The domestication of a national symbol: The private use of flags in Norway

One day – so the story goes – my great-grandmother went into the garden with a gun, aimed it at the shiny glass ball on the top of the flagpole and hit it in one shot, splintering it completely. More information as to why she did this, who was present or what actually happened is never forthcoming. But the story is always told with smiling admiration for a rather unconventional lady.