The story of the roots of Nordic Bildung is at least twofold. One begins in the Christian and nationalist sentiments of thinkers such as Grundtvig, the other in ancient Greek philosophy. Bildung and Paideia connote the illusive process of human becoming. In this presentation, we will explore a different origin story, in order to sever two connections that are carried over in the “origin stories” of Nordic Bildung. One is the ideal of progress and growth for a particular “folk” embedded in Christian and nationalist sentiments. The other is the dominance of educational thought by philosophy instigated by Plato (Säfström, 2022). These two connections must be overcome in order to be able to conceive of education beyond the ideal of mastery: mastery of man over man, man over nature, and of state over man. The first thread of our alternative story begins at the foot of Yggdrasil where Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld are seated. The three women tend the tree while weaving the thread of destiny for men and gods alike. Without the care of the three Norns, the tree of life would perish and all the worlds along with it, without the threads of destiny no individual history would unfold. The other thread begins with the rise of platonic educational philosophy, in which man is tied to the state and a particular project for education, and where the progress of the state is paramount. The aim of education is to sort and develop in humans the virtues and values necessary for progressing society (Jaeger, 1943; Säfström, 2022). This idea displaced the sophistic ideal of plurality in and of languages and between people. It inserted an ideal of oneness in which “the city/soul functions like the body” (Cassin, 2014, p. 123), and the parts “conspire to become whole” (p. 123). Hence, plurality as well as individual becoming are subsumed under the ideal of oneness and progress of the state. Sophistical practice, however, insists on more than one, and the possibility “of interpreting the ‘same’ not as a ‘one’ but as a ‘with’” (p. 124). The caring ideal of the three Norns, and the sophistic ideal of plurality (Säfström, 2022), may open a path for Nordic Bildung where the plurality of tongues (languages and identities) do not descend into mere strife or nationalist sentiment, but can become precisely ‘more than one’, in caring for the common.

Cassin, B. (2014). Sophistical Practice. Toward a Consistent Relativism. Fordham University Press. Grundtvig, N.F.S.(1983). Statsmæssig oplysning. Nyt Nordisk Forlag Arnold Busck. Jaeger, W. (1943/1986). Paideia. The Ideas of Greek Culture. Vol II. In Search of the Divine Order. Oxford University Press. Säfström, C. A. (2021). Please, show me your world! A sophistical practice of teaching. Revista de Educación, 395,pp. 35-58. Doi: 10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2022-395-521.