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60 free Scandinavia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Scandinavia is usually three countries, sometimes five, and this quiz covers the whole argument. It opens with what the word actually means and where Pliny the Elder first wrote it down, then moves through the big shared history: the Viking Age from Lindisfarne to Hastings, Erik the Red's optimistic naming of Greenland, Queen Margaret's Kalmar Union and the day Gustav Vasa walked Sweden out of it, Norway's 1814 constitution and its quiet divorce from Sweden in 1905. Geography gets its due too, from Galdhøpiggen and Kebnekaise to the King of the Fjords, the fourteen islands of Stockholm, the artificial island under the Øresund Bridge, and the seed vault buried in Spitsbergen. Then the things Scandinavia exported to the world: Lego's 'play well', IKEA's four initials, Volvo's Latin, Carlsberg's elephant, the Nobel Prizes and the smörgåsbord that conquered America at a World's Fair. Sámi reindeer herding, Midsummer, the Dannebrog and the sunless capital of the Faroes round it out. The easy tier suits anyone who has flown through Copenhagen; the hard end asks about Poltava, Bernadotte and the 1920 Svalbard Treaty. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the countries, cities and institutions involved, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which three countries most commonly make up Scandinavia in its narrowest definition?
Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Finland and Iceland are Nordic countries but are only sometimes counted as Scandinavian.
Q 02The earliest known written source for the name Scandinavia is the Natural History of which Roman author?
Pliny the Elder
His 1st-century name is thought to be West Germanic and originally to have referred only to the southern tip of Sweden.
Q 03The name Scandinavia is thought to share its root with which southernmost province of Sweden?
Scania
One reading of the Proto-Germanic root gives 'dangerous island', a nod to the treacherous sandbanks off its coast.
Q 04The Scandinavian Peninsula is roughly how long?
About 1,850 km (1,150 mi)
It is the largest peninsula in Europe, between 370 and 805 km wide.
Q 05What is the highest mountain in Norway and on the whole Scandinavian Peninsula?
Galdhøpiggen
Neighbouring Glittertinden used to be listed higher until the glacier on its summit partly melted.
Q 06What is the highest mountain in Sweden?
Kebnekaise
Its glaciated southern peak has shrunk so much that the ice-free northern peak is now the higher summit.
Q 07The Kalmar Union, joining Denmark, Sweden and Norway from 1397, was the design of which ruler?
Queen Margaret I
She became regent of both Denmark and Norway after her son Olaf died in 1387.
Q 08Whose election as King of Sweden in June 1523 marked Sweden's final exit from the Kalmar Union?
Gustav Vasa
He entered Stockholm in triumph eleven days after his election.
Q 09What is the highest natural point in Denmark?
Møllehøj, about 171 m
At 170.86 metres it is lower than many office towers; the whole country is famously flat.
Q 10Roughly 40 percent of Denmark's population lives on which island, home to Copenhagen?
Zealand
The country proper is the Jutland peninsula plus an archipelago of 406 islands.
Q 11Which two autonomous territories in the North Atlantic form part of the Kingdom of Denmark?
The Faroe Islands and Greenland
The Faroes got home rule in 1948, Greenland in 1979 with further autonomy in 2009.
Q 12Denmark's absolute monarchy ended with the adoption of its constitution on 5 June of which year?
1849
The date is still marked as Constitution Day in Denmark.
Q 13Which monarch succeeded Margrethe II as Denmark's head of state after her abdication?
King Frederik X
He took the throne on 14 January, ending his mother's 52-year reign.
Q 21In what year did the Øresund Bridge open to traffic?
2000
Construction had begun in 1995; a railway tunnel had been proposed as early as 1910.
Q 22Carlsberg's first ever export, in 1868, was a single barrel of beer sent to which city?
Edinburgh
The brewery, founded by J. C. Jacobsen in 1847, is headquartered in Copenhagen.
Q 23Which animal appears among Carlsberg's original logos and gives its name to some of its lagers?
An elephant
Another early logo, a swastika, was dropped in the 1930s because of its Nazi associations.
Q 24Norway's national day, 17 May, commemorates the signing of its constitution in which year?
Q 14The Jelling stones, with the first recorded use of 'Danmark', were raised by Gorm the Old and which son?
Harald Bluetooth
The wireless standard Bluetooth borrows his nickname, and its logo merges the runes of his initials.
Q 15The Dannebrog holds a Guinness record as the oldest continuously used national flag, in use since which year?
1625
Legend says a white-cross banner fell from the sky at the Battle of Lindanise in 1219, but continuous use is dated to 1625.
Q 16The Lego name comes from the Danish phrase 'leg godt', meaning what?
Play well
Ole Kirk Christiansen began making wooden toys in 1932 and adopted the name in 1934.
Q 17The Lego Group is based in which small Danish town?
Billund
The company began in Ole Kirk Christiansen's carpentry workshop, which was making wooden toys from 1932.
Q 18Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805 in which Danish city?
Odense
A cluster of museums there, Andersens Hus, is devoted to him.
Q 19A smaller part of Copenhagen sits on which island neighbouring Denmark's largest?
Amager
The island is also home to Copenhagen Airport and the Danish end of the Øresund tunnel.
Q 20The Øresund Bridge crosses from Sweden to which artificial island, where it continues as a tunnel?
Peberholm
The tunnel section avoids interfering with flights from Copenhagen Airport and keeps a channel open for ships.
1814
On that day Norway declared independence from Denmark and elected Christian Frederick as king, though a union with Sweden followed within months.
Q 25Norway's personal union with Sweden was peacefully dissolved in which year?
1905
A referendum then chose monarchy over a republic, and the new king took the name Haakon VII.
Q 26Norwegians rejected joining the European Union in referendums held in which two years?
1972 and 1994
Both votes failed by narrow margins; the country stays close to the EU through the European Economic Area.
Q 27Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, was worth roughly how much in 2025?
About US$2.1 trillion
It is fed by oil and gas revenues; per head, Norway is the biggest producer outside the Middle East.
Q 28Norway has two official written forms of its language: Bokmål and what?
Nynorsk
The country's own name is Norge in one and Noreg in the other.
Q 29Which body of water, nicknamed the King of the Fjords, is Norway's longest and deepest fjord?
Sognefjord
It runs 205 km inland and reaches 1,308 metres below sea level.
Q 30Before it was renamed in 1925, Norway's capital was known by what name, honouring King Christian IV?
Christiania
The city was rebuilt near Akershus Fortress after a fire in 1624 and given the king's name.