Generally speaking, Scandinavians - that is Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes at least - have little trouble understanding each other. Applying a little goodwill, we can communicate with each other, speaking our own language with people from the other Scandinavian countries. Still, it is a little harder than when communcating with fellow countrymen. And it seems that not everybody are able to understand the other Scandinavian languages equally well. For me, I always thought that it seems as if we Norwegians understand the other ones better than they understand us. I have thought that instead of there really being a difference, it might simply be us Norwegians perceiving ourselves as better than them - as we often do. But there is actually a scientific study from 2004 confirming that Norweigans tend to understand the other Scandinavian languages better than what our neighbours do.
According to the study, there are several reasons for this.
For one, the Norwegian language is based upon the Danish language, and thus has a lot of the same words as Danish, but the pronounciation is closer to Swedish. Thus we have an advantage understanding both of these languages.
A second reason can be found in the strong standing of local dialects in Norway. We have a tradition for speaking our local dialects no matter who we speak with, and as Norwegian dialects can differ dignificantly from each other, we are used to understanding people who speak differently than ourselves.
A third reason for us Norwegians understanding especially Swedish quite well, is that we have easier access to Swedish television than vice versa. Even from young age we watch Swedish films and televison like Pippi Longstocking and Emil i Lönnberga with the original Swedish soundtrack/voices.
As for Danish, that can be a challenge to understand, even among the Danes themselves. Check out this sketch on YouTube from the Norwegian comedy show, Ut i Vår Hage: The Danish Language.
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