Four Scandinavian writers, who lived primarily in the 19th century, became known as the Big Four and were known for speaking out on behalf of women's causes. The writers inclue Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjere Bjørnson, Alexander Kjelland and Jonas Lie.

Bjørnstjere Bjørnson lived from 1832 - 1910 and was the first Norwegian Nobel Laureate.  His works include Arne (1859), Magnhild (1877) and Mary (1906).

To learn a new Danish word each day, along with sound files and sample phrases and sentences, you can go to:

http://www.danishclass101.com/danish-phrases/

Henrik Ibsen was a Norwegian playwright who lived from 1828 - 1906. He wrote plays in Danish, since Danish was the literary language of Norway at that time.

Ibsen's first play was Catiline, written in 1848 - 49. The play is based on the life of a Roman senator of the first century B.C., known for attempting to overthrow the Roman Republic and also for being accused of an illicit affair with a Vestal Virgin. The Roman historican Gaius Sallustius Crispus, (AKA Sallust) wrote Bellum Catilinae, which can be read at the Latin Library web site at http://thelatinlibrary.com/sall.1.html

Ibsen has a reputation for promoting the rights of women, in particular in the play A Doll's House, although he did not consider himself a feminist.

He also wrote the play Peer Gynt,  about a Norwegian folk hero, who was an adventure seeking hunter. Ibsen asked the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg to compose music for the play, and the musical composition has become famous.

Ibsen's plays can be read in Danish at http://people.opera.com/howcome/2006/ibsen/

To read a variety of articles in the Norwegian language, there is always Wikipedia in Norwegian, however another sourse of articles is the Large Norwegian Encyclopedia, (Store norske leksikon), where it is possible to search for articles on a variety of topics. It can be found at https://snl.no/

For those interested in Swedish language and culture, there is a web site called the Swedish Club that includes cultural activities and Swedish lessons. The web site is for everyone, not only Swedish people and can be found at Swedish Club (swedishclubnw.org)

To learn a new Swedish word each day, along with sound files and samples phrases and sentences, you can go to:

http://www.swedishpod101.com/swedish-phrases/

You can also find a Swedish word each day with sound files and one sentence on the Transparent language web site. This web site also has a Norwegian word each day.

Icelandic language lessons on YouTube

YouTube is a good source of language instruction and is especially good for hearing the language. For those studying Icelandic, there is a series of over 50 videos called Cool Icelandic. Each video gives the spelling and pronunciation for a different set of vocabulary words, for example, fast food, clothes, furniture, etc. I find these videos very helpful.

An ebook on the Influence of Scandinavian languages on English can be found at

http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/44813/the-scandinavian-influence-on-the-english-language

The booklet is on Grin, a web site that publishes term papers, master theses, etc.