By It’s a big polar bear vs. Donald Trump Jr.
He arrived in snowy Greenland on Tuesday on his father’s Trump Force One private plane, the latest sign of the president-elect’s desire to take ownership of the vast Arctic island. But if the Danish king’s latest move is anything to go by, the United States has a fight on its hands.
King Frederik, who assumed the Danish throne after the abdication of Queen Margrethe II last year, has made a significant tweak to the royal coat of arms for the first time in more than 500 years, a move that was viewed by historians as a clear signal to Greenland — and perhaps Trump.
“We are all united and each of us committed for the kingdom of Denmark,” the monarch said in his New Year’s address, adding, “all the way to Greenland.”
The former Danish royal arms, left, established in 1972, and the latest arms by royal resolution on Dec. 20.The Royal House via kongehuset.dk
The changes to the coat of arms, announced Jan. 1, see three historic crowns that represent the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden replaced after 500 years. Instead the Danish territories Greenland and the Faroe Islands get their own quadrants, represented by a bear and a ram.
Outlining the changes, the royal household explained that “the polar bear became Greenland’s heraldic symbol under Frederik the 3rd in 1666.”
They are “a statement and a symbolic signal to the populations of both places that they are significant (and equal) parts of the kingdom,” Peter Aagaard, an associate professor at Roskilde University in Denmark, told NBC News.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, sits between the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, and is closer to New York than it is to Copenhagen. It has been under Denmark’s control since the 14th century but became a self-governing territory in 1979.
