# Is Scandanavia part of Europe? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135 "2004-11-16T22:01:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hildea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ebca7d/32.png) [@hildea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hildea)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/21 "2004-11-17T11:37:49Z")
We definitively consider ourselves a part of Europe. 🙂 There’s sometimes a tendency to use Europe = EU, at least in debates about EU, and mostly from pro-EU people, but it’s not all that widespread. We’ll sometimes talk about “the continent”, ie. the European mainland, including Denmark. > [@grey\_ideas](#): > > if memory serves me right, Norway rejected entry into the EU in 1994. That’s right. In 1972 too. Our government will probably keep holding referendums until they get the answer they want. Regarding the Scandinavia/Nordic question: It might be useful to know that these terms are defined differently in English than in Norwegian, and possibly/probably the other Nordic languages as well. In Norwegian:[ul][li]Skandinavia = Norway, Denmark and Sweden[/li][\*]Norden (The Nordic Countries) = Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and a handful of small semiindependent islands[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/22 "2004-11-17T12:48:38Z")
I’ve just come back to this thread and it seems I might have been a bit hasty saying categorically that Denmark is not Scandinavian. I used to think it was, but a Danish girl I knew a few years back set me straight (after I’d made some offhand, stereotypical and possibly sexist comment about Scandinavian women 😉 ) Anyway, my dictionary gives two definitions for Scandinavia - the first (geographical) sense being “the peninsula occupied to Norway and Sweden”, and the second (cultural) sense “including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and often Finland, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands”. So I was right. And wrong. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/23 "2004-11-17T12:49:45Z")
I think we’re taking this all too seriously. After all, in his follow-up post, the claimant that Scandinavia was separate from Europe went on to confess > [@](#): > > _I used to be a huge fan of all things American - hell I even get Froot Loops imported because I can’t buy them in Scotland_ We should offer this person our compassion rather than a critique of his peculiar views of geography. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/24 "2004-11-17T13:59:33Z")
GorillaMan: > [@](#): > > I really don’t think the guy’s thought it through that thoroughly. Well, not as such, but probably when he was growing up and was taught history in school, his teaching followed a straight line from Ancient Greece to Rome to European countries such as Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Holy Roman Empire which included modern Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, but not Norway or Sweden. > [@](#): > > And in any case, that idea eliminates most of central and eastern Europe, True, but as I said, I don’t imagine he thoght of it in strict historical terms, rather, in terms of basic history instruction. Poland and Russia _seem_ more closely connected to the rest of Europe. > [@](#): > > while including much of Arabia. No, that’s clearly Asia. But Scandinavia is clearly either Europe or in its own category. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/25 "2004-11-17T14:27:02Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Well, not as such, but probably when he was growing up and was taught history in school, his teaching followed a straight line from Ancient Greece to Rome to European countries such as Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Holy Roman Empire which included modern Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, but not Norway or Sweden. A British education prominently features the Vikings and the Normans - who hard to avoid from where we look at things. > [@](#): > > No, that’s clearly Asia. But Scandinavia is clearly either Europe or in its own category. Having reread the guy’s phrasing, I now suspect it’s actually a dig at the tourists who visit London, Paris and Rome and think they’re “done Europe”. But it’s a throroughly ineffective dig, as we’ve demonstrated 😉 ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/26 "2004-11-17T14:56:20Z")
Gorilla Man: > [@](#): > > A British education prominently features the Vikings and the Normans - who hard to avoid from where we look at things. There’s a brief burst of Viking relevance to British history, and then they fade. As for the Normans - they were Nordic? I thought they were from France…whnce the place name Normandy. ---
**Author:** ![august9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7993a0/32.png) [@august9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/august9)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/27 "2004-11-17T15:19:49Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > As for the Normans - they were Nordic? I thought they were from France…whnce the place name Normandy. The Normans in France immigrated from the northern (scandinavian) countries - hence the name nor(th)man ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/28 "2004-11-17T15:31:01Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > There’s a brief burst of Viking relevance to British history, and then they fade. ‘Brief burst of relevance’ describes many things in history - but the collapse of Viking dominance following Cnut’s death allowed something resembling a unified Anglo-Saxon nation to appear for the first time, and were it not for Viking raids, 1066 would have been very different. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/29 "2004-11-17T17:31:44Z")
When I was in Finland someone mentioned to me that he had a meeting with some Europeans. I took it as shorthand for continental Europeans. The same way I as a Canadian refer to USA’ers as Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135/30 "2004-11-17T18:22:35Z")
> [@august9](#): > > The Normans in France immigrated from the northern (scandinavian) countries - hence the name nor(th)man And France was named after the Franks, another Germanic group that invaded the country formerly known as Gaul. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-scandanavia-part-of-europe/275135.md?page=1)