The culture of Estonia combines an indigenous heritage, represented by the country's Finnic national language Estonian, with Nordic and German cultural aspects. The culture of Estonia is considered to be largely influenced by Germanic. Due to its history and geography, Estonia's culture has also been influenced by the traditions of other Finnic peoples in the adjacent areas, also the Baltic Germans, Balts, and Slavs, as well as by cultural developments in the former dominant powers, Sweden, Denmark and Russia. Traditionally, Estonia has been seen as an area of rivalry between western and eastern Europe on many levels. An example of this geopolitical legacy is an exceptional combination of multiple nationally recognized Christian traditions: Western Christianity (the Catholic Church and the