Sister Finland and a moomin

The thistle is the emblem of Scotland as a barefoot viking raider cried out in pain as he stood on one, alerting the Scottish army encampment that the Norse army were sneaking up on.

The smallest US state, Rhode Island (1,212 square miles), has a larger population than the largest US state, Alaska (663,300 square miles), with 1.055 million residents vs. 736,732.