisure time consisting of simple exercise and services by priests.
Even independent analysts point out that El Salvador is a very different country today than it was when Mr. Bukeles took office and that, according to the country’s official statistics, it has become the least crime-ridden of the American continents, including Canada and the United States.
– We’re safer than any other country in the western hemisphere. If I would have said that five years ago, they would say that I was crazy, right?
Mr. Bukele himself stresses that his government has not had access to any magic recipes, but that it has been able to solve the problem of gang crime because it had the political will and determination to actually do it.
– There’s always going to be crime, people breaking laws, but violent crime, people murdering and raping each other, is a voluntary decision that a government makes. Why would a government choose to have that? he asks.
Massive popular support
Politically, Bukeles’ El Salvador has also broken the mold on covid policy, with the government choosing to encourage healthy eating and exercise, rather than forcing the controversial covid vaccines on the population with covid passes. It was also one of the few countries to offer the drug hydroxychloroquine as an alternative treatment for COVID-19, something that Bukele pointed out was used by most world leaders themselves.
The focus of Bukele’s policies has been to push for economic reforms and, as part of this, he has made El Salvador the first country in the world to accept Bitcoin as legal tender – meaning that it will be accepted as valid payment for all forms of debt and transactions. Enthusiasts of the new crypto-economy are now gathering in El Salvador, which many believe could become a new “tiger economy” in the Americas.
In the Western media, Bukele has been portrayed as something of a “dictator” who has rejected “human rights” in the context of mass arrests of suspected gang members and periods of prolonged military surveillance of specific areas of the country. Both domestic and international critics have accused the president of trying to centralize power, create a police state and undermine so-called democratic institutions and principles.
When he was re-elected in 2024 in a spectacular landslide with 84.6% of the vote, he responded to these criticisms in his much-publicized acceptance speech to the population by putting their rights before those of organized criminals.
– We are the safest country in the American continent. And what did they tell us? “You’re violating human rights”. Whose human rights? The rights of honest people? No. Perhaps we have prioritized the rights of the honest people over the criminals’ rights. That is all we have done, and that’s what you say is a human rights violation, Bukele declared.
Bukele with his wife Gabriela Roberta Rodríguez de Bukele. Photo: Casa Presidencial El Salvador
In an ironic response to similar epithets directed at him, he has referred to himself on Twitter/X as the “World’s coolest dictator”. The President has also become known for his extensive use of social media, particularly X, which he uses to communicate directly with the people, and sometimes to consult with the public on his decision-making.
This digital presence has made him very popular also among younger generations, who often see him as a modern leader of a very different type than the political establishment that ruled the country in the past.
The warning to the West
Bukele expresses personal criticism of the soft approach to criminals in the West, of which he considers El Salvador to be a part, pointing out that they are often seen as individuals with rights that need to be protected – even if they are violent killers and organized gang members. This attitude, according to Bukele, ultimately leads to a point where civilization itself begins to crumble.
– So western civilization reached the peak. We can all agree that we’re in the decline. So that is happening because we’re not maintaining, we’re not giving the correct maintenance to the civilization, he says, explaining that we are no longer striving to do things as well and grandly as possible.
– Democracy works, but if you don’t maintain it, it will fall like the wall.So what we have right now is a huge erosion of Western civilization, Bukele concludes.
He points out that governments today seem mostly interested in appeasing individual constituencies to get their votes – for example, by giving them large sums of money or other generous promises, and that they no longer seem to care about what is good for the nation as a whole.
– You cannot go on. I mean, it’s like obvious. It’s like somebody eats too much, right? I mean, you can be a little fat, right? It’s fine. But then if somebody’s morbidly fat, somebody will come and say, okay, you mean you have to stop, right? Because, you know, your heart would. Your heart can’t take it anymore.
US taxpayers should know that their government is using their money to fund communist movements against a democratic elected (and with a 90% approval rating) government in El Salvador.
One focus for the outspoken president, now that the gangs have been defeated, is to attract investors and tourists to the country – rather than being a haven for murderers and violent criminals. “There is enough money when no one steals“ is one of many similar quotes that sum up Bukele’s vision for the country’s future and have made him so popular with his own people.
Bukele often posts pictures showing how the country’s military and police fight organized crime. Photo: Nayib Bukele/FB
Many also argue that the success is an expression of the rise of a new generation of national populist leaders in a near-global revolt against the globalist “rainbow empire” characterized by gender ideology, demographic upheaval, coddling of violent criminals, and a huge gap between the political establishment and the population at large.
The Salvadoran president has also not been shy about explicitly criticizing influential globalists such as George Soros and others who he says have pushed for these kinds of developments in the West, and still have too much power over politics in many countries.
In his victory speech to the people in 2024, Bukele also articulated the importance for small nations to be alert to the actors of global politics, with El Salvador being just one example of many nations that have suffered in the wake of various factions of globalist-oriented actors and great powers.
– The civil war in El Salvador, which officially left over 85,000 Salvadorans dead, and displaced over 1 million people, was sponsored by two separate powers. There was a conflict between the West and the Soviet Union, and they wanted to fight, but not on their own soil. They didn’t want to provide the cannon fodder. So they decided to fight in other places around the world, and one of those places that they chose to fight was here in El Salvador. They tricked us. They told us to kill each other and we did as they said.
Bukele concluded by adding his view that there are now powerful players on the global stage who fear the example El Salvador has already shown.
– We will continue to do the impossible, and El Salvador will continue to set an example for the world.
According to sources, Leif Eriksson was born in Iceland around the year 970, the son of Erik the Red, a Norwegian explorer who founded the first Norse settlement in Greenland. During Leif’s childhood and youth, large parts of the world were still mysterious and unexplored, but according to the Greenlandic saga, the Icelander Bjarni Herjolfsson had already encountered fog in 986 and drifted off course while sailing from Iceland to his father in Greenland. According to legend, he sighted three unknown lands, which he named Helluland, Markland, and Vinland – which were later identified as parts of eastern Canada. He never landed, however, but continued his journey to Greenland, where he is said to have spoken of his discoveries.
The article was originally published in The Nordic Times on June 9, 2024.
According to the saga, 15 years later Bjarni sold his ship to Leif Eriksson, who set out with 35 men to find the land described by the Icelander. Eriksson followed the route described and eventually reached North America – probably first the island now known as Baffin Island or the northern parts of Labrador.
Eriksson continued to explore the new continent and set up a winter camp in a milder climate while sending his men to explore the surrounding area. According to legend, they discovered that vines and grapes grew there – hence the name Vinland. Eriksson and his crew built a small settlement there, Leifsbudir, which was later used by other vikings who followed in his footsteps.
Eriksson himself returned to Greenland after the winter, according to the sources with a cargo of timber and grapes. On his way home he also rescued a shipwrecked Icelandic crew – which may have been the reason for his nickname “Leif the Lucky”.
Statue of Leif Eriksson in Minnesota. Photo: Mulad
Eriksson never returned to the newly discovered continent, but died as a chieftain in Greenland sometime between 1018 and 1025. His discoveries, however, became very significant, and other Norsemen soon decided to seek out the lands he and his crew had described. For example, Leif Eriksson’s brother Thorvald is said to have later sailed to the newly discovered land, but soon came into conflict and was killed by what were then called “skraelings” – meaning Native Americans or Inuit. According to the saga of Erik the Red, Thorfinn Karlsefni also sailed with 160 men and women, livestock and supplies, and set up camp at Leifsbudir and tried to build a community there. However, after accidents and conflicts (both internal and with the natives), plans for a permanent Norse settlement in North America were eventually abandoned.
How much truth there is in the sagas is difficult to say for sure today. What is certain, however, is that the Norse settled in North America sometime between 990 and 1050. At L’Anse aux Meadows, in the northern parts of Canadian Newfoundland, the remains of a viking settlement were discovered in the 1960s, including at least eight house foundations, tools, metal remains, sewing needles, and the remains of a forge. It was also estimated that the settlement was only used for a few years before it was abandoned – which fits well with Norse sagas.
Reconstruction of the viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. Photo: Dylan Kereluk/CC BY 2.0
When the French colonized North America in the 17th century, they also heard of an Indian legend that told of a kingdom far to the north, where blond men sat on vast riches of gold and furs – but that it was almost certainly doomed to be reached. It has at least been hypothesized that the stories originated from real encounters with Norsemen hundreds of years earlier.
While Leif Eriksson and the Norse explorers may not have made any major long-term changes to the North American continent, they certainly contributed to our understanding of world exploration. The adventurous spirit and nautical skills of the vikings were extraordinary, and their voyages expanded the world view in Europe long before the explorations of the Renaissance.
Leif Eriksson’s discovery of America. Painting by Christian Krohg (1893)
The date of Leif Eriksson’s landing in the New World, October 9th, is now celebrated in parts of the USA as Leif Eriksson Day, as a tribute to the achievements of the vikings and the Nordic contributions to world history. The celebration is not only a recognition of Eriksson’s achievements, but also of the exchange and meeting of two worlds.
Although there are still many unanswered questions about Eriksson’s time in Vinland, his legacy has lived on in many ways. Interest in viking voyages and culture has become an area of academic research, as well as popular fascination with Leif Eriksson’s adventurous spirit, which drove him and his crew across the world.
