Norway’s World Cup Viking antics – a faux pas?

Author Alex Schulman deplores the cringeworthiness of this trend in Dagens Nyheter:

“Sorry, but if I’d had to watch [the Swedish players] Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyökeres engaging in similar Viking antics, I’d have died of embarrassment. But the Norwegians seem wildly enthusiastic, because now they’re joining in: loud chanting can be heard from the stands, with everyone suddenly pretending to be galley slaves and shouting ‘RO! RO!’. … So the crowd consists of Vikings too! Watching the footage, I can hardly believe my eyes. They all lean forward together, as if they were holding a giant oar, and the whole time they chant ‘RO! RO! RO!’. What is going on in Norway? How did it all go so wrong?”