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These three countries have recognized one another as parts of a political and cultural region since the height of the nationalist movements in these countries in the middle of the 19th century (Scandinavism). The region takes its name from the peninsula, which in turn is thought to be named after the historical province of Skåne (Scania) situated in present-day Sweden at the southern extreme of the Scandinavian peninsula. Before the mid-19th century, the region included a larger area of Northern Europe, comparable to "Nordic countries":
The collective label "Scandinavia" today primarily reflects the linguistic similarities, but also the strong historical and social ties among these countries despite their current political independence, different policies during the two World Wars and the Cold War, and membership in international organizations.[1]
EtymologyThe etymology for the names Scandinavia and Skåne (Scania) is considered to be the same. The name is most likely derived from the Germanic *Skaðin- meaning "danger" (cf. English scathing and unscathed, and German Schade and beschädigen) and *awjo meaning "island". It may have referred to the dangerous banks around Skanör (skan- is the same as in Scandinavia, and -ör means "sandbanks") and Falsterbo in Skåne in southernmost Sweden. Alternatively, the first element is sometimes attributed to the Scandinavian giantess Skaði from Norse mythology. Map of Scandinavia and Northern Europe Satellite photo of the Scandinavian Peninsula, February 2003, with political boundaries addedThe original form is considered to be *Skaðinawjo, which gave rise to different forms in Germanic languages and by non-Germanic scribes. In Beowulf we meet the forms Scedenigge and Scedeland. Ptolemy uses the form Scandia, and Scatinavia appears in Roman texts, e.g. Pliny the Elder, whereas Pomponius Mela used the deviant form Codanovia. The form Scadinavia, the original home of the Langobards, appears in Paulus Diaconus' Historia Langobardorum[2], but in other versions of Historia Langobardorum appear the forms Scadan, Scandanan, Scadanan and Scatenauge[3]. 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)[4]. 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". History
The Scandinavians were christianized in the 10th-13th centuries, resulting in three consolidated kingdoms.
The three kingdoms then united in the Kalmar Union [5] lasting all of the 15th century when the Union was split into two halves:
In the mid 17th century, the Treaty of Brömsebro and Treaty of Roskilde permanently transferred some provinces and islands from Norway and Denmark to Sweden. After the Napoleonic Wars, Scandinavia was reorganized into three personal unions:
LanguagesMain articles: North Germanic languages, Finno-Ugric languages Most dialects of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are mutually intelligible, and Scandinavians can with little trouble understand each other's standard languages as they appear in print and are heard on radio and television. However it is often assumed that Swedes have the greatest difficulties understanding the other two languages, which may be a consequence of limited access to Danish and Norwegian radio and television in Sweden. The reason why Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are traditionally viewed as different languages, rather than dialects of one language, is that they each are well established standardized languages (Ausbausprachen) in their respective countries. They are related to, but not intelligible with, the other North Germanic languages, Icelandic and Faroese, which are descended from the Norwegian dialect of 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. A rather typical folk-linguistic view might suggest the following. Finns and Icelanders who have studied Swedish and Danish, respectively, as foreign languages often also find it hard to understand the other Scandinavian languages. On the other end of the scale are the Norwegians, who with two parallel written standards, and a habit to hold on strongly to local dialects, are accustomed to variation and may perceive Danish and Swedish as only slightly more distant dialects. In a conversation between a Swedish speaker and a Dane there can be significant difficulties in understanding each other's spoken language, due to differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. 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. [6] The Scandinavian languages are (as a language family) entirely unrelated to Finnish and Estonian, which as Finno-Ugric languages are distantly related to Hungarian. This said, there still is a great deal of borrowings from the Swedish language in both the Finnish and Estonian languages. Oddly enough, texts on some rune stones found in Skåne have been deciphered mixing Finnish words into the "Fornnordiska" (Ove Berg: Runsvenska, svenska finska 2003). Although Swedish speakers constitute a small, but influential, minority in Finland, and Finnish speakers constitute a minority in Sweden of similar relative size, 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 classify the Finns as a people separate from the Scandinavian culture group. This view gained popularity among the language-based Scandinavian movement in the other Scandinavian countries in the 1850s. The ethnic nationalist Fennoman movement in Finland partially participated in this process of separation, with its pro-Finnish policy, under the last period of Russian rule in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The Fennoman movement was established by prominent Swedish speakers in Finland under a period of intense efforts for russification from the Czar, and its motto "Swedes we are no longer, Russians we will never become, so let us be Finns" was hailed welcome by the Finnish population. National visions during the 19th centuryThe movement's goal was to promote the status of the Finnish language in a country, where the population spoke either Finnish or Swedish, but the official languages were Swedish and Russian. As a result, in 1902, Finnish was granted an almost equal status with Swedish and Russian. Some parties outside Finland gravely misunderstood this as an attack against the Swedish language, but were proved wrong in 1919, when the new constitution of Finland stated that Finnish and Swedish are the (only) official languages of the country. Despite the relatively similar numbers of native speakers of the Swedish language in Finland and the Finnish language in Sweden, there are severe differences in the legal status. Although Swedish is considered by the Finnish constitution to have an equal legal position with Finnish in all of Finland, Finnish was granted some rights only as late as 1999 in certain areas of Sweden, forced by the EU minority language law. PoliticsThe modern use of the term Scandinavia rises from the Scandinavist political movement, which was active in the middle of the 19th century, chiefly between the First war of Schleswig (Slesvig in Scandinavian) (1848-1850), in which Sweden-Norway contributed with considerable military force, and the Second war of Schleswig (1864) when Sweden's parliament denounced the King's promises of military support. The King proposed the unification of Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a single united kingdom. The background for this was the tumultuous events during the Napoleonic wars in the beginning of the century leading to the partition of Sweden (the eastern part becoming the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809) and Denmark (whereby Norway, de jure in union with Denmark since 1387, although de facto merely a province, became independent in 1814 and thereafter was swiftly forced to accept a personal union with Sweden). Finland being a part of the Russian Empire meant that it would have to be left out of any equation for a political union between the Nordic countries. The geographical Scandinavia included Norway, Sweden and parts of Finland, but the political Scandinavia was also to include Denmark. Politically Sweden and Norway were united in a personal union under one monarch. Denmark also included the dependent territories of Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland in the Atlantic Ocean (which however historically had belonged to Norway, but unintentionally remained with Denmark according to the Treaty of Kiel). The end of the Scandinavian political movement came when Denmark was denied military support from Sweden-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. That was 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. Flag of the Nordic Council.Even if a Scandinavian political union never came about there was a Scandinavian Monetary Union established in 1873, with the Krona/Krone as the common currency, and which lasted until World War I. The modern Scandinavian co-operation after World War I also came to include the independent Finland and (since 1944) Iceland and Scandinavian as a political term came to be replaced by the term Nordic countries; and eventually, in 1952, by the Nordic Council institution. 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) . Norden
Like other regions of the world, the usage and meaning of the term 'Scandinavia' can vary depending on defining criteria. Some or all of the following geopolitical entities may variously be considered peripherally Scandinavian, since they traditionally have had strong political, social, economic, linguistic and/or geographical ties with the three kingdoms:
and
These alternative meanings are generally considered incorrect in Scandinavia, and occasionally some people may take offence at such usage. In recent years "Scandinavia" has again increasingly been used by scholars and politicians, in Scandinavia and other regions, with Finland included. [7] The term the Nordic countries is used unambiguously for the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the republics of Finland and Iceland. More infrequently, the term is also used occasionally to include Estonia, owing to its cultural and historical ties with Sweden, Denmark and Finland and its proximity to Scandinavia. The terms Fennoscandia and Fenno-Scandinavia have been used either to include the Scandinavian peninsula, the Kola peninsula, Karelia, Finland and Denmark under the same term alluding to the Fennoscandian Shield, even if Denmark is actually situated on the North European Plain, or they may be used in a more cultural sense, more or less as a synonym for the Nordic countries, to signify the historically close contact between Finnic, Sami and other Scandinavian peoples and cultures. See also
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