Norden—The North
by Bob Brooke

It’s "the rooftop of the world." Once the home of the Vikings, it’s now a haven of peace. Once isolated off the routes of travel by land and sea, it’s now on main air traffic routes. Once poor, it’s now productive and prosperous. Barbarous late into European history, it’s now an enlightened society. This is Scandinavia, Norden, the North.

Scandinavia includes Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the eastern flank in Finland, the western outposts in the Atlantic Ocean: the Faroes Iceland, and the Danish colony of Greenland. The area reaches from the Russian border to the shores of North America. It’s flanked on one side by polar seas, and on the other by the Atlantic and the states of continental Europe. It’s people have a common cultural tradition, have been in and out of various political combinations with one another, and think of themselves as a group. They have their differences–each of the five nations is an entity–yet each is far more different from other nations outside the group than it is from any of the brother nations within the group. Its unity is based on geographical position and community of culture.

When Scandinavia was on the frontier of civilization and conflict the people could choose whether they wished to play the game of international war and politics, or stand aloof. When they did choose to play they could usually do so on other people's grounds. Swedes like to claim, for instance, that their country has never been invaded, and even though the claim is not literally accurate, it is almost so. Does this aloofness of the past have significance in the mid-20th century? Is the idea of the marginal position of northern Europe merely an illusion to which wishful thinking clings? What are the geographical realities of today, the pressures, the protective barriers which affect this section of the earth?

The countries of the North have been praised to the skies as lands of the middle way and damned to the depths as selfish and blind in a confused and embittered world. Neither view is correct.

To understand these peoples one must assume certain fundamentals–common sense, education, honesty, cooperativeness, hard work, a dash of good luck, far-sighted planning, careful spending, a creative talent, independent spirit, and democratic processes.

Progress has been hampered sometimes by distance from supplies and markets, sometimes by pride and stubbornness, sometimes by an overdose of the independent spirit. Difficulties from plagues, wars, blockades repeatedly have harassed the Scandinavians. But progress has been real throughout the area. Perhaps the elements of that progress have meaning for the rest of the world.

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