Those interested in the history of national flags no doubt will have come across the national flag of Denmark. The reason for this is that this national flag has been around for many hundreds of years! Even though this flag was recognized as the national flag of this country in the 19th century, it has been hoisted on Danish flagpoles for many years, decades and centuries before. Also called “the cloth of the Danes,” this flag was first a perfect square. The design of the flag was then changed to a rectangle at some point in time.
According to Danish historians, the flag supposedly fell from the sky in June 15th of 1219. It was one this day that that the then ruling King of the territory battled and defeated Estonia. The very first recorded use of this flag was in the early 14th century.
Also in Denmark, the use of a swallow-tailed flag, also called the “split-flag,” became standard practice. Today the use of this flag is really restricted to those considered royal, and hoisted on flag poles during official occasions.
Danish influence of old is still very much apparent in our day. Neighboring countries and their national ensigns, and such, feature the Scandinavian Cross. Even though featured on Scandinavian flags, the construction (in terms of flag-design) remains different for each flag. This also applies to the swallow-tailed forms and shapes in the respective countries.
Other territories also referred to as dependencies at times have hoisted their respective flags from Scandinavian flag poles for years, if not longer. These dependencies are the Alan Islands, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. These dependencies are located at substantial distances from one and other. Greenland is likely the largest island in terms of land mass. The other islands are found both in the Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea.
The home rule movement of the Faroe Islands began in the 1900’s, although the local parliament had already been restored in 1852. In the 1919 some Faroese students in Denmark designed the present flag, which was inspired by the flag-design of Iceland. The cross form and three express solidarity with the rest of Scandinavia. By the year 1931, the flag was considered semi-official, and in 1940 it in fact became official for use at sea. Some eight years later it was made official for both sea and land, as well.
My family is from Sweden and they take great pride in their national Swedish flag. Every so often they will find Swedish flags attached to U.S. flagpoles. The latter is possible as long as the Flag Code of the United States is observed.
Author’s Web site lists a wonderful selection of aluminum flagpoles and flags.