Skessa!

I wanted a tribute to some of the very cool European teams out there. When I was still playing roller derby, there was beginning to be a bit of an outcry that all of the major events were being held in the United States, despite flat track derby being more and more of an international affair. This created hardships for European skaters who had to travel overseas to participate in damn near anything. That's no longer the case. But before there were Continental Cups, a lovely team from Norway visited my little corner of the States. The leagues in my area were pretty evenly matched with them. They also wanted some experience playing different teams and to get a solid footing in the rankings. (If I remember this all correctly!) They had the most adorable pre-game rituals involving traditional children's songs - think "Ring Around the Rosy" or "Duck Duck Goose." I must admit I also put A-ha's Take On Me on the jukebox at the afterparty and enjoyed watching them go absolutely nuts. Shoutout to my cohorts in Trondheim, and thanks to VH1's Pop-Up Video for the vital information that A-ha is a Norwegian act.

It's been such an on-and-off process that I can't remember whether Rorasuketo started out with nods to the Norwegian or Swedish language first. But your second bout is against Team Fjell ("mountain"). My stepmother-in-law spent some time in Norway and said that the mythical trolls of the region would make for a good parallel to a fearsome derby skater, so our boss for Team Fjell is the dreaded jammer, Skessa ("troll"). I'm still not sure how I feel about the foreshortening here, so I might keep tweaking it.

 

The Swedish nods, meanwhile (I do believe Stockholm was a major contender while I was beginning work on Rora, so I wanted some representation from there, too), come via the fictional brand, Skinka Skates. Skinka, at least according to Google, translates to "ham." I think I was shooting for something about how the boots might be leather, but also searching for a word that sounded pleasing to my ear. Models of skate include the Snaab, "fast," and the Mordare, "murderer." If any followers from up north have corrections or concerns, I'm interested.