Denmark

Denmark links continental Europe and Scandinavia: a peninsula, Jutland, extended by hundreds of islands, between the North Sea and the Baltic. It is the smallest and southernmost of the Nordic countries, but it was once a great sea power. About six million people live there, around the capital, Copenhagen. The country is flat, prosperous and peaceful, and often ranks among those whose people say they are happiest.

Denmark is a country of low plains, fields, sandy beaches and indented coasts: nowhere is more than about fifty kilometres from the sea, and its highest point is only 171 metres. It has many islands, including Zealand, where Copenhagen stands, and Funen, linked by very long bridges, along with quiet fjords, beech woods and wind turbines. Far to the north, the kingdom also includes vast Greenland and the Faroe Islands, two self-governing territories.

Denmark was one of the great homelands of the Vikings, the seafarers and warriors who, from the 8th to the 11th century, raided, traded and settled across part of Europe, from England to Normandy. King Harald Bluetooth, who gave his name to Bluetooth technology, unified the country and converted it to Christianity. In the late Middle Ages, Denmark dominated Scandinavia through the Kalmar Union. Gradually reduced to a small kingdom, it adopted a constitutional monarchy early, in 1849, and in the 20th century built one of the most complete welfare states in the world.

Danish is a Scandinavian language, close to Swedish and Norwegian, and speakers of the three can largely understand one another; its very soft pronunciation makes it hard to follow, though, even for its neighbours. The country is Lutheran by tradition, with a national church, but society is very secular and religion stays a private matter. What remains are values of trust, equality and restraint, very present in social life.

Denmark gave the world a word that has become famous: hygge, the art of cosiness, candles and warm moments with friends and family through the winter. It is also the home of clean-lined design (furniture, lighting, architecture), of LEGO bricks, invented here, and of the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, from The Ugly Duckling to The Little Mermaid, whose statue sits in Copenhagen harbour. Nordic cooking, long a humble affair, has become a reference in world gastronomy. People get around a great deal by bicycle.