ABSTRACT
According to medieval sources from Scandinavia, continental Europe and the Arab world, Norwegians participated in Levantine crusading to a certain extent, especially during the 12th century. The first armed expedition from Norway to Palestine appears to have been a small group of noblemen departing in 1102, most of them never to return. Painter and designer Gerhard Munthe had two large art nouveau tapestries made with scenes from King Sigurd Magnusson's expedition. The ideological undertones in Munthe’s tapestries are clearly nationalistic. In the 21st century, the former nationalistic heroism has given way to a post-colonial approach, wherein the Muslim perspective on crusading history is favoured and often idealized. Antagonistic to these initiatives, other references to the Crusades can be found on the far right. For instance, in 2011, a right-wing extremist bombed the governmental quarter in Oslo and massacred 77 young people at a political summer camp, claiming to fight for Norwegian and Christian values against left-wing decadence and Muslim immigration.
