Peter Tordenskjold - Legacy

Legacy

Although - Dynekilen excepted - Tordenskiold's individual victories were of less importance than Christen Thomesen Sehested's at the Siege of Stralsund and Ulrich Christian Gyldenløve's at Rügen, he is seen as the most heroic figure of the Great Northern War, after Charles XII. He is mentioned by name both in the Danish royal anthem "Kong Christian stod ved højen mast" from 1778 and the Norwegian national anthem "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" from 1864.

Statues of him have been erected in Copenhagen (1876), Trondheim, Stavern, Oslo and Haakonsvern. In the United States, Tordenskjold Township in the state of Minnesota was settled in 1871 by Danish brothers who named it after him. The coat of arms of Holmestrand includes his ship Hvide Ørn.

The Royal Danish Navy has named several ships after him, including an early 20th century coastal defence ship. The Niels Juel class corvette KDM Peter Tordenskiold (F356), served from around 1980 to August 2009. The Royal Norwegian Navy has also named ships after him, such as the coastal defence ship Tordenskjold, and the Royal Norwegian Naval Training Establishment in Bergen is named KNM Tordenskjold.

The Danish city of Frederikshavn has hosted an annual summer festival in his memory since 1998. Tordenskiold was stationed there, and wrote 67 letters from there between 1717 and 1719. In 2008 the Festival attracted more than 30,000 visitors. In 2009 the Days of Tordenskiold were celebrated on 26, 27 & 28 June.

In the Danish city of Esbjerg there is a street named Tordenskjoldsgade after him.

The most popular brand of matches in Denmark is called Tordenskjold. In the late 1800s, Sweden had a large export production of matches, so a Danish manufacturer put Tordenskiold's portrait on his matchbox in 1882, in the hope he could once more strike at the Swedish (Danish: "give de svenske stryg"). The Tordenskjold brand was bought by a Swedish company in 1972.