The Vikings were great hosts. The thread of hospitality in Scandinavia has never been broken, and it shows no signs of fraying. The god Odin laid down the conditions for entertaining, and his admonition to his people rings out in a poem called "Havamal," the Viking code:

Fire he needs who with frozen knees
Has come from the cold without
Food and clothes must the farer have
The man from the mountains come.
Water and towels and welcoming speech
Should he find who comes to the feast.

And it was long the custom for a Norwegian farm wife to hang under the roof of her storehouse a basket with folded flat bread, a butter box, and cured meat and sausage, with a white tablecloth draped over everything–just in case someone dropped by.

To the watery geographic isolation of Scandinavia should be added a second formative influence–the human isolation, until a century ago, of most Scandinavians from each other. Distances to this day remain long in the underpopulated countrysides of Sweden, Norway and Finland. What could they have been like 100 years ago? The way out of a Norwegian farm was often only by water, down long fjords and along coastal channels. In northern Sweden even churchgoing could mean traveling miles and miles, and many of the far-flung parishioners of the city called Lulea actually owned second homes, cottages adjacent to their central place of worship. Thus, instead of spending only an occasional hour or so in the presence of God whenever weather and time permitted, they could sleep and eat in the cottages and soak up enough religion in the church next door to last them all through the winter, when snowed in back home.

In addition to the isolation of Scandinavia and the isolation of Scandinavians from each other, something much more elemental has been at work to determine the character of the food and cooking, and this is climate, especially winter. Even today winter continues to be the one inescapable fact of life in the North. The season comes early and lasts long, and, worst of all at least from a contemporary standpoint, it’s dark–drearily so. For centuries, people’s thinking was shaped by it, and the greater part of their energy during the short, hectic growing season was devoted to making sure that they would live through the winter. If many of the foods of the area have a salty or smoky taste, or are pickled or dried, it’s largely because of winter. The preservation of foods was the only kind of life insurance, all important to survival.

As cold as it may be during the Scandinavian winter, that’s how warm the hearts are of Scandinavians. They readily welcome visitors into their homes to share the bounty that they now have. The standard of living of most of Scandinavia is one of the highest in Europe.

To read more articles by Bob Brooke, please visit his Web site.