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and regionally overland using skis,skates. Severe winters demanded hospitality to travelers—in later Scandinavian legends, such travelers were often gods. In early spring before planting and sailing began, Scandinavian great halls hosted festivals and rituals.

Second, dense forests covered almost all of Scandinavia—the only land route out was the narrow dirt track Haerveg (‘army route’). Deciduous forests in Denmark, southern Norway and Lake Malaren region in central Sweden provided oak trees for shipbuilding and fuel. Almost 75% of Sweden was forest. In Norway, only 3-5% of the land was arable, 25% was pine forest, and 70% of Norway above the tree line was mountain—population expansion required emigration.

Third, the ocean. The Baltic is enclosed, almost freshwater, has squalls and mists but can be navigated easily and is loaded with fish. Scandinavians early began building ships and learning navigation.

PALEOLITHIC, NEOLITHIC and BRONZE era Scandinavians

Human immigration into Scandinavia began around 8000 BC as hunter-gatherers moved into the Jutland peninsula, Danish highlands, southern Sweden, Baltic islands of Gotland and Oland, Lake Malaren region and southern Norway shores—these areas offered game and sea access, suggesting that the immigrants arrived by sea in search of game.

By 4000 BC, a wave of immigration from the Near East brought people who farmed barley and wheat, and domesticated goats, sheep and pigs. Agriculture and animal husbandry brought a secure food supply, leading to villages, though much smaller than contemporary ones in Central and Western Europe and the Near East. Trade with these areas via the great river systems (Elbe, Oder, Vistula) brought new weapons and tools to Scandinavians, who still did not have the population or development to build great stone monuments like Newgrange and Stonehenge.

Meanwhile, older hunting lifestyles continued in northern Norway and Sweden and in Finland with the Lapps (Sami), Suomi and Karelians.

Around 2300 BC, a third wave of immigration brought people speaking an Indo-European language that adopted local words. For instance, most Indo-European languages use a variation of hound, but Scandinavians picked up dog. These languages evolved into German. These new immigrants brought with them use of bronze weapons and tools far more efficient than the previous of stone, and also jewelry. They also brought ceramics, making pots to store grain to protect from rats.

To make weapons of bronze, Scandinavians had to trade for tin or copper. They traded to Central Europe and the eastern Mediterranean—places from which they had come. They traded Arctic climate products—sealskins, furs, whalebone, walrus ivory. Also honey, wood, flax and amber. Finally, slaves they captured along the way. By 1550, long-distance trade expanded villages and local chieftains’ wealth and power.

During the Northern Bronze Age (1550-1100 BC), Scandinavians adapted imports to create a Scandinavian civilization. Population and villages grew, but agriculture remained slash-and-burn, resulting in soil exhaustion and consequent population shifts.