Could the UK be considered part of Scandinavia?

Question

I was thinking about this today, and I think the UK could be considered part of Scandinavia. Firstly, Denmark is always considered part of Scandinavia, and yet about 80% of England is on the same latitude as Denmark, and Scotland is entirely on the same latitude as Southern Sweden and Southern Norway. It varies a lot as to whether Iceland is included in Scandinavia, but when it is, geographically the UK wouldn't be too far West in comparison to Iceland. Obviously, the UK has far less cultural connection and similarities than Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway have with eachother; but when Finland is included in Scandinavia, I feel Finnish culture is as far apart, if not more so than the UK. Finland don't even speak a Indo-European language, let alone a Germanic language.

So what's your opinions on the matter, what does everyone think?

Answer 1

No - although there are obvious racial and cultural connections.

Finland is considered part of Scandinavia geographically as it is on the Scandinavian peninsular.

Iceland is separated, but ethnically they are a homogeneously the same as Danes and Norwegians. Basically all Vikings.

The UK has a population about 2 or 3 times larger than the whole of Scandinavia put together so easily qualifies in it's own right as an important part of Europe.

Ethnically the vast majority of Britons are descended not from Vikings (a sizable minority are) but from Frisians (now western Germany and Holland).

To give you an example of Scandinavian/Norse influence on English culture and language vs Germanic. Of the top 100 words in use in Modern English 97 are of Germanic origin and 3 are of Norse (them, there and they).

Answer 2

The culture of UK and the cultures of the Scandinavian countries Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway are quite different. You are right about Finland not having quite the same culture than the other Scandinavian countries, but what you don´t seem to know is, that Finland was a part of the Swedish kingdom for centuries until Russia took over in 1809 after a war between Sweden and Russia.Finland gained it´s own government, under supervision of Russia, though. There are still Swedish speaking people in Finland (nowadays about 5 % of the population speak Swedish, I´m one of them) and Swedish is an official language of Finland. The Finnish culture might seem far apart from the Scandinavian culture to you, but that is not quite true. Finland has it´s own culture and the Finnish language is more related to Hungarian than Swedish, but the culture from the centuries Finland was a part of Sweden, is still vivid mixed with the Finnish culture. Finland gained it´s indepency in 1917, 6th of December.

Finland (a Fenno Scandinavian country) is a member of the Nordic Council and the Chairman of the Council is now a Finn. The contacts with all the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, are vivid in every sense of the word. Of course the languages of the other countries are of Anglosaxon origin, although nobody in the Scandinavian countries understand Icelandic. Many people in Finland speak Swedish as many pupils still study Swedish at school, although it´s not obligatory anymore as it was some years ago.

You might not know that the Aland island is a part of Finland, although the language spoken there is Swedish. Aland is in a way "independent" with it´s own rules, but has one member in the Finnish parliament.

I think a visit to the Scandinavian countries and Finland (we as well as the other countries of Scandinavia are including Finland as one of the countries of Scandinavia) would help you to get a more truthful picture of the cultures in the five northern countries of Scandinavia.

Welcome to visit us!

A Happy New Year to you from Finland!

Answer 3

The UK should definitely not be part of Scandinavia or the Nordic grouping however it is certainly in Northern Europe. I understand the history between England and the UK is heavily intertwined. The Angles and Jutes first settling who where mostly Danish. Also meaning Vikings where settling in North & East England instead of simply raiding. As the Celtics where all pushed and few Normans settled I would imagine the DNA between us would be similar. There is also scope of English being part of the Northern Germanic Languages as Nordic languages are very similar especially in the core like word order. However culturally the UK is very different from us as it is to the rest of European countries. Certainly I would support more cooperation between the UK and us though.

Answer 4

Finland and sweden might as well be your next door neighbours, my family is from Finland and half the family is in sweden, besides the language diferences, u really feel no diference crossing the border.

heading up north into Finland it changes though, people become more farmer like and everntually u move into lapland. Up in northern Finland things feel less modern and more old school, which gives u the true scandinavia feeling, this is past onto sweden and norway etc.

Not to mention the people between sweden/norway and Finland feel like a entire country, if there wasnt the diferent governments and language factors, u might as well just bin the individual country names.

Driving to sweden from Finalnd takes no effort, its like a day trip into the city from the country side...depending on were u live though, my parents were from Lahti, which isnt to long of a drive from the capital.

When i talk to people in the UK you guys feel very strange of different to me, i think if people from Finalnd feel in any capacity similiar to UK, its probably because Finland has made many changes to be more open to other countries and is also extremly modern these days.

Either way if UK was considered part of scandinavia i would **** my pants, because u guys feel so different from the next door neighbours.

your also better then the Americans ;).

did i mention i love the donuts....god lovely things.

Answer 5

Wow... Finland HAS EXACTLY the same kinda culture Sweden and Norway has. Swedish is also an official language in Finland. Finnish people look like Scandinavians, Brits don't. It's that simple, the British can't be included as Scandinavian.

Oh and all Scandinavian countries have very high standards of living, which the UK doesn't have (it has high, but not as high).

So my answer is no. And I keep people retarded who say Finland isn't part of Scandinavia. It shows their lack of education.

Answer 6

Finland is not a Scandinavian country, it is a Nordic country.

Scandinavia is Denmark, Sweden and Norway. 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.

Answer 7

No. Sweden, Norway and Denmark = Scandinavia. But there's another way to count it too. If you count where themountainchain Skanderna is you will get Sweden, Norway and northeast of Finland instead. But Scandinavia is Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The scandinavian countries are very much alike eachother. The U.K. is a nice country. I really like it, but it can never be a part of Scandinavia - ever!
And about the U.K. being more like the other nordic countries than Finland!!! Have you ever been here?!? I'm swedish and I've been to Finland a lot of times, went there on vacation and stuff and I know(!) that Finland is more like Sweden(especially Sweden!) and the rest of the nordic countries than the U.K. Finland and Sweden is so much like eachother that it's just... IDK. I can't even find a suiting word for it. We're sibling-countries and the language is the only thing, but one thing that I think that you didn't know is that the finnish people are learning swedish(at least most of them). So my opinion is NO, I don't think that the U.K. should be considered a part of Scandinavia.

Answer 8

I think the people up in Stetland arlready think they are Scandinavian.

Answer 9

No, not at all. Can you imagine an Englishman wearing a hat with horns sticking out of it?