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Sexy Scandinavian

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When I was just a little girl in Sweden
My thoughtful mother gave me this advice:
If nature blesses you from top to bottom
Show that top to bottom, don't think twice!
Ulla, The Producers

Scandinavians have long been stereotyped as being a strikingly beautiful group of people, particularly the women. In many works, Scandinavian female characters are portrayed as naive, beautiful, and all-around hot. Usually the hero can't help becoming smitten when he meets one. Usually doesn't turn into a relationship since she's "too" hot to be more than a Ms. Fanservice type, though, but sometimes she does. She typically has the standard Scandinavian traits: tall, blue eyes, blonde hair, pale skin, and the demeanor of an Innocent Fanservice Girl, but sometimes she can be a Femme Fatale.

Tends to overlap with Statuesque Stunner, since Scandinavians are much taller on average than most other ethnicities, and Europeans Are Kinky.

She may be part of the Horny Vikings; if she isn't, then she's being the seductive Fanservice for those pirates.

Males can fall under this trope as well, though they are rarer.

A Sub-Trope of Norse by Norsewest, Everyone Loves Blondes, and Foreign Fanservice.

A Sister Trope to Sensual Slavs, Gorgeous Greek, Gorgeous Gaijin, and Circassian Beauty.

Contrast Brawn Hilda (who is also often a Nordic woman, but she's large, intimidating, and unattractive).


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • High School D×D: Rias Gremory is said to be Scandinavian, though she’s actually a Devil from the Underworld. Of course, she's one of the most attractive girls in the series. Red-haired example. Later on, the story introduces the Valkyrie Rossweiss, who fits this trope better.
  • Stella Bremer from Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse is a very traditional example, having the largest bust of all-female cast.
  • Julie Sigtuna from Absolute Duo is a very unusual example: she belongs to a fictional country named after a city in Sweden and she has the habit of speaking Scandinavian words such as "ja" and "nej" (yes and no, respectively). She's attractive enough, but more in the Moe sense.
  • Christine Waldegård from The Third Girls Aerial Squad.
  • Anthea Kallenberg from Under the Dog.
  • All the Nordic countries from Hetalia: Axis Powers.
  • Axel Von Fersen from The Rose of Versailles as well.
  • Kamigami no Asobi has two Norse gods, Loki and Baldr, in its Crossover Cosmology harem. Baldr is a perfect combination of this and Long-Haired Pretty Boy.
  • Horn Skuld of Seraph of the End is implied to be Scandinavian. She's a female vampire in her twenties with big boobs. Her last name "Skuld" means "dept" or "future" in Old Norse. She was one of the three Norns, or goddesses of destiny, in Norse-Germanic mythology. Skuld was also the Name of a Valkyrie.
  • Food Wars!: Alice Nakiri is a half-Danish albino girl with a knockout figure that she proudly shows off while wearing a bikini at a public pool. She gets it from her mom, Leonora, who is pretty much an older version of her.
  • Assassination Classroom: Ritsu is a Robot Girl but she was build in Norway and she has her fanservice moments, Such as giving Sugaya an answer in class by writing it on her thigh.
  • Aila Jyrkiäinen from Gundam Build Fighters is the top fighter in the Finland-based Gunpla team Nemesis. She's the archetypal "elegant and beautiful as a finely chiseled ice statue beauty" with curvy and buxom figure to match.

    Comic Books 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The oldest examples of this trope are actresses Greta Garbo, famous for her Femme Fatale roles, Ingrid Bergman and sex symbol Anita Ekberg.
    • In Queen Christina Garbo plays on her sexy foreigner fame even more by portraying an actual Swedish queen and looking absolutely stunning in the role. The fact that the story is set in Sweden and in a distant past makes it all the more romanticizing and sensual for the audience.
  • Summer with Monika: There's reason to believe this movie may be the Trope Maker or the Trope Codifier. The movie shows nudity, glorifies a woman (Monika, played by Harriet Andersson) who is entirely comfortable with her body and refuses to submit to bourgeois norms and codes.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Pelle, as well as Maja, from Midsommar.
  • Ulla, the Swedish woman Max hires as a secretary in The Producers. She speaks no English and does little more than dance around and look pretty.
  • In Wayne's World, Wayne gets hit on by a sexy Swedish secretary for knowing so much about her home country.
  • Jamie Lee Curtis quite hilariously disguises herself as Inga from Sweden (in an Austrian dress) in Trading Places.
  • Victoria Silvstedt's character (Silvstedt herself counts) and the rest of the Swedish Sun Tanning Team from Boat Trip, and again in another movie, this time with Zach Galifianakis in a hot tub in the movie Out Cold.
  • Young Frankenstein: Dr. Frankenstein has a pretty blond sex kitten of an assistant named Inga.
  • In 2 Days in the Valley, multiple comments are made about both the attractiveness and Scandinavian heritage of Helga. (Played by Charlize Theron in one of her earliest roles.)
  • In The Prince & Me, there's an American girl who falls in love with a handsome prince from Denmark. Even though all the actors are clearly American it still thrives on the erotic foreigner trope and the idea that Scandinavians are sexy.
  • German-born actress Elke Sommer often played this trope in her films.
  • In Kingsman: The Secret Service, the protagonist rescues a kidnapped Swedish princess in the end, James Bond-style.
  • Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Norse god/superhero with long blond hair and many shirtless scenes.
  • Lena in Underworld: Blood Wars was a drop-dead gorgeous Nordic vampire with Mystical White Hair.
  • In Cashback, Ben reminisces about when he was a little kid and his family took in a spectacularly gorgeous Swedish woman with no nudity taboo as a boarder.
  • In Beerfest, the Swedish team is made up entirely of gorgeous blonde women wearing bikinis. This was an intentional Shout-Out to the Swedish Bikini Team advertising campaign for Old Milwaukee Beer.
  • A scene in Baseketball shows Doug making out with Playboy Playmate of the Year Victoria Silvstedt (playing herself). Silvstedt hails from Sweden, and she also happens to be tall, blonde, busty, and beautiful.
  • Kung Fury has The Hero meeting in his quest a duo of hot Breast Plate-wearing female Vikings wielding machine guns and riding dinosaurs. Its that kind of movie.
  • Tomorrow Never Dies: Inga Bergstorm is a Danish teacher that has a fling with James Bond and spends her entire appearance wrapped in a bedsheet.
  • 1968 Spanish comedy El turismo es un gran invento has the two main characters, a small-town mayor and his bumbling deputy who travel to a seaside resort to figure out how to attract tourists to their town, meet a trio of sexy Swedish singers known as the 'Buby Girls', who happen to be staying on the same hotel as them.
  • One of the plot lines of La Dolce Vita, the main character Marcello Rubini, a journalist writing for various gossip magazines, is sent to cover the arrival in Rome of a famous Swedish-American film star Silvia, played by Swedish Actress Anita Ekberg. Over the course of film, various Italian men can be seen admiring her.
  • Freya, the main Love Interest of Donald (Sir Anthony’s son) in The Island at the Top of the World is a descendant of a Lost Colony of Vikings.

    Literature 
  • In The Dresden Files, local mafia boss Gentleman Johnny Marcone hires Sigrun Gard as his supernatural consultant. She's a statuesque Scandinavian blonde, described by Dresden as 'a Nordic Angel' and not afraid to use her looks. She's also a bonafide valkyrie and Action Girl.
  • Atali, the eponymous The Frost-Giant's Daughter in Conan the Barbarian was a beautiful, Stripperiffic woman from Aesir legends whom Conan meets while in his stay in the distant northern lands. She was so maddeningly pretty that she drove him insane with lust.
  • Christine Daaé, the female lead in The Phantom of the Opera is actually Swedish, being born near Uppsala. While "sexy" isn't the exact word to describe her, she is so beautiful that she attracts Erik's affection and the novel describes her as being blonde like a typical Scandinavian, which is ironic since the musicals portray her as a brunette.
  • In Pretty Little Liars, Aria Montgomery's loyal boyfriend Noel is temporarily besotted with the exotic Finnish foreign exchange student, Klaudia Huusko (dubbed a "Nordic goddess"), who pretends to not know how sexy she is but is really just trying to get into Noel's pants.
  • Grant Bjornlund from Hero Complex is tall, handsome and ethnically Scandinavian, although he speaks with a British accent and is culturally English.
  • In the Forgotten Realms novel Elfsong by Elaine Cunningham, Danilo Thann makes a joke about the women of the Northlanders, which suggests the same stereotype exists in the Realms.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine, "The Swedes": Soren and Agneta, the duo of Swedish detectives who come to investigate New York and join Jake and Rosa on the case. They are both hot. Lampshaded by Jake who says they're all tall and beautiful.
  • One episode of The Golden Girls had Rose's cousin Sven come to visit and fall for Blanche. He wanted to call off his upcoming arranged marriage, but when the girl who was to be his bride showed up, she was a hot blonde. Sven is awed and runs off with her right away.
  • Fraulein Helga, Col. Klink's receptionist on Hogan's Heroes, was one. Blonde and buxom, she had most of the men in the camp (Germans and prisoners alike) drooling over her (and apparently was having an affair with Col. Hogan), and played at being the dumb sultry type, but was really quite intelligent and often helped the prisoners. Fraulein Hilda replaced her in season two, and was more of the same.
  • Elke the Swedish exchange student in Oliver Beene, a beautiful blonde teen girl and everybody's crush.
  • For a while, TV ads for Old Milwaukee beer featured appearances by the "Swedish Bikini Team".
  • Zig-zagged in Our Flag Means Death. The Swede looks the part of a Pirate with oily hair, poor dental health and unwashed skin. However, Spanish Jackie finds him very attractive.
  • In Shadow and Bone, the country of Fjerda is the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Scandinavia, which makes Mattias this trope. In "The Heart Is An Arrow", Nina is in the middle of informing him that she's not embarrassed by the need for them both to get naked in order to share body heat while mocking Mattias "No Peeking!" Request as him being a prude, and that Fjerdan men aren't special, they're just like any other type of man... only for her to turn around and be rendered slightly dumbstruck by his shirtlessness.
  • Vikings:
    • Lagertha is a drop-dead gorgeous blonde who is a shield-maiden and fights alongside men, eventually becoming a leader of her own tribe. The hero Ragnar Lothbrook was married to her and smitten with her all his life, and she was called a "handsome woman" even when she was older with an adult son.
    • Aslaug, princess of Gotaland, is supposedly the literal daughter of the legendary Sigurd and Brynhildr. Though against the stereotype, she has long wavy brown hair. The hero is impressed with her looks and wits, and marries her because she carries his child. She becomes the Queen of Kattegatt.
    • Thorunn, Bjorn's wife, has a straight-up nordic supermodel looks. She was originally a slave girl, but so beautiful that Bjorn chose her as his lover and wife, and she was liberated by Queen Aslaug. Her name is Norse suggesting that she was captured in a war somewhere else in Scandinavia.

    Music 

    Myths & Religion 
  • Norse Mythology: Odin's messengers, the Valkyries, are known for their beauty as well as selecting the bravest of the slain warriors to be admitted into Warrior Heaven. Of course, in more authentic myths, Valkyries were anything but beautiful, what with their riding wolves and specifically engineering circumstances that would lead to the deaths of great warriors in order to people Odin's corpse hall. Nonetheless, some Valkyries were still sufficiently hot enough that Scandinavian saga heroes — such as Helgi Hundingsbane — took them as wives.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Subverted in Warhammer Fantasy, where the local Scandinavians tend to be huge, murderous brutes, and while there are some attractive ones, they tend to serve a god/dess of rape and hedonism (such as Sigvald the Magnificent, who's looked 16 years old for a few centuries now).

    Video Games 
  • Marie Rose from Dead or Alive 5, who's far less buxom and more petite than other examples, still qualifies nonetheless.
  • Abella in Fear & Hunger: Termina comes from Oldegard (a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to Scandinavia), and is described as being beautiful, with Henryk constantly flirting with her at the train.
  • Guild Wars has Jora, who belongs to a race inspired by Scandinavian peoples known as Norns, with herself fitting the trope, being statuesque, beautiful and blonde.
  • Jingi Storm: One of the sub-bosses in this fighting game is a Norwegian Femme Fatale named "Fenrir". She is blonde-haired, blue-eyed, wears a skin tight outfit with a Navel-Deep Neckline that shows off some of her assets as can be seen here.
  • Annika Svensson in Just Cause 3 is a Swedish mercenary/smuggler that gets the eye of Mario because he is an Amazon Chaser. Not that he can be blamed.
  • Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect was originally a blonde with the Norwegian surname "Solheim". Her surname was changed after an Australian actress was hired to voice her, and the developers thought black hair would suit her Femme Fatale personality better.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: Laughing Octopus is quite pretty if you can get past her mad laughter.
  • Obscure has Norwegian exchange student Sven Hansen. He's every chiseled Nordic stereotype rolled into one, and the girls love him for it.
  • Skyrim, being populated by a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Scandinavians, has no shortage of NPCs of this appearance. Many of the female NPCs have Scandinavian or Celtic-sounding accents, and Nord women themselves were graphically designed to be among the more attractive races in the game, in contrast to the more beastly races, or the elven races who have alien-like elongated skulls and faces.
  • Grø(h), who hails from Norway and debuted in Soulcalibur VI, is an alabaster-skinned, platinum-haired, brooding Pretty Boy and evokes a Nordic Noir-style Anti-Hero. He represents a relatively rare male example of the trope, and an even rarer example of a Nordic male in the Fighting Game genre.
  • Velvet from Them's Fightin' Herds is a reindeer, but she has enough elegance and a high opinion of herself to qualify for this trope. She also speaks with a Scandinavian accent to add to her beauty.
  • Vallah in War Gods is a gorgeous Viking princess clad in a purple Chainmail Bikini.

    Web Comics 
  • Ingrid, of Sandra on the Rocks... isn’t especially tall. Which is the only thing that might save her from being raising this trope to the level of parody
  • Scandinavia and the World:
    • Sister Sweden is based on Danish stereotypes of Swedish women. She's a busty, beautiful, blond and blue-eyed Ms. Fanservice, an Ethical Slut who Really Gets Around. To hammer the point home, a bonus drawing by Humon reveals that her natural breasts are actually larger than Sister America's implants.
    • Sister Iceland (technically not Scandinavian, but definitely Nordic) is also conventionally pretty... as is her brother.
  • In Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuuki, a boy who is fascinated with magical girl anime gets turned into a buxom blonde valkyrie.
  • Stand Still, Stay Silent: Finnish Wrench Wench Tuuri squees at the thought of meeting a Swede, since all Swedes are pretty and tall. The Swedish team member, Emil, is very pretty (complete with Bishie Sparkle and gorgeous hair), but Tuuri is very disappointed that he isn't much taller than her.
    • Sigrun may not have the blonde hair or bishie sparkles, but she at least lived up to Tuuri's expectations for height, despite being Norwegian and not Swedish.

    Western Animation 
  • In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, Carl meets his penpal Elke Elkberg, a cute Swedish girl, for the first time and lies about being a genius to impress her (and though she, too, lied about being a supermodel to impress him, you'd never have guessed).
  • The sweet but naive Ice of Batman: The Brave and the Bold is the cute one, dresses sexily and has a few guys into her.
  • The eponymous Catdog had a Ship Tease with the lovely blonde Ingrid sisters.
  • Skwisgaar Skwigelf from Metalocalypse is a male example. He is Swedish, and out of all the members of Dethklok he is the one who is portrayed as being the most handsome as well as the most successful when it comes to seducing women. (Though it probably doesn't hurt that he has a wider pool of women to seduce, given his lust for MILFs and GMILFs.)
  • "Treehouse of Horror XIV" of The Simpsons: Parodied in the "Frinkenstein" segment. The traffic warden in Stockholm is an attractive woman, slim and blonde, and completely naked. She has just a whistle, white gloves and a police officer's cap. It's used as a gag to set up the scene for the Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden.

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From the November 16, 2019 episode.

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