Scandinavia[a] is a historical and cultural-linguistic region in Northern Europe

characterized by a common ethno-cultural Germanic heritage and related language

s. It comprises the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Modern Norway
and Sweden proper[b] are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula, whereas modern
Denmark consists of Jutland and the Danish islands.
The term Scandinavia is usually used as a cultural term, but in English usage, i
t is occasionally confused with the purely geographical term Scandinavian Penins
ula, which took its name from the cultural-linguistic concept.[1] The name Scand
inavia originally referred vaguely to the formerly Danish, now Swedish, region S
cania. The terms "Scandinavia" and "Scandinavian" entered usage in the late 18th
century as terms for the three Scandinavian countries, their Germanic majority
peoples and associated language and culture, being introduced by the early lingu
istic and cultural Scandinavist movement. Sometimes in foreign usage, the term S
candinavia also includes Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Finland, on account of
their historical association with the Scandinavian countries and the Scandinavia
n peoples and languages.[2]
The southern and by far most populous regions of Scandinavia have a temperate cl
imate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has relatively mild w
eather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Much of the Scandinavian mountai
ns have an alpine tundra climate. There are many lakes and moraines, legacies of
the last glacial period, which ended about ten millennia ago.
The Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish languages form a dialect continuum and are kn
own as the Scandinavian languages all of which are considered mutually intelligibl
e with one another, although Danish is considered much closer to Norwegian. Faro
ese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are
intelligible with continental Scandinavian languages only to an extent. Finnish,
Estonian, Sami languages and several minority languages spoken in Western Russi
a are related to each other, but are entirely unrelated to the Scandinavian lang
uages.[c] They do, however, include several words that have been adopted during
the history from the neighboring languages, just as Swedish, spoken in Sweden to
day, has borrowed from Finnish.
The vast majority of the human population of Scandinavia are Scandinavians, desc
ended from several (North) Germanic tribes[citation needed] who originally inhab
ited the southern part of Scandinavia and what is now northern Germany, who spok
e a Germanic language that evolved into Old Norse and who were known as Norsemen
in the Early Middle Ages. The Vikings are popularly associated with Norse cultu
re. The Icelanders and the Faroese are to a significant extent, but not exclusiv
ely, descended from peoples retrospectively known as Scandinavians. A small mino
rity of Sami people live in the extreme north of Scandinavia.