Scandinavia#Finland

{{see also|Geography of Denmark|Geography of Finland|Geography of Iceland|Geography of Norway|Geography of Sweden}}

File:GaldhøpiggenFromFannaråki.jpg is the highest point in Scandinavia and is a part of the Scandinavian Mountains.]]

The geography of Scandinavia is extremely varied. Notable are the Norwegian fjords, the Scandinavian Mountains covering much of Norway and parts of Sweden, the flat, low areas in Denmark and the archipelagos of Finland, Norway and Sweden. Finland and Sweden have many lakes and moraines, legacies of the ice age, which ended about ten millennia ago.

The southern regions of Scandinavia, which are also the most populous regions, have a temperate climate.{{Cite news|last=Alderman|first=Liz|date=9 November 2019|title=Scandinavian Wine? A Warming Climate Tempts Entrepreneurs|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/business/wine-scandinavia-climate-change.html|access-date=26 March 2021|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=11 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411182907/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/09/business/wine-scandinavia-climate-change.html|url-status=live}} Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has relatively mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Many of the Scandinavian mountains have an alpine tundra climate.

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, the southernmost part of Sweden and along the west coast of Norway reaching north to 65°N, with orographic lift giving more mm/year precipitation (<5000 mm) in some areas in western Norway. The central part – from Oslo to Stockholm – has a humid continental climate (Dfb), which gradually gives way to subarctic climate (Dfc) further north and cool marine west coast climate (Cfc) along the northwestern coast.{{Cite journal|title = Shifting Weather Patterns in a Warming Arctic: The Scandes Case|journal = Weatherwise|date = 2 January 2019|pages = 23–29|volume = 72|issue = 1|doi = 10.1080/00431672.2019.1538761|first = Steven M.|last = Battaglia| bibcode=2019Weawi..72a..23B |s2cid = 192279229}} A small area along the northern coast east of the North Cape has tundra climate (Et) as a result of a lack of summer warmth. The Scandinavian Mountains block the mild and moist air coming from the southwest, thus northern Sweden and 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 Målilla (Sweden).{{Cite web|url=http://www.smhi.se/klimatdata/meteorologi/temperatur/1.2484|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100826081952/http://www.smhi.se/klimatdata/meteorologi/temperatur/1.2484|url-status=dead|title=Högsta uppmätta temperatur i Sverige|archive-date=26 August 2010}} The coldest temperature ever recorded is −52.6 °C in Vuoggatjålme, Arjeplog (Sweden).{{Cite web|url=http://www.smhi.se/cmp/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=7522&a=20978&l=sv|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228105150/http://www.smhi.se/cmp/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=7522&a=20978&l=sv|url-status=dead|title=Lägsta uppmätta temperatur i Sverige|archive-date=28 December 2008}} 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. Tafjord has recorded 17.9 °C in January and Sunndal 18.9 °C in February.

File:Original meaning of Scandinavia.svg, a formerly Danish region that became Swedish in the 17th century.]]

File:Nordic Bronze Age.png), all of Denmark, southern Sweden, the southern coast of Norway and Åland in Finland while namesake Scania found itself in the centre.]]

The words Scandinavia and Scania (Skåne, the southernmost province of Sweden) are both thought to go back to the Proto-Germanic compound {{lang|gem-x-proto|Skaðin-awjō}} (the ð represented in Latin by {{lang|la|t}} or {{lang|la|d}}), which appears later in Old English as {{lang|ang|Scedenig}} and in Old Norse as {{lang|non|Skáney}}.Anderson, Carl Edlund (1999). [http://www.carlaz.com/phd/cea_phd_abstract.pdf Formation and Resolution of Ideological Contrast in the Early History of Scandinavia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210322014704/http://www.carlaz.com/phd/cea_phd_abstract.pdf |date=22 March 2021 }}. PhD dissertation, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic (Faculty of English), University of Cambridge, 1999. The earliest identified source for the name Scandinavia is Pliny the Elder's Natural History, dated to the 1st century AD.

Various references to the region can also be found in Pytheas, Pomponius Mela, Tacitus, Ptolemy, Procopius and Jordanes, usually in the form of Scandza. It is believed that the name used by Pliny may be of West Germanic origin, originally denoting Scania.Haugen, Einar (1976). The Scandinavian Languages: An Introduction to Their History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976. According to some scholars, the Germanic stem can be reconstructed as {{lang|gem-x-proto|skaðan-}}, meaning "danger" or "damage".{{cite book| author = Knut Helle| title = The Cambridge History of Scandinavia: Prehistory to 1520| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PFBtfXG6fXAC| year = 2003| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-47299-9| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 2 February 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230202171909/https://books.google.com/books?id=PFBtfXG6fXAC| url-status = live}} The second segment of the name has been reconstructed as {{lang|gem-x-proto|awjō}}, meaning "land on the water" or "island". The name Scandinavia would then mean "dangerous island", which is considered to refer to the treacherous sandbanks surrounding Scania. Skanör in Scania, with its long Falsterbo reef, has the same stem ({{lang|sv|skan}}) combined with -{{lang|sv|ör}}, which means "sandbanks".

Alternatively, Sca(n)dinavia and {{lang|non|Skáney}}, along with the Old Norse goddess name {{lang|non|Skaði}}, may be related to Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|skaðwa-}} (meaning "shadow"). John McKinnell comments that this etymology suggests that the goddess Skaði may have once been a personification of the geographical region of Scandinavia or associated with the underworld.{{cite book| author = John McKinnell| title = Meeting the other in Norse myth and legend| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=P2x2x3neFywC| year = 2005| publisher = Ds Brewer| isbn = 978-1-84384-042-8| page = 63 }}

Another possibility is that all or part of the segments of the name came from the pre-Germanic Mesolithic people inhabiting the region.{{cite book|author=J. F. Del Giorgio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxEnAAAACAAJ|title=The Oldest Europeans: Who Are We? Where Do We Come From? What Made European Women Different?|date=24 May 2006|publisher=A J Place|isbn=978-980-6898-00-4|access-date=23 April 2023|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423131708/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZxEnAAAACAAJ|url-status=live}} In modernity, Scandinavia is a peninsula, but between approximately 10,300 and 9,500 years ago the southern part of Scandinavia was an island separated from the northern peninsula, with water exiting the Baltic Sea through the area where Stockholm is now located.Uścinowicz, Szymon (2003). [http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=4&Itemid=2 "How the Baltic Sea was changing"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071212134140/http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=4&Itemid=2|date=12 December 2007}}. Marine Geology Branch, Polish Geological Institute, 9 June 2003. Retrieved 13 January 2008.

The Latin names in Pliny's text gave rise to different forms in medieval Germanic texts. In Jordanes' history of the Goths (AD 551), the form {{lang|la|Scandza}} is the name used for their original home, separated by sea from the land of Europe (chapter 1, 4).Jordanes (translated by Charles Christopher Mierow), [http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html The Origins and Deeds of the Goths] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060424044148/http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html |date=24 April 2006 }}, 22 April 1997 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.Hoppenbrouwers, Peter (2005). Medieval Peoples Imagined. Working Paper No. 3, Department of European Studies, University of Amsterdam, {{ISSN|1871-1693}}, p. 8: "A second core area was the quasi-legendary 'Isle of Scanza', the vague indication of Scandinavia in classical ethnography, and a veritable 'hive of races and a womb of peoples' according to Jordanes' Gothic History. Not only the Goths were considered to have originated there, but also the Dacians/Danes, the Lombards, and the Burgundians—claims that are still subject to debate."Goffart, Walter (2005), "Jordanes's Getica and the disputed authenticity of Gothic origins from Scandinavia". Speculum. A Journal of Medieval Studies 80, 379–98 The form {{lang|la|Scadinavia}} as the original home of the Langobards appears in Paul the Deacon' Historia Langobardorum,Paul the Deacon, [http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost08/PaulusDiaconus/pau_lan1.html Historia Langobardorum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923091528/http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost08/PaulusDiaconus/pau_lan1.html |date=23 September 2021 }}, Bibliotheca Augustana but in other versions of Historia Langobardorum appear the forms {{lang|la|Scadan}}, {{lang|la|Scandanan}}, {{lang|la|Scadanan}} and {{lang|la|Scatenauge}}.[http://www.northvegr.org/lore/langobard/001.php History of the Langobards], Northvegr Foundation {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100406031959/http://www.northvegr.org/lore/langobard/001.php |date=6 April 2010 }} Frankish sources used {{lang|frk|Sconaowe}} and Aethelweard, an Anglo-Saxon historian, used {{lang|ang|Scani}}.{{cite book| author = Erik Björkman| title = Studien zur englischen Philologie| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wKUMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA99| year = 1973| publisher = Max Niemeyer| isbn = 978-3-500-28470-5| page = 99| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423131728/https://books.google.com/books?id=wKUMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA99| url-status = live}}{{cite book| author = Richard North| title = Heathen gods in Old English literature| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=X_LKUIqNvPQC&pg=PA192| year = 1997| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-55183-0| page = 192| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423131712/https://books.google.com/books?id=X_LKUIqNvPQC&pg=PA192| url-status = live}} In Beowulf, the forms {{lang|ang|Scedenige}} and {{lang|ang|Scedeland}} are used while the Alfredian translation of Orosius and Wulfstan's travel accounts used the Old English {{lang|ang|Sconeg}}.

The earliest Sámi joik texts written down refer to the world as {{lang|se|Skadesi-suolu}} in Northern Sámi and {{lang|sms|Skađsuâl}} in Skolt Sámi, meaning "Skaði's island". Svennung considers the Sámi name to have been introduced as a loanword from the North Germanic languages;{{cite journal|author-last=Svennung |author-first=J. |date=1963 |title=Scandinavia und Scandia |language=de |trans-title=Scandinavia and Scandia |journal=Lateinisch-nordische Namenstudien |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell/Harrassowitz |pages=54–56}} "Skaði" is the jötunn stepmother of Freyr and Freyja in Norse mythology. It has been suggested that Skaði to some extent is modelled on a Sámi woman. The name for Skaði's father Þjazi is known in Sámi as {{lang|smi|Čáhci}}, "the waterman"; and her son with Odin, Sæmingr, can be interpreted as a descendant of {{lang|se|Saam}}, the Sámi population.{{cite book|author-last=Mundel |author-first=E. |date=2000 |url=http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/medieval/saga/pdf/346-mundal.pdf |title=Coexistence of Saami and Norse culture – reflected in and interpreted by Old Norse myths |publisher=University of Bergen, 11th Saga Conference Sydney 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040706090209/http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/medieval/saga/pdf/346-mundal.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2004 }}{{cite book|author-last=Steinsland |author-first=Gro |author-link=Gro Steinsland |date=1991 |title=Det hellige bryllup og norrøn kongeideologi. En analyse av hierogami-myten i Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal og Hyndluljóð |language=no |trans-title=The sacred wedding and Norse royal ideology. An analysis of the hierogamy myth in Skírnismál, Ynglingatal, Háleygjatal and Hyndluljóð |location=Oslo |publisher=Solum}} Older joik texts give evidence of the old Sámi belief about living on an island and state that the wolf is known as {{lang|smi|suolu gievra}}, meaning "the strong one on the island". The Sámi place name {{lang|smi|Sulliidčielbma}} means "the island's threshold" and Suoločielgi means "the island's back".

In recent substrate studies, Sámi linguists have examined the initial cluster {{lang|smi|sk}}- in words used in the Sámi languages and concluded that {{lang|smi|sk}}- is a phonotactic structure of alien origin.{{cite book|author-last=Aikio |author-first=A. |date=2004 |chapter-url=http://www.geocities.com/lappmark/Aikio2004.pdf |chapter=An essay on substrate studies and the origin of Saami |title=Etymologie, Entlehnungen und Entwicklungen: Festschrift für Jorma Koivulehto zum 70. Geburtstag. Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 63 |trans-title=Etymology, borrowings and developments: Festschrift for Jorma Koivulehto's 70th birthday. Memoirs of the Neophilological Society of Helsinki 63 |editor-first1=Irma |editor-last1=Hyvärinen |editor-first2=Petri |editor-last2=Kallio |editor-first3=Jarmo |editor-last3=Korhonen |location=Helsinki |pages=5–34 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216031912/http://www.geocities.com/lappmark/Aikio2004.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2008 |quote=On the basis of Scandinavian loanwords it can be inferred that both {{IPA|sk-}} and {{IPA|-ʃ-}} were adopted in the west during the early separate development of the Saami languages, but never spread to Kola Saami. These areal features thus emerged in a phase when Proto-Saami began to diverge into dialects anticipating the modern Saami languages.}}

{{main|Scandinavism}}

{{see also|Politics of Denmark|Politics of Norway|Politics of Sweden}}

File:Skandinavism.jpg—a Norwegian, a Dane and a Swede]]

Although the term Scandinavia used by Pliny the Elder probably originated in the ancient Germanic languages, the modern form Scandinavia does not descend directly from the ancient Germanic term. Rather the word was brought into use in Europe by scholars borrowing the term from ancient sources like Pliny, and was used vaguely for Scania and the southern region of the peninsula.Østergård, Uffe (1997). "The Geopolitics of Nordic Identity – From Composite States to Nation States". The Cultural Construction of Norden. Øystein Sørensen and Bo Stråth (eds.), Oslo: Scandinavian University Press 1997, 25–71. Also published online at [http://diis.dk/sw13149.asp Danish Institute for International Studies] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114212929/http://diis.dk/sw13149.asp |date=14 November 2007 }}. For the history of cultural Scandinavism, see Oresundstid's articles [http://www.oresundstid.dk/dansk/engelsk/oresundstid/1800/side03-02-tekst.htm The Literary Scandinavism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927014412/http://www.oresundstid.dk/dansk/engelsk/oresundstid/1800/side03-02-tekst.htm |date=27 September 2007 }} and [http://www.oresundstid.dk/dansk/engelsk/oresundstid/1800/side03-01-tekst.htm The Roots of Scandinavism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160613201143/https://web.archive.org/web/20071114212929/http://diis.dk/sw13149.asp |date=13 June 2016 }}. Retrieved 19 January 2007.

The term was popularised by the linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement, which asserted the common heritage and cultural unity of the Scandinavian countries and rose to prominence 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 as Hans Christian Andersen's "I am a Scandinavian" of 1839. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism. 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 influence of Scandinavism as a Scandinavist political movement peaked in the middle of the 19th century, between the First Schleswig War (1848–1850) and the Second Schleswig War (1864).{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

The Swedish king{{Which|date=June 2024}} also proposed a unification of Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a single united kingdom. The background for the proposal was the tumultuous events during the Napoleonic Wars in the beginning of the century. This war resulted in Finland (formerly the eastern third of Sweden) becoming the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 and Norway (de jure in union with Denmark since 1387, although de facto treated as a province) becoming independent in 1814, but thereafter swiftly forced to accept a personal union with Sweden. The dependent territories Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, historically part of Norway, remained with Denmark in accordance with the Treaty of Kiel. Sweden and Norway were thus united under the Swedish monarch, but Finland's inclusion in the Russian Empire 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 Sweden and Norway to annex the (Danish) Duchy of Schleswig, which together with the (German) Duchy of Holstein had been in personal union with Denmark. The Second war of Schleswig followed in 1864, a brief but disastrous war between Denmark and Prussia (supported by Austria). Schleswig-Holstein was conquered by Prussia and after Prussia's success in the Franco-Prussian War a Prussian-led German Empire was created and a new power-balance in the Baltic region was established. The Scandinavian Monetary Union, established in 1873, lasted until World War I.

[[File:Map of Scandinavia.svg|thumb|

{{legend|#ff0000|outline=#aaaaaa|Scandinavia according to the local definition}}

{{legend|#ff8811|outline=#aaaaaa|The extended usage in English, which includes Iceland and the Faroe Islands, Åland and Finland}}]]

{{further|topic=this terminology|Nordic countries|Fennoscandia}}

The term Scandinavia (sometimes specified in English as Continental Scandinavia or mainland Scandinavia) is ordinarily used locally for Denmark, Norway and Sweden as a subset of the Nordic countries (known in Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish as {{lang|sv|Norden}}; {{langx|fi|Pohjoismaat}}, {{langx|is|Norðurlöndin}}, {{langx|fo|Norðurlond}}).{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia|title=Scandinavia|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572025/Scandinavia.html|access-date=30 January 2007|date=1997–2007|publisher=Microsoft|quote=Scandinavia (ancient Scandia), name applied collectively to three countries of northern Europe—Norway, Sweden (which together form the Scandinavian Peninsula) and Denmark.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028073547/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761572025/Scandinavia.html|archive-date=28 October 2009|url-status=dead}}

However, in English usage, the term Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym or near-synonym for what are known locally as Nordic countries.{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/scandinavia|title=Scandinavia|year=2008|encyclopedia=The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary|access-date=9 January 2008|quote=Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway, Sweden—sometimes also considered to include Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, & Finland.|archive-date=19 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219210721/http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/scandinavia|url-status=live}}'[https://web.archive.org/web/20200121034842/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/scandinavia Scandinavia, proper noun]', Lexico: Powered by Oxford.Knut Helle, '[https://books.google.com/books?id=PFBtfXG6fXAC Introduction] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118063613/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PFBtfXG6fXAC& |date=18 November 2022 }}', in The Cambridge History of Scandinavia, Volume I: Prehistory to 1520, ed. by Knut Helle, E. I. Kouri, and Jens E. Oleson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 1–14 (pp. 1–4).

Usage in English is different from usage in the Scandinavian languages themselves (which use Scandinavia in the narrow meaning), and by the fact that the question of whether a country belongs to Scandinavia is politicised. People from the Nordic world beyond Norway, Denmark and Sweden may be offended at being either included in or excluded from the category of "Scandinavia".Olwig, Kenneth R. "Introduction: The Nature of Cultural Heritage, and the Culture of Natural Heritage—Northern Perspectives on a Contested Patrimony". International Journal of Heritage Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, March 2005, pp. 3–7.

Nordic countries is used unambiguously for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, including their associated territories Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands.{{cite web |date=1 October 2007 |title=Facts about the Nordic region |url=http://www.norden.org/en/fakta-om-norden-1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208124953/http://www.norden.org/en/fakta-om-norden-1 |archive-date=8 February 2018 |access-date=25 March 2014 |publisher=Nordic Council of Ministers & Nordic Council}}

The geological term Fennoscandia (sometimes Fennoscandinavia) refers to the Fennoscandian Shield (or Baltic Shield), which includes the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland and Karelia, and excludes Denmark and other parts of the wider Nordic world. The terms Fennoscandia and Fennoscandinavia are sometimes used in a political sense to refer to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland."[https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/69278 Fennoscandia, n.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728143102/https://www.oed.com/start;jsessionid=3520E198D394BEA1BAC928ACCA39289F?authRejection=true&url=%2Fview%2FEntry%2F69278 |date=28 July 2020 }}", Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2019). Accessed 10 February 2020.

The term Scandinavian may be used with two principal meanings, in an ethnic or cultural sense and as a modern and more inclusive demonym.

In the ethnic or cultural sense, the term Scandinavian traditionally refers to speakers of Scandinavian languages, who are mainly descendants of the peoples historically known as Norsemen, but also to some extent of immigrants and others who have been assimilated into that culture and language.{{citation needed|date=June 2024}} In this sense the term refers primarily to native Danes, Norwegians and Swedes as well as descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as the Icelanders and the Faroese. The term is also used in this ethnic sense, to refer to the modern descendants of the Norse, in studies of linguistics and culture.{{cite book|last=Kennedy|first=Arthur Garfield|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/englishlanguager00leed|chapter-url-access=registration|title=English Language Reader: Introductory Essays and Exercises|publisher=Dodd, Mead|year=1963|editor-last=Lee|editor-first=Donald Woodward|editor-link=Donald Woodward Lee|chapter=The Indo-European Language Family|quote=North Germanic, or Scandinavian, or Norse, peoples, as they are variously called, became a distinctive people...|author-link=Arthur Garfield Kennedy}}{{cite book|last=Spaeth|first=John Duncan Ernst|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924013338623|title=Old English Poetry|date=1921|publisher=Princeton University Press|quote=The main divisions of Germanic are: 1. East Germanic, including the Goths, both Ostrogoths and Visigoths. 2. North Germanic, including the Scandinavians, Danes, Icelanders, Swedes, "Norsemen." 3. West Germanic. The Old English (Anglo-Saxons) belong to this division, of which the continental representatives are the Teutonic peoples, High and Low Franks and Saxons, Alemanni, etc.|author-link=John Duncan Spaeth}}{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Stith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sLhPAQAAMAAJ|title=Our Heritage of World Literature|date=1995|publisher=Cordon Company|isbn=978-0809310913|quote=The North Germanic, or Scandinavian group, consists of the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, and Icelanders.|author-link=Stith Thompson|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132224/https://books.google.com/books?id=sLhPAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Gordon|first1=Eric Valentine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVQKAQAAIAAJ|title=An Introduction to Old Norse|last2=Taylor|first2=A. R.|date=1962|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=978-0-19-811105-4|quote=Norse was the language spoken by the North Germanic peoples (Scandinavians) from the time when Norse first became differentiated from the speech of the other Germanic peoples|author-link1=E. V. Gordon|author-link2=A. R. Taylor|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132232/https://books.google.com/books?id=lVQKAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Ränk|first=Gustav|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tLvWAAAAMAAJ|title=Old Estonia, The People and Culture|date=1976|publisher=Indiana University|isbn=9780877501909|quote=Contacts are not impossible also with the Northern Germanic peoples, i.e., with the Scandinavians directly across the sea...|author-link=Gustav Ränk|access-date=23 April 2023|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423142202/https://books.google.com/books?id=tLvWAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last1=Barbour|first1=Stephen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFr2IjGftNMC|title=Variation in German: A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics|last2=Stevenson|first2=Patrick|date=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521357043|quote=For the period when the existence of the Germanic tribes is first clearly recorded by Roman writers, archaeological evidence suggests five tribal groups, with perhaps five incipient distinct Germanic languages, as follows: (1) North Germanic tribes (Scandinavians)...|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132240/https://books.google.com/books?id=BFr2IjGftNMC|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Diringer|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFdiAAAAMAAJ|title=The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind|date=1948|publisher=Philosophical Library|quote="Old Norse" was spoken by the North Germanic or Scandinavian peoples|author-link=David Diringer}}{{cite book|last1=Bolling|first1=George Melville|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7QoAQAAIAAJ|title=Language|last2=Bloch|first2=Bernard|date=1968|publisher=Linguistic Society of America|quote=Northern Germanic peoples, i.e. the Scandinavians...|author-link1=George Bolling|author-link2=Bernard Bloch (linguist)|access-date=8 February 2020|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132223/https://books.google.com/books?id=y7QoAQAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Gwyn|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofvikings00jone_0|url-access=registration|title=A History of the Vikings|date=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0192801340|quote=North Germanic (Scandinavian) peoples...|author-link=Gwyn Jones (author)}}.

Additionally the term Scandinavian is used demonymically to refer to all modern inhabitants or citizens of Scandinavian countries. Within Scandinavia the demonymic term primarily refers to inhabitants or citizens of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In English usage inhabitants or citizens of Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Finland are sometimes included as well. English general dictionaries often define the noun Scandinavian demonymically as meaning any inhabitant of Scandinavia (which might be narrowly conceived or broadly conceived).'[https://web.archive.org/web/20200519233752/https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/scandinavian Scandinavian, noun]', Lexico: Powered By Oxford.'Scandinavian noun', Merriam-Webster.'[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/scandinavian Scandinavian 2. countable noun] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127171335/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/scandinavian |date=27 November 2019 }}', Collins Cobuild.

There is a certain ambiguity and political contestation as to which peoples should be referred to as Scandinavian in this broader sense. Sámi people who live in Norway and Sweden are generally included as Scandinavians in the demonymic sense; the Sámi of Finland may be included in English usage, but usually not in local usage; the Sámi of Russia are not included. However, the use of the term "Scandinavian" with reference to the Sámi is complicated by the historical attempts by Scandinavian majority peoples and governments in Norway and Sweden to assimilate the Sámi people into the Scandinavian culture and languages, making the inclusion of the Sámi as "Scandinavians" controversial among many Sámi. Modern Sámi politicians and organizations often stress the status of the Sámi as a people separate from and equal to the Scandinavians, with their own language and culture, and are apprehensive about being included as "Scandinavians" in light of earlier Scandinavian assimilation policies.Mathisen, Stein R. 2004. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=RYSsGcGj_voC&q=scandinavian&pg=PA141 Ethnic Identities in Global and Local Discourses: Contested Narratives of Sámi Ethnic Heritage]". In Cultural Identity in Transition: Contemporary Conditions, Practices and Politics of a Global Phenomenon. Edited by Jari Kupiainen, Erkki Sevänen, John A. Stotesbury. Atlantic.Birgitta Jahreskog, The Sami national minority in Sweden, Rättsfonden, 2009, {{ISBN|9780391026872}}

Two language groups have coexisted on the Scandinavian Peninsula since prehistory—the North Germanic languages (Scandinavian languages) and the Uralic languages, Sámi and Finnish.{{cite book| author = Dirmid R. F. Collis| title = Arctic languages: an awakening| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TUhiAAAAMAAJ| year = 1990| publisher = Unipub| isbn = 978-92-3-102661-4| page = 440| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132240/https://books.google.com/books?id=TUhiAAAAMAAJ| url-status = live}}

Most people in Scandinavia today speak Scandinavian languages that evolved from Old Norse, originally spoken by ancient Germanic tribes in southern Scandinavia. The Continental Scandinavian languages—Danish, Norwegian and Swedish—form a dialect continuum and are considered mutually intelligible. The Insular Scandinavian languages—Faroese and Icelandic—on the other hand, are only partially intelligible to speakers of the continental Scandinavian languages.

The Uralic languages are linguistically unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Finnish is the majority language in Finland, and a recognized minority language in Sweden. Meänkieli and Kven, sometimes considered as dialects of Finnish, are recognized minority languages in Sweden and Norway, respectively. The Sámi languages are indigenous minority languages in Scandinavia, spoken by the Sámi people in northern Scandinavia.

{{main|North Germanic languages}}

[[File:Nordiska språk.PNG|thumb|

Continental Scandinavian languages:

{{legend|#6262ff|Danish}}

{{legend|#0000ff|Norwegian}}

{{legend|#00009f|Swedish}}

Insular Scandinavian languages:

{{legend|#00ffff|Faroese}}

{{legend|#00ff00|Icelandic}}]]

The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia are traditionally divided into an East Scandinavian branch (Danish and Swedish) and a West Scandinavian branch (Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese),{{cite book| title = Aschehoug og Gyldendals store norske leksikon: Nar – Pd| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YdRoPgAACAAJ| year = 1999| publisher=Kunnskapsforlaget | isbn = 978-82-573-0703-5| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132223/https://books.google.com/books?id=YdRoPgAACAAJ| url-status = live}}Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International but because of changes appearing in the languages since 1600 the East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian branches are now usually reconfigured into Insular Scandinavian ({{lang|sv|ö-nordisk}}/{{lang|no|øy-nordisk}}) featuring Icelandic and FaroeseJónsson, Jóhannes Gísli and Thórhallur Eythórsson (2004). [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=72768CEEDB6A49E6E7A7224C321A3A45.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=355925 "Variation in subject case marking in Insular Scandinavian"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504233812/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=72768CEEDB6A49E6E7A7224C321A3A45.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=355925 |date=4 May 2016 }}. Nordic Journal of Linguistics (2005), 28: 223–245 Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 9 November 2007. and Continental Scandinavian ({{lang|sv|Skandinavisk}}), comprising Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.{{cite book| author = Bernd Heine| author-link=Bernd Heine| author2 = Tania Kuteva| author2-link=Tania Kuteva|title = The changing languages of Europe| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EF5wAAAAIAAJ| year = 2006| publisher = Oxford University Press, US| isbn = 978-0-19-929734-4| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132202/https://books.google.com/books?id=EF5wAAAAIAAJ| url-status = live}}

The modern division is based on the degree of mutual comprehensibility between the languages in the two branches.{{cite book| author = Iben Stampe Sletten| author2 = Nordisk Ministerråd| title = Nordens sprog med rødder og fødder| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YinXAAAACAAJ| year = 2005| isbn = 978-92-893-1041-3| page = 2| publisher = Nordic Council of Ministers| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132203/https://books.google.com/books?id=YinXAAAACAAJ| url-status = live}} The populations of the Scandinavian countries, with common Scandinavian roots in language, can—at least with some training—understand each other's standard languages as they appear in print and are heard on radio and television.

The reason 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 each is a well-established standard language in its respective country.

Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have since medieval times been influenced to varying degrees by Middle Low German and standard German. That influence was due not only to proximity, but also to the rule of Denmark—and later Denmark-Norway—over the German-speaking region of Holstein, and to Sweden's close trade with the Hanseatic League.

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, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Scandinavian languages.[https://web.archive.org/web/20160307122939/http://www.norden.org/en/news-and-events/news/urban-misunderstandings "Urban misunderstandings"], Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen. In the Faroe Islands and Iceland, learning Danish is mandatory. This causes Faroese people as well as Icelandic 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.[http://www.norden.org/webb/pressrelease/pressrelease.asp?lang=6&id=1183 Faroese and Norwegians best at understanding Nordic neighbours] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225105103/http://www.norden.org/webb/pressrelease/pressrelease.asp?lang=6&id=1183 |date=25 December 2008 }}, Nordisk Sprogråd, Nordic Council, 13 January 2005.[http://www.ismennt.is/vefir/namskra/g/tungumal/danska/inngangur.html Aðalnámskrá grunnskóla: Erlend tungumál] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020071650/http://www.ismennt.is/vefir/namskra/g/tungumal/danska/inngangur.html |date=20 October 2017 }}, ISMennt, EAN, 1999.

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.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1023/A:1017918213388| year = 2001| last1 = Holmarsdottir | first1 = H. B. | journal = International Review of Education | volume = 47| issue = 3/4| page = 379|title=Icelandic: A Lesser-Used Language in the Global Community| bibcode = 2001IREdu..47..379H| s2cid = 142851422}} 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.Hálfdanarson, Guðmundur. [http://www.stm.unipi.it/Clioh/tabs/libri/3/01-Halfdanarson_1-14.pdf Icelandic Nationalism: A Non-Violent Paradigm?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081001152130/http://www.stm.unipi.it/Clioh/tabs/libri/3/01-Halfdanarson_1-14.pdf |date=1 October 2008 }} In Nations and Nationalities in Historical Perspective. Pisa: Edizioni Plus, 2001, p. 3.

File:Sami languages large 2.png]]

The Scandinavian languages are (as a language family) unrelated to Finnish and the Sámi languages, which as Uralic languages are distantly related each other. Owing to the close proximity, there is still a great deal of borrowing from the Swedish and Norwegian languages in Finnish and Sámi. The long history of linguistic influence of Swedish on Finnish is also due to the fact that Swedish was the dominant language when Finland was part of Sweden. Finnish-speakers had to learn Swedish in order to advance to higher positions of employment.{{cite book| author = Suzanne Romaine| title = Bilingualism| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zp5xiFa_TXQC| year = 1995| publisher = Wiley-Blackwell| isbn = 978-0-631-19539-9| page = 323| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132203/https://books.google.com/books?id=zp5xiFa_TXQC| url-status = live}} Swedish spoken in today's Finland includes a lot of words that are borrowed from Finnish, whereas the written language remains closer to that of Sweden.

Finland is officially bilingual, with Finnish and Swedish having mostly the same status at national level. Finland's majority population are Finns, whose mother tongue is either Finnish (approximately 95%), Swedish or both. The Swedish-speakers live mainly on the coastline starting from approximately the city of Porvoo (Sw: Borgå) (in the Gulf of Finland) up to the city of Kokkola (Sw: Karleby) (in the Bay of Bothnia).{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} The Swedish-speaking population is spread out in pockets in this coastal stretch and constitutes approximately 5% of the Finnish population.{{Cite web |title=Population and Society |url=https://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223155742/http://www.stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_vaesto_en.html |archive-date=23 December 2020 |access-date=18 June 2022 |website=www.stat.fi}} The coastal province of Ostrobothnia has a Swedish-speaking majority, whereas plenty of areas on this coastline are nearly unilingually Finnish, like the region of Satakunta.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} Åland, an autonomous province of Finland situated in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, are entirely Swedish-speaking. Children are taught the other official language at school: for Swedish-speakers this is Finnish (usually from the 3rd grade), while for Finnish-speakers it is Swedish (usually from the 3rd, 5th or 7th grade).{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}{{Cite web|last=Institute|first=Mercator|date=5 November 2020|title=The Swedish language in education in Finland|url=https://www.mercator-research.eu/fileadmin/mercator/documents/regional_dossiers/swedish_in_finland_2nd.pdf|access-date=5 November 2020|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414152840/https://www.mercator-research.eu/fileadmin/mercator/documents/regional_dossiers/swedish_in_finland_2nd.pdf|url-status=live}}

Finnish speakers constitute a language minority in both Sweden and Norway. Meänkieli and Kven are Finnish dialects mainly spoken in the Swedish part of the Torne Valley and surrounding areas,{{Cite journal |last=Winsa |first=Birger |last2=Kunnas |first2=Niina |last3=Arola |first3=Laura |date=2010 |title=Meänkieli in Sweden: An Overview of a Language in Context |url=https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/detail/o:103155 |journal=Working Papers in European Language Diversity |volume=6}} and in the Norwegian counties of Troms and Finnmark, respectively.{{Cite journal |last=Kunnas |first=Niina |last2=Räisänen |first2=Anna-Kaisa |title=The Kven language : An Overview of a Language in Context |url=https://phaidra.univie.ac.at/detail/o:105485 |journal=Working Papers in European Language Diversity |volume=15}} Meänkieli has held an official status as a minority language in Sweden since 2000, and Kven in Norway since 2005.{{Citation |last=Forsgren |first=Arne |title=kvener |date=2025-04-10 |work=Store norske leksikon |url=https://snl.no/kvener |access-date=2025-04-14 |language=no |last2=Minken |first2=Anne}}

The Sámi languages are indigenous minority languages in Scandinavia.{{cite book| author = Oskar Bandle| title = The Nordic languages: an international handbook of the history of the North Germanic languages| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=6b7WwBC5tRAC| date = March 2005| publisher = Walter de Gruyter| isbn = 978-3-11-017149-5| page = 2115| access-date = 23 April 2023| archive-date = 23 April 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132203/https://books.google.com/books?id=6b7WwBC5tRAC| url-status = live}} They belong to their own branch of the Uralic language family and are unrelated to the North Germanic languages other than by limited grammatical (particularly lexical) characteristics resulting from prolonged contact.Inez Svonni Fjällström (2006). [http://www.eng.samer.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1185 "A language with deep roots"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071005152013/http://www.eng.samer.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1185 |date=5 October 2007 }}.Sápmi: Language history, 14 November 2006. Samiskt Informationscentrum Sametinget: "The Scandinavian languages are Northern Germanic languages. [...] Sami belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family. Finnish, Estonian, Livonian and Hungarian belong to the same language family and are consequently related to each other." Sámi is divided into several languages or dialects.[http://www.eng.samer.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1186 www.eng.samer.se – The Sami dialects] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090120081140/http://www.eng.samer.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1186 |date=20 January 2009 }} Sapmi: The Sami dialects Consonant gradation is a feature in both Finnish and northern Sámi dialects, but it is not present in southern Sámi, which is considered to have a different language history. According to the Sámi Information Centre of the Sámi Parliament of Sweden, southern Sámi may have originated in an earlier migration from the south into the Scandinavian Peninsula.

German is a recognized minority language in Denmark. Recent migration has added even more languages, apart from Sámi languages and variants of the majority language of a neighboring state, Yiddish, Romani Chib/Romanes, Scandoromani and Karelian are amongst the languages protected in parts of Scandinavia under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.{{cite web |url= https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/148/signatures?p_auth=9E1g9uJz |title= Chart of signatures and ratifications of Treaty 148 |website=|publisher = Council of Europe|access-date=4 September 2024 }}

{{For|a more in-depth look at the history of the region|History of Scandinavia}}

A key ancient description of Scandinavia was provided by Pliny the Elder, though his mentions of {{lang|la|Scatinavia}} and surrounding areas are not always easy to decipher. 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 "clarissima" ("most famous") of the region's islands is {{lang|la|Scatinavia}}, of unknown size. There live the Hilleviones. The belief that Scandinavia was an island became widespread among classical authors during the 1st century and dominated descriptions of Scandinavia in classical texts during the centuries that followed.

Pliny begins his description of the route to {{lang|la|Scatinavia}} by referring to the mountain of Saevo ({{lang|la|mons Saevo ibi}}), the Codanus Bay ("Codanus sinus") and the Cimbrian promontory.Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0138&query=book%3D%235&chunk=book, Book IV, chapter XXXIX] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514175826/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0138&query=book%3D%235&chunk=book, |date=14 May 2008 }}. Ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff. Online version at Persus. Retrieved 2 October 2007. The geographical features have been identified in various ways. By some scholars, {{lang|la|Saevo}} is thought to be the mountainous Norwegian coast at the entrance to Skagerrak and the Cimbrian peninsula is thought to be Skagen, the north tip of Jutland, Denmark. As described, {{lang|la|Saevo}} and {{lang|la|Scatinavia}} can also be the same place.

Pliny mentions Scandinavia one more time: in Book VIII he says that the animal called {{lang|la|achlis}} (given in the accusative, {{lang|la|achlin}}, which is not Latin) was born on the island of Scandinavia.Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0138&query=book%3D%239 Book VIII, chapter XVII] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514143823/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0138&query=book%3D%239 |date=14 May 2008 }}. Ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff. Online version at Persus. Retrieved 2 October 2007. The animal grazes, has a big upper lip and some mythical attributes.

The name {{lang|la|Scandia}}, later used as a synonym for {{lang|la|Scandinavia}}, also appears in Pliny's {{Lang|la|Naturalis Historia}} (Natural History), but is used for a group of Northern European islands which he locates north of Britannia. {{lang|la|Scandia}} thus does not appear to be denoting the island Scadinavia in Pliny's text. The idea that {{lang|la|Scadinavia}} may have been one of the {{lang|la|Scandiae}} islands was instead introduced by Ptolemy ({{Circa|90|168 AD}}), a mathematician, geographer and astrologer of Roman Egypt. He used the name {{lang|la|Skandia}} for the biggest, most easterly of the three {{lang|la|Scandiai}} islands, which according to him were all located east of Jutland.

{{see also|Viking Age|Vikings}}

The Viking age in Scandinavia lasted from approximately 793–1066 AD and saw Scandinavians participate in large scale raiding, colonization, conquest and trading throughout Europe and beyond.{{cite book |last=Mawer |first=Allen |author-link=Allen Mawer |year=1913 |title=The Vikings |url=https://archive.org/details/vikings00mawe |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/vikings00mawe/page/1 1] |quote=The term 'Viking' is derived from the Old Norse {{lang|non|vík}}, a bay, and means 'one who haunts a bay, creek or fjord'. In the 9th and 10th centuries it came to be used more especially of those warriors who left their homes in Scandinavia and made raids on the chief European countries. This is the narrow, and technically the only correct use of the term 'Viking,' but in such expressions as 'Viking civilisation,' 'the Viking Age,' 'the Viking movement,' 'Viking influence,' the word has come to have a wider significance and is used as a concise and convenient term for describing the whole of the civilisation, activity and influence of the Scandinavian peoples, at a particular period in their history…}}{{cite book |last=Sawyer |first=Peter H. |author-link=Peter Sawyer (historian) |year=1995 |title=Scandinavians and the English in the Viking Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=owygAAAAMAAJ |publisher=University of Cambridge |page=3 |isbn=095173394X |quote=The Viking period is, therefore, best defined as the period when Scandinavians played a large role in the British Isles and western Europe as raiders and conquerors. It is also the period in which Scandinavians settled in many of the areas they conquered, and in the Atlantic islands... |access-date=23 April 2023 |archive-date=23 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132203/https://books.google.com/books?id=owygAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }} The period saw a big expansion of Scandinavian-conquered territory and of exploration. Utilizing their advanced longships, they reached as far as North America, being the first Europeans to do so.{{Cite web|agency=Reuters|date=20 October 2021|title=Solar storm confirms Vikings settled in North America exactly 1,000 years ago|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/20/vikings-settled-north-america-1000-years-ago-solar-storm|access-date=21 October 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en|archive-date=7 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107012357/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/20/vikings-settled-north-america-1000-years-ago-solar-storm|url-status=live}} During this time Scandinavians were drawn to wealthy towns, monasteries and petty kingdoms overseas in places such as the British Isles, Ireland, the Baltic coast and Normandy, all of which made profitable targets for raids. Scandinavians, primarily from modern day Sweden, known as Varangians also ventured east into what is now Russia raiding along river trade routes. During this period unification also took place between different Scandinavian kingdoms culminating in the peak of the North Sea Empire which included large parts of Scandinavia and Great Britain."Franques Royal Annals" cited in Sawyer, Peter (2001) The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings. {{ISBN|0-19-285434-8}}. p. 20

This expansion and conquest led to the formation of several kingdoms, earldoms and settlements throughout Europe such as the Kingdom of the Isles, Earldom of Orkney, Scandinavian York, Danelaw, Kingdom of Dublin, the Duchy of Normandy and the Kievan Rus'. The Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland were also settled by the Scandinavians during this time. The Normans, Rus' people, Faroe Islanders, Icelanders and Norse-Gaels all emerged from these Scandinavian expansions.

During a period of Christianization and state formation in the 10th–13th centuries, numerous Germanic petty kingdoms and chiefdoms were unified into three kingdoms:

• Denmark, forged from the lands of Denmark (including Jutland, Zealand and Scania (Skåneland) on the Scandinavian Peninsula){{cite book| author = Oskar Bandle| title = The Nordic languages: an international handbook of the history of the North Germanic languages| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RqkBXIJkkuEC| year = 2002| publisher = Mouton De Gruyter| isbn = 978-3-11-014876-3 }}
• Sweden, forged from the lands of Sweden on the Scandinavian Peninsula (including most of modern Finland, but excluding the provinces Bohuslän, Härjedalen, Jämtland and Idre and Särna, Halland, Blekinge and Scania of modern-day Sweden)
• Norway (including Bohuslän, Härjedalen, Jämtland and Idre and Särna on the Scandinavian Peninsula and its island colonies Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Shetland, Orkney, Isle of Man and the Hebrides)

According to historian Sverre Bagge, the divisions into three Scandinavian kingdoms (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) makes sense geographically, as forests, mountains, and uninhabited land divided them from one another. Control of Norway was enabled through seapower, whereas control of the great lakes in Sweden enabled control of the kingdom, and control of Jutland was sufficient to control Denmark. The most contested area was the coastline from Oslo to Öresund, where the three kingdoms met.{{Cite book|last=Bagge|first=Sverre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ|title=Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation|date=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-5010-5|pages=29|language=en|access-date=23 April 2023|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423120140/https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}

The three Scandinavian kingdoms joined in 1397 in the Kalmar Union under Queen Margaret I of Denmark.{{cite web | title=The Kalmar Union | website=Medeltiden | url=http://www.medeltiden.kalmarlansmuseum.se/en/society/the-kalmar-union/ | access-date=28 April 2022 | archive-date=26 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031250/http://www.medeltiden.kalmarlansmuseum.se/en/society/the-kalmar-union/ | url-status=live }} Sweden left the union in 1523 under King Gustav I of Sweden. In the aftermath of Sweden's secession from the Kalmar Union, civil war broke out in Denmark and Norway—the Protestant Reformation followed. When things had settled, the Norwegian privy council was abolished—it assembled for the last time in 1537. A personal union, entered into by the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway in 1536, lasted until 1814. Three sovereign successor states have subsequently emerged from this unequal union: Denmark, Norway and Iceland.

The borders between Denmark, Norway and Sweden acquired their present shape in the middle of the 17th century: In the 1645 Treaty of Brömsebro, Denmark–Norway ceded the Norwegian provinces of Jämtland, Härjedalen and Idre and Särna, as well as the Baltic Sea islands of Gotland and Ösel (in Estonia) to Sweden. The Treaty of Roskilde, signed in 1658, forced Denmark–Norway to cede the Danish provinces Scania, Blekinge, Halland, Bornholm and the Norwegian provinces of Båhuslen and Trøndelag to Sweden. The 1660 Treaty of Copenhagen forced Sweden to return Bornholm and Trøndelag to Denmark–Norway, and to give up its recent claims to the island Funen."Treaty of Copenhagen" (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 9 November 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

In the east, Finland was a fully incorporated part of Sweden from medieval times until the Napoleonic wars, when it was ceded to Russia. Despite many wars over the years since the formation of the three kingdoms, Scandinavia has been politically and culturally close.{{cite web | title=Finnish history | website=InfoFinland | date=28 August 2019 | url=https://www.infofinland.fi/en/information-about-finland/basic-information-about-finland/finnish-history | access-date=20 February 2022 | archive-date=6 December 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206081117/https://www.infofinland.fi/en/information-about-finland/basic-information-about-finland/finnish-history | url-status=dead }}

File:Kalmar Union ca. 1400.svg ({{circa|1400}})]]

Denmark–Norway as a historiographical name refers to the former political union consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The corresponding adjective and demonym is Dano-Norwegian. During Danish rule, Norway kept its separate laws, coinage and army as well as some institutions such as a royal chancellor. Norway's old royal line had died out with the death of Olav IV[http://www.kongehuset.no/dt_kongehuset_allAtOnce.asp?ogid=20&mgid=20&gid=51&aid= The Monarchy: Historical Background]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. The Royal House of Norway. Official site. Retrieved 9 November 2006. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} in 1387, but Norway's remaining a hereditary kingdom became an important factor for the Oldenburg dynasty of Denmark–Norway in its struggles to win elections as kings of Denmark.

The Treaty of Kiel (14 January 1814) formally dissolved the Dano-Norwegian union and ceded the territory of Norway proper to the King of Sweden, but Denmark retained Norway's overseas possessions. 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 Denmark), to call a constituent assembly at Eidsvoll in April 1814. The assembly drew up a liberal constitution and elected Christian Frederick to the throne of Norway. Following a Swedish invasion during the summer, the peace conditions of the Convention of Moss (14 August 1814) specified that king Christian Frederik had to resign, but Norway would keep its independence and its constitution within a personal union with Sweden. Christian Frederik formally abdicated on 10 August 1814 and returned to Denmark. The Norwegian parliament Storting elected king Charles XIII of Sweden as king of Norway on 4 November.

The Storting dissolved the union between Sweden and Norway in 1905, after which the Norwegians elected Prince Charles of Denmark as king of Norway: he reigned as Haakon VII.

{{see also|Economy of Sweden|Economy of Denmark|Economy of Finland|Economy of Iceland|Economy of Norway}}

Measured in per capita GDP, the Nordic countries are among the richest in the world.{{cite web | title=The economy in the Nordic Region | website=The Nordic Co-operation | url=https://www.norden.org/en/information/economy-nordic-region | access-date=18 February 2025}} There is a generous welfare system in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.{{Cite web|url=https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100714/nordic-model-pros-and-cons.asp|title=The Nordic Model: Pros and Cons|last=McWhinney|first=James|website=Investopedia|language=en|access-date=28 January 2020|archive-date=12 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512154719/https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/100714/nordic-model-pros-and-cons.asp|url-status=live}}

Various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries such as the Norwegian Trekking Association, the Swedish Tourist Association, and in the United States (The American-Scandinavian Foundation 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".[http://www.amscan.org/about.html About The American-Scandinavian Foundation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151029052921/http://www.amscan.org/about.html |date=29 October 2015 }}. Official site. Retrieved 2 February 2007. The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, such as the Scandinavian Tourist Board.[http://www.visitscandinavia.or.jp/en/scandinavia/general_information.aspx Scandinavian Tourist Board]. Official site. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117090528/http://www.visitscandinavia.or.jp/en/scandinavia/general_information.aspx|date=17 January 2008}} The cooperation was introduced for the Asian market in 1986, when the Swedish national tourist board joined the Danish national tourist board to coordinate intergovernmental promotion of the two countries. Norway's government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America.[http://www.goscandinavia.com/ The Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130604225711/http://goscandinavia.com/ |date=4 June 2013 }}. Official Website. Retrieved 2 February 2007.

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

• Baltic region
• Baltoscandia
• Fennoscandia
• Kvenland
• Sápmi
• Nordic countries
• Nordic cross flag
• Nordic Council
• Nordic folklore
• Scandinavian colonialism
• Scandinavian family name etymology
• Scandza
• Vikings

{{div col end}}

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{{wikiquote}}

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Commons and category|Scandinavia}}

{{EB1911 poster|Scandinavian Civilization}}

• [http://www.norden.org/ Nordic Council] – official site for co-operation in the Nordic region
• [http://www.nordregio.se/ Nordregio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503024329/http://www.nordregio.se/ |date=3 May 2017 }} – site established by the Nordic Council of Ministers
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20131207061449/http://www.vifanord.de/index.php?id=1&L=1&rd=243343734 vifanord] – a digital library that provides scientific information on the Nordic and Baltic countries as well as the Baltic region as a whole (archived)
• [http://scandinavia.life/ Expat Scandinavia] – site with useful information for expats in Scandinavia

{{Regions of the world}}

{{Timeline of the history of Scandinavia}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Geography of Europe

Category:Regions of Europe