Hej, Anna,
Although your chops in this area certainly way outweigh mine, and I wouldn't want to challenge them, I'm also wondering if this may be one of those fuzzy definition things that varies by origin of the person. You can have very interesting discussions with people in the U.S. about what does and does not belong to the South or the Midwest, for example, or with those from other countries/cultures about how many continents there are. Americans (at least in my day and in my part of the country) were always taught that there are 7 continents, but you get varying numbers from people from other countries. Friends in Spain considered it silly that North and South America might be separate while being virtually offended at the suggestion that Europe and Asia might not be.
I always thought Scandinavia consisted of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland, plus possibly some small stuff in theire like the Faeroes. When I checked dictionary dot com just now
here, I got a different and somewhat surprising answer, to wit:
Quote:
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A region of northern Europe consisting of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Finland, Iceland, and the Faeroe Islands are often included in the region.
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I for one would never have questions Finland's membership! But what do I know -- I'm just a quarter Swedish!
Do you know which countries are/were in the agreement, prior to the existence of the EU and all that, to allow freer transit between each other (and possibly even working without special permits)? I was under the impression that the five I first mentioned were part of this -- a kind of mini EU, a Scandinavian Union of sorts. I even remember meeting a Norwegian on a boat from Harwich through a stop in Denmark before arriving in Oslo, and try as he might, he could not convince the Danish immigration officials to stamp his passport, even though they stamped mine. They explained that they didn't need to and in fact shouldn't, given that agreement.
Well time to go put it all to bed now...
Steve