History glossary
Scandinavian
relating to the northern European region of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and sometimes nearby Nordic areas.
- Category
- Regional identity
- Region
- Scandinavia
- Date range
- Ancient to present
What it means
Scandinavian refers to people, cultures, or places connected with Scandinavia, especially Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. In the Viking Age, many raiders, traders, settlers, and rulers came from Scandinavian societies, but not every Scandinavian person was a Viking.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Holocaust
From legal discrimination to genocide, the Holocaust traces twelve years of escalating persecution that killed six million Jews and millions of others across Nazi-occupied Europe.
The Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were the peoples and kingdoms that shaped Anglo-Saxon England after the end of Roman rule in Britain. From migration and settlement in Anglo-Saxon Britain to Christian conversion, Viking attacks, Alfred the Great, and the road to 1066, Anglo-Saxon history explains how early medieval England took form. Their language, laws, kingdoms, monasteries, and political traditions left a lasting mark on English identity before the Norman Conquest transformed the realm.
The English Reformation
Henry VIII’s break with Rome reshaped religion, politics, and identity through decades of upheaval.
Kievan Rus
The founding of the Rus’ state in the north.
The Norman Conquest of England
From Viking settlers to conquerors, the Normans reshaped England, Italy, and the medieval Mediterranean.
The Viking Age
From raiders to traders, Vikings built kingdoms and networks that reshaped Europe and beyond.
