Scandinavia

Since the Napoleonic era the two great Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden have been transformed into model parliamentary democracies. The Finns are now no longer seen only as quarrelsome and unintelligible knife-fighters, the Swedes as swaggering, boastful introspective materialists, the Norwegians as a scattered group of bovine alcoholics and the Danes as bicycling pornography enthusiasts. Tony Griffiths has blended together in a fascinating way their culture, history and politics over two hundred years, and describes how, even in the third millennium, the Nordic nations continue their metaphorical struggle with malevolent trolls.