The work examines the features of relations between the Russian Empire and Sweden and Norway in the context of the asymmetric proximity of the 19th early 20th centuries. The authors have analyzed and identified specific features characteristic of the asymmetrical neighborhood of the empire and a small nation, as well as factors in the formation of ideas about the “Russian threat” to Sweden and Norway during this period and have traced the stages and dynamics of the transformation of these ideas in the Scandinavian countries. Russian-Norwegian and Russian-Swedish relations go back several centuries of asymmetrical proximity, contacts and conflicts, which, of course, influenced the formation of images of the “eastern neighbor”. The Swedes and Norwegians’ fears and expectations, based on perceptions of themselves, about their collective “Self”, contributed to the formation of images of the Russian “Otherness”, the attitude towards which was ambiguous and primarily depended on internal preconditions. Therefore, a detailed study of the transformation of images of Russia in Norway and Sweden allows us to take a new look at the history of relations between these countries, as well as to identify the domestic and foreign policy interests of Norwegian and Swedish societies associated with certain images of Russia.
ABSTRACT:Beginning in the sixteenth century, the English crown sponsored many voyages of exploration throughout the north Atlantic. These expeditions had many goals including claiming control over what the English believed to be newly discovered lands, and finding a Northwest or a Northeast passage that would give them quick access to lucrative East Asian markets. English involvement in the north Atlantic also expanded during this period as English fishermen sailed further west and north seeking new fishing grounds. As English political and economic claims expanded, Danish rulers increasingly became worried as they believed they had sovereign rights over the entire region based upon Scandinavian settlement of the north Atlantic during the Viking Age. To make real their claims in the north Atlantic, Danish monarchs engaged in diplomacy with the English and sent several voyages to Greenland to re-assert control over Scandinavian communities believed to be living there. This article explores diplomatic tensions between England and Denmark, and the Danish crown's attempts to exert sovereignty over the north Atlantic and Greenland.
Wat's Dyke is an earthwork running along the border of England and Wales, like its western neighbour Offa's Dyke. But it is the shorter of the two, stretching a mere thirty-eight miles (62 kilometres) from the coast of the Dee Estuary to the environs of Old Oswestry, an Iron Age fortress in Shropshire, England. Although Wat's Dyke is now dated to the early ninth century (some decades later than Offa's Dyke), its name has remained obscure. A solution is yet possible. It can be related to the legendary Germanic hero Wade, who figures in Old and Middle English verse (including that of Chaucer), Old Norse, Middle High German, and even (as 'Wat') medieval Welsh. Wat's Dyke thus has unexpected links with poetry in Wales and beyond. There is another surprise: for Wade will be the mysterious warrior appearing on Maen Achwyfan, a tenth-century cross near Whitford, a Welsh village neighbouring the Dyke. The arguments for all this can be set out in four parts. We start with accounts of Wat's Dyke; move on to Chaucer and others on Wade; discuss the 'Wat' praised by Welsh bards; and end with Wade as the hero of both Maen Achwyfan and a lost monument to the west of it at Meliden (near Prestatyn) recorded by Edward Lhuyd (1660-1709), pioneer Oxford archaeologist. Plenty to say, then, on the past (Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian) of this region, where north-east Wales borders the English counties of Cheshire and Shropshire.
The development of any national economy is impossible without the active participation of the regions in this process. An important factor in strengthening and expanding the regional economy is foreign economic activity. Its role is especially great for the border regions. These regions include the Northwestern Federal District. Its geographical proximity to the countries of the Baltic-Scandinavian region, transport and industrial potential provided it with a leading position among Russian regions in terms of the degree of involvement in foreign economic relations. In the changed economic reality, conducting foreign economic activity in the previous model has become impossible. Therefore, there is a need to build a new model of foreign economic relations. In the article, the author analyzes the main directions in which the transformation of the region’s foreign economic activity and its prospects will take place.
Símun Niclasen, Stig Andersen, N. Albertsen
et al.
Abstract Background The study aims to estimate the prevalence of lactase non-persistence (LNP) among Greenlandic Inuit and Scandinavians living in Nuuk and East Greenland. The C to T transition in LCT − 13910 (rs4988235) is an autosomal inherited variant that provides the ability to lifelong lactase production, necessary to digest milk. The transition is very common in North European populations. However, LNP has only been sparsely studied in Greenland and never in Eastern Greenland, and genotype data has not previously been reported. Methods Whole blood samples were collected from 535 participants, and rs4988235 was typed using a PCR-based method. Ethnicity was defined by parents’ place of birth. Results were compared between East and West Greenland and Inuit and Scandinavians using Pearson’s Chi2 test. Results 82.2% of the participants were Inuit, and 17.8% were of Scandinavian ancestry. Among Inuit, 88.5% had LNP compared to 7.5% among Scandinavians (p < 0.001). The prevalence of LNP in Inuit varied significantly between East and West Greenland (p < 0.001). In the capital, 67.6% of Inuit had LNP compared to 98.6% in Tasiilaq and 100% in the villages around Tasiilaq. Discussion The difference in LNP between East and West Greenland and the Inuit and Scandinavian population found in our study suggests that the original Inuit population was lactose maldigesters. Our findings suggest that the −13910 T allele was introduced into the original Inuit population by the Danes.
This paper examines the Scandinavian terminology for ‘soot’ in connection with a number of Saami appellatives with a view to deciding which of them are native and which result from borrowing. Special attention is paid to the problem of adopting loanwords in Northern Europe, especially in the Scandinavian Peninsula. Two Proto- Germanic words denoting ‘soot’ are discussed from the morphological and etymological point of view. It is suggested that the West Germanic noun *hrōta- m./n. ‘soot’ is closely related to PG. *sōta- n. ‘soot’, which, in turn, is derived from the Proto-Indo- European verbal root *sed- ‘to sit’. The present authors intend to demonstrate that WG. *hrōta- derives from the Indo-European archetype *ku̯u-sōdo- ‘bad soot; thick layer of soot’, originally ‘what a soot!’. The original semantic distinction between PG. *sōta- and WG. *hrōta- seems to be preserved in the use of two independent Saamic loanwords, cf. Saa.N suohtti ‘soot (in the chimney)’ and ruohtti ‘big layer of soot’. The remaining Northern Saami words under analysis include čađđa ‘charcoal, soot’ (< Proto-Saamic *će̮δe̮ ‘carbon, charcoal, soot, grime’ < Ur. *ćüδ́i ‘coal, charcoal’), giehpa ‘soot’ (< PSaa. *kēpe̮ ‘id.’, probably a Proto-Baltic loanword) and gožu ~ gohčču- ‘soot, layer of soot, deposit of smoke or soot on things near a fireplace’ (< PSaa. *kočɔ̄j ‘soot’). Establishing the etymologies of this rich Saami terminology concerning ‘soot’ is significant to the gradual change of Saami lifestyle from a nomadic hunter-gatherer one towards a nonperipatetic community reliant on farming, animal husbandry and fishing.
This study investigates the influence of the Scandinavian (SCA) pattern on long-lived cold surges over the South China Sea (SCS). The results show that, different from the short-lived ones, the majority of long-lived cold surges over the SCS are preceded by a negative phase of quasi-stationary SCA pattern in the extratropics, which is characterized as a primary cyclonic center over the Scandinavian Peninsula and two anticyclonic ones over North Atlantic and central Siberia. This connection is mainly conducted through a continuous amplification of the high pressure anomalies over East Asia. On the other hand, the SCA-related anomalies also reveal identical responses as an increase in sea level pressure over East Asia and northerly flows over the SCS. Besides, the SCA pattern may influence the long-lived cold surges over the SCS by facilitating blocking occurrence through the extensive and quasi-stationary anticyclone over central Siberia. The present results have an implication for the extended weather forecast: The long-lasting circulation anomalies, such as the SCA pattern, can affect long-lasting weather phenomena in the regions which are located remotely in both the zonal and meridional directions, such as long-lived cold surges over the SCS.
As forest harvesting remains high, there is a crucial need to assess the remaining large, contiguous and intact forests, regionally, nationally and globally. Our objective was to analyze the spatial patterns and structural connectivity of intact and primary forests in northern Sweden with focus on the Scandinavian Mountain region; one of the few remaining large European intact forest landscapes. Over 22 million ha with 14.5 million ha boreal and subalpine forest and with data consisting of a 60-70 year retrospective sequence, we analyzed distribution, density and connectivity of forests that have not been clear cut, using moving window and landscape analyzes derived from Circuitscape. We revealed a contiguous, connected and semi-connected intact forest landscape forming a distinct Green Belt south to north along the mountain range. Almost 60% of the forestland remains intact, including contiguous clusters 10,000 ha and larger. The connectivity is particularly high in protected areas with primary forests outside contributing substantially to overall connectivity. We found gaps in connectivity in the southern parts, and furthermore low or absent connectivity across the whole inland and coastal areas of northern Sweden. Given its ecological values, the Scandinavian Mountains Green Belt is a key entity supporting ecological legacies, boreal biodiversity and ecosystem services, resilience and adaptive capacity, which needs to be safeguarded for the future. On the very large areas outside the mountain region, forestlands are severely fragmented, connectivity values are lost, and forest landscape restoration is needed for conservation and functional green infrastructure.
The origin of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) associated with continental breakup and the reconstruction of continents older than ca. 320 million years (pre‐Pangea) are contentious research problems. Here we study the petrology of a 615–590 Ma dolerite dyke complex that intruded rift basins of the magma‐rich margin of Baltica and now is exposed in the Scandinavian Caledonides. These dykes are part of the Central Iapetus Magmatic Province (CIMP), a LIP emplaced in Baltica and Laurentia during opening of the Caledonian Wilson Cycle. The >1,000‐km‐long dyke complex displays lateral geochemical zonation from enriched to depleted basaltic compositions from south to north. Geochemical modelling of major and trace elements shows these compositions are best explained by melting hot mantle 75–250 °C above ambient mantle. Although the trace element modelling solutions are nonunique, the best explanation involves melting a laterally zoned mantle plume with enriched and depleted peridotite lithologies, similar to present‐day Iceland and to the North Atlantic Igneous Province. The origin of CIMP appears to have involved several mantle plumes. This is best explained if rifting and breakup magmatism coincided with plume generation zones at the margins of a Large Low Shear‐wave Velocity Province (LLSVP) at the core mantle boundary. If the LLSVPs are quasi‐stationary back in time as suggested in recent geodynamic models, the CIMP provides a guide for reconstructing the paleogeography of Baltica and Laurentia 615 million years ago to the LLSVP now positioned under the Pacific Ocean. Our results provide a stimulus for using LIPs as piercing points for plate reconstructions.
On the basis of daily data from the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55) for extended winters (December–March) from 1958/59 to 2014/15, this study examines the formation mechanisms and climate impacts of the subseasonal Scandinavian (SCA) pattern. Results indicate that the SCA pattern manifests itself as Rossby wave trains, arising from the initial height disturbances over the North Atlantic and propagating into the Scandinavian peninsula and central Siberia. One type of SCA may arise from a Rossby wave train over the North Atlantic that is closely coupled to an anomalous convective heating dipole and persists for about 2 weeks (convection-preceded SCAs). Another type of SCA arises from the weak height disturbances over the North Atlantic; the height disturbance over the Arctic also contributes to the SCA formation, with no significant convective heating anomalies being observed in the North Atlantic (convection-free SCAs). The results also indicate that both SCA types may cause strong climate anomalies in the Arctic and Eurasia that persist for about 2 weeks. The surface air temperature (SAT) anomalies assume a dipolar structure with one extremum located over the Greenland Sea through Barents Sea and the other extremum over the Eurasian continent. Associated with the SAT anomalies is a significant increase or decrease of sea ice cover over the Greenland Sea and Barents Sea, while over the Eurasian continent snow depth anomalies are found to occur over eastern Europe, western Asia, and the Russian Far East. Furthermore, as convection-free SCAs propagate vertically into the stratosphere, significant changes of intensity and air temperature of the stratospheric polar vortex are observed.
Abstract This paper outlines the individual histories of the attested ancient Celtic epigraphic traditions, Cisalpine Celtic, Celtiberian, Gaulish and Ogam-Irish. It discusses the types of literacy in each of them and presents them as examples of how and under which conditions literacy arose and grew, and finally disappeared, in non-classical languages of antiquity. Where possible, the Celtic languages are viewed against an early Germanic background, to highlight similarities and parallels between the two philological areas, but also to contrast the differences between them and to give an account of where and when opportunities of literate interaction may have arisen between the two groups. These zones of potential interaction, as well as uncommon shapes of letters in some Celtic writing systems, are of relevance for the concluding section where observations from a Celtologist’s point of view will be made that may have a bearing on the origins of Runic writing.
Abstract The semantic range of ditransitive verbs in Modern English has been at the center of linguistic attention ever since the pioneering work of Pinker (1989. Learnability and cognition: The acquisition of argument structure. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press). At the same time, historical research on how the semantics of the ditransitive construction has changed over time has seriously lagged behind. In order to address this issue for the Germanic languages, the Indo-European subbranch to which Modern English belongs, we systematically investigate the narrowly defined semantic verb classes occurring in the ditransitive construction in Gothic, Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic. On the basis of data handed down from Proto-Germanic and documented in the oldest layers of the three Germanic subbranches, East, West and North Germanic, respectively, we show that the constructional range of the ditransitive construction was considerably broader in the earlier historical stages than now; several subclasses of verbs that could instantiate the ditransitive in early Germanic are infelicitous in the ditransitive construction in, for instance, Modern English. Taking the oldest surviving evidence from Germanic as point of departure, we reconstruct the ditransitive construction for an earlier proto-stage, using the formalism of Construction Grammar and incorporating narrowly defined semantic verb classes and higher level conceptual domains. We thus reconstruct the internal structure of the ditransitive construction in Proto-Germanic, including different levels of schematicity.
The descriptions of fossil Triassic marine pla- codonts as durophagous reptiles are revised through comparisons with the sirenia and basal proboscidean mammal and palaeoenvironment analyses. The jaws of placodonts are conver- gent with those of Halitherium/Dugong or Mo- eritherium in their general function. Whereas Halitherium possessed a horny oral pad and counterpart and a special rasp-like tongue to grind seagrass, as does the modern Dugong, placodonts had large teeth that covered their jaws to form a similar grinding pad. The sirenia also lost their anterior teeth during many Millions of years and built a horny pad instead and specialized tongue to fed mainly on seagrass, whereas placodonts had only macroalgae availa- ble. Indirect evidence for Triassic macroalgae is provided by benthic palaeocommunities from different layers and extended European regions in the Germanic Basin. Studies of tooth wear stages for Placodus indicate that anterior teeth may have been used in a similar manner to the procumbent front teeth of modern Dugong. Paraplacodus and Placodus seem to have used these teeth as spatulas to dig out seaplants. Cyamodus and other placodonts such as Placochelys had smaller or reduced anterior teeth. The scarcity of highly worn palatine or maxillary and lower jaw dentary Placodus or Cyamodus teeth (less then 0.5%) suggests that they had a relatively soft diet. The seaplants would only have been squeezed in a similar feeding strategy to that of modern Dugong feeding on seagrass without jaw rotation and grinding. The phylogenetic trend in tooth reduction within the placodonts Paraplacodus, Placodus, especially in Cyamodus but also Placochelys, and Henodus within 11 My appears to have been a result of this plant-feeding adaptation and may even explain the origin or at least close relationship of the earliest Upper Triassic turtles as toothless algae and jellyfish feeders, in terms of the long-term convergent development with the sirens.