Ola Nordmann

Ola Nordmann is a national personification of Norwegians, either for individuals or collectively.

Caricatures of Ola Nordmann as a national personification of Norway usually depict him as a blond-haired man dressed in bunad-like traditional folk clothing and wearing a woollen red top cap - the traditional headwear of a Norwegian gnome or nisse.

In the romantic national period, the farmer often came to represent the Norwegian people as a whole, hence the representation.

Ola Nordmann is also used as a default name in examples used to guide people in how to fill in forms etc.

(similar to Joe Bloggs in the UK or John Doe in America).

Caricatures of Ola Nordmann are quite common. This is a drawing from 1905 by caricaturist Olaf Krohn illustrating how Ola Nordmann had to carry the burden of two referendums (The 1905 Norwegian union dissolution referendum and Norwegian monarchy plebiscite, 1905 , both of which resulted in some of the most lopsided returns of a legitimate election) in one year, while an amused Europa regina is observing from a distance.