Although the majority of Finns speak a Uralic language, Finnish history and literature are clearly interrelated with those of both Sweden and Norway who have shared control of various areas and who have substantial Sami populations/influences.
Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, was largely responsible for the popularity of modern realistic drama in Europe, with plays like The Wild Duck and A Doll's House.
Nobel Prizes in Literature, itself a Scandinavian award, have been awarded to Selma Lagerlöf, Verner von Heidenstam, Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan, Knut Hamsun, Sigrid Undset, Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Pär Lagerkvist, Halldór Laxness, Nelly Sachs, Eyvind Johnson, Harry Martinson, Tomas Tranströmer, and Jon Fosse.
Major authors of the time include the humanist Christiern Pedersen, who translated the New Testament into Danish, and Poul Helgesen who vigorously opposed the Reformation.
External struggles with Sweden and internal rivalries among the nobility leading to Denmark's absolute monarchy in 1660 are chronicled from a royal prisoner's redemptive perspective in the heartfelt prose of Leonora Christina of the Blue Tower.
These works were split into the following divisions: sagnir (historical), ævintyr (stories) and kvæði (ballads, often set to music and dance).
Influential Icelandic authors since the reformation include Hallgrímur Pétursson, Jónas Hallgrímsson, Gunnar Gunnarsson and Halldór Laxness.
In the 20th century notable Norwegian writers include the three Nobel Prize-winning authors Knut Hamsun, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Sigrid Undset.
Famous Swedish writers include Selma Lagerlöf, Astrid Lindgren, Gustaf Fröding, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, Vilhelm Moberg, August Strindberg, and Tomas Tranströmer.