Sverre Bagge's new book gives general readers a highly readable survey of the history of the three Scandinavian kingdoms in the Middle Ages, at the same time as it provides scholars with a well-argued discussion and synthesis of the process of state formation taking place in the period between the simultaneous introduction of Christianity and European-style monarchy in the tenth century and the great changes in the political and ecclesiastical structures that were a consequence of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Bagge starts with the division of Scandinavia into three kingdoms in the Viking Age, then proceeds to the High Middle Ages, when both monarchy and Church developed into more stable administrative and jurisdictional institutions, changes in the social structure strengthened the aristocracy and gave it a substantial share in power along with the monarchy and the Church, and learning and culture prospered in close contact with developments in the rest of Europe. In the treatment of the later Middle Ages, the main focus is on the union between the three Scandinavian kingdoms that was established in Kalmar in 1397 and lasted until its breakdown in 1523. After having outlined the political consequences of the Reformation, especially the elimination by the Danish king of Norway as an independent kingdom, Bagge concludes his history of medieval Scandinavia with a discussion of fracture and continuity in state formation from the Vikings to the Reformation. Here he states that he cannot confirm the hypothesis put forward by Charles Tilly and other scholars, that the European state was not formed in the medieval, but in the early modern period. To Bagge it is clear that the three Scandinavian kingdoms that developed in the period between the ninth and the middle of the eleventh century showed a remarkable stability for the rest of the Middle Ages. No parts of them were cut off as independent realms, land conquered by one kingdom from another was normally returned, and the Kalmar union of the three kingdoms from 1397 never developed into one Nordic ‘super-state’. With this clear conclusion Bagge has set an important agenda for future research and discussion, at the same time as his consequent comparison of Denmark, Norway and Sweden with each other, and of Scandinavia with the rest of Europe, sets new standards for Nordic historians working on the Middle Ages. Since, in his introduction, Bagge declares that the post-Reformation state was not only a descendant of the monarchy, but also of the Church, his actual treatment of the role of Church and clergy in the medieval process of state formation will probably be found a bit disappointing by church historians – there is absolutely more about the sceptre than the cross in this book. This should not, however, conceal the fact that Sverre Bagge has written a masterly synthesis, proving once again that he is the leading medieval scholar of his generation in the Nordic countries.