Traditional Nordic dance music

The person who plays this kind of music might be called speleman (Swedish/Norwegian), spelman (Swedish), spel(l)emann (Norwegian), pelimanni (Finnish) or spillemand (Danish).

Some concepts in the field can be defined as Norwegian or Finnish, but most are either common to all four countries or local.

The schottische, also known as reinlender, polka and waltz are other common dance rhythms.

In addition there are many other more uncommon dance rhythms (e.g. the anglais), despite a small number of surviving tunes.

Another unique instrument, the nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle), probably once existed in a large part of Europe, but survived until modern times only in Sweden.