In many European countries, vigilante groups have started to patrol the streets. Claiming that the police is either unable or unwilling to do what is needed to provide security for native citizens against alleged threats posed by criminal migrants, vigilante groups maintain they will help the police to keep the streets safe. One variety of this phenomenon, the Soldiers of Odin, is the fastest growing movement of this kind. After a Finnish neo-Nazi established the first group in autumn 2016, it has spread to at least a dozen other countries. Some of these groups have a distinct right-wing extremist profile and do not hide that they are vigilantes. These vigilante groups appear to have very different profiles in different European countries and achieve very different levels of acceptance and legitimacy. Whether their operational environments are or permissive or repressive is likely to have a significant impact on how these groups appear and behave. They seem to have a far greater operational leeway in some countries in the south and east of Europe than they have in the north and west, such as in Norway, where they are very restricted by opposition from the police and all the mainstream political parties. To accommodate this environment, Soldiers of Odin Norway has been careful to avoid any expressions of xenophobic, anti-Islamist or right-wing extremist views, or any aggressive or violent behavior during their patrols. They also deny that they are a vigilante movement. It is still striking that their visual communication – name, symbols and posture – is militaristic, intimidating and nationalistic – even if their verbal statements and behavior is not. Another striking pattern is that those who are actually patrolling the streets are predominantly young men in their 20s and 30s with a criminal past, frequently known as troublemakers by the local police, who do not want their help to keep the streets safe. This paper will describe and discuss the taming of the Norwegian chapters of the Soldiers of Odin.
