dane means lowlander and mark is march as in borderlands so denmark is the “lowlanders’ borderland”
can’t believe we’re literally defined by being next to germany and flat af lmao
comparatively sweden is “Svea’s realm” and norway is “the way north”
I always thought Norge was “norr rike” aka the Northern Realm, or are you thinking of the translation of the english names?
Just assumed that, because we swedish speakers says the rge/rige in sverige and Norge the same… But, totally open to that I assumed wrong.
A fun tid bit about Svea! Svea is of unsure etymology, but it might come from sven which translated to *drumroll*
Man/Person
Svea the kingdom of… People. Well, at least that consistant with so many other names of peoples and/or countries haha
The name Norge actually comes from Danish, which had a big influence on Bokmål iirc. The nynorsk word for the country is Noreg, which is closer to the original Norse name Norðvegr (Norð=North, Vegr=Way/road)
Netherlands means nether lands
japan is named after several mispronunciations through multiple different accents.