Anyways, I have heard that the term 'scandinavian' just implies to the culture of the country, which means Viking-like cultures. That is why Finland isn't always considered Scandinavian because their culture is more Russian.
THAT IS ONLY WHAT I HEAR FROM MY PARENTS. I know nothing else.
If that is so, isn't Greenland part of Scandinavia? Their culture is similar to that.
If none of this is true AT ALL, please set me straight.
Greenland is inhabited by an indigenous people, the Inuits. The culture is the Inuit culture mixed with the culture that Danish colonialists bought with them. They speak the Inuit language. I have to admit that I have no idea of the ratio between Danish and Inuit culture, ie. how Danish the Greenlanders are.
Greenland is considered a part of the Nordic countries (Norden in DK/NO/SE), but not Scandinavian due to the culture.
Finland is correctly not a Scandinavian country, because Finns were not Vikings, had their own pagan mythology, and speak a language that is not German. So before 1100 AD, they had their own culture. After that Finland was merged into Sweden, and it was part of Sweden until ca 1800. Because of this 700 years long period Finland now has the same culture as Scandinavia. It's important to note that being not Scandinavian does not mean being more Russian, even though it's of course a logical conclusion if you look on the map and know that Finland is not Scandinavian.
Here in the Netherlands we learn in school that 'Scandinavia' is the peninsula with Norway, Sweden and Finland on it. So Denmark would not be Scandinavia. On the other hand, if you look at typical Nordic culture, Denmark has a lot of cultural similarities (language, for instance) with Norway and Sweden. But the north of Germany and the Frisian provinces of the Netherlands do too. Even parts of Scotland and definitely Iceland have a lot in common culturally with Norway and Sweden. But no-one considers the Netherlands part of Scandinavia. Which leads to the conclusion that 'Scandinavia' is an obsolete term to describe a part of Europe, which served a purpose in the past but doesn't any more, since borders have shifted, political connections have been severed or established and cultures have mixed in modern times.
Technically, only Norway and Sweden are in Scandinavia.
Greenland is sort of part of the Danish realm, but doesn't belong to scandinavia.
Greenland belongs to Denmark but their are not counted as scandinavians. And by the way finnish culture is not russian. Finnish culture is finno-ugric. But it has influences from russian and sweden.
Greenland belongs to Denmark technically, but that doesn't make it scandinavian.
It's Sweden, occupied by Swedes, who speak Swedish.
