Quirrel and Scandinavia?

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 87572

bboy_mn:
> 
> I will admit that my point was somewhat lost amid my scattered and
> jumbled thoughts, but the point was the Murmansk Peninsula of Russia
> while not technically a Scandinavian country; it is without a doubt 
in
> the Scandinavian region far more than it is in the European region. 
I
> mean, it touches Norway and Finland in the north, and completely
> borders Finland in the west, that's about as deep in the 
Scandinavian
> region as you can get, and equally far from what is traditionally
> considered Europe. Remember we can be talking about Russia in a
> discussion of Asian just as easily as we can talk about it being in
> Europe. It's a big diverse country. 
> 
> To refer to the Murmansk Peninsula as Europe may be technically
> correct, but it does not fit people's standard view of what
> constitutes Europe. For the most part, we have found in our past
> discussions that most people don't even know that the place exists. 
To
> most people, Russia is either Eastern Europe or Siberia, both of 
which
> do not fit the available information. 

> 
Berit replies:
Thanks for the clarification bboy_mn :-) I see your point that the 
Russian peninsula is close to Norway, Sweden and Finland :-) But I 
still have to disagree with you that it is therefore included in 
a "Scandinavian region". The reason for this being that Scandinavia 
consists per definition of the world's only Scandinavian-speaking 
countries: Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The term has to do with the 
countries' official languages and culture, not its geography. Thus a 
country like Finland is not Scandinavian OR situated in 
a "Scandinavian region", regardless of how many miles of borders the 
country share with Sweden and Norway. Likewise; nor is any part of 
Russia. However; in Norway we use a term called "Nordkalotten" (could 
be translated "the Nordic Area") which includes both Finland and the 
Russian peninsula, describing the countries' whereabouts on the map 
rather than their language or culture. So "Nordkalotten" or a similar 
English name for this geographical area would be a more accurate term 
to use if Rowling wanted to say Durmstrang was located on the Russian 
peninsula :-)

But these are the thoughts of a Norwegian :-) For all I know Britons 
and other "foreigners" might use the term "Scandinavia" to include 
more than the Scandinavian countries? Well, just wanted you to know 
that Scandinavians don't :-)

By the way; I think in Norway most people are aware of the fact that 
Russia is part of Europe just like the Scandinavian countries are. 
After all, we're neighbours, so we keep in touch with what's going on 
over there from time to time :-)

Berit