Sweden

Assorted References

• education  (in  education: Sweden)

  After World War II the Swedish government began to extend and unify the school system, which had historically been the domain of the Lutheran church. In 1950 the National Board of Education introduced a nine-year compulsory comprehensive school, with differentiation of pupils postponed until late in the program. This grundskola replaced all other forms in the compulsory period by...

• flag history  (in  Sweden, flag of)

  In the 14th century the Folkung dynasty used a shield of blue and white wavy diagonal stripes with a gold lion superimposed. The state coat of arms of Sweden, which also dates from the 14th century, has a blue shield with three golden crowns. These symbols were probably the basis for the Swedish flags of blue and yellow recorded in later years, the earliest of which (from the late 14th century)...

• history  (in Sweden, history of)
• language  (in Swedish language)
• trade unionism  (in  organized labour: From World War I to 1968: The institutionalization of unions and collective bargaining)

  In Sweden, on the other hand, the electoral victory of the Social Democrats in 1932 paved the way for the first successful attempt to achieve full employment by Keynesian means under political democracy and free collective bargaining within a capitalist economy. After intense industrial and social conflict in the 1920s, the Social Democrats were able to unite their country behind a platform of...

• tunneling and underground excavation  (in  tunnels and underground excavations (engineering): Shotcrete;

  ...per square centimetre) became common. Following initial success as rock-tunnel support in 1951–55 on the Maggia Hydro Project in Switzerland, the technique was further developed in Austria and Sweden. The remarkable ability of a thin shotcrete layer (one to three inches) to bond to and knit fissured rock into a strong arch and to stop raveling of loose pieces soon led to shotcrete largely...

  in  tunnels and underground excavations (engineering): Improved technology )

  ...is being given to cutting a peripheral slot with a wire saw of the type used to quarry monument stone. Where chambers are blasted, engineered sound-wall blasting has provided a solution in Sweden.

agriculture

• land reform  (in  land reform (agricultural economics): Modern European reforms)

  ...England resolved its land problems by the enclosure movement, which drove the small peasants into the towns, consolidated landholdings, and promoted large-scale operation and private ownership. Sweden and Denmark pioneered between 1827 and 1830 by peacefully abolishing village compulsion, or imposed labour service, and the strip system of cultivation, by consolidating the land, and by...

• livestock farming  (in  livestock farming: Breeds)

  ...designed for Denmark’s export trade in Wiltshire bacon to England and developed by progeny testing (the selection of boars for breeding on the basis of the scientific assessment of their progeny). Sweden also has progeny tested from Landrace stock but for a shorter period. Pigs from Sweden were first exported to England in 1953, when prices of up to £1,000 were paid. This resulted in a...

arts

• Baroque art  (in  Western painting (art): Scandinavia)

  In the 17th century, Scandinavian painting derived from traditions of the Low Countries and northern Germany. The works of art carried off as loot from Prague by Swedish soldiers during the Thirty Years’ War might conceivably have broadened the outlook of Swedes at home, but the best of them were taken to Rome by Queen Christina when she abdicated in 1654. A generation later, under the...

• children’s literature  (in  children’s literature: Sweden)

  Scandinavia, but especially Sweden, inevitably suggests a question as to why a group of small, sparsely populated countries ranks directly after England and the United States for the variety, vigour, and even genius of its children’s literature. Hazard’s north–south theory describes; it does not explain. A few possible factors may be listed: the inspiration of the master...

• folk art and furniture  (in  folk art: Northern Europe)

  Among the Scandinavian regions, Norway is noted for the rose painting of Hallingdal and Telemark Fylke, the needlework of Hardanger, and the pictorial weaving of Gudbrandsdalen. Sweden, among varied arts, had a unique type of built-in furniture and wall hangings that were either painted or woven with biblical and Icelandic motifs. Finland had a specific linear ornament called “dark...

• glassmaking  (in  glassware: The Scandinavian countries)

  ...that resulted in the employment of the painters Simon Gate and Edward Hald by Orrefors glassworks and Edvin Ollers by Kosta glassworks, both in the glass-producing area of Småland in southern Sweden. The first results were exhibited in Stockholm in 1917 and consisted of handblown, undecorated tablewares, together with the luxury “Graal” glass with internal stained decoration,...

• klismos chair  (in  furniture: Greece and Rome)

  ...and the heavy, were revived during the Classicist period. The klismos chair is found in French Empire furniture, in English Regency, and in special forms of considerable originality in Denmark and Sweden around 1800.

• motion pictures  (in  history of the motion picture: Sweden)

  The post-World War II Swedish cinema, like the Spanish, is noted for producing a single exceptional talent: Ingmar Bergman. Bergman first won international acclaim in the 1950s for his masterworks Det sjunde inseglet (1957; The Seventh Seal), Smultronstället (1957; Wild Strawberries), and...

• Neoclassical architecture  (in  Western architecture: Scandinavia and Finland)

  Neoclassical taste was introduced into Denmark and Sweden between 1750 and 1790 by French designers such as Louis Le Lorrain, Nicolas-Henri Jardin, and Louis-Jean Desprez. In Denmark, Jardin’s pupil Caspar Frederik Harsdorff built the austere royal mortuary chapel of Frederick V in Roskilde Cathedral (1774–79), while in Sweden Desprez was responsible for the Botanical Institute in Uppsala...

• pottery

   (in  pottery: Scandinavia;

  ...Scandinavian production was that of bowls, made in the shape of a mitre, for a kind of punch called bishop. The most important factories are those of Rörstrand and Marieberg (Koja) in Sweden. A typical Rococo concept to come from Marieberg is a vase standing at the top of a winding flight of steps. Called a terrace vase it is often decorated with a rabbit or some other animal.

  in  pottery: Pottery factories )

  Such factories as Rörstrand and Gustavsberg in Sweden and Arabia Oy in Finland have achieved a growing reputation for excellent design in the modern idiom. The emphasis on form in present-day pottery is to a great extent due to the import of Chinese wares of the Song dynasty (see below China: Song dynasty) during the 1920s.

  • Marieberg pottery  (in  Marieberg pottery)

    Swedish pottery produced at the factory of Marieberg on the island of Kungsholmen, not far from Stockholm, from about 1759 until 1788. When the Marieberg factory, founded by Johann Eberhard Ludwig Ehrenreich, encountered financial difficulties in 1766, Ehrenreich was succeeded by the Frenchman Pierre Berthevin. In 1769 Berthevin left and Henrik Sten became director. In 1782 Marieberg was sold...

  • Rörstrand faience  (in  Rörstrand faience (Swedish pottery))

    first faience (tin-glazed earthenware) produced in Sweden, at the Rörstrand factory established in 1725 by a Dane, Johann Wolff, near Stockholm. Cristoph Konrad Hunger, an arcanist from Meissen and Vienna, became the manager of the factory in 1729.

  • Stralsund faience  (in  Strålsund faience)

    tin-glazed earthenware made at Strålsund, Swed. (now Stralsund, Ger.), from around 1755 to 1792. The factory was founded by Johann Ulrich Giese, who leased it to Johann Eberhard Ludwig Ehrenreich. The latter had founded a faience factory at Marieberg in Sweden, and the products of Strålsund differ little from Marieberg ware. All-white vases, decorated with naturalistic flowers...

• tapestry  (in  tapestry: 17th and 18th centuries;

  In Scandinavia tapestries for the Danish and Swedish royalty were woven in Copenhagen and Stockholm. The weavers and designers were usually French and Flemish. Norway and Sweden continued to produce folk tapestries. Of the nearly 1,300 registered Norwegian tapestries, approximately 1,250 originated in small rural communities. These tapestries were usually coarse in texture, stylized and...

  in  tapestry: 19th and 20th centuries )

  ...and Frida Hansen (1855–1931), a weaver who studied the peasant craftsmanship of Norway and evolved an individual, light, and open weave. Somewhat later developments in Scandinavia occurred in Sweden and Finland. Märta Måås-Fjetterström (1873–1941) became the best-known Swedish tapestry artist, and her atelier continued to produce excellent works. In Finland a...

commerce, industry, and mining

• aquavit production  (in  aquavit (liquor))

  Swedish and Norwegian aquavits are sweet and spicy and of straw colour. Sweden is the largest producer, manufacturing about 20 brands. Norway’s production, comparatively low, includes Linie Aquavit, so called because it is shipped to Australia and back (across the Equator, or Line) in oak containers to produce mellow flavour. Finnish aquavit has a cinnamon flavour. The Danish product, also...

• automotive  (in  automotive industry: Europe after World War II;

  ...1990s. Citroën was acquired in 1976 by independently owned Peugeot to form PSA Peugeot-Citroën. Simca became a Chrysler property in 1958 but was sold to Peugeot in the late 1970s. Although Sweden was a relatively small producer, Swedish builders Saab and Volvo became important factors in the world market during the 1960s and ’70s. Their car operations were acquired in the 1980s and...

  in  automotive industry: Economic and social significance )

  ...countries—motor vehicle production and sales are one of the major indexes of the state of the economy in those countries. For such countries as the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, Sweden, Germany, and South Korea, motor vehicle exports are essential to the maintenance of healthy international trade balances.

• clothing and footwear  (in  clothing and footwear industry: Modern developments)

  ...of knitted outerwear and of footwear; Israel exported knitted outerwear and all types of women’s wear, especially pantyhose; Spain produced leather goods, knitwear, and high-fashion clothes; and Sweden and West Germany concentrated on sport and spectator wear.

• European Free Trade Association  (in  European Free Trade Association (EFTA))

  ...belong and in which the EEC would function as one unit. When negotiations for this broke down in November 1958, the “outside” group, then composed of Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom (later known as the Outer Seven), decided to join together in the EFTA to strengthen their future bargaining power in establishing the wider free-trade...

• work organization  (in  history of the organization of work (work): Effect on skilled labour)

  A similar way of enhancing quality and work performance is what is known as group assembly, which started in Swedish automobile plants and was also adopted by the Japanese and then by the Americans. With this system a group of workers is responsible for the entire product (as opposed to individual workers who perform only one small task). If something goes wrong on an assembly line, any worker...

communications

• broadcasting  (in  broadcasting: Partnership of public authorities and private interests;

  In Sweden the broadcasting monopoly is technically a privately owned corporation in which the state has no financial interest, thus emphasizing the independence of Sveriges Radio from the government. The shares of the corporation must be held by the Swedish press (20 percent), large noncommercial national bodies or movements (60 percent), and commerce and industry (20 percent). The board of...

  in  broadcasting: Sweden )

  Two important developments affecting Sveriges Radio, the Swedish broadcasting corporation, occurred in 1967, embodied in the Broadcasting Law, effective from July 1 of that year. Public authorities and agencies were specifically forbidden to examine programs in advance or to attempt to prevent them from being broadcast; this meant that the government had not even the power of veto. The legal...

• “Dagens Nyheter”  (in  Dagens Nyheter (Swedish newspaper))

  morning daily newspaper published in Stockholm. It is one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Sweden. It was founded in 1864 by Rudolf Wall. Dagens Nyheter has long been noted for its thorough coverage of the arts, foreign news, and domestic political news. The paper has generally followed a liberal policy politically. For a time in the 1960s, its...

• newspaper publishing  (in  history of publishing: Commercial newsletters in continental Europe)

  ...Wiener Zeitung was started in 1703 and is considered to be the oldest surviving daily newspaper in the world. The oldest continuously published weekly paper was the official Swedish gazette, the Post-och Inrikes Tidningar; begun in 1645, it adopted an Internet-only format in 2007. Sweden is also notable for having introduced the first law (in...

• “Svenska Dagbladet”  (in  Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish newspaper))

  morning daily newspaper published in Stockholm, one of the most influential papers in Sweden and one that was editorially aligned with the centre-right Moderate Party.

constitution and law

• business law  (in  business organization: Limited-liability companies, or corporations)

  ...law, together with the laws of the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries, provide only one category of business company or corporation (in the Netherlands the naamloze vennootschap, in Sweden the aktiebolag), although all these systems of law make distinctions for tax purposes between private, or close, companies or corporations on the one hand and public companies or...

• conscientious objectors  (in  conscientious objector)

  Scandinavian countries recognize all types of objectors and provide both noncombatant and civilian service. In Norway and Sweden civil defense is compulsory, with no legal recognition of objection to that type of service. A Swedish law of 1966 provided complete exemption from compulsory service for Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the Netherlands, religious and moral objectors are recognized. During the...

• criminal law  (in  criminal law: Common law and code law)

  ...enacted several important reform laws (including those on theft, sexual offenses, and homicide), as well as modern legislation on imprisonment, probation, suspended sentences, and community service. Sweden enacted a new strongly progressive penal code in 1962. In West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) a revised version of the criminal code was published in 1975 and subsequently often...

• evidence  (in  evidence (law): Privileges;

  ...to give evidence so long as the person protected does not give his consent (the German solution). In some cases they are not admitted as witnesses without the consent of the protected person (the Swedish solution). Thus the Swedish judge officially decides whether the protected person has given his consent, whereas the German judge leaves the decision whether to testify up to the confidant....

  in  evidence (law): Confessions and admissions;

  ...if one party in a civil suit admits facts contrary to his interest, such an admission is conclusive and obviates the need for further evidence on the point. The same result follows in German or Swedish courts. Under the Roman-based laws of such countries as France, Italy, and Spain, an admission made before the court is a form of evidence that leads to conclusive proof binding upon the...

  in  evidence (law): Documentary evidence )

  ...itself furnishes conclusive proof if evidence by reference to facts outside the document is inadmissible. In most continental laws, judges are bound by presumptions in this respect, and only in Swedish law are there no provisions restricting free judicial consideration of documentary evidence.

• foreign judgments  (in  conflict of laws: Diversity of legal systems)

  ...the purpose and manner of his actions. The French Code de Commerce adopts an objective approach: it is the particular transaction that determines which party in a transaction is the merchant. Older Swedish law focused on the definition of a merchant (köpman); newer legislative provisions employ more comprehensive concepts of those engaged in commerce...

• Scandinavian law development  (in  Scandinavian law)

  in medieval times, a separate and independent branch of early Germanic law, and, in modern times, in the form of codifications, the basis of the legal systems of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland.

customs and traditions

• Saint Lucia’s Day  (in  Saint Lucy (Italian martyr))

  One of the patron saints of virgins, St. Lucy is venerated on her feast day, December 13, by a variety of ceremonies. In Sweden, St. Lucia’s Day marks the beginning of the Christmas celebration. On that day the eldest daughter of the family traditionally dresses in a white robe and wears as a crown an evergreen wreath studded with candles.

economics, finance, and currency

• coins and coinage  (in  coin: Scandinavia)

  Sweden had very few early coins; Swedish coinage began with imitations by Olaf Skötkonung (995) of English pennies and included the usual bracteate coinage. The money was restored by Albert of Mecklenburg (1364–89). The thaler was introduced by Sten Sture the Younger (1512–20). The money of Gustav II Adolf (1611–32) is historically interesting. Under Charles XII...

• economic planning  (in  economic planning: Origins of planning)

  ...intervention. In Great Britain the Labour Party secured a large majority in Parliament in 1945, and with it a mandate for policies aiming at more social equality. In Scandinavia, particularly in Sweden, moderate left-wing traditions in government made a transition to planning politically acceptable. In France, left-wing groups, including the Communist Party, emerged as the dominant political...

• economic stabilization policies  (in  government economic policy (finance): Stabilization theory)

  ...The president was also required to present a program showing “ways and means of promoting a high level of employment and production.” Similar programs were adopted in other countries. In Sweden in 1944 the Social Democrats published a document somewhat similar to the British White Paper, and other such declarations were made in Canada and Australia.

• labour economics  (in  labour economics: Deployment of the labour force)

  ...an expansion of demand is expected. One way of doing this is by promoting the training and retraining of selected persons for selected occupations. The function of retraining may be extended, as in Sweden, to offer all workers opportunities to qualify themselves for better-paid jobs throughout their working lives.

• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development  (in  Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD))

  ...Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Member countries produce two-thirds of the world’s goods and services.

• taxation  (in  income tax (taxation): Treatment of the family)

  ...family “units” to arrive at the family’s tax liability. In Germany husband and wife are assessed jointly, but income splitting is allowed in the same way that it is in the United States. Sweden also has a dual rate structure, but in that country the difference between the rates applicable to married couples and to single persons varies with the level of income; in the middle income...

government

• interest groups  (in  interest group (political science): Factors shaping interest group systems)

  ...the ideological underpinnings of society influence the pattern of interest group involvement in the political process—including, potentially, their exclusion from the process entirely. In Sweden, for example, where there exists a broad social democratic consensus that believes all interests should be taken into account in the policy-making process, the government actually organizes...

• multiparty system  (in  political party: Multiparty systems)

  ...the legislative session. This type of coalition, referred to as bipolarized, introduces elements of the two-party system into a multiparty framework. A situation of this type has developed in Sweden, where conservative, liberal, and agrarian parties have been aligned against the Social Democrat Party, which eventually allied itself with the Communist Party (1970).

• Nordic Council of Ministers  (in  Nordic Council of Ministers (Scandinavian political organization))

  organization of the Nordic states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden for the purpose of consultation and cooperation on matters of common interest. The Council was established in February 1971 under an amendment to the Helsinki Convention (1962) between the Nordic countries. It consists of the ministers of state of the member countries, as well as other ministers with...

• police  (in  police (law enforcement): Centralized police organizations)

  Sweden is an example of a country with a completely centralized police force: it has only one national police force, the Rikspolis. It comprises a number of police authorities, each of which is responsible for policing one of the counties of the country. The counties are further subdivided into police districts, of which there are several hundred.

• prime minister  (in  prime minister (government official): Variations in the role and power of the office)

  ...been admired because it provides clear and decisive political leadership. In a somewhat different form it is found in several major European countries; for example, in Germany, Greece, Spain, and Sweden, premiers exercise considerable authority, even though the political systems of these countries are quite different from the Westminster model, operating with proportional elections and...

• public administration and civil service  (in  administrative law: The ombudsman;

  When Sweden created the office of ombudsman in the constitution of 1809, the holder of that office was occupied with civil affairs and was appointed by the legislature. He was independent of both executive and judiciary and had full powers to inquire into the details of any administrative or executive act and into certain judicial activities if reported to him by individuals as an abuse of...

  in  civil service: Appointment;

  ...but a civil service career is less attractive now than formerly and the civil service has to compete, usually at lower salaries, with business and the professions for the best available talent. In Sweden a constitutional provision requires that nearly all public documents (including the proceedings of authorities that make appointments) be open for public inspection, thus providing a check...

  in  civil service: Patterns of control )

  Sweden provided a marked contrast. Before the constitution of 1809 the executive power had been absolute. Afterward, not only did it become subject to control by the legislature, but this control also was reinforced by the creation of a special post of ombudsman (see administrative law: The ombudsman).

• socialism  (in  socialism: Socialism in the era of world war)

  ...and in Germany under Adolf Hitler. Socialist parties had drawn enough votes in Germany, Britain, and France to participate in or even to lead coalition governments in the 1920s and ’30s, and in Sweden the Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party won control of the government in 1932 with a promise to make their country into a “people’s home” based on “equality, concern,...

health and welfare

• alcohol consumption  (in  alcohol consumption: Alcohol control)

  Since reducing per capita alcohol consumption reduces future rates of alcoholism, some governments—for instance, those of Sweden, Finland, and the U.S. state of Ohio—have attempted to control individual drinking by a system of personal ration books for purchases. In Sweden this system was abandoned after 38 years of trial; evidently, those who needed to drink a lot could find...

• birth control  (in  birth control: Hormonal contraceptives)

  ...workers and through pharmacies, without direct medical supervision. Injectable contraceptives are registered for use in more than 80 countries, including most of the Third World, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and New Zealand. The injectable preparation Depo-Provera has had a particularly controversial history, having been referred for further study by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1974,...

• health care delivery system  (in  hospital: Regional planning)

  ...planning in the integration of hospital networks into coordinated health services. In both nations the government was charged with the responsibility of providing health care to all citizens. In Sweden financing is in part by compulsory health insurance.

• hospital finance  (in  hospital: Financing)

  ...example, the funds for total hospital operation are appropriated by the Ministry of Social Security to each regional hospital board, which in turn distributes them to the local hospital groups. In Sweden, however, approximately 90 percent of hospital operating costs are provided by local or provincial units of government from public revenue; the remaining 10 percent of the costs comes from...

• insurance  (in  insurance: Private health insurance;

  ...or part-time salaried basis, and health facilities are owned or operated by the government. This has been the practice in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Greece, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, Turkey, and the countries of eastern Europe. In other countries the government pays for medical care provided by private physicians; these countries include Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands,...

  in  insurance: Group health insurance;

  ...be established independently by large employers, labour unions, communities, or cooperatives. Outside the United States this kind of health insurance has been taken over by government programs. In Sweden, before the enactment of the compulsory insurance program in 1955, 70 percent of the population was covered by private plans. In Great Britain, before the National Health Service was...

  in  insurance: Government regulation )

  In most European countries policies are submitted to supervisory authorities for approval or for information. In some countries standard clauses or forms of contracts must be used; for instance, in Sweden insurers must use a standard compulsory motor vehicle third-party liability policy, and in Switzerland a standard contract for war risks and life insurance is required.

• liquor-rationing experiment  (in  prohibition (alcohol interdict))

  ...for the prevention of alcoholism. The Finnish prohibition outlawed the sale of spirits in an attempt to redirect the population toward greater consumption of beer (with lower alcoholic content). Sweden experimented with a system of liquor-ration books with the aim of limiting the individual’s use of liquor.

• medical and surgical practices  (in  medicine (science): Other developed countries)

  ...practice on an individual basis is usual and popular, because the physician works only during office hours. In addition, there is a duty doctor service for nights and weekends. In the cities of Sweden, primary care is given by specialists. In the remote regions of northern Sweden, district doctors act as general practitioners to patients spread over huge areas; the district doctors delegate...

• sexual behaviour  (in  human sexual behaviour: Sociosexual behaviour)

  ...coitus. The proportions for this experience vary in different groups and socioeconomic classes. In Scandinavia, the incidence of premarital coitus is far greater, exceeding the 90 percent mark in Sweden, where it is now expected behaviour.

• social welfare services  (in  social service: Sweden)

  The modern Swedish welfare state emerged from poor-law and charitable traditions in which the churches were prominent. Since the years between the two world wars, the scope and funding of statutory agencies have steadily increased. Local authorities, assisted by central government grants, provide most personal social services and a social assistance scheme, in which investigation of needs and...

labour and management

• general strike  (in  general strike (economics and politics))

  ...the growth of large trade unions late in the 19th century. Two large general strikes occurred in Belgium in 1893 and 1902 in support of universal manhood suffrage. A large-scale strike took place in Sweden in 1902 over similar issues and was followed by one in Italy in 1904 protesting the use of soldiers as strikebreakers. The general strike that gripped Russia during the Revolution of 1905...

physical geography

Finland lies to the northeast of Sweden; a long coastline forms the country’s eastern border, extending along the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea; a narrow strait, known as the Sound (Öresund), separates Sweden from Denmark in the south; a shorter coastline along the Skagerrak and Kattegat straits forms Sweden’s border to the southwest; and Norway lies to the west. Sweden extends some...

• boreal forest  (in  boreal forest (northern forest): Distribution)

  ...true boreal forest stops just north of the southern Canadian border. The vast taiga of Asia extends across Russia and southward into northeastern China and Mongolia. In Europe most of Finland, Sweden, and Norway are covered with boreal forest. A small, isolated area of boreal forest in the Scottish Highlands lacks some continental species but does contain the most widespread conifer of the...

• coastal features  (in  Baltic Sea (sea, Europe): Coastal features)

  The coasts of Sweden and Finland are highly fretted and generally rocky, whereas those of the southern Baltic are flat and rather featureless. Where the crystalline rocks of the ancient rock mass of the Baltic Shield outcrop along the northern coasts, partly obscured by glacial drift and marine deposits, they are often fringed by the low, rocky islands known as a skerry guard. These are most...

• Scandinavian Peninsula  (in  Scandinavian Peninsula (peninsula, Europe))

  large promontory of northern Europe, occupied by Norway and Sweden. It is about 1,150 mi (1,850 km) long and extends southward from the Barents Sea of the Arctic Ocean between the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea (east), Kattegat and Skagerrak (south), and the Norwegian and North seas (west). The peninsula (area 289,500 sq mi [750,000 sq km]) essentially consists of a mountainous mass, much...

• varved deposits  (in  geochronology (Earth science): Accumulational processes)

  Each of the examples cited above is of a floating chronology—i.e., a decipherable record of time that was terminated long ago. In Sweden, by contrast, it has been possible to tie a glacial varve chronology to present time, and so create a truly absolute dating technique. Where comparisons with radiocarbon dating are possible, there is general agreement.

population and demography

People

• demography of Sami  (in  Sami (people))

  any member of a people speaking the Sami language and inhabiting Lapland and adjacent areas of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The three Sami languages, which are mutually unintelligible, are sometimes considered dialects of one language. They belong to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family. Almost all Sami are now bilingual, and many no...

religion

• Christianity

   (in  Christianity: Papal mission)

  Early attempts at evangelization in Denmark and Sweden were made by a German monk, Ansgar (801–865). Canute (d. 1035), Danish king of England, of Denmark, and of Norway, was probably raised as a Christian and determined that Denmark should become a Christian country. The archbishop of Canterbury consecrated bishops for him, and he saw his goal realized before he died. Olaf I Tryggvason...

  • Bible versions  (in  biblical literature: Scandinavian versions)

    Soon after Sweden achieved independence from Denmark in the early 16th century, it acquired its own version of the New Testament published by the royal press (Stockholm, 1526). Luther’s New Testament of 1522 served as its foundation, but the Latin Vulgate and Erasmus’ Greek were also consulted. The first official complete Bible and the first such in any Scandinavian country was the Gustav Vasa...

  • Saint Ansgar  (in  Saint Ansgar (missionary))

    ...in 827 and the death of his assistant, Autbert, were blows to the mission, and in 829 Ansgar returned to the Franks. With the help of Witmar, a monk from Corvey, Ansgar began his evangelization of Sweden. The first to preach the gospel in Sweden, he was cordially received by King Björn.

• Germanic religion  (in  Germanic religion and mythology: Early medieval records;

  ...is the biography by St. Rembert (or Rimbert) of St. Ansgar (or Anskar), a 9th-century missionary and now patron saint of Scandinavia, who twice visited the royal seat, Björkö, in eastern Sweden, and noticed some religious practices, among them the worship of a dead king. Ansgar was well received by the Swedes, but it was much later that they adopted Christianity.

  in  Germanic religion and mythology: The end of paganism )

  Very little is known about the conversion of Sweden. It was a slow and complicated process. The people of West Gautland were, apparently, converted earlier than the rest, but public pagan sacrifice persisted in the temple of Uppsala until late in the 11th century. Kings who professed to be Christian were driven out, presumably because of their religious activities. Sweden was hardly a Christian...

sports and recreation

• association football  (in  football (soccer): Spectator problems)

  ...at football grounds. More liberal anti-hooligan strategies encourage dialogue with supporters: the “fan projects” run by clubs and local authorities in Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are the strongest illustrations of this approach.

• bowling  (in  bowling (game): International competition)

  In 1923 a group of American bowlers toured Sweden and were roundly defeated by their hosts. The outcome was the same in 1926, at which time teams from Denmark, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany joined the Swedes and Americans in forming the International Bowling Association. In 1929 they held what came to be called the Third International tournament, again in Sweden, followed by a...

• gymnastics  (in  gymnastics: History)

  ...gymnastics. These two divisions may be thought of as utilitarian and nonutilitarian gymnastics. The former disciplines emphasize the health of the body, similar to the exercises developed in Sweden and Denmark under Per Henrik Ling (1776–1839) and Neils Bukh (1880–1950), respectively. Modern aerobics also falls into this category; indeed, sports aerobics has recently been...

• hiking  (in  hiking (sport))

  Hiking is used as a test of fitness, notably in England, where it is embraced in the Duke of Edinburgh’s scheme for boys and girls, and in Sweden and the Netherlands. In Sweden it was made a national fitness test in the early 1930s, and by the 1970s more than three million Swedish men, women, and boys possessed the time qualification badge. The Nijmegen marches in the Netherlands, organized by...

• tennis  (in  tennis (sport): The open era)

  The balance of power in men’s tennis shifted back to Europe in the 1980s. Borg inspired a new wave of players in Sweden. A sophisticated junior-development system created a group of Swedish players—led by 1982, 1985, and 1988 French Open champion Mats Wilander. Another European country with a long tennis tradition that reached new heights in the 1980s was Czechoslovakia. One of the...

• Adolf Frederick (king of Sweden)
• Alexander Leslie, 1st earl of Leven (Scottish army commander)
• Alva Reimer Myrdal (Swedish diplomat)
• Axel, Count Oxenstierna (chancellor of Sweden)
• Bengt Gabrielsson, Count Oxenstierna (Swedish statesman)
• Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar (duke of Saxe-Weimar)
• Bertil Ohlin (Swedish economist)
• Birger Jarl (ruler of Sweden)
• Carl Gustaf, Count Tessin (Swedish statesman and writer)
• Carl XVI Gustaf (king of Sweden)
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• Ångermanland (province, Sweden)
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