General News about Joachim, Marie and Family Part 7: January 2024 -


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Article on Joachim and Marie's new home and the exception granted for the residency requirement.

I'm not familiar with these type of requirements.
 
Can you elaborate on the exception? What does the article state?
 
Residence requirement means that the owner of a house must stay on the property at least 180 days a year. If he/she doesn't the owner is obliged to rent the house to a tenant. If the owner does not comply with this the municipality may direct home seekers to the property and take a fine from the owner.
The article states that Joachim was scamming when he asked for exception from the rule (he got one for 4 years instead of the usual 2 years) because he claimed he will spend more time in Dk in the future and that his activities in Dk will increase which turned out not to be true. They have decreased.

My personal thought:
Joachim and Marie bought the house in November 2023. At that time it was known that they actually live in Washington. If the municipality gave them an exemption it was probably not because they believed J&M would spend more time in Dk but because they wanted royals in their community.
And perhaps J&M already knew of his mother's abdication and really thought they would take up more duties in Dk in the future?

In essence the article is about the old problem of Joachim receiving privileges, just because he is the 2nd son of Queen Margrethe.
 
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Interesting. Is there a general rule that people cannot leave a house unoccupied? Does that only apply to houses in Copenhagen or does it apply to multiple cities or even the whole country?

But yes, a clear example of 'class justice' - although I do understand that there might be good reasons for people to have a second home. Here the solution is that they pay higher tax on the house, so that either the home owners decide to sell or rent out - or contribute in another way to the community.
 
It's a general rule, yes.
The purpose being to prevent people buying up homes for investments and otherwise leave them unoccupied. Considering that such homes are very much needed but ordinary taxpaying and working people.
It's also question of it being difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. At the time no one, probably not even J&M knew their future plans.
 
A lovely, yet unseen photo of Marie (probably taken last summer) released for her 49th birthday today, February 6:





 
A documentary with Joachim will be presented in March.
It's about the "Army-road" that is going down south through Jutland down to the border in pre-Viking times.
Today the road is a favorite among hikers, because it's a scenic route most who are in reasonable shape should be able to complete.
Joachim will be accompanied by an author Steffen Jacobsen and they will be chatting away about many things, including the way their lives have turned out and what decisions that made under way. As well as naturally talking about the things they see and pass on their trek. The docu promise to get close to Joachim as a person and on top of that Joachim is a very good teller of historical events and sites which is something he has an impressive knowledge about.
- It should be interesting and worth watching.
Based on the other times Joachim has been allowed to just be himself, outside the royal roadshow and just talk about things he is passionate about, he has left a positive impression on most who have watched him.

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Hærvejen = The Army Road is some 300-400 km long and stretches down into present day Germany.
It's really nothing but a glorified gravel road, but when it was made some 1.500 years ago, probably more, it was one of the few, if not the only, longer road in all of Denmark. (Scandinavia actually.) In fact it was likely founded by a Jute or Anglo king or group of kings.
Someone had likely visited the Roman empire and noticed the roads there and how practical they were, so why not build one in Jutland? But the locals didn't have the knowledge or resources to construct a real paved road like the Romans, so it ended up being a maintained gravel road. And it was a huge success! It's been in use basically up to WWII.
The main idea was for armies to march fast down Jutland to the border, where the real main threat came from. Especially the Carolingians with their annoying tendency to force-Christen people. But in peacetime it served as a trade-route. Fairly well protected by the king's men.
But as for armies go, it really wasn't used that much. Because well into the 1800s Danish armies always sailed in, usually landing behind an invading enemy, cutting them off.
Instead the road was used to transport especially cattle, lots of cattle, down to the German markets to the south. DK has had cowboys too, except that our cowboys walked. DK was a prosperous cattle-country for more than 500 years. So it was actually a quite busy road and the further south the more congested it was.
Of course cattle and people need food, water and shelter. So inns grew up as well as pens for the cattle with hay an what not being brought in to feed the critters. And in time towns grew up, hence why eastern Jutland all the way down into Germany is pretty densely populated, while the rest of Jutland wasn't. At all. Until the later half of the 1800's when the extensive and very desolate Jutlandic moor was put under the plough.
So a lot of historical events have taken place along this road.
 
A new documentary premieres tomorrow that follows Prince Joachim and author Steffen Jacobsen on a journey along the Hærvejen, the historic route that has connected Jutland from north to south for centuries.
A video was shared on the Royal House's social media.

 
Looks fascinating… but when did Jokke have time to come home and film this?
 
Looks fascinating… but when did Jokke have time to come home and film this?
I wondered about that as well. I suppose it was made during his summer holiday in DK. I doubt they walked all 300 or so km of the road, but only selected stretches, but still. It after all requires some preparation.

But I look forward to this, because while King Frederik is very folksy and really good at interacting with people, Joachim is very good as the storyteller, the narrator and explainer of history and general knowledge. This is where the positive traits of his personality shines through.
 
Looks fascinating… but when did Jokke have time to come home and film this?

Back in May 2024, they were spotted filming

some more info

 
More and more is emerging about the docu. Joachim is clearly being pushed to reveal more about who he is. Joachim is and has always been a very private person and this docu was clearly uncomfortable for him. In fact I don't quite understand why he agreed on such a premise and format. Perhaps he felt he needed to go beyond his comfort zone?
It's certainly a different and perhaps more naked Joachim we are seeing.

I have long defined Joachim as being a social introvert. That is he doesn't mind attention on his person or being in a social gathering, but only for a period. He prefers the company of a small select group of people. And he has a considerable need to be alone or at least only being with those he is most comfortable with. Which would be Marie and his children.
I think he very much on guard in regards to exposing too much of himself, both by nature and by experience.

I believe people who a very extrovert will have difficulty understanding Joachim, but people who are introvert will relate to him.

There are a couple of articles I have seen, with a number of quotes I'd like to translate. Google doesn't do justice in that regards.
I'm sure the docu will end up on TV eventually.
 
Some details about what Joachim said about himself in the docu I wrote about yesterday.
It seems clear that there are a number of topics, that were not up for discussion. Like the title-crisis and Joachim's stroke as well as QMII's abdication.
Back in 1988 in France, he and Frederik and a couple of friends were involved in a car crash and it could have ended very tragically. QMII was hopping mad and had J&F paraded in front of the press and the two lads didn't look too proud of themselves.
"I was 19, my brother was 20. Two friends in the car. A car approached in the blind angle and when I notice it it's too late to hit the brakes, and the the slide-out begins (or perhaps drifting, in more modern terms).
I realized that the accident is inevitable, so I let go of the steering wheel and thought: Come what may. Then the roll begins. We are weightless and then we land on the roof.
It was a near-death experience. When the car falls down I sense I touch something. The first thing on my mind is that it's the glass-roof, but no, that's already open. It was just dirt and twigs. My passenger is too quiet than he ought to be, so I hit him, gets a reaction. Good, there is life."

He notice that his brother and the other passenger are no longer in the car.
"My brother is standing at the edge of the river and tends to his sore shoulder. First reaction is: Everybody is breathing."

His next thought was that the situation needed to get under control.
"We have postcards in the card, possessions, number plates, all that, collect it, keep it on me. A prince and a monarch (surely he means future monarch) in the car. Nothing in this car is anyone's business, because this might become very interesting."

Peter Heering, who was one of the passengers tells his version here:

(Ups! I hit post, but there is actually more to come, check back later).

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Joachim also talks about loneliness. Something he first got to experience personally after the divorce from Alexandra.
"It wasn't loneliness as in alone-alone. It was the loneliness that I had done something that was definitive. Necessary. The first time since forever within my family and also something that would shock a heck of a lot of people.
It was divorce. There I stood in the strange loneliness that I was measured on everything as if it had never been done before."

Q: Did he feel guilt in regards to the divorce?
"Yes, towards everything and everybody. The loneliness, that way of feeling loneliness, that affected me a lot."

Q: Was it a kind of depression?
"It was of course that. In some form. The depression from failing."

(Note: This is not a 100 % literal translation. In order to make this easier to read and understand I have cut corners here and there and simplified things, because spoken Danish, especially if the person is thinking while talking, is of course different from written Danish. And Joachim has his speech-style that is not always simple to translate.)

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What is Joachim afraid of?
"That I cannot protect mine." (His family. See why I don't translate 100 %).
"The protection is physical until they are big enough. And when they are big enough it changes to counseling, sometime with raised index-fingers and you clear the path, so they can't do anything else." (Minimize the risk of them falling astray.)

But he does appreciate that his children dare speak up against him.
"There where I look at my oldest, there where I stand and say: How wonderful that someone dare speak up against me, laugh with me and for me."

The author who is co-hosting the film, can't help feeling a little sorry for Joachim's family having to endure historical lectures. How does Marie handle that? No problem.
"She can simply put me in my place. She's probably the only person who can see straight through so and so many filters and fogs."

Gotta stop now. More later. - Well, hopefully tomorrow.
 
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Thank you Muhler.
Always appreciate the translations and insights from native speakers.
 
So many things are happening these days, but here is the last article about the docu, that some may find interesting.
During the docu, Both Joachim and the author who is a second host of the docu, which has the old road through Jutland as the background, talk about history and events, but they also tell about themselves.
The other host, author and doctor Steffen Jacobsen has had a pretty rough upbringing. Joachim listens but does not ask further into what is told, which irritates Steffen Jacobsen: "Is one supposed to send you a telegram, or what?!?"
J: "That is probably my greatest handicap." - Seemingly not appearing interested.
Q: What keeps you from asking more into me?
J: "That's exactly where my handicap becomes pronounced. I perhaps have a sense of stepping too far. I haven't myself experienced that much hardship at all."
Q: Surely you must also be interested in other people?
Joachim confirms that he is indeed.

Joachim is also good at talking around a question.
J: "I have a spring-loaded (automatic) reaction in not answering in syllables, but nor directly as such questions, and I'm told that at home daily. So heck, it ain't just you.
I find it enormously difficult get straight to the point, but I find it even more difficult to explain what triggers that automatic defense mechanism."

Joachim does get praise at the end of the docu:
"You've become better at appearing interested - I'm glad we reached that point."

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It was very difficult to translate what Joachim said while making sure that the way he says it is evident as well.
I have the impression that Joachim is a very reserved, private and guarded person, who perhaps has rarely felt rewarded when he has lat his guard down, so now the shields are up all the time.
 
Very interesting. Thank you for the translations!
 
The part of Joachim not being able to ask any follow-up questions when someone shares about their life does sound a bit concerning. Especially as he even explains that he cannot relate, so apparently doesn’t know how to have a conversation…
 
Strange why? Are you implying they weren't invited?

While, at a stretch, I suppose one can argue that Joachim was indispensable, Marie's role at the embassy certainly is not significant enough that she couldn't actively choose to return home alone with the kids for two major family celebrations (and tend to some of her patronages – that the DRF mindlessly claimed wouldn't be affected by the couple's dispatch abroad – while in the country).

At the end of the day, Joachim and especially Marie, it seems, almost pointedly decide to miss out on family events. I assume they remain bitter about the removal of their children's titles which strikes me as deeply childish more than 2 years after the fact and, seemingly, with Nikolai and Felix both having moved on.

Interesting, how many family events have the couple missed?
 
So many things are happening these days, but here is the last article about the docu, that some may find interesting.
During the docu, Both Joachim and the author who is a second host of the docu, which has the old road through Jutland as the background, talk about history and events, but they also tell about themselves.
The other host, author and doctor Steffen Jacobsen has had a pretty rough upbringing. Joachim listens but does not ask further into what is told, which irritates Steffen Jacobsen: "Is one supposed to send you a telegram, or what?!?"
J: "That is probably my greatest handicap." - Seemingly not appearing interested.
Q: What keeps you from asking more into me?
J: "That's exactly where my handicap becomes pronounced. I perhaps have a sense of stepping too far. I haven't myself experienced that much hardship at all."
Q: Surely you must also be interested in other people?
Joachim confirms that he is indeed.

Joachim is also good at talking around a question.
J: "I have a spring-loaded (automatic) reaction in not answering in syllables, but nor directly as such questions, and I'm told that at home daily. So heck, it ain't just you.
I find it enormously difficult get straight to the point, but I find it even more difficult to explain what triggers that automatic defense mechanism."

Joachim does get praise at the end of the docu:
"You've become better at appearing interested - I'm glad we reached that point."

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It was very difficult to translate what Joachim said while making sure that the way he says it is evident as well.
I have the impression that Joachim is a very reserved, private and guarded person, who perhaps has rarely felt rewarded when he has lat his guard down, so now the shields are up all the time.
While Joachim is the by far best speaker in the DRF (when it comes to holding prepared speeches) he is definitely also a very shy and reserved person… I agree that he gives the impression to feel misunderstood so nowdays he never lets anyone close anymore…

He is a very different personality from Margrethe and Frederik, both in good and bad ways… He reminds a lot of his father but he is more shy and reserved than i think PH ever was…
 
I get the sense with Joachim that he’s been frustrated by many people and is also very hesitant about taking up with new people and giving them trust, even on a casual level. He does have sufficient skills to do diplomatic business and narrate things as well as have a lovely blended family, so perhaps we needn’t worry about him too much. I can think of worse royals.

He reminds a lot of his father but he is more shy and reserved than i think PH ever was…

As always he reminds me of his mother; I think he is Margrethe with a more difficult upbringing and never having had to learn the “heir/monarch pleasantries etiquette” his mother steeped in for decades — and yet even now, with her brilliant reign and many gifts, we’re told that when there’s no routine for her to do or say, she reverts to being shy and awkward.
 
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