The purpose of this research is to examine the food history of Scandinavia. The scope and limit of this research is determined by both cultural history and specific geography. Geographically speaking, Scandinavia is considered to comprise the peninsula where sit Norway and Sweden. However, cultural referents assign Scandinavian status to Denmark, Iceland, and Finland as well (Funk & Wagnalls). Where the food history of the region is concerned, the relatively limited but all-inclusive topographical area is appropriate to consider, for there are numerous overlaps and convergence of food history in the designated countries.
The practical, climate- and topography-driven inaccessibility of Scandinavia appears to have driven the shape that food production and consumption have taken in the region over the long haul. That is, the history of food in Scandinavia is in a very real sense a history of food production. Two overarching food-related concepts emerge with implications for the use and development of food in Scandinavia. The first is an impulse toward agricultural self-sufficiency, achieved to varying degrees by specific regions or countries according as the climate and the ability of affected populations to obtain and store or preserve food vary. The second is a tendency toward maximizing in various ways the benefit of such seasonal food resources as are available in a topographically rugged and barren region. Now this may seem an obvious imperative for any culture; however, in the case of Scandinavia, the factors of climate and topography should not be underestimated: ôThe heavily forested Danish peninsula and the rocky soil of Norway and Sweden offered limited facilities and turned their naturally rugged and warlike inhabitants to the seaö (Hayes, Baldwin, and Cole 127). As a practical matter, this has meant building nutritional and cuisine protocols principally around naturally available fisheries and dairy agriculture, including...