Storsjön
Storsjön is the fifth largest lake in Sweden, with an area of 464 km2 and a greatest depth of 74 m. It is located in the province of Jämtland in modern Jämtland County. From Storsjön runs the river Indalsälven and the lake contains the major island Frösön; the city of Östersund is located opposite Frösön. Storsjön is said to be the home of Storsjöodjuret, a cryptid lake monster not unlike the Loch Ness Monster, every now and there are new reports of people having spotted it. Descriptions of the creature have varied over the years; some have described it as being serpentine in appearance, with multiple humps, a feline or canine-like head and grayish skin. Others have claimed that the creature is morbidly obese, with a roundish skull; the ferry company Vägverket Färjerederiet provides two ferry lines crossing the lake, one from Norderön to Håkansta and one from Isön to Norderön. They are replaced by ice roads during the winter January–April. Storsjöodjuret Lakes of Sweden Media related to Storsjön at Wikimedia Commons Map of Storsjön
Åre Municipality
Åre Municipality is a municipality in Jämtland County in northern Sweden. Its seat is located in Järpen; the present municipality was formed in 1974 through the amalgamation of "old" Åre Municipality with the surrounding municipalities Hallen, Kall, Mörsil and Undersåker. The largest village, Järpen, situated in Undersåker, was chosen as the seat of the new entity. There are six localities in Åre Municipality: The municipal seat in bold Henrik Lundqvist- goalie for the New York Rangers, former goalie for the Frolunda Indians, gold medalist in the Winter Olympics in 2006. Born in Åre, though he moved to båstad, to support his sister's tennis career, he is twins with Joel Lundqvist. Joel Lundqvist- center for the Frolunda Indians, former center for the Dallas Stars, 2 time world champion. Born in Åre, though he moved to båstad, to support his sister's tennis career, he is twins with Henrik Lundqvist. Åre Ski Area Edsåsdalen Åre Municipality - Official site VisitAre.com - Tourism site Åre Bike Park - Official site Åre Bike Festival - Official site www.are-sweden.com - Information on Are Ski resort
Norway
Norway the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe whose territory comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the kingdom. Norway lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land. Norway has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres and a population of 5,312,300; the country shares a long eastern border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, the Skagerrak strait to the south, with Denmark on the other side. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the Barents Sea. Harald V of the House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway. Erna Solberg has been prime minister since 2013. A unitary sovereign state with a constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the parliament, the cabinet and the supreme court, as determined by the 1814 constitution; the kingdom was established in 872 as a merger of a large number of petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for 1,147 years.
From 1537 to 1814, Norway was a part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with the Kingdom of Sweden. Norway was neutral during the First World War. Norway remained neutral until April 1940 when the country was invaded and occupied by Germany until the end of Second World War. Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: counties and municipalities; the Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Norway maintains close ties with both the United States. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Free Trade Association, the Council of Europe, the Antarctic Treaty, the Nordic Council. Norway maintains the Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system, its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals; the Norwegian state has large ownership positions in key industrial sectors, having extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, lumber and fresh water.
The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside of the Middle East; the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World IMF lists. On the CIA's GDP per capita list which includes autonomous territories and regions, Norway ranks as number eleven, it has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of US$1 trillion. Norway has had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world since 2009, a position held between 2001 and 2006, it had the highest inequality-adjusted ranking until 2018 when Iceland moved to the top of the list. Norway ranked first on the World Happiness Report for 2017 and ranks first on the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity, the Democracy Index. Norway has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Norway has two official names: Norge in Noreg in Nynorsk; the English name Norway comes from the Old English word Norþweg mentioned in 880, meaning "northern way" or "way leading to the north", how the Anglo-Saxons referred to the coastline of Atlantic Norway similar to scientific consensus about the origin of the Norwegian language name.
The Anglo-Saxons of Britain referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. There is some disagreement about whether the native name of Norway had the same etymology as the English form. According to the traditional dominant view, the first component was norðr, a cognate of English north, so the full name was Norðr vegr, "the way northwards", referring to the sailing route along the Norwegian coast, contrasting with suðrvegar "southern way" for, austrvegr "eastern way" for the Baltic. In the translation of Orosius for Alfred, the name is Norðweg, while in younger Old English sources the ð is gone. In the 10th century many Norsemen settled in Northern France, according to the sagas, in the area, called Normandy from norðmann, although not a Norwegian possession. In France normanni or northmanni referred to people of Sweden or Denmark; until around 1800 inhabitants of Western Norway where referred to as nordmenn while inhabitants of Eastern Norway where referred to as austmenn. According to another theory, the first component was a word nór, meaning "narrow" or "northern", referring to the inner-archipelago sailing route through the land.
The interpretation as "northern", as reflected in the English and Latin forms of the name, would have been due to folk etymology. This latter view originated with philologist Niels Halvorsen Trønnes in 1847; the form Nore is still used in placenames such as the village of Nore and lake Norefjorden in Buskerud county, still has the same meaning. Among other arguments in favour of the theor
Sweden
Sweden the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. Sweden has a total population of 10.2 million. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre; the highest concentration is in the southern half of the country. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats and Swedes and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen. Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is forested. Sweden is part of the geographical area of Fennoscandia; the climate is in general mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence, that in spite of this still retains warm continental summers.
Today, the sovereign state of Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state, like its neighbour Norway. The capital city is Stockholm, the most populous city in the country. Legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister. Sweden is a unitary state divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. An independent Swedish state emerged during the early 12th century. After the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century killed about a third of the Scandinavian population, the Hanseatic League threatened Scandinavia's culture and languages; this led to the forming of the Scandinavian Kalmar Union in 1397, which Sweden left in 1523. When Sweden became involved in the Thirty Years War on the Reformist side, an expansion of its territories began and the Swedish Empire was formed; this became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, ending with the annexation of present-day Finland by Russia in 1809.
The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since Sweden has been at peace, maintaining an official policy of neutrality in foreign affairs; the union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905. Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars and the Cold War, albeit Sweden has since 2009 moved towards cooperation with NATO. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, but declined NATO membership, as well as Eurozone membership following a referendum, it is a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens, it has the world's eleventh-highest per capita income and ranks in numerous metrics of national performance, including quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, equality and human development.
The name Sweden was loaned from Dutch in the 17th century to refer to Sweden as an emerging great power. Before Sweden's imperial expansion, Early Modern English used Swedeland. Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod, which meant "people of the Swedes"; this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige means "realm of the Swedes", excluding the Geats in Götaland. Variations of the name Sweden are used in most languages, with the exception of Danish and Norwegian using Sverige, Faroese Svøríki, Icelandic Svíþjóð, the more notable exception of some Finnic languages where Ruotsi and Rootsi are used, names considered as referring to the people from the coastal areas of Roslagen, who were known as the Rus', through them etymologically related to the English name for Russia; the etymology of Swedes, thus Sweden, is not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning "one's own", referring to one's own Germanic tribe. Sweden's prehistory begins in the Allerød oscillation, a warm period around 12,000 BC, with Late Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme culture at the edge of the ice in what is now the country's southernmost province, Scania.
This period was characterised by small bands of hunter-gatherer-fishers using flint technology. Sweden is first described in a written source in Germania by Tacitus in 98 AD. In Germania 44 and 45 he mentions the Swedes as a powerful tribe with ships that had a prow at each end. Which kings ruled these Suiones is unknown, but Norse mythology presents a long line of legendary and semi-legendary kings going back to the last centuries BC; as for literacy in Sweden itself, the runic script was in use among the south Scandinavian elite by at least the 2nd century AD, but all that has come down to the present from the Roman Period is curt inscriptions on artefacts of male names, demonstrating th
Trøndelag
Trøndelag is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687 named Trondhjem County. Trøndelag county and the neighboring Møre og Romsdal county together form what is known as Central Norway. A person from Trøndelag is called a trønder; the largest city in Trøndelag is the city of Trondheim. The administrative centre of the county is Steinkjer, but Trondheim functions as a secondary administrative centre; this is to make the county more efficient and not too centralized, as Trøndelag is the second largest county in Norway. The old Trondhjems amt county was divided into two administrative counties in 1804 by the King of Denmark-Norway. In 2016, the two county councils voted to merge into a single county in 2018; the dialect spoken in the area, trøndersk, is characterized by dropping out most vowel endings. Trøndelag is one of the most fertile regions of Norway, with large agricultural output; the majority of the production ends up in the Norwegian cooperative system for meat and milk, but farm produce is a growing business.
The Old Norse form of the name was Þrǿndalǫg. The first element is the genitive plural of þrǿndr which means "person from Trøndelag", while the second is lǫg (plural of lag which means "law. A parallel name for the same district was Þróndheimr which means "the homeland of the þrǿndr". Þróndheimr may be older. People have lived in this region for thousands of years. In the early iron-age Trøndelag was divided into several petty kingdoms called fylki; the different fylki had a common law, an early parliament or thing. It was held at the Frosta-peninsula. By some this is regarded as the first real democracy. In the time after Håkon Grjotgardsson, Trøndelag was ruled by the Jarl of Lade. Lade is located in the eastern part of Trondheim; the powerful Jarls of Lade continued to play a significant political role in Norway up to 1030. Jarls of Lade were: the first jarl of Lade. Sigurd Håkonsson, son of Håkon. Killed by Harald Greyhide. Håkon Sigurdsson, son of Sigurd. Conspired with Harald Bluetooth against Harald Greyhide, subsequently became vassal of Harald Bluetooth, in reality independent ruler of Norway.
After the arrival of Olaf Trygvason, Håkon lost all support, was killed by his own slave, Tormod Kark, in 995. Eirik Håkonsson, son of Håkon. Together with his brother, governor of Norway under Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark from 1000 to 1012. Håkon Eiriksson, son of Eirik. Governor of Norway under Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark from 1012 to 1015. Trøndelag was ceded in 1658 to Sweden in the Treaty of Roskilde and was ruled by king Charles X until it was returned to Denmark-Norway after the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660. During that time, the Swedes conscripted 2,000 men in Trøndelag, forcing young boys down to 15 years of age to join the Swedish armies fighting against Poland and Brandenburg. Charles X feared the Trønders would rise against their Swedish occupiers, thought it wise to keep a large part of the men away. Only about one third of the men returned to their homes. In the fall of 1718, during the Great Northern War, General Carl Gustaf Armfeldt was ordered by king Charles XII of Sweden to lead a Swedish army of 10,000 men into Trøndelag and take Trondheim.
Because of his poor supply lines back to Sweden, Armfeldt's army had to live off the land, causing great suffering to the people of the region. Armfeldt's campaign failed: the defenders of Trondheim succeeded in repelling his siege. After Charles XII was killed in the siege of Fredriksten in Norway's southeast, Armfeldt was ordered back into Sweden. During the ensuing retreat, his 6,000 surviving threadbare and starving Caroleans were caught in a fierce blizzard. Thousands of Caroleans froze to death in the Norwegian mountains, hundreds more were crippled for life; the county is governed by the Trøndelag County Municipality. The town of Steinkjer is the seat of the county county administration. Both the county governor and Trøndelag County Municipality, however have offices in Trondheim; the county oversees the 41 upper secondary schools, including nine private schools. Six of the schools have more than 1000 students: four in Trondheim plus the Steinkjer Upper Secondary School and the Ole Vig Upper Secondary Schoo in Stjørdalshalsen.
The county has ten Folk high schools, with an eleventh folk high school being being opened in Røros, with a possible start in 2019. The county is sub-divided into several geographical regions: Namdal, the greater Namsen river valley Fosen, the Fosen peninsula and surrounding areas Innherred, the areas surrounding the inner Trondheimsfjorden Stjørdalen, the Stjørdalen valley Trondheim Region, the areas surrounding the large city of Trondheim Gauldalen, the Gaula river valley Orkdalen, the Orklaelva river valley There are nine towns/cities in Trøndelag, plus the "mining town" of Røros. Trondheim Steinkjer Stjørdalshalsen Levanger Namsos Verdalsøra Orkanger Brekstad Kolvereid Bergstaden Røros
Lapland (Sweden)
Lappland anglicised as Lapland, is a province in northernmost Sweden. It borders Jämtland, Ångermanland, Västerbotten, Norrbotten and Finland. Nearly a quarter of Sweden's land area is in Lappland. Lappland extended eastward. However, in 1809 the Russian Empire annexed the eastern part of the Swedish realm, created the Grand Duchy of Finland, which in effect split Lappland into a Swedish part and a Finnish part, both of which still exist today; the history of Lappland is in many ways connected to the history of Norrbotten County and Västerbotten County, since Lappland is a historic region connected to these counties. During the Middle Ages, Norrbotten/Lappland was considered a no man's land; the area was in fact populated by nomadic Sami people, but the region became settled by Swedish and Norwegian settlers - along the coasts and large rivers. From the Middle Ages on, the Swedish kings tried to colonise and Christianise the area using settlers from what is now Finland and southern Sweden. Today, despite large-scale assimilation into the dominant Swedish culture and Sami minorities continue to maintain their cultures and identities.
In religion, nonetheless, in the 17th and 18th centuries the Lapplanders left their original shamanism and converted to Lutheranism. Since the 19th century, Lappland has been characterised by Laestadian Lutheranism. During the industrialization of Sweden in the late-19th century, natural resources from Lappland and surrounding provinces played a key role. Still, mining and hydroelectric power are the backbone of the local economy, together with municipal services; the unemployment has however been high for several decades and many young people leave for the larger cities by the coast or in southern Sweden. Located in Sweden. Lapland is known for containing the Vindelfjällen Nature Reserve, one of the largest nature reserves in Sweden. Other parts of Lappland have been named a UNESCO World heritage site, the Laponian area, the province contains some of the oldest and most spectacular national parks of northern Europe, e.g. Sarek National Park, established in 1909. Lappland has an area of 109,702 square km, larger than Austria and equal to Portugal.
Abisko Björnlandet Muddus Padjelanta Sarek Stora Sjöfallet Vadvetjåkka The traditional provinces of Sweden serve no administrative or political purposes but are cultural and historical entities. Administratively, Lappland constitutes the western part of two counties of Sweden, Norrbotten County in the north and Västerbotten County in the south. In contrast to most other areas of Sweden, there is more of an identification with the counties rather than to provinces. Thus, most people in these counties refer to the entire county, including the areas in Lappland, when they say'Norrbotten' or'Västerbotten'. Citizens of Sami descent are eligible to stand and vote in elections for the Swedish Sami Parliament, the case with Sami people elsewhere in Sweden as well. Sami language has an official minority status in Kiruna Municipality, Gällivare Municipality, Jokkmokk Municipality and Arjeplog Municipality; as of 31 December 2017, the population of Swedish Lappland is 91,333. Together with the rest of historical Lapland, the sum of the population is 250,000.
The largest cities are Kiruna with 23,178 inhabitants, Gällivare with 18,123 inhabitants and Lycksele with 12,177 inhabitants. In Norrbotten County: Kiruna Gällivare Jokkmokk Arjeplog Arvidsjaur In Västerbotten County: Lycksele Vilhelmina Storuman Malå Åsele Dorotea Sorsele Lappland itself was never considered a duchy but on 18 January 1884 the Privy Council gave all Provinces the right of use to a ducal coronet for their arms. Blazon Swedish version: "Argent, a Wildman statant Gules wrapped with birch leaves Vert on the head and around the waist holding a Club Or in dexter over the shoulder." The wildman used to be depicted with more features, impressively drawn muscles and a dour expression on his face. The wildman wielding a club as heraldic symbol of Lappland first appeared at the coronation of Charles IX of Sweden in 1607 at the same king's burial in 1611; the colour red of his skin was decided only in 1949. The wildman, though unusual in heraldry, is an old symbol of the uncivilised north and appeared in books and woodcuts of the 16th century.
Lappland has a subarctic climate in its lower areas, whereas a polar variety can be found in Tarfala, where the average high for the warmest month of the year is lower than 10 °C in mean temperatures. The southern parts of the province are milder than the northern, due to the vast geographical differences. However, since Lappland is all made up of inland areas, maritime moderation is less significant than in the counties' coastal areas and in neighbouring Norway, resulting in harsh winters. Southern areas at a lower elevation such as Lycksele have warm summers. Due to the arctic circle, the northern areas of the province experience midnight sun and a moderate polar night with some civil twilight during opposite sides of the year; the culture of the Sami people, the conservative Lutheran Laestadian movement is prominent in the region. Football in the province is administered by Norrbottens Fotbollförbund and Västerbottens Fotbollförbund. An EU-subsidised government tourism marketing organisation aiming to promote tourism in Northern Sweden has taken the
Swedish krona
The krona is the official currency of Sweden. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use. In English, the currency is sometimes referred to as the Swedish crown, as krona means crown in Swedish; the Swedish krona was the ninth-most traded currency in the world by value in April 2016. One krona is subdivided into 100 öre. However, all öre coins have been discontinued as of 30 September 2010. Goods can still be priced in öre, but all sums are rounded to the nearest krona when paying with cash; the word öre is derived from the Roman gold coin aureus, which in itself comes from the Latin word aurum, meaning gold. The introduction of the krona, which replaced at par the riksdaler, was a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union, which came into effect in 1876 and lasted until the beginning of World War I; the parties to the union were the Scandinavian countries, where the name was krona in Sweden and krone in Denmark and Norway, which in English means "crown". The three currencies were on the gold standard, with the krona/krone defined as 1⁄2480 of a kilogram of pure gold.
After dissolution of the monetary union in August 1914, Sweden and Norway all decided to keep the names of their respective and now separate currencies. On 11 September 2012, the Riksbank announced a new series of coins with new sizes to replace the 1- and 5-krona coins which arrived in October 2016; the design of the coins follows the theme of singer-songwriter Ted Gärdestad's song, "Sol, vind och vatten", with the designs depicting the elements on the reverse side of the coins. This included the reintroduction of the 2-krona coin, while the current 10-krona coin remained the same; the new coins have a new portrait of the king in their design. One of the reasons for a new series of coins is to end the use of nickel, it is expected that vending machines and parking meters will to a high degree stop accepting coins and accept only bank cards or mobile phone payments. Cash is less used in Sweden, with many young people avoiding cash as much as possible. Between 1873 and 1876, coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 öre and 1, 2, 10, 20 kronor were introduced.
The 1, 2 and 5 öre were in bronze, the 10-, 25-, 50-öre and 1-krona and 2-krona were in silver, the 10- and 20-krona were in gold. Gold 5-krona coins were added in 1881. In 1873 the Scandinavian Monetary Union currency was fixed so that 2,480 kronor purchased 1 kg of gold. In 2017 the price of gold is 365,289 kronor per kg. So one öre in 1873 bought as much gold as 1.47 krona in 2017. So if it is reasonable to have the smallest denomination coin 1 krona today, in 1873 a reasonable smallest denomination coin was 1 öre. A 10 kr gold coin weighed 4.4803 grams with 900 finess so that the fine weight was 4.03327 grams or 1/248th of a kilogram. In 1902, production of gold coins ceased, was restarted in 1920 and 1925 before ceasing entirely. Due to metal shortages during World War I, iron replaced bronze between 1917 and 1919. Nickel-bronze replaced silver in the 10, 25 and 50 öre in 1920, with silver returning in 1927. Metal shortages due to World War II again led to changes in the Swedish coinage. Between 1940 and 1947, the nickel-bronze 10, 25 and 50 öre were again issued.
In 1942, iron again replaced the silver content of the other coins was reduced. In 1962, cupronickel replaced silver in the 25-öre and 50-öre coins. In 1968, the 2 kronor switched to cupronickel and the 1-krona switched to cupronickel-clad copper. Nonetheless, all previous mintages of 1- and 2-krona coins are still legal tender, since 1875 and 1876 though 2-krona coins are rarely seen in circulation as they have not been issued since 1971; the 2-krona coins contained 40% silver until 1966, which meant they had been for several years worth much more than two kronor, so most have been bought and melted down by arbitrageurs, the rest are kept by collectors). A new design of 2-krona coins will be issued in 2016. In 1954, 1955 and 1971, five-krona silver coins were produced, with designs similar to contemporary 1- and 2-krona coins. In 1972, a new, smaller 5-krona coin was struck in cupronickel-clad nickel; the current design has been produced since 1976. Five-krona coins minted since 1954 are legal tender but tend to be kept by collectors for their silver content.
In 1971, the 1- and 2-öre, as well as the 2-krona coins ceased production. The size of the 5-öre coin was reduced in 1972. In 1984, production of the five- and 25-öre coins came to an end, followed by that of the 10-öre in 1991. In 1991, aluminium-brass 10-krona coins were introduced. Previous 10-krona coins are not legal tender. In 1991, bronze-coloured 50-öre coins were introduced. Jubilee and commemorative coins have been minted and those since 1897 or are legal tender; the royal motto of the monarch is inscribed on many of the coins. The 5-krona coin was designed in 1974, at a time when there were political efforts to abandon the monarchy, when there was a new young inexperienced king; the monarchy remained. Coins minted before 1974 have the same size, but contain the portrait of King Gustav VI Adolf and his royal motto. On 18 December 2008, the Riksbank announced a proposal to phase out the 50-öre, the final öre c
