Scandinavia is a geographical
regionA subregion is a conceptual unit which derives from a larger region or continent and is usually based on location. Cardinal directions, such as south or southern, are commonly used to define a subregion.-United Nations subregions:...
in
northern EuropeNorthern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:** ** ** Ireland** Svalbard and Jan Mayen** ** Channel Islands: and...
that includes, and is named after, the
Scanian ProvinceScania is a geographical region on the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, an occupied province in the Kingdom of Sweden, before 1658 a province in the Kingdom of Denmark and part of the historical lands of Denmark.To the north, it borders the provinces Halland, Småland and Blekinge,...
. It consists of the kingdoms of
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
,
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
, and
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
. While some authorities argue for the inclusion of
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
and
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
, in Scandinavia the term is used unambiguously to refer only to Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Regardless of how the term
Scandinavia is used outside the region, the terms
Nordic countriesThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
and
Nordic region are used officially and unambiguously to identify the nations of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland as well as the Danish territory of the
Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe, or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland...
and the Finnish territory of Åland as politically and culturally similar entities.
Terminology and usage
"Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question, as well as interpretation by outsiders who attempt to give the term their own meaning. The term is, therefore, often defined according to the conventions of the cultures that lay claim to the term in their own usage. The clearest example of the use of the term "Scandinavia" as a political and cultural construct is the unique position of Finland, based largely on it having been part of Sweden, thus to much of the world properly associating Finland with all of Scandinavia. But the creation of a Finnish identity is unique in the region in that it was formed in relation to two different imperial models, the Swedish and the Russian, as described by the
University of JyväskyläThe University of Jyväskylä is a university in Jyväskylä, Finland. It has its origins in the first Finnish-speaking teacher training college , founded in 1863. Around 16,000 students are currently enrolled in the degree programs of the university...
based editorial board of the Finnish journal
Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History;
Variations in usage
Worldwide, casual and unofficial use of the term "Scandinavia" is a common reference to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, but also includes Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. The larger region that some English-speaking nations refer to as "Scandinavia" is officially known by the actual countries concerned as Norden, or the Nordic Countries, a political entity as well as cultural region where the ties between the countries are not merely historical and cultural, but based on official membership in the
Nordic CouncilThe Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers are an intergovernmental forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders...
. Some American-English dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, do not include the names "Nordic Countries" or "Nordic Council". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary instead defines Nordic as an adjective dated to 1898 with the meaning "of or relating to the
Germanic peoplesThe Germanic peoples are a historical ethno-linguistic group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age...
of
northern EuropeNorthern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:** ** ** Ireland** Svalbard and Jan Mayen** ** Channel Islands: and...
and especially of Scandinavia."
The use of the name Scandinavia as a convenient general term for the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden is also fairly recent; according to some historians, it was adopted and introduced in the 18th century, at a time when the ideas about a common heritage started to appear and develop into early literary and linguistic
ScandinavismScandinavism and Nordism are literary and political movements that support various degrees of cooperation between the Scandinavian or Nordic countries...
. Before this time, the term
Scandinavia was familiar mainly to classical scholars through
Pliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an author, naturalist, and natural philosopher as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
's writings, and was used vaguely for Scania and the southern region of the peninsula.
As a political term, "Scandinavia" was first used by students agitating for
Pan-ScandinavianismScandinavism and Nordism are literary and political movements that support various degrees of cooperation between the Scandinavian or Nordic countries...
in the 1830s. The popular usage of the term in Sweden, Denmark and Norway as a unifying concept became established in the 19th century through poems such
Hans Christian AndersenHans Christian Andersen was a Danish author and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Little Match Girl", and the "The Ugly Duckling".During his lifetime he was acclaimed for having delighted...
's "I am a Scandinavian" of 1839. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism and in a letter describing the poem to a friend, he wrote: "All at once I understood how related the Swedes, the Danes and the Norwegians are, and with this feeling I wrote the poem immediately after my return: 'We are one people, we are called Scandinavians!'". The historic popular usage is also reflected in the name chosen for the shared, multi-national airline,
Scandinavian Airlines SystemScandinavian Airlines System is the multi-national airline of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the leading carrier in these Scandinavian countries. Its home base is at Stockholm, Sweden. and owned by SAS AB. It is a founding member of the Star Alliance and the founder of Air Greenland, Linjeflyg,...
, a carrier originally owned jointly by the governments of the three countries, along with private investors.
Cultural and tourism promotional organizations
Various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(such as
The American-Scandinavian FoundationThe American-Scandinavian Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting international understanding through educational and cultural exchange between the United States and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden...
, established in 1910 by the Danish-American industrialist Niels Poulsen) serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. Today, the five Nordic Heads of State act as the organization's patrons and according to the official statement by the organization, its mission is "to promote the Nordic region as a whole while increasing the visibility of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in New York City and the United States." The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, such as the Scandinavian Tourist Board. The cooperation was introduced for the Asian market in 1986, when the Swedish national tourist board joined the Danish national tourist board to coordinate international promotions of the two countries. Norway entered one year later. All five Nordic countries participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Boards in North America.
Use of Nordic countries vs. Scandinavia
While the term
Scandinavia is most commonly used for Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the term
the Nordic countriesThe Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
is used unambiguously for Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland, including their associated territories (Greenland, the Faroes, and Åland). Scandinavia can thus be considered a subset of the Nordic countries.
In addition to mainland Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the Nordic countries consist of:
- Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
(a sovereignSovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
republicA republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "a public affair".Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their...
, independent since 1917)
- Iceland
The Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
(a sovereignSovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
republicA republic is a form of government in which the head of state is not a monarch and the people have an impact on its government. The word 'republic' is derived from the Latin phrase res publica which can be translated as "a public affair".Both modern and ancient republics vary widely in their...
, independent since 1944)
and
- Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe, or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland...
(an autonomous region of Denmark since 1948)
- Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
(a self-governingSelf-governance is an abstract concept that refers to several scales of organization. It may refer to personal conduct or family units but more commonly refers to larger scale activities, i.e., professions, industry bodies, religions and political units, up to and including autonomous regions and...
Danish territory since 1979)
- Åland (an autonomous province of Finland since 1920)
- Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean, 55 km long and 373 km
2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km wide...
(an integrated geographical body of Norway)
- Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Europe, about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. It consists of a group of islands ranging from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The archipelago is the northernmost part of Norway. Three...
(under Norwegian sovereigntySovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
since 1920)
EstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by the Russian Federation...
has applied for membership in the
Nordic CouncilThe Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers are an intergovernmental forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders...
, referring to its cultural heritage and close linguistic links to Finland, although normally Estonia is regarded as one of the
Baltic countriesThe Baltic states , Baltic Nations or Baltic countries are three countries in Northern Europe, all members of the European Union: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania...
. All Baltic states have shared historical events with the Nordic countries, including Scandinavia, during the centuries.
Etymology
Scandinavia and
ScaniaScania is a geographical region on the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, an occupied province in the Kingdom of Sweden, before 1658 a province in the Kingdom of Denmark and part of the historical lands of Denmark.To the north, it borders the provinces Halland, Småland and Blekinge,...
(
Skåne) are considered to have the same etymology. Both terms are thought to be derived from the Germanic root *
Skaðin-awjō, which appears later in Old English as
Scedenig and in
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
as
Skáney. The earliest identified source for the name Scandinavia is
Pliny the ElderGaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an author, naturalist, and natural philosopher as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
's Natural History, dated to the 1st century AD.
Various references to the region can also be found in
PytheasPytheas of Massilia , 4th century BC, was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony, Massilia . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe at about 325 BC. He travelled around and visited a considerable part of Great Britain. Some of his observations may refer to...
,
Pomponius MelaPomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer.His little work is a mere compendium, occupying less than one hundred pages of ordinary print, dry in style and deficient in method, but of pure Latinity, and occasionally relieved by pleasing word-pictures...
,
TacitusPublius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
,
PtolemyClaudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Greek ancestry. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under the Roman Empire, and is believed to have been born in the town of...
,
ProcopiusProcopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
and
JordanesJordanes , was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat , who turned his hand to history later in life.Though he also wrote Romana, a book about the history of Rome, his most known work is his Getica, written in Constantinople about AD 551...
. It is believed that the name used by Pliny may be of
West GermanicThe West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as English, Dutch and Afrikaans, German, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish...
origin, originally denoting Scania. According to some scholars, the Germanic stem can be reconstructed as *
Skaðan- meaning "danger" or "damage" (English
scathing, German
Schaden). The second segment of the name has been reconstructed as *
awjo, meaning "land on the water" or "island". The name Scandinavia would then mean "dangerous island", which is considered to be a reference to the treacherous sandbanks surrounding Scania.
SkanörSkanör med Falsterbo is a city situated in Vellinge Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 6,861 inhabitants in 2005.It is a conurbation consisting of the two former towns of Skanör and Falsterbo. Both towns are located on the elongated reef-like western part of the Falsterbo Peninsula, Falsterbo...
in Scania, with its long Falsterbo reef, has the same stem (
skan) combined with -
ör, which means "sandbanks".
In the reconstructed Germanic root *
Skaðin-awjō (the edh represented in Latin by t or d), the first segment is sometimes considered more uncertain than the second segment. The American Heritage Dictionary derives the second segment from
Proto-Indo-EuropeanThe Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The existence of such a language has been accepted by linguists for over a century, and there have been many attempts at reconstruction...
*akwa-, "water", in the sense of "watery land". Gothic
saiws, "lake" is one of the Germanic groups which include English
sea and German
See. However, according to the Indo-European Dictionary (IEED), a research project of the Department of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at
Leiden UniversityLeiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by Prince William of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
, the second segment may not have an Indo-European etymology. The IEED states that
UralicThe Uralic languages constitute a language family of 39 languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
evidence has long been recognized for this segment, namely the Finnic
saivo ("'transparent place in the sea'") and the Norwegian-Lappish
saivvƒ ("'(holy) lake, idol'"). Some scholars have found a parallel between the Uralic evidence and the area's old mythology and belief systems, where the soul of mankind is believed to dwell in water until birth and return there after death. IEED lists a Germanic reconstruction that indicates a similar connection to
metaphysicsMetaphysics investigates principles of reality transcending those of any particular science. Cosmology and ontology are traditional branches of metaphysics. It is concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world...
, namely
*saiwa-lō ("soul"), appearing as
saiwala in
GothicGothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th century copy of a 4th century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable corpus...
and
sēle in
Old FrisianOld Frisian is a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Elbe on the European North Sea coast. Whether the speakers of Frisian are the immediate descendants of the Frisians of Roman times or immigrants from North Germany and Denmark is...
.
Pliny the Elder's descriptions
Pliny's descriptions of
Scatinavia and surrounding areas are not always easy to decipher, even though his writing of geography was what he considered a "
clarior fama" ("a clearer story"). Writing in the capacity of a Roman admiral, he introduces the northern region by declaring to his Roman readers that there are 23 islands "
Romanis armis cognitae" ("known to Roman arms") in this area. According to Pliny, the most "
clarissima" ("famous") of the region's islands is
Scatinavia, of unknown size. There live the
HillevionesThe Hilleviones were a people occupying an island called Scatinavia in the first century AD, according to the Roman geographer Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia , written circa 77 AD...
. The belief that Scandinavia was an island became widespread among classical authors during the first century and dominated descriptions of Scandinavia in classical texts during the centuries that followed.
Pliny begins his description of the route to
Scatinavia by referring to the mountain of Saevo (
mons Saevo ibi), the Codanus Bay (
Codanus sinus) and the Cimbrian promontory. The geographical features have been identified in various ways; by some scholars "Saevo" is thought to be the mountainous
NorwegianNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
coast at the entrance to
SkagerrakThe Skagerrak is a strait running between Norway and the southwest coast of Sweden and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area, which leads to the Baltic Sea.-Name:...
and the
CimbriThe Cimbri were a tribe from Northern Europe, who, together with the Teutones and the Ambrones threatened the Roman Republic in the late 2nd century BC. The Cimbri were probably Germanic, though some believe them to be of Celtic origin...
an peninsula is thought to be
SkagenSkagen is a projection of land and a town in Region Nordjylland on the northernmost tip of Vendsyssel-Thy, a part of the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark. Skagen is located in Frederikshavn municipality.-Geography:...
, the north tip of
JutlandJutland , historically also called Cimbria, forms the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish-German border to its south...
,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
. As described, Saevo and Scatinavia can also be the same place.
Pliny mentions Scandinavia one more time: in Book VIII he says that the animal called
achlis (given in the accusative,
achlin, which is not Latin), was born on the island of Scandinavia. The animal grazes, has a big upper lip and some mythical attributes.
The name "
ScandiaScandia was a name used for various uncharted islands in Northern Europe by the first Greek and Roman geographers. The name originated in Greek sources, where it had been used for a long time for different islands in the Mediterranean region...
", later used as a synonym for Scandinavia, also appears in Pliny's Naturalis Historia, but is used for a group of
Northern EuropeNorthern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:** ** ** Ireland** Svalbard and Jan Mayen** ** Channel Islands: and...
an islands which he locates north of
BritanniaBritannia was the term used by the Romans to refer to the Roman province covering much of the island of Great Britain. The area beyond the Antonine Wall belonging to the Picts in the north was known as Caledonia. The name itself derives from Pretannia, Diodorus's rendering of the indigenous name...
. "Scandia" thus does not appear to be denoting the island Scadinavia in Pliny's text. The idea that "
Scadinavia" may have been one of the "
Scandiae" islands was instead introduced by
PtolemyClaudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Greek ancestry. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under the Roman Empire, and is believed to have been born in the town of...
(c.90 – c.168 AD), a mathematician, geographer and astrologer of Roman Egypt. He used the name "
Skandia" for the biggest, most easterly of the three "
Scandiai" islands, which according to him were all located east of
JutlandJutland , historically also called Cimbria, forms the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish-German border to its south...
.
Neither Pliny's nor Ptolemy's lists of Scandinavian tribes include the
SuionesThe Swedes were an ancient North Germanic tribe in Scandinavia...
mentioned by Tacitus. Some early Swedish scholars of the Swedish Hyperborean school and of the 19th-century
romantic nationalismRomantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
period proceeded to synthesize the different versions by inserting references to the Suiones, arguing that they must have been referred to in the original texts and obscured over time by spelling mistakes or various alterations.
Germanic reconstruction
The Latin names in Pliny's text gave rise to different forms in medieval Germanic texts. In Jordanes' history of the
GothsThe Goths were a heterogeneous East Germanic tribe. The historian Jordanes claimed that the Goths arrived from semi-legendary Scandza, believed to be somewhere in modern Götaland , and that a Gothic population had crossed the Baltic Sea before the 2nd century, lending their name to the region of...
(AD 551) the form
ScandzaScandza was the name given to Scandinavia by the Roman historian Jordanes in his work Getica, written about AD 551 in Constantinople. He described the area to set the stage for his treatment of the Goths' migration from Scandinavia to Gothiscandza. His account contains several accurate descriptions...
is used for their original home, separated by sea from the land of Europe (chapter 1, 4). Where Jordanes meant to locate this quasi-legendary island is still a hotly debated issue, both in scholarly discussions and in the nationalistic discourse of various European countries.
The form
Scadinavia as the original home of the
LangobardsThe Lombards were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italy in 568 under the leadership of Alboin. They established a Kingdom of Italy which lasted until 774, when it was conquered by the Franks...
appears in Paulus Diaconus'
Historia Langobardorum; in other versions of
Historia Langobardorum appear the forms
Scadan,
Scandanan,
Scadanan and
Scatenauge. Frankish sources used
Sconaowe and Aethelweard, an Anglo-Saxon historian, used
Scani. In
BeowulfBeowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of unknown authorship, dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between the 8th and the early 11th century, set in Denmark and Sweden...
, the forms
Scedenige and
Scedeland are used, while the
AlfredianAlfred the Great , was king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex from 871 to 899. Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English king to be given the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to...
translation of
OrosiusPaulus Orosius was a Christian historian, theologian and disciple of Augustine of Hippo from Gallaecia. He is best known for his Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri VII , which he wrote in response to the belief that the decline of the Roman Empire was the result of its adoption of...
and
WulfstanWulfstan of Hedeby was a late 9th century traveller and trader. His travel accounts, as well as those of another trader, Ohthere, were included in Alfred the Great's translation of Orosius' Histories...
's travel accounts used the Old English
Sconeg.
The first segment in "Scandinavia" is also sometimes attributed to
Norse mythologyNorse, North Germanic, or Scandinavian mythology comprises the myths of North Germanic pre-Christian religion.Most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled in medieval Iceland in Old Norse, notably as the Edda....
, namely the Scandinavian giantess
SkaðiIn Norse mythology, Skaði is a jötunn and goddess associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains...
(Skade).
Sami etymology
The earliest
SamiSami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami languages: Saami,...
yoikYoik, Joik, Luohti, Vuolle or juoiggus is a traditional Sami form of song.Originally, yoik referred to only one of several Sami singing styles, but in English the word is often used to refer to all types of traditional Sami singing...
texts written down refer to the world as
Skadesi-suolo (north-Sami) and
Skađsuâl (east-Sami), meaning "
SkaðiIn Norse mythology, Skaði is a jötunn and goddess associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains...
's island" (Svennung 1963). Svennung considers the Sami name to have been introduced as a loan word from the
North Germanic languagesThe North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages...
; "
SkaðiIn Norse mythology, Skaði is a jötunn and goddess associated with bowhunting, skiing, winter, and mountains...
" is the
giantThe mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...
stepmother of
FreyrFreyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with agriculture, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...
and Freyja in
Norse mythologyNorse, North Germanic, or Scandinavian mythology comprises the myths of North Germanic pre-Christian religion.Most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled in medieval Iceland in Old Norse, notably as the Edda....
. It has been suggested that Skaði to some extent is modeled on a Sami woman. The name for Skade's father Thjazi is known in Sami as
Čáhci, "the waterman", and her son with Odin, Saeming, can be interpreted as a descendent of
Saam the Sami population (Mundel 2000), (Steinsland 1991). Older joik texts give evidence of the old Sami belief about living on an island and state that the wolf is known as
suolu gievra, meaning "the strong one on the island". The Sami place name
Sulliidčielbma means "the island's threshold" and
Suoločielgi means "the island's back".
In recent
substrateIn linguistics, a stratum or strate is a language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum is a language which is influenced by another, while a superstratum is the language that exerts the influence...
studies, Sami linguists have examined the initial cluster sk- in words used in Sami and concluded that sk- is a phonotactic structure of non-native origin.
Other etymologies
Scadin- can be segmented various ways to obtain various Indo-European meanings: scand- or scad-in-, scan- or sca-din, scandin or scadin-. These segmentations have resulted in a number of possible etymologies, such as "climbing island" (*scand-), "island of the Scythian people", "island of the woodland of *sca-".
Another possibility is that all or part of the segments of the name came from the
indigenousThe term indigenous peoples can be used to describe any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants who have populated the region and may be greater in number...
MesolithicThe Mesolithic or "Middle Stone Age" was a period in the development of human technology in between the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age and the Neolithic or New Stone Age. The term was introduced by John Lubbock in his work Pre-historic Times, published in 1865. The term was, however, not much used...
people inhabiting the region. Today Scandinavia is a peninsula, but between approximately 10,300
BPBefore Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use 1 January 1950 as the arbitrary origin of the age scale...
and 9,500 BP, the southern part of Scandinavia was an island separated from the northern peninsula, with water exiting the
Baltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
through the area where
Stockholm' is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag , and the official residence of the Swedish Monarch as well as the prime minister. The Monarch resides at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm since 1980 and uses the Royal Palace of...
is now located.
Some
BasqueBasque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is the mother tongue of approximately one fifth of Basques, 632,000 out of nearly 3,000,000...
scholars have presented the idea that the segment
sk that appears in *Ska∂inaujàin is connected to the name for the Euzko peoples, akin to Basques, that populated
PaleolithicThe Paleolithic or Palaeolithic Age, Era, or Period, or Old Stone Age, is a prehistoric era distinguished by the development of the first stone tools, and covers roughly 99% of human technological history...
Europe. According to some of these intellectuals, the Scandinavians share some
genetic markerA genetic marker is a gene or DNA sequence with a known location on a chromosome and associated with a particular gene or trait. It can be described as a variation, which may arise due to mutation or alteration in the genomic loci, that can be observed...
s with the
Basque peopleThe Basques are the native people of the Basque Country .The Basques as an ethnic group primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country, a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-eastern Spain...
.
The name of the Scandinavian mountain range,
Skanderna in Swedish, was artificially derived from
Skandinavien in the 19th century, in analogy with
Alperna for the Alps. The commonly used names are
bergen or
fjällen; both names meaning "the mountains".
Geography
The geography of Scandinavia is extremely varied. Notable are the
Norwegian fjords, the
Scandinavian MountainsThe Scandinavian Mountains, in Swedish Skanderna, Fjällen or Kölen , in Finnish Köli and in Norwegian Kjølen, with the three latter meaning The Keel, are a mountain range that runs through the Scandinavian Peninsula...
, the flat, low areas in Denmark, and the
archipelagoAn archipelago is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago is directly derived from the Greek arkhon and pelagos...
s of Sweden and Norway. Sweden, and to an even greater extent Finland, has many lakes and moraines, legacies of the ice age.
The climate varies from north to south and from west to east; a marine west coast climate (Cfb) typical of western Europe dominates in Denmark, southernmost part of Sweden and along the west coast of Norway reaching north to 65°N, with
orographic liftOrographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it expands and cools adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and create clouds and, under the right conditions,...
giving more than 2000 mm/year
precipitationIn meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the Earth's surface. The main forms of precipitation include rain, snow, ice pellets, and graupel...
(<5000 mm) in some areas in western Norway. The central part - from
Oslois the capital and largest city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the town was largely destroyed by a fire in 1624. The Danish–Norwegian king Christian IV rebuilt the city as Christiania . Oslo, then an alternative name, became official again in 1925...
to
Stockholm' is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag , and the official residence of the Swedish Monarch as well as the prime minister. The Monarch resides at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm since 1980 and uses the Royal Palace of...
- has a
humid continental climateThe humid continental climate is a climate found over large areas of landmasses in the temperate regions of the mid-latitudes where there is a zone of conflict between polar and tropical air masses. The humid continental climate is marked by variable weather patterns and a large seasonal...
(Dfb), which gradually gives way to
subarctic climateRegions having a subarctic climate are characterized by long, usually very cold winters, and short, cool to mild summers. It is found on large landmasses, away from the moderating effects of an ocean, generally at latitudes from 50° to 70°N poleward of the humid continental climates...
(Dfc) further north and cool marine west coast climate (Cfc) along the northwestern coast. A small area along the northern coast east of the
North CapeNorth Cape is a cape on the island of Magerøya in northern Norway, in the municipality of Nordkapp. Its 307 m high, steep cliff is often referred to as the northernmost point of Europe, located at , 2102.3 km from the North Pole. However, the neighbouring point Knivskjellodden is actually 1,457...
has tundra climate (Et) due to lack of summer warmth. The Scandinavian Mountains block the mild and moist air coming from the southwest, thus northern Sweden and
FinnmarksviddaFinnmarksvidda is Norway's largest mountain plateau, with an area greater than 22,000 km². It lies at 300-500 meters above sea level. Approximately 36% of Finnmark county lies in the Finnmarksvidda...
plateau in Norway receive little precipitation and have cold winters. Large areas in the Scandinavian mountains have alpine tundra climate.
The warmest temperature ever recorded in Scandinavia is 38.0 °C in
MålillaMålilla is a locality situated in Hultsfred Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 1,605 inhabitants in 2005.It is more commonly known as the temperature capital of Sweden due to the frequent records, both high and low, being set there. A Swedish record high temperature of +38°C was set in june...
(Sweden) . The coldest temperature ever recorded is −52.6 °C in Vuoggatjålme (Sweden) . The warmest month on record was July 1901 in Oslo, with a mean (24hr) of 22.7 °C, and the coldest month was February 1985 in Vittangi (Sweden) with a mean of -27.2 °C..
Southwesterly winds further warmed by foehn wind can give warm temperatures in narrow Norwegian fjords in winter;
TafjordTafjord is a branch of the Norddalsfjorden/Storfjorden in Norddal municipality in the county of Møre og Romsdal, Norway. It is also the name of the tiny village at the head of the fjord.-History:...
has recorded 17.9 °C in January and
Sunndalis a municipality in the Nordmøre region located in the northeast part of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is bordered on the west by Nesset and Tingvoll, on the north by Surnadal, on the east by Oppdal, Sør-Trøndelag and on the south by Lesja, Oppland....
18.9 °C in February.
Languages in Scandinavia
- Main articles: Scandinavian languages, Sami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami languages: Saami,...
, Finnic languagesFinnic languages may refer to:*Baltic-Finnic languages*Volga-Finnic languages*Finno-Volgaic languages, comprising the previous two groups and the Sami languages*Finno-Permic languages, comprising Finno-Volgaic and the Permic languages...
, ScandoromaniScandoromani , also known as Tavringer Romani, is a form of the Romani language. It is currently spoken by the Norwegian and Swedish Travellers, a Romani minority community, in Sweden and Norway ."Scandoromani" is a term coined by academics...
There are two language groups that have coexisted on the
Scandinavian peninsulaThe Scandinavian Peninsula is a geographic region in northern Europe, consisting of Norway and Sweden. The name Scandinavian is derived from Scania, a region at the southernmost extremity of the peninsula. The Scandinavian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in Europe.-Geography:The Scandinavian...
since prehistory - the
North Germanic languagesThe North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages...
(Scandinavian languages) and the
Sami languagesSami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami languages: Saami,...
. The majority languages on the peninsula,
SwedishSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...
and
NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...
, are today, along with
DanishDanish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the...
, classified as Continental Scandinavian.
The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia are traditionally divided into an East Scandinavian branch (
DanishDanish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the...
and
SwedishSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...
) and a West Scandinavian branch (
NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...
,
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
, and
FaroeseFaroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...
), but because of changes appearing in the languages since 1600, the East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian branches are now usually reconfigured into Insular Scandinavian (
ö-nordisk/
ø-nordisk) featuring (
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
and
FaroeseFaroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...
) and Continental Scandinavian (
Skandinavisk), comprising Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. The modern division is based on the degree of mutual comprehensibility between the languages in the two branches.
Apart from Sami and the languages of minority groups speaking a variant of the majority language of a neighboring state, the following minority languages in Scandinavia are protected under the
European Charter for Regional or Minority LanguagesThe European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European treaty adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe...
: Yiddish,
Romani Chib, RomanesRomani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is the language of the Romani people. It is an Indo-Aryan language, sometimes included in either the "Central" or the "Northwestern" group, sometimes treated as a branch of its own.Romani is a macrolanguage in the ISO 639 classification, taken to consist of...
and
RomaniScandoromani , also known as Tavringer Romani, is a form of the Romani language. It is currently spoken by the Norwegian and Swedish Travellers, a Romani minority community, in Sweden and Norway ."Scandoromani" is a term coined by academics...
.
Continental Scandinavian languages
The dialects of Denmark,
NorwayThe Norwegian dialects are commonly divided into 5 main groups, North Norwegian , Trøndelag Norwegian , Midland Norwegian , West Norwegian , and East Norwegian . The dialects are generally mutually intelligible, but differ significantly with regards to accent, grammar, syntax, and vocabulary...
and
SwedenSwedish dialects can be categorized into Traditional Dialects and Modern Dialects .-Traditional dialects:...
form a
dialect continuumA dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. Dialects separated by great geographical distances may not be...
and are mutually intelligible. The populations of the Scandinavian countries, with a Scandinavian mother tongue, can – at least with some training – understand each other's
standard languageA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
s as they appear in print and are heard on radio and television. The reason why Danish, Swedish and the two official written versions of Norwegian (
Nynorsk and
Bokmål) are traditionally viewed as different languages, rather than dialects of one common language, is that they each are well established standard languages in their respective countries. They are related to, but not mutually intelligible with, the other North Germanic languages,
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
and
FaroeseFaroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...
, which are descended from Old West Norse. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have, since medieval times, been influenced to varying degrees by
Middle Low GermanMiddle Low German is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. It served as the international lingua franca of the Hanseatic League...
and
standard GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
. A substantial amount of that influence was a by-product of the economic activity generated by the
Hanseatic LeagueThe Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period...
.
Norwegians are accustomed to variation, and may perceive Danish and Swedish only as slightly more distant dialects. This is because they have two official written standards, in addition to the habit of strongly holding on to local dialects. The people of
Stockholm' is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag , and the official residence of the Swedish Monarch as well as the prime minister. The Monarch resides at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm since 1980 and uses the Royal Palace of...
, Sweden and
CopenhagenCopenhagen ; ) is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban area with a population of 1,167,569 and a metropolitan area with a population of 1,875,179...
, Denmark, have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Scandinavian languages. In the
Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe, or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland...
learning
DanishDanish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the...
is mandatory. This causes Faroese people to become bilingual in two very distinct North Germanic languages, making it relatively easy for them to understand the other two Mainland Scandinavian languages.
The Scandinavian languages are (as a language family) entirely unrelated to
FinnishFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken...
,
EstonianEstonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
and
Sami languagesSami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami languages: Saami,...
which as
Finno-Ugric languagesFinno-Ugric is a group of languages in the Uralic language family, comprising Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and related languages.It comprises the Finno-Permic and Ugric language families.-Status:...
are distantly related to
HungarianHungarian is a Uralic language unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries...
. Due to the close proximity, there is still a great deal of borrowing from the Swedish and Norwegian languages in the Finnish, Estonian and Sami languages. The long history of linguistic influence of Swedish on Finnish is also due to the fact that Finnish, the language of the majority in Finland, was treated as a minority language while Finland was part of Sweden. Finnish-speakers had to learn Swedish in order to advance to higher positions. Although Iceland was under the political control of Denmark until a much later date (1918), very little influence and borrowing from Danish has occurred in the Icelandic language. Icelandic remained the preferred language among the ruling classes in Iceland; Danish was not used for official communications, most of the royal officials were of Icelandic descent and the language of the church and law courts remained Icelandic.
Sami languages
The
Sami languagesSami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami languages: Saami,...
are indigenous minority languages in Scandinavia. They belong to the
Finno-UgricFinno-Ugric is a group of languages in the Uralic language family, comprising Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and related languages.It comprises the Finno-Permic and Ugric language families.-Status:...
branch of the
Uralic language familyThe Uralic languages constitute a language family of 39 languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
and are unrelated to the North Germanic languages other than by limited grammatical (particularly lexical) characteristics resulting from prolonged contact. Sami is divided into several languages or dialects Consonant gradation is a feature in both Finnish and northern Sami dialects, but it is not present in south Sami, which is considered to have a different language history. According to the Sami Information Centre of the Sami Parliament in
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
, southern Sami originated in an earlier migration from the south into the Scandinavian peninsula.
Finland and Scandinavia
In Finland, native Swedish speakers constitute a small, but rather influential, minority. Children are taught the other official language at school; for Swedish-speakers, this is Finnish (usually from the 3rd grade), and for Finnish-speakers, Swedish (usually from the 7th grade).
Finnish speakers constitute a
language minorityThe European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European treaty adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe...
in Sweden, Norway and Russian Federation. There are also
FinnicThe Baltic-Finnic languages, or Finnic, spoken around the Baltic Sea by about 7 million people, are a branch of the Uralic language family....
languages different from standard Finnish, known as
MeänkieliMeänkieli is the name used in Sweden for Finnish dialects spoken in the most northern parts of the country, around the valley of the Torne River....
in Sweden and
KvenKvens are a Norwegian ethnic minority descended from Finnish peasants and fishermen who emigrated from the northern parts of Finland and Sweden to Northern Norway in the 18th and 19th centuries...
in Norway.
History
During a period of
ChristianizationThe historical phenomenon of Christianization, the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once, also includes the practice of converting native pagan practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due...
and state formation in the 10th-13th centuries, three consolidated kingdoms emerged in Scandinavia:
- Denmark, forged from the Lands of Denmark
The three lands of Denmark historically formed the Danish kingdom from its unification and consolidation in the 9th century:*Scania on the Scandinavian peninsula, with Lund as a centre...
(including JutlandJutland , historically also called Cimbria, forms the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish-German border to its south...
, Zealand and Scania (Skåneland)Skåneland, or Skånelandskapen, are Swedish scientific denominations, used in historical contexts for the historical Danish land in southern Scandinavia, which as the autonomous polity Scania joined Zealand and Jutland in the formation of a Danish state in the early 800s...
on the Scandinavian Peninsula. The island Gotland' is a county, province, municipality and diocese of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, it makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area. The region also includes the small islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, and the tiny...
in modern-day Sweden was initially also part of the Danish realm.)
- Sweden, forged from the Lands of Sweden
The lands of Sweden are three unofficial parts, essentially three collectives of provinces, in Sweden. These "lands" have no administrative function. There is not even a designation, which is commonly agreed upon, for this subdivision level...
on the Scandinavian Peninsula (excluding the provinces Bohuslän' is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated on the west coast of the country. It borders Dalsland and Västergötland as well as the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea and Østfold in Norway....
, Härjedalen', is a historical province or landskap in the centre of Sweden. It borders the country of Norway as well as the provinces of Dalarna, Hälsingland, Medelpad, and Jämtland....
, JämtlandJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
and Idre & SärnaÄlvdalen Municipality is a municipality in Dalarna County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Älvdalen....
, Halland' is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden , on the western coast of Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat.-Administration:...
, Blekinge' is one of the provinces of Sweden , situated in the south of the country. It borders Småland, Skåne and the Baltic Sea.Blekinge consists of 5 municipalities; Karlskrona, Ronneby, Karlshamn, Sölvesborg and Olofström....
and ScaniaScania is a geographical region on the southernmost tip of the Scandinavian peninsula, an occupied province in the Kingdom of Sweden, before 1658 a province in the Kingdom of Denmark and part of the historical lands of Denmark.To the north, it borders the provinces Halland, Småland and Blekinge,...
of modern-day Sweden)
- Norway (including Bohuslän
' is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated on the west coast of the country. It borders Dalsland and Västergötland as well as the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea and Østfold in Norway....
, Härjedalen', is a historical province or landskap in the centre of Sweden. It borders the country of Norway as well as the provinces of Dalarna, Hälsingland, Medelpad, and Jämtland....
, JämtlandJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
and Idre & SärnaÄlvdalen Municipality is a municipality in Dalarna County in central Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Älvdalen....
on the Scandinavian Peninsula, and its island colonies IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
, GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
, Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe, or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland...
, Shetland, the Orkneys, Isle of ManThe Isle of Man , or Mann , is a self-governing British Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Britain and Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Crown is represented by a Lieutenant Governor...
and the HebridesThe Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides...
.)
In the 1645 Treaty of Brömsebro,
Denmark–NorwayDenmark–Norway is the historiographical name for a former political entity consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands...
ceded the Norwegian provinces of Jämtland, Härjedalen and Idre & Särna, as well as the Baltic Sea islands of Gotland and
ÖselSaaremaa is the largest island belonging to Estonia, measuring 2,673 km². The main island of Saare County, it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hiiumaa island, and belongs to the West Estonian Archipelago...
(in Estonia) to Sweden. The
Treaty of RoskildeThe Treaty of Roskilde was concluded on 26 February 1658 during the Northern Wars between Frederick III of Denmark-Norway and Charles X Gustav of Sweden in the Danish city of Roskilde...
, signed in 1658, forced Denmark–Norway to cede the Danish provinces Scania, Blekinge, Halland,
BornholmBornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming...
and the Norwegian provinces of Båhuslen and
TrøndelagTrøndelag is the name of a geographical region in the central part of Norway, consisting of the two counties Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag. The name, Trøndelag, consists of the tribal name Trønder...
to Sweden. The 1660
Treaty of CopenhagenThe Treaty of Copenhagen was signed on May 27, 1660, and marked the conclusion of the Second Northern War between Sweden and the alliance of Denmark-Norway and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
forced Sweden to return Bornholm and Trøndelag to Denmark–Norway, and to give up its recent claims to the island
FunenFunen , with a size of 2,984 km² , is the third-largest island of Denmark following Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy, and the 163
rd largest island of the world. Funen is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 447,000 people . The main city is Odense, connected...
.
Scandinavian unions
The three Scandinavian kingdoms were united in 1397 in the
Kalmar UnionThe Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway , and Sweden under a single monarch, though intermittently and with a population less than 3,000,000.The countries had not...
by Queen Margrete I of Denmark. Sweden left the union in 1523 under King Gustav Vasa. In the aftermath of
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
's secession from the Kalmar Union,
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
broke out in Denmark and Norway. The
Protestant ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
followed. When things had settled down, the Norwegian
Privy CouncilA privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation on how to exercise their executive authority, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government...
was abolished—it assembled for the last time in 1537. A
personal unionA personal union is the combination by which two or more different states are governed by the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
, entered into by the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway in 1536, lasted until 1814. Three sovereign
successor statesIn the fictional BattleTech universe, the Successor States are the major military powers of the Inner Sphere, each governed by one of the Great Houses...
have subsequently emerged from this unequal union: Denmark, Norway and Iceland.
Denmark–NorwayDenmark–Norway is the historiographical name for a former political entity consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands...
is the historiographical name for the former political union consisting of the kingdoms of
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
and
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
, including the Norwegian dependencies of
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
,
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
and the
Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe, or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland...
. The corresponding
adjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's referent...
and
demonymA demonym, also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality which is derived from the name of the particular locality. The word demonym comes from the Greek word for "populace" with the suffix for "name"...
is
Dano-NorwegianThe adjective and derived noun Dano-Norwegian means "Danish and Norwegian". It can have two related meanings:# It can refer to the former union between Denmark and Norway or its people; or by extension to anything relating to both of its two titular composite countries, Denmark and Norway # It...
. During Danish rule, Norway kept its separate laws, coinage and army, as well as some institutions such as a royal
chancellorChancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
. Norway's old royal line had died out with the death of Olav IV, but Norway's remaining a
hereditary kingdomThe Kingdom of Norway as a unified realm was initiated by King Harald Fairhair in 9th century. His efforts in unifying the petty kingdoms of Norway, resulted in the first known Norwegian central government...
was an important factor to the
Oldenburg|Oldenburg is an Independent City in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 158,341 which makes it the fourth biggest in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig and...
dynasty of Denmark–Norway in its struggles to win elections as kings of Denmark.
The Dano-Norwegian union was formally dissolved at the 1814
Treaty of KielThe Treaty of Kiel was a settlement between Sweden and Denmark-Norway on 14 January 1814, whereby the Danish king, a loser in the Napoleonic Wars, ceded Norway to the king of Sweden, in return for the Swedish holdings in Pomerania. However, the treaty signed in Kiel would never come into force...
. The territory of Norway proper was ceded to the King of
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
, but Norway's overseas possessions were kept by Denmark. However, widespread Norwegian resistance to the prospect of a union with Sweden induced the governor of Norway, crown prince Christian Frederick (later
Christian VIII of DenmarkChristian VIII , king of Denmark 1839–48 and, as Christian Frederick, of Norway 1814, the eldest son of the Hereditary Prince Frederick of Denmark and Norway and Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was born in 1786 at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen...
), to call a constituent assembly at
Eidsvollis a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. It is part of the Romerike traditional region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sundet.-Name:...
in April 1814. The assembly drew up a liberal constitution and elected him to the throne of Norway. Following a Swedish invasion during the summer, the peace conditions specified that king Christian Frederik had to resign, but Norway was to keep its independence and its constitution within a personal union with Sweden. Christian Frederik formally abdicated on August 10 1814 and returned to Denmark. The parliament
StortingThe Parliament of Norway is located in the capital city Oslo. It sits in the Parliament of Norway Building which was completed in 1866 and was designed by the Swedish architect Emil Victor Langlet.- History :...
elected king Charles XIII of Sweden as king of Norway on November 4.
The union between Sweden and Norway was dissolved in 1905, after which Prince Charles of Denmark was elected king of Norway under the name of
Haakon VIIHaakon VII may refer to:People* Haakon VII of Norway , King of Norway Ships* HNoMS King Haakon VII, a Royal Norwegian Navy escort ship in commission from 1942 to 1951...
.
Political Scandinavism
The modern usage of the term
Scandinavia has been influenced by
ScandinavismScandinavism and Nordism are literary and political movements that support various degrees of cooperation between the Scandinavian or Nordic countries...
(the Scandinavist political movement), which was active in the middle of the 19th century, mainly between the
First war of SchleswigThe First Schleswig War or Three Years' War was the first round of military conflict in southern Denmark and northern Germany rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question, contesting the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The war, which lasted from 1848–1851,...
(1848–1850), in which
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
and
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
contributed with considerable military force, and the
Second war of SchleswigThe Second Schleswig War was the second military conflict as a result of the Schleswig-Holstein Question. It began on February 1, 1864, when Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig.Denmark fought Prussia and Austria...
(1864). In 1864, the Swedish parliament denounced the promises of military support made to Denmark by
Charles XV of SwedenCharles XV & IV was King of Sweden and Norway from 1859 until his death....
. The members of the Swedish parliament were wary of joining an alliance against the rising German power.
The Swedish king also proposed a unification of
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
and
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
into a single united kingdom. The background for the proposal was the tumultuous events during the
Napoleonic warsThe Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts declared against Napoleon's French Empire and changing sets of European allies by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionized European armies and played...
in the beginning of the century. This war resulted in Finland (formerly the eastern third of Sweden) becoming the
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n
Grand Duchy of FinlandThe Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland that existed in its territory 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire.- History :...
in 1809 and
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
(
de jure in union with Denmark since 1387, although
de facto treated as a
provinceA province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Roman provinces:The word is attested in English since c.1330, deriving from Old French province , which comes from the Latin word provincia, which referred to the sphere of activity which a...
) becoming independent in 1814, but thereafter swiftly forced to accept a
personal unionA personal union is the combination by which two or more different states are governed by the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
with Sweden. The dependent territories
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
, the
Faroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands, sometimes Faeroe Islands, Faroe, or Faeroes are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland...
and
GreenlandGreenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago...
, historically part of Norway, remained with Denmark in accordance with the
Treaty of KielThe Treaty of Kiel was a settlement between Sweden and Denmark-Norway on 14 January 1814, whereby the Danish king, a loser in the Napoleonic Wars, ceded Norway to the king of Sweden, in return for the Swedish holdings in Pomerania. However, the treaty signed in Kiel would never come into force...
. Sweden and Norway were thus united under the Swedish monarch, but
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
's inclusion in the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
excluded any possibility for a political union between Finland and any of the other Nordic countries.
The end of the Scandinavian political movement came when Denmark was denied the military support promised from
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
and
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
to annex the (Danish)
DuchyA duchy is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess.Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era...
of
SchleswigSchleswig or South Jutland is a region covering the area about 60 km north and 70 km south of the border between Germany and Denmark...
, which together with the (German) Duchy of
HolsteinHolstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....
had been in
personal unionA personal union is the combination by which two or more different states are governed by the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
with Denmark. The Second war of Schleswig followed in 1864, a brief but disastrous war between Denmark and
PrussiaPrussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial influence on German and European history...
(supported by
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
).
Schleswig-HolsteinSchleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the two historical duchies of Schleswig and Holstein...
was conquered by Prussia, and after Prussia's success in the
Franco-Prussian WarThe Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between France and Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria...
a Prussian-led
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
was created, and a new power-balance of the Baltic sea countries was established.
Even if a Scandinavian political union never came about at this point, there was a
Scandinavian Monetary UnionThe Scandinavian Monetary Union was a monetary union formed by Sweden and Denmark on May 5, 1873 by fixing their currencies against gold at par to each other...
established in 1873, lasting until
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, with the
Swedish kronaThe krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. It is locally abbreviated kr. The plural form is kronor and one krona is subdivided into 100 öre . The currency is sometimes informally referred to as the "Swedish crown" in English...
as the common currency.
Historical political structure
| Century |
Scandinavia and the Nordic Countries |
| 21st |
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
(EUThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
) |
Faroes |
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
|
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
|
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
(EUThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
) |
Åland (EUThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
) |
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
(EUThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
) |
| 20th |
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
|
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
|
Åland |
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
|
| 19th |
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
|
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
/NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
(UnionThe Union between Sweden and Norway , was the union of the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway between 1814 and 1905, when they were united under one monarch in a personal union, following the Treaty of Kiel, the declaration of Norwegian independence from Denmark, a brief war with Sweden, the Convention...
) |
Grand Duchy of FinlandThe Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland that existed in its territory 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire.- History :...
(RussiaThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
) |
| 18th |
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
/NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
(UnionDenmark–Norway is the historiographical name for a former political entity consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands...
) |
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
|
| 17th |
| 16th |
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
/NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
(UnionDenmark–Norway is the historiographical name for a former political entity consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands...
) |
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
|
| 15th |
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
/SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
/NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
(UnionThe Kalmar Union is a historiographical term meaning a series of personal unions that united the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway , and Sweden under a single monarch, though intermittently and with a population less than 3,000,000.The countries had not...
) |
| 14th |
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
|
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
|
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
|
| 13th |
| 12th |
Faroes |
Icelandic CWThe Icelandic Commonwealth or the Icelandic Free State was the state existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king in 1262...
|
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
|
JämtlandJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
|
| Peoples |
DanesDanish people are a nation and ethnic group native to Denmark, who speak Danish. This includes people with a Danish ancestral or ethnic identity, whether living in Denmark, emigrants, or the descendants of emigrants, eg: the Danish ethnic minority in Southern Schleswig, a former Danish province.The...
|
FaroeseThe Faroese or Faroe Islanders are the people of the Faroe Islands in Northern Europe of Celtic and Norse origins.About 21,000 Faroese live in neighbouring countries, particularly in Denmark, Iceland and Norway....
¹ |
IcelandersIcelanders are the national group or ethnic group of Iceland descended primarily from Norsemen of Scandinavia and Celts. Historical and DNA records indicate that about 20% of those who settled in Iceland were from Britain and Ireland and 80% were from Scandinavia.On 17 June 1944, when an Icelandic...
¹ |
Norwegians |
JamtsJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
² |
Swedes Swedes are a Scandinavian people, mostly inhabiting Sweden and the other Nordic countries, with descendants living in a number of countries....
|
Finns |
| Minorities |
Germans |
CeltCelts is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic language...
s/PictsThe Picts were a confederation of tribes living in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from before the Roman conquest of Britain until the 10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde rivers, and spoke the extinct Pictish language, thought to have been related to...
|
SamiThe Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia but also in the border area between south and middle Sweden...
|
SamiThe Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia but also in the border area between south and middle Sweden...
|
Finns/SamiThe Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia but also in the border area between south and middle Sweden...
|
Finns |
Swedes Swedes are a Scandinavian people, mostly inhabiting Sweden and the other Nordic countries, with descendants living in a number of countries....
/SamiThe Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia but also in the border area between south and middle Sweden...
|
1/ The original settlers of the Faroes and IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
were of Nordic (mainly Norwegian) origin, with a considerable element of CeltCelts is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic language...
ic or PictishThe Picts were a confederation of tribes living in what was later to become eastern and northern Scotland from before the Roman conquest of Britain until the 10th century. They lived to the north of the Forth and Clyde rivers, and spoke the extinct Pictish language, thought to have been related to...
origin (from IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
and ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
).
2/ The settlers of JämtlandJämtland or Jamtland is a historical province or landskap in the center of Sweden in northern Europe. It borders to Härjedalen and Medelpad in the south, Ångermanland in the east, Lapland in the north and Trøndelag and Norway in the west...
are of Norwegian—more specifically TrøndishTrøndelag is the name of a geographical region in the central part of Norway, consisting of the two counties Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag. The name, Trøndelag, consists of the tribal name Trønder...
—origin and their ancestors founded their own state similar to the Icelandic one governed by the JamtamótJamtamót was the old assembly of Jämtland. Unlike other Scandinavian things, it is referred to as a mót, not þing, both meaning 'assembly'. Instead, the word mót is found in e.g...
assembly of free men.
See also
- Baltic region
The Baltic region is an ambiguous term that refers to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
- Nordic Council
The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers are an intergovernmental forum for co-operation between the Nordic countries. It was established following World War II and its first concrete result was the introduction in 1952 of a common labour market and free movement across borders...
- Nordic countries
The Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland...
- Nordic Cross Flag
The Nordic Cross Flag, Nordic Cross or Scandinavian Cross is a pattern of flags usually associated with the flags of the Scandinavian countries of which it originated. All the Nordic countries have adopted such flags...
- Northern Europe
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:** ** ** Ireland** Svalbard and Jan Mayen** ** Channel Islands: and...
- Scandinavian British
- Scandinavian colonialism
Scandinavian colonialism is a subdivision within broader colonial studies that discusses the role of Scandinavian nations in achieving economic benefits from outside of their own cultural sphere. The field ranges from studying the Sami in relation to the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish states, to...
- Scandza
Scandza was the name given to Scandinavia by the Roman historian Jordanes in his work Getica, written about AD 551 in Constantinople. He described the area to set the stage for his treatment of the Goths' migration from Scandinavia to Gothiscandza. His account contains several accurate descriptions...
- Thule
Thule is, in classical literature, a place, usually an island...
External links