The "pure Finns" developed a strong nationalistic consciousness in the 19th Century and, although the nationalist antagonism was and is directed primarily against Russia, the Swedish minority has also suffered from it occasionally. The Finnish element stands in an overwhelming majority and many Swedo-Finns seek identification with the predominant group by adopting Finnish names. In intermarriage the tendency is toward Finnicization. Early in the 20th Century something like 12 percent of the population was Swedish-speaking, but now the proportion has declined to about seven percent. The most solid remaining area of Swedish predominance within Finnish boundaries is the Aland Islands. In most situations there’s no conflict between the two different peoples, and together they make one of the proudest and most self-assertive nationalities in Europe.

Life is difficult in the northern forests. Returns may seem meager to some; to the Finns they are enough. With a patient will and a strength which transcends the physical these people have through centuries of hardship and of war with their eastern neighbors hardened their courage, their sisu. They dislike to admit impossibility, their backs are broad and unbending. They love their land with the passion of generations who have suffered to conquer the woods and the swampland, and who can suffer for centuries still. Sibelius' Finlandia is a mirror of the popular spirit–somber, strong, intense protest. Their people have enjoyed a legal position better than that of the American Indian, but in many ways their situation is as cruel.

As to the major peoples of the North, despite certain superficial differences they remain much alike–more than most of them wish to admit. In social customs and outlook on life they’re closer to each other than New Englanders to Southerners. In religion, all the Scandinavians once worshiped Odin and Thor together. They passed together from paganism to Christianity. Now they are Lutherans-better than 90 percent throughout the area, although the ties are weakening. The legal systems come from common origins and are dominated by a common philosophy; many modern social laws are formulated in common.

The basic common ideal of individualism is modified in practice by the varying degrees of socialism in each of the five states. Literacy is, for all practical purposes, 100 percent throughout, and nowhere in the world is there a higher per capita production and consumption of books. Freedom of expression is an ideal and a practice. Poverty is one of the few things "verboten," and great wealth is taxed with severity.

Perhaps the most obvious inherent characteristic of the Scandinavians is their pervasive practicality. They can dream, yes, but they’re likely to dream of worldly things. They’re scientists and technologists, architects and designers, shipbuilders and sailors, as well as skillful, resourceful administrators, long successful in the art of governing themselves.

Exceptions–Emanuel Swedenborg, Hans Christian Andersen, Edvard Grieg–are rare. Henrik Ibsen recognized and portrayed the inner conflict of man's spirit; in Peer Gynt fancy dominates reality, and often a Northerner likes to think he has a good bit of Peer Gynt in himself, though 99 percent of them suppress the little imp most effectively. Abstract thinking is rare, and a materialistic attitude toward life is deep rooted. A profound love of nature and of the physical is visible, expressing itself in literature and art, in competitive sports and hiking, bicycling, boating, and skiing in the high fields.

Essentially united as one family, but with strong intra-family differences, the Scandinavians prize unity, but revere their national traditions.

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