Scandinavia's Europeanization

When most people think of early Scandinavia, they think of horned Vikings pillaging and raping their way through Europe. Sadly, this biased view of history ignores the intricacies of the contacts between the Norse people and other European peoples. Up until the end of the Viking Age, Scandinavia and Europe shared a relationship in which each region exerted cultural, religious, and political pressures on the other. However, though there was reciprocity in this relationship, Europe brought to bear far more noticeable and long-lasting influences on the north. This becomes apparent when examining the Indo-European demographical and cultural origins of Scandinavia, the region’s ever-increasing Christianization bringing it into the European cultural continuum, and the gradual politicization of the north to mirror the continent’s political structures. The Europeanizing influences on Scandinavia followed a linear development from their earliest manifestations in the Neolithic Stone Age to their culmination at the end of the Viking Age.

Origin plays an extremely vital role in determining identity. When considering the quality of an orange in a supermarket, a customer might look at where it was grown; oranges from Florida will invariably be juicier and sweeter than oranges from Wisconsin. Likewise, the origin of a population is essential to an understanding of the people. In the case of early Scandinavia, therefore, one must look at waves of immigration from the continent. An invasion of the north sometime between 2500 and 2000 B.C.E by “Indo-European nomads from the eastern Urals who spread across much of northern Europe and probably established cultural dominance” set a precedent of ‘European’ cultural dominance over Scandinavia that wo...

... middle of paper ...

...pe. Instead, one should consider the north part of the European family; the region was born into the family and grew up alongside it, learning and interacting with its proverbial siblings.

Works Cited

Nordstrom, Scandinavia Since 1500, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2000, p. 5

Class Notes, September 9, 2011

Nordstrom, p. 4-5

Class Notes, Sep 12, 2011

Ferguson, The Vikings: A History, Penguin, London, 2009, p. 19

Sawyer, Christianization and Church Organization, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1993, p. 101

Ferguson, p. 374

Ibid, p. 50

Ibid

Ibid, p. 56

Ibid

Ibid, p. 197-199

Ibid

Ibid, p. 380-381

Class Notes, Sep 09, 2011

Nordstrom, p. 12-13

Class Discussion, Oct 14, 2011

Ferguson, p. 374

Nordstrom, p. 12

Ferguson, p. 154

Ibid, p. 184

Ibid, p. 217

Ibid, 236-241

Ibid, 261