Swedes are a ethnic group native to Sweden, who share a common ancestry, culture, history and language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countries, in particular Finland where they are an officially recognized minority,[d] with Swedish being one of the official languages of the country and with a substantial diaspora in other countries, especially the United States.
Stone slab from The King's Grave in southern Sweden, Nordic Bronze Age, 1400 BC
The Vendel I helmet, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.
Eric the Victorious praying to Odin; 1895 illustration by Jenny Nyström.
Gustav Vasa starts a revolution in Dalarna. After the Swedish War of Liberation Sweden is a free nation in 1523 after 126 years of the Danish-dominated Kalmar Union; idealized depiction by Johan Gustaf Sandberg, 1836
Swedish is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countries overall.
The initial page of the first complete copy of Västgötalagen, the law code of Västergötland, from c. 1280. It is one of the earliest texts in Swedish written in the Latin script.
Front page of Gustav Vasa's Bible from 1541, using Fraktur. The title translated to English reads: "The Bible / That is / The Holy Scripture / in Swedish. Printed in Uppsala. 1541".
August Strindberg, one of the most influential writers in modern Swedish literature.
A sign on the wall of a Swedish hotel, using both the recommended dem and the colloquial dom for the word "them" on the same sign.
