# That's Sir King Penguin to You. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 16, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177 "2008-08-16T02:09:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177/1 "2008-08-16T02:09:58Z")
This made me smile today. Go Nils! [King Penguin Knighted](http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Nils-Olav-The-King-Penguin-At-Edinburgh-Zoo-To-Get-Norway-Knighthood/Article/200808215078756) I heard about this on NPR today. For a minute, I felt like Monty Python had come to life–this sounds like something they would have done. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177/2 "2008-08-16T03:52:29Z")
Well only if they couldn’t’ find an albatross to knight. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177/3 "2008-08-16T04:29:14Z")
It’s Norway, that explains everything. (Alright, everything I know about Norwegian royalty I learned from Casey & Andy. Still.) ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177/4 "2008-08-16T04:50:50Z")
Suddenly I have mental images of a viking penguin. 🙂 Perhaps a bit like the Rathergood viking kittens but different. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177/5 "2008-08-16T14:29:29Z")
Doesn’t a king penguin already outrank a knight? I see this as a first step toward unifying the Royal Families of Norway and Antarctica. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2008, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177/6 "2008-08-16T14:34:17Z")
The soldier who gave the speech prior to the knighting pointed out the marked resemblance of Norwegian soldiers to penguins: they are both black and white, they like to be in groups, they dress formally, and they are good natured. (or something along those lines). Then she read off a thing from King Olav and Nils Olav got duly knighted (complete with sword to his “shoulders”). Apparently the penguin ate it up! 😃 I wish more news was like this story. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177/7 "2008-08-18T03:54:57Z")
This story makes me warm and fuzzy inside. +1 ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2008, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thats-sir-king-penguin-to-you/460177/8 "2008-08-18T17:13:48Z")
I found this out recently from another story associated with the same photo. In that story, they were reporting that the penguin was Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian King’s Guard. I looked this up on [wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Olav) to see how this worked. Wiki noted that > [@](#): > > He is the first penguin to hold this rank in the Norwegian army. 😃