What is the real story behind the somewhat ugly horse? Someone told me it was a carpenter somewhere in Dalarna who ran out of work during the long dark winters in the mid 1900s... Be that as it may, I seem to run into it in every typical Swedish American home.

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Hmmm... It's, needless to say, a matter of personal taste but I certainly don't find the dala horse ugly. And as close to a national symbol as anything... the blue and yellow flag might be stronger in people's mind but as a symbol... well, I don't think a lot of things can beat the horse, which likely did originate in the Dalarna region and has a long and quite interesting story.

I wrote a story ten years ago on the subject, based on an interview with a British born writer living in Sweden, who published a book on the subject.

I'll search for it, run under community blogs.

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