This article explores and discusses narrative abbreviations in history education at primary and lower secondary schools in Scandinavia, foremost in Sweden. The concept of narrative abbreviations was originally conceived by history theorists in Germany but has until now scarcely been used by scholars in Scandinavia, especially not in a school context. A narrative abbreviation could be understood as a condensed historical narrative, for example “1066”, “Auschwitz” or “I have a Dream”. Such an expression could — if necessary — be prolonged to a full-scale narration but is generally communicated in this summarized way, only alluding to the longer story. A narrative abbreviation might hence be regarded as a special form of a “first order” or “substantive” concept. The article proposes a tentative typology consisting of six discernable categories of narrative abbreviations, from the most abstract type historical time concepts (such as “Stone Age” and “Renaissance”) via historical sites and artefacts (like “Verdun” or “the Berlin Wall”) to the most concrete type, historical events or turning points (such as “Boston Tea Party” or “the Cuban missile crisis”). The typology is used in an attempt to outline some comparisons of the content in national history curriculums at compulsory schools in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The article also examines uses of narrative abbreviations in classroom. According to some of the findings presented, narrative abbreviations could be seen as a powerful force in history education – although probably only if students are trained to understand and discern substantive, symbolic and social dimensions of the concept. A visible learning on narrative abbreviations could thus – at least hypothetically – improve the results of history education and give teachers and students alike assessable goals at a meta-level.