Talk:Scandinavian cross

The Scandinavian cross is defined by the shift of the cross center towards the hoist. Yes, the white-on-red cross of Denmark is medieval, but it was not a "Scandinavian cross", it was just another instance of the same crusader flag also used by Savoy etc. The introduction of the "hoistward shift" is substantiated for 1748 in Denmark, and only spread to the other flags of Scandinavian countries during their modern history of various unions. We have an article claiming that a Flag of the Kalmar Union of 1430 had such a cross, but it is completely unreferenced. It used to suggest that
 * "In all likelihood this cross would have been set slightly to the left as known from the flag of Denmark and the (subsequent) flags of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland."

which can be ignored as unreferenced even before noting that it seems to assume the shift to the "left" (hoist) for the flag of Denmark to predate 1430, which is not even claimed (with or without reference) in the flag of Denmark article.

As for why the center was shifted, I assume it was a natural result of adopting tailed pennants into rectangular shape, but that idea should of course be verified in some sort of credible reference. --dab (𒁳) 12:22, 29 January 2015 (UTC)