This authoritative collection examines both language contacts in Scandinavia proper and also contacts with non-Scandinavian languages. The language situation in Scandinavia is a rich and complex one, yet hitherto little of the material has been available in English. All the essays have as their basic tenet that the essence of every language is the way in which it varies in its development and social use and that this variation is a result of a whole series of geographical, sociological and linguistic factors - settlement, conquest, trade and literary bilingualism. Together they provide a valuable overview of Scandinavian language contacts at both the synchronic and the diachronic level, which will be of interest not only to Germanists and Scandinavianists, but also to historical linguists.