(Redirected from Scandinavians)
'Scandinavia' is a historical and geographical
region centered on the
Scandinavian Peninsula in
Northern Europe which includes the three kingdoms of
Denmark,
Norway and
Sweden.
[1][2] The other
Nordic countries,
Finland,
Iceland and the
Faroe Islands, are also often included because of their close historic and cultural relations to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
[3][4][5]
In linguistics and cultural studies, the definition of Scandinavia is expanded to include the areas where
Old Norse was spoken and where the
North Germanic languages are now dominant. As a linguistic and cultural concept, Scandinavia thus also includes
Iceland and the
Faroe Islands.
9
As a cultural and historical concept, Scandinavia can include
Finland as well (of the larger region
Fenno-Scandinavia), often with reference to the nation's long history as a part of Sweden. Although Finland is culturally closely related to the other Scandinavian countries, the majority of Finns form a distinct linguistic and ethnic group, with a Finno-Ugric population that has incorporated features from both Eastern and Western Europe.
[6]
Since the
Fennoman movement of the 1830s and political
Scandinavism of the 1830s- 1850s,
[7] the inclusion of Finland and Iceland has divided opinions in the respective states.
[8] Although it depends on context which countries are considered Scandinavian, the term ''the
Nordic countries'' is used unambiguously for Norway, Sweden, Denmark (including the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Finland (including Ã…land) and Iceland.
Terminology and usage
Red: the three monarchies that compose Scandinavia according to the strictest definition; Orange: the possible extended usage; Yellow: the maximal extended usage that takes Scandinavia as synonymous to the Nordic countries.
Being a purely historical and cultural region, Scandinavia has no official geopolitical borders. The region is therefore often defined according to the conventions of different disciplines or according to the political and cultural aims of different communities of the area.
[9] One example of the Scandinavian region as a political and cultural construct is the unique position of Finland. The creation of a Finnish identity is unique in the region in that it was forged in the decolonization struggles against two different imperial models, the Swedish
[10] and the Russian,
[11][12] as described by the
University of Jyväskylä based editorial board of the Finnish journal "Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual history"
[13]: "The construction of a specific Finnish polity is the result of successful decolonization. The location of Finland is a moving one. It has shifted from being a province in the Swedish Empire to an autonomous unit in Eastern Europe, then to an independent state in Northern Europe or Scandinavia. After joining the European Union, Finland has recently been included in Western Europe."
11
Usage in geography
Geographically the Scandinavian Peninsula includes what is today mainland Sweden and mainland Norway.
[14][15]. A small part of north-western Finland is sometimes also considered part of the peninsula.
[16] In
physiography, Denmark is considered part of the North European Plain, rather than the geologically distinct Scandinavian peninsula mainly occupied by Norway and Sweden.
[17] However, Denmark has historically included the region of
Scania on the Scandinavian Peninsula. For this reason, but even more for cultural and linguistic reasons, Denmark –
Jutland on the Jutland peninsula of the
European continent, along with
Zealand and the other islands in the Danish archipelago – is considered part of the Scandinavian region also by the Scandinavians themselves.
Variations in usage
A wider definition of Scandinavia, sometimes used in the English-speaking world, includes Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
[18][19] However, this larger region is by the concerned countries officially known as 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.
The use of the name Scandinavia as a convenient general term for the peninsula region is fairly recent and according to some historians, it was adopted and introduced only in the 18th century, at a time when the ideas about a common heritage took root and started to appear as literary and linguistic Scandinavism.
[20] Before this time, the term ''Scandinavia'' was familiar mainly to classical scholars through
Pliny the Elder's writings, and was used vaguely for Scania and the southern region of the peninsula.
20 The popular usage of the term in Sweden, Denmark and Norway as a unifying concept became more firmly established in the 19th century, through poems such
Hans Christian Andersen'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!'".
[21] The historic popular usage is also reflected in the name chosen for the shared, multi-national airline,
Scandinavian Airlines System, a carrier originally owned jointly by the governments of the three countries, along with private investors.
Usage by cultural and tourist organizations
The use of the term ''Scandinavian'' for the culture of the Nordic region is reflected in the name chosen for the various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the
United States and around the world, such as
The American-Scandinavian Foundation, established in 1910 by the
Danish-American industrialist
Niels Poulsen. Today, the five Nordic Heads of State serve 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."
[22] The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, such as the
Scandinavian Tourist Board.
[23] 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.
[24]
The Nordic Countries vs. Scandinavia
Main articles: Nordic countries
While the term Scandinavia is most commonly used for Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the term ''the
Nordic countries'' is used unambiguously for Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, including their associated territories (Greenland, the Faroes and Ã…land).
Scandinavia is thus a subset of the Nordic countries. All of the Nordic regions are occasionally listed as part of Scandinavia, especially outside the Nordic countries. More precisely, in addition to mainland Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the Nordic countries consist of
★
Finland (a
sovereign republic, independent since 1917)
★
Iceland (a
sovereign republic, independent since 1944)
and
★
Faroe Islands (an
autonomous region of Denmark since 1948)
★
Greenland (a
self-governing Danish territory since 1979)
★
Ã…land (an
autonomous province of Finland since 1920)
★
Jan Mayen (an integrated geographical body of Norway)
★
Svalbard (under Norwegian
sovereignty since 1920)
Estonia has applied for membership in the
Nordic Council, referring to its cultural heritage and close linguistic links to Finland, although normally Estonia is regarded as one of the
Baltic countries. All Baltic states have shared historical events with the Nordic countries, including Scandinavia, during the centuries.
The terms ''Fennoscandia'' and ''Fenno-Scandinavia'' are used to include the Scandinavian peninsula, the
Kola peninsula,
Karelia,
Finland and (seldom)
Denmark under the same term, alluding to the
Fennoscandian Shield, even though Denmark is on the
North European Plain.
Etymology
Scandinavia and
Scania (''Skåne'') are considered to have the same etymology. 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. It is believed that the name used by Pliny may be of
West Germanic origin, originally denoting Scania.
[25] According to some leading scholars in the field, the Germanic stem can be reconstructed as
★ ''Skaðan''- meaning "danger" or "damage" (English ''scathing'', German ''Schaden'').
[26] 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.
26 Skanör in Scania, with its long Falsterbo reef, has the same stem (''skan'') combined with -''ör'', which means "sandbanks".
The belief that Scandinavia was an island became widespread among classical authors during the first century. This idea, along with the name "''Scandiae''" which was used by Pliny for a group of Nordic islands, dominated descriptions of Scandinavia in classical texts during the centuries that followed. Pliny's "''Scadinavia''" may have been one of the "''Scandiae''" islands. This idea was picked up by
Ptolemy (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
Jutland.
26 Scandia was used for the entire "island" of Scandinavia by Ptolemy, including areas far north of today's
Scania, but neither Pliny's nor Ptolemy's lists of Scandinavian tribes include the
Suiones mentioned by Tacitus. Some early Swedish scholars proceeded to insert them, arguing that they must have been referred to in the original texts and obscured over time by mistake.
[27]
Pliny the Elder's descriptions
Pliny the Elder, who was an admiral, wrote that there were 23 islands "Romanis armis cognitae", "''known to Roman arms''", in the
Kattegat. His descriptions were not always easy to decipher, even though his writing of geography was what he considered a "clarior fama", "''a clearer story.''"
Pliny begins (4.96) with the mountain of Saevo (mons Saevo ibi), which forms the Codanian Bay (Codanus sinus) surrounding the Cimbrian promontory. These features are thought to be the mountainous coasts of Norway and Sweden, the
Skagerrak and
Skagen. Saevo is most likely an early form of
Zealand, which Pliny applied to southern Scandinavia. The "Cod-" in ''Codanus'' is a form of the second element in
Kattegat, (Latin ''coda'', "the tail of animals", Latin ''ănus'', "anus" or "old wife, also of feminine animals"). Danish ''katte'' (cat) is possibly a reference to the group ''
Felis'', especially
Lynx; and Danish ''gat'' as in ''gatfinn'' ("analfin of a fish"). Thus ''Kattegat'' is "tail of a cat" or a "cat's hole". This may be related to the myth about
Freyja,
Norse goddess of love, fertility and beauty, who travelled in a chariot drawn by huge cats). According to Pliny, the most famous (clarissima) of the islands in the Codanian Bay is Scatinavia, of unknown size. There live the
Hilleviones, who can possibly be identified with what is now Halland. As described, Saevo and Scatinavia appear to be the same place.
Pliny mentions Scandinavia one more time: in 8.39 he says that the animal called achlis (given in the accusative, achlin), was born on the island of Scandinavia. Achlis is not Latin. As well as having some mythical attributes, the animal grazes and has a big upper lip. Pliny also uses the name Scandiae, presumably to mean the Danish islands, but perhaps some islands of Britain.
Germanic reconstruction
The Latin names in Pliny's text gave rise to different forms in Germanic languages, often transliterated by non-Germanic scribes.
Ptolemy uses the form ''Scandia'', showing that the n had appeared by then. In ''
Beowulf'' we meet the forms ''Scedenigge'' and ''Scedeland''.
Pomponius Mela used ''Codanovia'', based on the ancient name of the
Kattegat. This usage appears to support the "sealand" idea. The form ''Scadinavia'', the original home of the
Langobards, appears in
Paulus Diaconus' ''Historia Langobardorum''
[28], but in other versions of ''Historia Langobardorum'' appear the forms ''Scadan'', ''Scandanan'', ''Scadanan'' and ''Scatenauge''
[29]. In Jordanes' history of the
Goths (AD 551) we meet the form ''
Scandza'' their original home, separated by sea from the land of Europe (chapter 1, 4)
[30]. If the -za represents an early form of zed, then it may replace
★ awia. On the other hand, Jordanes' spelling may just be an attempt to capture the late Latin palatalization of the d by a following i.
In the reconstruction
★ ''Skaðin-awjo'' (without the n, which can be seen as a later assimilation to the second n, and with the thorn, which might be represented in Latin by t or d), the first segment is sometimes consider more uncertain than the second segment, which is thought to be "''island''". The American Heritage Dictionary
[31] derives the second segment from
Proto-Indo-European ★ akwa-, "''water''", in the sense of "''watery land''". Saevo is probably a synonym, as it resembles Gothic saiws, "''lake''", which is one of the Germanic groups of words including English sea, German See. The group does not have an Indo-European derivation and is not believed to be Indo-European. However, the word "saevo" in Latin means "raging, mad, furious, fell, fierce, savage, ferocious".
[32]
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 scadin- came from the indigenes along with achlis and sea.
The designation of Scandinavia as an island may have preceded the Indo-Europeans there, and the words for island and sea may come from the indigenes in the region. Today Scandinavia is not an island, but the indigenous
Mesolithic people inhabiting the region may have remembered
Ancylus Lake and preceding times, when water exited the Baltic through what is now
Stockholm and the lakes called saiws by the Goths.
Alternatively, the first element is sometimes attributed to the
Scandinavian giantess Skaði from
Norse mythology. If it is she, it is even less likely to be Indo-European, as a people moving in among another people typically take on their gods and goddesses (not quite daring to reject them).
Some
Basque scholars thought the ''sk'' was connected to
Euzko peoples, akin to Basques, that populated
Paleolithic Europe. According to some of these intellectuals, the Scandinavians share some genetic markers with the Basques.
[33]
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 Mountains, the flat, low areas in Denmark, and the
archipelagos of Sweden and Norway. When Finland is included, the moraines (ice age remnants) and lake areas are also notable.
The climate varies from north to south and from west to east; a marine west coast climate () 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 lift giving more than 2000 mm/year
precipitation (max 3500 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. A small area along the northern coast east of
North Cape 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
Finnmarksvidda plateau in Norway receive little precipitation and have cold winters. Large areas in the Scandinavian mountains have
alpine tundra climate.
Scandinavian languages
:''Main articles:
North Germanic languages''
The
codified standard
languages of Scandinavia are often classified as belonging to either an East Scandinavian branch (Danish and Swedish) or a West Scandinavian branch (Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese).
[34]
Most dialects of
Danish,
Norwegian and
Swedish, are mutually intelligible, and Scandinavians can easily understand each other's
standard languages as they appear in print and are heard on radio and television. The reason why Danish, Swedish and Norwegian 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,
Icelandic and
Faroese, which are descended from
Old West Norse. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have, since medieval times, been influenced to varying degrees by
Middle Low German and
standard German. A substantial amount of that influence was a by-product of the economic activity generated by 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 Nordic languages.
[35] In the
Faroe Islands Danish is mandatory, and since Faroese people this way become bilingual in two very distinct Nordic languages, they find it relatively easy to understand the other two Mainland Scandinavian languages.
[36]
For foreign people, who are studying Scandinavian languages, it's often common that they learn the basic Norwegian first. This is because Norwegian as a language, is very similar to written Danish, and also very similar to oral Swedish. They can thus easily expand their knowledge further
[1][2].
The Scandinavian languages are (as a language family) entirely unrelated to
Finnish,
Estonian and
Sami languages which as
Finno-Ugric languages are distantly related to
Hungarian. 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.
Finland and Scandinavia
In Finland, native Swedish speakers constitute a small, but influential, minority. All children are nonetheless
taught Swedish at school. The
ethnic nationalist Fennoman movement in Finland began to fight for equal language rights for Finnish-speakers from the Swedish-speaking elite in the 1830s. Its motto, "Swedes we are no longer/not, Russians we will never become, so let us be/become Finns" was popular among Finns. The movement's goal was to promote the equal legal status of the Finnish language in a country where the official language of government was Swedish or Russian, despite the large majority of the population being Finnish-speakers.
[37] The revival of the language spoken by the majority was symbolized by the creation of the national epos
Kalevala and by a new reverence for the Finno-Ugric folk culture. The Fennomans protested against Finnish participation in the Scandinavian exhibition in Stockholm 1866, arguing that it would "enforce the impression that Finland belonged culturally to the Scandinavian realm" and imply that Finland did not have its own history before 1809 but was "first and foremost a periphery of western civilisation".
39 The Fennoman movement met with resistance from the
Svecoman movement and the Swedish elite.
[38] Finland Swedish author
Zacharias Topelius joined in the criticism of the Fennoman movement in 1872, when a rhetorical question was posed by a peasant member of the Finnish parliament. The peasant parliamentarian referred to the often-mentioned claim that Finland was in debt to Sweden for its western civilization and he asked if anyone could show him the original promissory note of this debt. According to Dr. Henrik Meinander, Professor, Department of History,
University of Helsinki, Finland, the rhetorical question was meant to emphasize that "Finns already stood on their own two feet and had bowed enough to the domestic Swedish-speaking elite." In response, Topelius wrote a poem arguing that the entire Finnish society was part of this promissory note.
[39] Finland's struggles and success in establishing a unique identity has been followed by scholars and journalists around the world.
[40]
The Russian Emperor
Alexander II, Grand Duke of Finland, had issued a decree already in 1863 that would secure equal status for Finnish in public affairs within the following two decades, but only in
1902 did Finnish language finally receive an equal official status with Swedish and Russian. In Finland today, the only exception to the equality between Finnish and Swedish languages is made on the
Ã…land islands, in favour of the Swedish language. According to the county legislation
[41], the region is unilingually Swedish-speaking.
Finnish speakers constitute a minority in Sweden and Norway of similar relative size to the minority of Swedish speakers in Finland. There are also
Finnic languages different from standard Finnish, known as
Meänkieli in Sweden and
Kven in Norway. The linguistic distance between the language families has often been seen by native speakers of each of these languages as indicative of a cultural distance, as well as a reason to consider the native Finnish speakers as a people separate from the ''Scandinavian'' culture group.
History
Main articles: History of Scandinavia
During a period of
Christianization and state formation in the
10th-
13th centuries, three consolidated kingdoms emerged in Scandinavia:
★ Denmark, forged from the
Lands of Denmark (including
Jutland,
Zealand and
Scania (Skåneland) on the Scandinavian Peninsula.
[42]. The island
Gotland in modern-day Sweden was initially also part of the Danish realm.)
★ Sweden, forged from the
Lands of Sweden on the Scandinavian Peninsula (excluding the provinces
Bohuslän,
Härjedalen,
Jämtland and
Idre & Särna,
Halland,
Blekinge and
Scania of modern-day Sweden)
★ Norway (including
Bohuslän,
Härjedalen,
Jämtland and
Idre & Särna on the Scandinavian Peninsula, and the islands
Iceland,
Greenland,
Faroe Islands,
Shetland,
the Orkneys,
Isle of Man and the
Hebrides.)
In the 1645
Treaty of Brömsebro, Denmark-Norway ceded the Norwegian provinces of Jämtland, Härjedalen and Idre & 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
BÃ¥huslen 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.
[43]
Scandinavian unions
Denmark-Norway until 1814.
The three Scandinavian kingdoms were united in
1397 in the
Kalmar Union by Queen Margrete I of Denmark. Sweden left the union in 1523 under King
Gustav Vasa. 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 down, 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.
'Denmark-Norway' is the historiographical name for 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,
[44] but Norway's remaining a
hereditary kingdom was an important factor to the
Oldenburg 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 Kiel. The territory of Norway proper was ceded to the King of
Sweden, 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 Denmark), to call a constituent assembly at
Eidsvoll in April of 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
Storting 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 VII.
Politics: Scandinavism
Scandinavia as a 19th century political vision (
Scandinavism)
:''See also
Politics of Denmark,
Politics of Norway and
Politics of Sweden.''
The modern usage of the term ''Scandinavia'' has been influenced by
Scandinavism (the Scandinavist political movement), which was active in the middle of the
19th century, mainly between the
First war of Schleswig (
1848-
1850), in which
Sweden and
Norway contributed with considerable military force, and the
Second war of Schleswig (
1864). In 1864, the Swedish parliament denounced the promises of military support made to Denmark by
Charles XV of Sweden. 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
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 of the
Baltic sea countries was established.
Even if a Scandinavian political union never came about at this point, there was a
Scandinavian Monetary Union established in
1873, lasting until
World War I, with the
Krona/
Krone as the common currency.
Historical political structure
1/ The original settlers of the Faroes and Iceland were of Nordic (mainly Norwegian) origin, with a considerable element of Celtic or Pictish origin (from Scotland and Ireland) .
See also
★
Nordic countries
★
Baltic region
★
Thule
★
Northern Europe
★
Scandza
★
Nordic Cross Flag
★
Nordic Council
★
Scandinavian colonialism
Footnotes
1. Scandinavia. (2006). ''Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia''. Retrieved January 30, 2007: "Scandinavia (ancient Scandia), name applied collectively to three countries of northern Europe—Norway and Sweden (which together form the Scandinavian Peninsula), and Denmark."
2. Scandinavia. (2007). ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from ''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'': "Scandinavia, historically Scandia, part of northern Europe, generally held to consist of the two countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Norway and Sweden, with the addition of Denmark."
3. "Scandinavia" (2005). ''The New Oxford American Dictionary'', Second Edition. Ed. Erin McKean. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-517077-6: "a cultural region consisting of the countries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and sometimes also of Iceland, Finland, and the Faroe Islands".
4. Scandinavia (2001). ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition. Retrieved January 31, 2007: "Scandinavia, region of N Europe. It consists of the kingdoms of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark; Finland and Iceland are usually considered part of Scandinavia."
5.
Scandinavia. ''The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy'', Third Edition, 2002. Eds. E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Retrieved January 31 2007: "Scandinavia. The region in northern Europe containing Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and the peninsulas they occupy. Through cultural, historical, and political associations, Finland and Iceland are often considered part of Scandinavia."
6. Peltonen, Arvo (2002). Politics and Society: The Population in Finland, ''Virtual Finland'', Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Department for Communication and Culture, 21 November 2002, retrieved 14 Nov. 2006, paragraph 1: "The Finns form a distinct linguistic and ethnic group; the original Finno-Ugric population bearing features from both eastern and western Europe. Finland is an interface between east and west."
7. Oresundstid (2003). Scandinavism - the students. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
8. In response to Scandinavism, some Norwegian scholars of the 19th century resisted the idea that Scandinavia had a shared heritage and stressed the unique aspects that unit Iceland's cultural output exclusively with Norway and make it separate and unique. See for example Bothne, Gisle (1898). "The Language of Modern Norway". ''PMLA'', Vol. 13, No. 3 (1898), p. 350: "[While it is true that] the old Norwegian literature was far behind the contemporaneous Icelandic literature [...], every Norwegian holds it to be equally true that the language of Norway and that of her colony Iceland [...] were substantially the same. Norroent mál, and the Norroen literature (created by conditions peculiar to Norway and Iceland alone) are the exclusive historical property of Norway and Iceland, while Denmark and Sweden have no part in them."
9. 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.
10. "Finland and the Swedish Empire". ''Country Studies''. U.S. Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 Nov. 2006.
11. "Introduction: Reflections on Political Thought in Finland." Editorial. ''Redescriptions, Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History'', 1997, Volume 1, University of Jyväskylä, p. 6-7: "[T]he populist opposition both to Sweden as a former imperial country and especially to Swedish as the language of the narrow Finnish establishment has also been strong, especially in the inter-war years. [...] Finland as a unitary and homogeneous nation-state was constructed [...] in opposition to the imperial models of Sweden and Russia."
12. "The Rise of Finnish Nationalism". ''Country Studies''. U.S. Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 Nov. 2006: "The eighteenth century had witnessed the appearance of [...] a sense of national identity for the Finnish people, [...] an expression of the Finns' growing doubts about Swedish rule [...] The ethnic self-consciousness of Finnish speakers was given a considerable boost by the Russian conquest of Finland in 1809, because ending the connection with Sweden forced Finns to define themselves with respect to the Russians."
13. Editors and Board, Redescriptions, Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History
14. Seppälä, Matti, ed. (2005). ''The Physical Geography of Fennoscandia''. Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. XI, 1. ISBN 0199245908.
15. Scandinavian Peninsula. ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 1 February 2007.
16. Naval Intelligence Division (1920). ''A Handbook of Norway & Sweden By Great Britain''. Published by H. M. Stationery office.
17. Scandinavia (2001). ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Sixth Edition. Retrieved 2 February 2007.
18. Scandinavia. MSN Encarta. Retrieved on 2006-08-22.
19. See also EU documents, such as the following , and bulletin in German.
20. 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 Danish Institute for International Studies. For the history of cultural Scandinavism, see Oresundstid's articles The Literary Scandinavism and The Roots of Scandinavism. Retrieved 19 January 2007.
21. Hans Christian Andersen and Music - I am a Scandinavian. The Royal Library of Denmark, the National Library and Copenhagen University Library. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
22. About The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Official site. Retrieved 2 February 2007.
23. Scandinavian Tourist Board. Official site.
24. The Scandinavian Tourist Boards in North America. Official Website. Retrieved 2 February 2007.
25. Haugen, Einar (1976). ''The Scandinavian Languages: An Introduction to Their History.'' Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1976.
26. Helle, Knut (2003). "Introduction". ''The Cambridge History of Scandinavia.'' Ed. E. I. Kouri et al. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-47299-7.
27. Malone,Kemp (1924). "Ptolemy's Skandia". ''The American Journal of Philology'', Vol. 45, No. 4. (1924), pp. 362-370.
28. Paulus Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, ''BIBLIOTHECA AUGUSTANA''
29. History of the Langobards, ''Northvegr Foundation''
30. Jordanes (translated by Charles C. Mierow), THE ORIGIN AND DEEDS OF THE GOTHS, April 22, 1997
31. "Island". ''Bartleby'', American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.
32. Lewis, Charlton T. and Charles Short (1879). ''A Latin Dictionary''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879. ISBN 0-19-864201-6. Available online through The Perseus Digital Library
33. J. F. del Giorgio (2006). ''The Oldest Europeans: Who Are We? Where Do We Come From? What Made European Women Different?''. A. J. Place, 2006. ISBN 980-6898-00-1.
34. Henriksen, Petter (ed.); Aschehoug og Gyldendals Store norske leksikon, 11 Nar-Pd; Kunnskapsforlaget; Oslo; 1998; ISBN 82-573-0703-3
35. "Urban misunderstandings". Norden This Week - Monday 01.17.2005, Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers, Copenhagen.
36. Internordisk språkförståelse, ''Nordisk Sprogråd'', November 2002.
37. See "Introduction: Reflections on Political Thought in Finland", p. 9: "Fennoman cultural nationalism put an emphasis on the education and elevation of the people, and it became the leading force in the university sphere and in the bureaucracy. In the late 19th century Fennoman politics were more exclusively concentrated on the language question, trying to replace Swedish with Finnish."
38. Kolehmainen, John Ilmari (1943). "Antti Jalava and Hungarian-Finnish Rapprochement". ''Slavonic and East European Review''. American Series, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Nov. 1943), pp. 167-174.
39. Meinander, Henrik. (2002). "On the Brink or Between? The conception of Europe in Finnish identity". ''The Meaning of Europe''. Ed. Mikael af Malmborg and Bo Stråth. Oxford: Berg, 2002. ISBN 1-85973-576-2
40. See for example: Agrawal, Subhash. Finland: A Turnaround Success Story, The Financial Express, net edition, Mumbai, India, 1 Jul. 2004.
41. Act on the Autonomy of Ã…land. Published by the Parliament of Ã…land.
42. Olrik Fredriksen, Britta (2002). "The History of Old Nordic Manuscripts IV: Old Danish". ''Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the North Germanic Languages''. Ed. Oskar Brandle et al. Walter De Gruyter Inc: Berlin, 2002. ISBN 3-11-014876-5
43. "Treaty of Copenhagen" (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 9, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
44. The Monarchy: Historical Background. The Royal House of Norway. Official site, retrieved 9 Nov. 2006.
External links
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Go Scandinavia - Official Website of the Scandinavian Tourist Boards in North America
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Nordic Council - Official site for co-operation in the Nordic region
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Nordregio - Site established by the Nordic Council of Ministers
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Scandinavia House - The Nordic Center in New York, run by the
American-Scandinavian Foundation
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Scandinavia News - Scandinavia news and analysis of current events
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Scandinavia Now - Nordic business news in English
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Scandinavica - Monthly magazine about Scandinavia
★
Historical atlas of Scandinavia - Personal web site of Örjan Martinsson
★
ReRailEurope - A Railway map of Scandinavia (flash file)
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