Scandinavians

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Scandinavians are a group of Germanic peoples,^{[citation needed]} inhabiting Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as Iceland and the Faroe Islands, as well as Finland Swedes in Finland, as well as descendants in many other countries, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States. The Scandinavians were known as norsemen in the middle ages. Until the 9th century, the Scandinavian people lived in small Germanic kingdoms and chiefdoms known as petty kingdoms, which were since unified into three kingdoms known as Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The term "Scandinavians" may in a modern context also be used to refer to the inhabitants of the three Scandinavian countries, excluding Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which are usually not considered to be part of Scandinavia.^{[citation needed]} Icelanders and Faroese people are ethnically Scandinavian,^{[citation needed]} being descendants of norsemen who colonized Iceland in the 9th and 10th century and the Faroe Islands from around 650, but their languages are, despite similarities, since the late middle ages not mutually intelligible with the languages spoken in Scandinavia.

The three countries in Scandinavia, however, share a mutually intelligible dialect continuum and close cultural and historical bonds, to a degree that some^[who?] have considered Danes, Norwegians and Swedes to be one people even in a more modern sense (see scandinavism).

See also

• Norsemen
• Norwegians
• Danes
• Swedes
• Icelanders
• Faroese