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A Scandinavian mile (Norwegian and Swedish: mil, [miːl], Finnish: peninkulma) is a unit of length common in Norway and Sweden, to a lesser extent in Finland, but not Denmark. Today, it is standardised as 1 mil being 10 kilometres (6.2 miles), but it had different values in the past.^[1]^[2]^[3]

The word is derived from the same Roman source as the English mile. In Norway and Sweden, the international mile is formally called "English mile" (engelsk mil), although it is sometimes just referred to by the English word mile. However, in situations where confusion may arise it is more common for Scandinavians to describe distances in terms of the official SI unit kilometre.

This modern definition of 10 kilometres (km) is equivalent to the obsolete myriametre, which was once used in France.

Danish mile

The Danish mile was defined as 7,532.4 m (24,713 ft), equivalent to 4 minutes of latitude. It is no longer in use.

Swedish mile

County miles

In early history, Sweden had various regional miles with their own measurements. Later on, such miles were generally defined by county (Swedish: landskapsmil, "county miles"). Some noteworthy county miles are:

Dala mile – 14,485 m (9.00 mi)
Finnish mile (peninkulma) – around 6 km (3.73 mi)
Småland mile – around 7 km (4.35 mi)
Uppland mile – 10,688.54 m (6.64 mi) = 3,600 Swedish rods = 6,000 Swedish fathoms = 18,000 Swedish ells = 36,000 Swedish feet
Västgöta mile – around 13 km (8.08 mi)
Ångermanland mile – 11,875 m (7.38 mi) = 6,666 Swedish fathoms

Unity mile

In 1649 the Swedish government made the Uppland mile the de facto Swedish mile, or "unity mile" (enhetsmil), for all of Sweden, also known as "land mile" or "long mile". It could be divided into four "quarter ways" (fjärdingsväg, "firkin way"), describing a quarter of a unity mile.

Old regional miles still persisted across Sweden in the 18th century and regional variations of rod, fathom, ell and foot also caused regional variation to the unity mile. This became apparent with the Swedish-Norwegian union in 1814, were the different definitions of foot in made the unity mile 11,295 m (37,057 ft) in Norway.

Metric mile

When the metric system was introduced, the mil was redefined to be exactly 10 km (6.2 mi). The metric system was introduced in Norway in 1875 and Sweden in 1889, after a decision by the parliament in 1876 and a ten-year transition period from 1879.^[4]

When the Russian Empire introduced the metric system in 1887, the Grand Duchy of Finland decided to redefine the old Finnish mile peninkulma (Estonian: penikoorem, Võro: pinikuurma), which was based on the Swedish mile, to also be 10 km (6.2 mi). In Finland, however, it has been much less in use than in Sweden and Norway.

Usage

The mil is currently not used on road signs, and kilometre is the standard for most formal written distances. However, it is very common in colloquial speech, including 5 km, which is referred to in Swedish as "half a mil" (en halvmil). The mil has however not lost all formal uses. Various tax deductions, for example regarding distance travelled for business purposes, are measured in mil by the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket).^[5] It is also used in the most common unit for measuring vehicle fuel consumption – "litres per mil" – and in Sweden in second-hand car advertisements, where odometer readings are often quoted in mil though the car itself records kilometres.

Metric farsang

In Iran and Turkey, an indigenous unit of measurement, equivalent to the Scandinavian mile, is used, known as farsang. It is originally a Persian unit of measurement, equivalent to the European league, known as parasang (4.8 or 5.6 km). It was redefined in Iran as 10 kilometer on 31 May 1926.^[6]

The older Iranian farsang survives regionally as farsakh-song. In Turkey there is a "light farsang" defined as 5 kilometres (3.1 mi), similar to the Scandinavian forest mile.

Other Scandinavian miles

Beyond the normal mile, there was also a "forest mile" (skogsmil) that was half as long as the normal mil, i.e. a bit over 5 km (3.1 mi), and equal to an even older unit of measurement, the rast ('rest', 'pause'), so named since it was seen as the distance a man would normally be able to walk between rests,^[7]^[1] corresponding to the league in other countries.

There was also a "fell mile" (fjällmil, see fell) which was almost double the normal mile, i.e. just under 20 km (12 mi).

In literature

Naomi Mitchison, in her autobiographic book You May Well Ask, relates an experience during a walking tour in Sweden: "Over in Gotland I walked again, further than I would have if I had realized that the milestones were in old Swedish miles, so that my disappointing three-mile walk along the cold sea edge under the strange ancient fortifications was really fifteen English miles".^[8]