D&D (2024) Greyhawk 2024: comparing Oerth and Earth

[rbingham2000]

• The Nazis thought the Norwegians would side with them, and installed a collaborationist regime led by Quisling. His name became (even in English) a term for a sellout who betrays his country.

Yeah. Vidkun Quisling's name is synonymous with "traitor". When the Nazis were driven out of Norway, the Norwegians actually re-instituted the death penalty just to apply it to him. He was that hated.

 

[Redthistle]

Not that is what we’re talking about (I think?) but short history on this:

• The Nazis sneak attacked Norway in 1940.
• The Royal family fled to the UK, and via Sweden to the US. (There’s a PBS series about this and the Crown Princess’s friendship with FDR called “Atlantic Crossing”.)
• The Norwegian military, British, French, and Polish forces fought the Nazis, but lost. The Allies evacuated. Some Norwegians didn’t surrender but went to mountains. Some escaped to the UK or Sweden. (When living in England, I even saw a Lassie movie where Timmy is a RAF flyer, Lassie sneaks on his plane, and Lassie and the Resistance help Timmy escape the Nazis. I swear I didn’t imagine it!)
• The British equipped Norwegian forces including a Commando unit that parachuted into Norway to stop the Nazi hydrogen bomb project. They sunk a ferry with civilians on board to stop a deuterium shipment that put the Nazis behind. (Books and movies have been written about this. One short book is “Skis against the Atom”.)
• The US raised an all Norwegian-American, Norwegian speaking Army unit in Minnesota, who landed on D-Day. Single ethnicity units were relatively rare.

On the other hand:

• The Nazis thought the Norwegians would side with them, and installed a collaboratorist regime led by Quisling. His name became (even in English) a term for a sellout who t betrays his country.
• I think about 7000 Norwegians joined the Waffen SS.

The movie was "Son of Lassie", filmed in 1944, a sequel to the original "Lassie" movie. Had to Google this to find it. Didn't realize there was a "Lassie" movie I hadn't seen. In the original movie, Elsa Lanchester played Timmy's mother - now, I'm trying to imagine a mash-up between Lassie and the Bride of Frankenstein ...

In the "Lassie" movies, the collie's human is a character named Joe Carraclough, not Timmy as in the later American TV series. "Son of Lassie" included June Lockhart in the role of Priscilla, Joe's romantic interest. In the 1950s she played Timmy's mother in the TV series. Seriously, I've got to stop going down internet rabbit holes ...

 

[haakon1]

In the "Lassie" movies, the collie's human is a character named Joe Carraclough, not Timmy as in the later American TV series.

I looked it up, and Lassie had many seasons on American TV. Not all her boys were called Timmy. But Timmy is the iconic name. Also, Timmy never fell down a well, but the actor who played Timmy titled his autobiography “Timmy Fell Down the Well” because it was such a prevalent pre-internet meme.

 

[Gradine]

Did someone say Lassie?

 

[Starfox]

It's likely that the writers are attempting to expand upon existing lore, with very little to go on, or enough conflicting sources that they're just kind of making it up as they go along, and rewriting things they think need it. I'd prefer they didn't myself, but meh. Also we've no way to determine or even question how much of what WotC now calls "legacy content" the writers are aware of or have actually read/played themselves.

If this is it, then it bears close similarity to actual history and historians. Maybe this is the best way to see it; the theory of the day at Greyhawk University is that the twin cataclysms happened in the reverse order. That scholars now think so doesn't make it true.

 

[Starfox]

There were actually people back in the day that claimed that Sweden was Atlantis. [...]

Götisism was the theory of the day, trying to give the (back then) major power Sweden an illustrious history. All sorts of crazy theories from that time. Most unprovable.

 

[haakon1]

Götisism

If it’s no Swedish, it’s no good!