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Danes and Norwegians were part of the same country for hundreds of years, and they\u2019re still family.\xa0 Written Danish and written Norwegian are very similar \u2013 so similar that I once tried to find a Danish-Norwegian dictionary and was told there was no such thing.\xa0 The spoken language is a little more different, but still Danes and Norwegians can understand what the other is saying. \xa0

Danes and Norwegians like each other.\xa0 They care about each other.\xa0 They even sometimes cheer for each other\u2019s football teams.

But like any family, there\u2019s envy involved. Envy.

For example, there\u2019s envy of each other\u2019s geographical pleasures.\xa0 Norway has beautiful mountains, great for skiing.\xa0 Denmark has windswept beaches, which the Norwegians seem to love. Lots of summer holidays in Denmark. \xa0

The real envy, of course, is about money. Norway has money, because of North Sea oil.\xa0

There is a feeling among some Danes that some of that oil should have been Danish oil. During a meeting to divide up the waters between the two countries in 1963, the Danish negotiator, Per Haakerup was photographed with a glass of whisky in his hand.

The rumor is\xa0he was drunk during the meeting, and gave up the Ekofisk oilfield to Norway, which has earned billions of dollars from it.\xa0