NORDIC COUNTRIES. The Nordic countries—members of the Nordic Council—are Finland, Iceland, and the Scandinavian countries (in a strict sense Norway and Sweden—the Scandinavian Peninsula—but generally this group includes Denmark as well). Finland is in many ways different from the other Nordic countries because its language is of the Finno-Ugric group (related to Estonian and Hungarian). The languages in the other countries belong to the Germanic group, and Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians understand each other when they talk together. The Icelandic language has closer ties with Old Norse. In the circumpolar areas there is an ethnic group of about around 50,000 people called Samis (often called Lapps, a designation they consider derogatory) who use a Uralic language, in addition to the language of their state (Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish).

Many parts of Norway and Sweden consist of mountains, valleys, and enormous...