Scandinavian Contributions Research Articles

Luminaries of the North: A Reappraisal of the Achievements and Influence of Six Scandinavian Geographers

During the last two generations the five countries of Norden have made a collective impact out of all proportion to their size and population. Academic geography, which has shared in and contributed to this progress, has old-established traditions. The systematic collection, organization and analysis of information about natural phenomena and population in Norden goes back over 200 years. Large-scale map-making, associated with taxation records and periodic revisions of land ownership, also has deep roots. Changing interests among geographers have led to the neglect of the work of its early practitioners. This paper deals with six Scandinavians who were once in the forefront of the subject and whose achievements yielded a new perception of relationships and/or resulted in a new system of operations. Conrad Malte-Brun, escaping the classificatory paradigm, is claimed to be the first of the new philosophers of geography. A. E. Nordenskiold mounted a new-style scientific expedition when he took the Vega through the North-East Passage, but he also furthered the understanding of historical cartography. Fridtjof Nansen demonstrated new approaches to the geographical understanding of the Arctic in his laboratory ship Fram, following the first crossing of the Greenland ice cap and before helping to bring into being the International Council for the Study of the Sea. Zachris Topelius, a determinist by persuasion, encouraged most of his countrymen to look at Finland's geography for the first time and the educated minority of Finns to look at it in a new way. Rudolf Kjell6n, carrying forward the study of political geography on a broad front, invented the concept of Geopolitik. The most controversial of the group is Sven Hedin in whose monumental work are found the keys to much of Asia's geography. These six, marrying their individual talents with the traditions of Norden, contributed greatly to the sum of geographical knowledge and merit a more central place in the historical treatment of the subject. IN the modern world, the five countries of Norden make a collective impact out of all proportion to their size and population. The impact belongs essentially to the last two generations. It is inseparable from a revaluation of location and a reassessment of resource which have changed their status and potentiality in the European community. The Scandinavian countries, from being marginal in European development, have become central to much of it; from being at the receiving end, they have become significant centres of invention and innovation in their own right. Without an effective-indeed precocious-system of technical and scientific education, advances would have been much more restricted and retarded. Academic geography had shared in and contributed to this progress. Appreciation by the outside world of the Scandinavian contribution to geographical understanding has been delayed. Among those who have written on the theory and practice of geography, R. Hartshorne, W. Freeman and R. E. Dickinsoni have touched upon distinctive leaders from the north. Yet there have been Scandinavians whose work

Review of scandinavian contributions to slavonic and baltic philology, literature and history

Das Aspekt‐und Zeitproblem im Slavischen. Hans Christian S⊘orensen: Aspect et temps en slave (Institut Slave de l'Universite d'Aarhus). Arhus 1949, pp. 1–188. Kristine Netteberg: Etudes sur le verbe polonais Kopenhagen 1953. Urslavische and altrussische Lantentwicklung. Birger Calleman: Zu den Haupttendenzen der urslavischen und altrussischen Lautentwicklung (Publications de l'Institut slave d'Upsal III), Uppsala 1950, 174 S. Der russische Akzent. = Supplement du No 1 de l'Annuaire de l'Institut Finlandais d'Etudes Sovietiques Helsinki 1950, 123 Seiten. Altrussische Texte. Staffan Dahl: Codex Ad 10 der Vasteraser Gymnasialbibliothek (Publications de l'Institut slave d'Upsal II), Uppsala 1949. 168 S. Edvin Ohgren: Die Udo‐Legende.—Ihre Quellen und Verbreitung mit besonderer Berucksichtigung ihrer Ubersetzung ins Russisch‐Kirchenslavische (Publications de l'Institut slave d'Upsal VIII). Uppsala 1954, 160 S. Carl Stief: Studies in the Russian Historical Song 1953. Altpolnische Syntax. Eino Nieminen: Beitrâge...

Review of the Scandinavian Contributions of Natural History in 1867-8

Review of the Scandinavian Contributions of Natural History in 1867-8