The Project Gutenberg eBook ofSwedenThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: SwedenAuthor: Victor Alfred NilssonRelease date: January 8, 2014 [eBook #44624]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Ann Jury, Paul Clark and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEDEN ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: SwedenAuthor: Victor Alfred NilssonRelease date: January 8, 2014 [eBook #44624]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Ann Jury, Paul Clark and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
Title: Sweden
Author: Victor Alfred Nilsson
Author: Victor Alfred Nilsson
Release date: January 8, 2014 [eBook #44624]Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Ann Jury, Paul Clark and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SWEDEN ***
Transcriber's Note:Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible. Some changes have been made. They are listed at the end of the text.
Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible. Some changes have been made. They are listed at the end of the text.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS
Copyright 1899By PETER FENELON COLLIER
SWEDEN IN PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES—ARCHÆOLOGICAL FINDS AND CLASSICAL TESTIMONY
DAWN OF SWEDISH HISTORY—HEIMSKRINGLA AND YNGLINGATAL
THE VIKING AGE—ANSGAR, THE APOSTLE OF SWEDEN
EARLY CHRISTIAN ERA—STENKIL’S LINE AND INTERCHANGING DYNASTIES
THE MEDIÆVAL STATE—THE FOLKUNG DYNASTY
UNIONISM VERSUS PATRIOTISM—MARGARET, ENGELBREKT AND CHARLES KNUTSSON
UNIONISM VERSUS PATRIOTISM—UNCROWNED KINGS OF THE STURE FAMILIES
REVOLUTION AND REFORMATION—GUSTAVUS VASA
REFORMATION AND REACTION—THE SONS OF GUSTAVUS I.
PERIOD OF POLITICAL GRANDEUR—GUSTAVUS II. ADOLPHUS
PERIOD OF POLITICAL GRANDEUR—QUEEN CHRISTINE
PERIOD OF POLITICAL GRANDEUR—CHARLES X. AND CHARLES XI.
PERIOD OF POLITICAL GRANDEUR—CHARLES XII.
PERIOD OF LIBERTY—THE ARISTOCRATIC REPUBLIC
GUSTAVIAN PERIOD—GUSTAVUS III. AND GUSTAVUS IV. ADOLPHUS
THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY—CHARLES XIII. AND THE EARLY BERNADOTTES
PARLIAMENTARY REFORM—CHARLES XV.
PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY—OSCAR II.
The kingdom of Sweden occupies the eastern and larger part of the Scandinavian peninsula, covering an area of one hundred and seventy thousand six hundred and sixty square miles, with a population of somewhat more than five millions. Sweden is of nearly the same width, from east to west, throughout her whole length. If the country were divided into four equal parts, the southernmost part would correspond to the district of Gothaland, the next to the district of Svealand, consisting of most of what is north of the lakes Venar and Vetter and what is south of the Dal River, while the two remaining parts together would make up the district of Norrland. Gothaland, in ancient times calledSunnanskogs(South of the Woods), consists of the old provinces Scania, Bleking, Smaland and East Gothland by the Baltic, Halland and Bohuslæn by the North Sea, and West Gothland of the interior. Svealand, orNordanskogs, consists of the provinces Sœdermanland and Upland by the Baltic, south and north of Lake Mælar, respectively, Dal, Vermland and Dalecarlia on the Norwegian frontier, and Nerike and Westmanland of the interior. Norrland consists of the provinces of Gestrikland, Helsingland, Medelpad, Angermanland and Westerbotten by the Gulf of Bothnia, a branch of the Baltic, and Herjedal, Jemtland and the Lapmark on the Norwegian frontier. A greatnumber of islands form part of the kingdom, of which the two largest, Gothland and Œland, are situated in the Baltic. One-twelfth of the area, or as much as the whole state of Denmark, consists of water.
Sweden is politically united with Norway and ruled by the same king, these united kingdoms forming the largest realm in Europe next to Russia, Sweden herself ranking as the sixth in size.
Sweden is a country which offers striking varieties in scenery and conditions. In the southernmost province of Scania, an ancient home of culture, the nightingale and the stork dwell in the fertile plains, and the walnut, mulberry and chestnut trees render ripening fruit. Central Sweden is a wooded plateau, rich in rocky hills and inland seas. Although barren lands occupy large areas, these parts are characterized by a loveliness and picturesqueness which are still more pronounced in the northern provinces along the coast. Only in the inner mountainous regions of Norrland is the scenery of real grandeur where the white-capped giants appear in vast groups, or in isolated peaks of six thousand to seven thousand feet in altitude, where a hundred glaciers with glacier rivers, moraines and erosions cover a surface almost as large as the glaciers of Tyrol, and where, in the turbulent course of mighty rivers, are formed tremendous waterfalls, one of them, The Hare’s Leap, being the largest in Europe.
Geologically considered, Sweden is situated around the centre of the ancient Scandinavian land-ice, and in the greater part of the country only two of the geological series, the oldest and the youngest, are represented. Thus the uneven, undulating surface of the Archæan rocks, on which almost the whole country is firmly set, is in generalcovered with quaternary deposits of gravel and clay. The mountains are rich in iron ore, the streams and lakes in fish, the woods in game, but the soil, itself of a good quality, unfortunately rich in stones. This last-mentioned circumstance, together with the rather severe climate, which yet is a good deal milder than might be expected, especially in the southern and western parts of the country, makes agriculture, which is the most important industry, profitable only on the extensive plains of Scania, Upland and West and East Gothland. Still barley and rye are cultivated within the Polar Circle, ripening in remarkably short time under the nocturnal light of the Midsummer sun. Dense forests cover Sweden in the very same latitude in which Greenland is clad by eternal ice. The short summers are of a surpassing loveliness. In Norrland there is a Swedishlæn, or governmental district, of the size of the State of Ohio, on which, between the 5th of June and the 11th of July, the sun never sets. If the earth was perfectly plain and even one would be able to see the sun above the horizon continually during this period. But these northerly regions are very mountainous, and consequently you will have to climb a high peak in order to see the wonderful sight of a sun which stands still when it should set, and which marks the difference between night and day only by a rolling motion in the horizon. There is no country in the world where so many places for such observation are reached so easily as in Sweden. One may travel the whole distance from the southernmost point of the country to the very base of a mountain, Gellivara, Sweden’s Klondike, from which the midnight sun can be seen for thirty-seven nights in succession. But although the sun itself is visible only fromthe mountain peaks above the Polar Circle, the nocturnal light steeps the whole realm in midsummer-night’s dreams of magic colors and reflections.
The Swedish people are of Teutonic stock and have lived in the land they still inhabit for at least four thousand years, during this entire period not having assimilated other nationalities, or at least to no extent worth mentioning, so that the Swedish nation is of an origin far purer than any other at present existing.
The kingdom of Sweden is the most ancient of the states still extant in Europe, for all historical monuments prove that the Swedes have kept to about their present territory, perfectly independent of foreign nations, probably for a long time divided into lesser communities, but for the past twelve hundred years united in one single realm. The languages spoken in the Scandinavian North belong to the Teutonic family of Indo-European languages, and seem to have been one and almost homogeneous up to the time of the Viking Age (about 700-1060), when various dialects commence to be distinguished. The old uniform language has been preserved in Northern loanwords in the Finnish and Lap languages and in about one hundred of the oldest Runic inscriptions. The early Old Swedish, from the Viking Age to somewhat later than 1200, did not differ much from the Old Norse (the Old Norwegian and Old Icelandic), while the difference from the Old Danish was almost imperceptible. The sources for the study of this language period are about two thousand later Runic inscriptions and nearly one hundred Old Swedish loanwords, almost all proper names, in the Russian language. The classical period of Old Swedish falls between 1200 and about 1350. Its most important monuments are the provincial laws and a manuscript collection of saintly legends, called Codex Bureanus. The language of this period offers a number of dialects, of which only one, the Gutnic, is strictly defined. In the next period of Old Swedish, from 1350 to the Reformation, a universal language for the whole country is distinguished. The so-called Oxenstiern manuscripts and Codex Bildstenianus are the chief sources of our knowledge of this language period, mostly of religious contents. Modern Swedish dates from the Reformation, its later period being counted from the publication of the state law in 1734. The Swedish language seems to be based chiefly upon the dialect of Sœdermanland, with influences from other dialects. Among the Scandinavian languages, Swedish ranks next to the Icelandic in point of purity, and is the foremost of them all in point of beauty.
The Swedes are a hardworking, industrious and intelligent race, not fully conscious of their own rich endowment and slow to push their individual claims. In moments of danger and distress, this people give evidence of an active heroism, which offers a great contrast to their usual quiet and peaceful demeanor. The Swedish nation is endowed with an unusual inventive power, which has placed it in the first rank of scientific research, having produced a quota of initiative spirits, as originators, founders and innovators of sciences, which is considerably larger than that of any other modern country, in proportion to the population. The national temperament is, like the soil, composed of extremes. With the serene quiet and almost sullen tranquillity goes a patience of extraordinary endurance which, when it gives in, surprises by the passion which takes its place. To the melancholy trait in the Swedish character is contrasted a great desire for the pleasures of life and exuberant animal spirits. Under a quiet surface, the Swede conceals a rapidcomprehension and an almost morbid sensitiveness, sometimes causing people of other nationalities to judge him slow of intellect or perfidious, when he is only slow of action or indisposed to show his feelings. The most valuable inheritance from his ancestors is his moral courage, while the ancient Northern trait of self-restraint is often carried to an extreme. Akin to both is his dignity. He possesses great musical and improvisatorial gifts which complete his lyric-rhetorical temperament.
There are some 6,000 Laplanders and some 20,000 Finns living in the furthest North, and foreigners to the number of about 20,000 dwell in Sweden, mostly Norwegians, Finns and Danes. More than 99 per cent of the population consists of native Swedes, and 99.9 per cent belong to the Lutheran state church or the Protestant denominations.
The principal towns are Stockholm, the capital, with 300,000 inhabitants, enchantingly beautiful in situation, on the mainland and islands at the outlet of Lake Mælar into the Baltic; Gothenburg, with 120,000 inhabitants, the chief commercial centre, at the mouth of the Gotha River, by the North Sea; Malmœ, with 60,000 inhabitants, in Scania, by the Sound. The university towns of Upsala, in Upland, and Lund, in Scania, have 25,000 and 17,000 inhabitants, respectively.
The Swedes, although the oldest and most unmixed race in Europe, realized very late the necessity of writing chronicles or reviews of historic events. Thus the names of heroes and kings of the remotest past are helplessly forgotten, and lost also the history of its earliest religion and institutions.
But Mother Earth has carefully preserved most of what has been deposited in her bosom, and has repaid diligent research with trustworthy and irrefutable accounts of the age and various degrees of civilization of the race which inhabited Sweden in prehistoric times. Thus it has been proved that Sweden, like most other countries, has had a Stone Age, a Bronze Age, and an Iron Age. But there is absolutely no evidence to prove the now antiquated theories of various immigrations into Sweden by different races on different stages of civilization. On the contrary, the graves from the remotest times, through all successive periods, prove by the form of the skulls of those buried in them that Sweden has, through all ages, been inhabited by the same dolichocephalic, or long-headed, race which constitutes the overwhelming majority of her people to-day.
Sweden, physically considered, is not of as high antiquity as some countries of Europe. Yet it has been inhabited during the last four thousand years, at least. In the quaternary period the Scandinavian peninsula was a centre of a glacial movement which spread its disastrous influences over Western Russia, Northern Germany and Holland. In that period no vegetable or animal life was possible in Sweden. From the fact that the earliest stone celts found in Sweden and Denmark are not polished, archæologists were led to suppose that the Stone Age of the North was contemporaneous with the Palæolithic civilization in Western Europe. But this standpoint has been found untenable, because it has later become evident that the fauna surrounding the earliest inhabitants of the Northern countries was ours and not a quaternary one.
The oldest types of finds ofthe Stone Agein the North have been discovered in the refuse-heaps on the Danish coast. These refuse-heaps, consisting of stone implements, shells, bones, etc., do not occur in Sweden, but the implements characteristic of them are found scattered over some parts of the southernmost Swedish province of Scania. The shape of these earliest finds is exactly the same as of those of the later Stone Age, the only difference being that the former are not polished. But there are transitions between the classes, and the act of polishing must be regarded as an important phase of progress.
The Stone Age of Sweden is quite remarkable. If the remains of the earlier period are scanty, the finds from the later one are all the more numerous. With the exception of Denmark and a part of North Germany, there is no European country which can boast of such rich and beautiful relics from the later Stone Age as the southern part ofSweden. The finds in the other countries mentioned are almost exactly like those of Sweden from the Stone and the Bronze Ages, both as far as implements and skulls are concerned, proving them to have been settled by the same race.
The weapons and implements from the Stone Age consist of axes, daggers, spearheads, arrowheads, saws, and knives of flint; axes, gauges, handmills of stone; fishhooks and arrowheads of bone; earthenware, etc., etc. The graves of this period are dolmens, passage-graves, and stone cists, the last mentioned either uncovered or covered with a barrow. The different forms of burial places seem to indicate four successive stages of the period. Through their existence it becomes probable that the inhabitants of Sweden during the Stone Age had fixed dwelling places.
A dolmen is a grave-chamber of which the walls are formed of large, thick stones set up edgewise, covered with one huge block of stone as a roof, all the stones being rough outside and smooth inside. The passage-graves are built in the same way, but are larger and distinguished by a long covered passage leading to it. These graves are surrounded by a low barrow, upon the top of which the huge roof-stones were originally visible. Dolmens and passage-graves occur in Sweden in considerable numbers along the coast of Scania, on the plains of West Gothland and in Bohuslæn, more sparsely in other parts of West Gothland and in Halland, with stray cases of graves of a similar construction in Nerike and Western Sœdermanland. It is important to note the regions in which these graves have been found, for they must be identical with the parts of the earliest settlements. Such graves are also very common in Denmark, while only one has been found in Norway.
The stone cists resemble very much the chamber of apassage-grave. They are larger and four-sided, and built of somewhat thinner stones. Stone cists standing partly visible above the barrow constitute a form peculiar to Sweden, occurring in great numbers in West Gothland, Bohuslæn, Dalsland and Southwestern Vermland, while the covered stone cists appear in the same provinces and in Nerike, East Gothland, Smaland, Bleking and the Island of Gothland.
During the Stone Age the bodies were buried unburned, in a recumbent or sitting position. By the side of the dead body was usually placed a weapon, a tool, or some ornaments, sometimes also earthenware vessels, now filled only with earth. These vessels may once have contained food. The elaborate graves seem to indicate a belief in a future life. The food, if any such was placed by the side of the dead, would not necessarily point to the fact that such a future life was imagined merely as a continuation of earth life. The heathen Scandinavians of a later age believed that the dead remained for some time in their burial place before reaching their ultimate destination. For their possible wants during this intermediate state food was left with the dead body.
The total number of relics of stone found in Sweden is 64,000. Of these only 4,000 belong to Svealand and Norrland, while of all the rest found in Gothaland 45,000 belong to Scania alone.
In a much later age the Scandinavians were regarded as pure barbarians. For this reason it is important to observe that graves from the Stone Age show that the Swedes in that remote period had several domesticated animals, the dog, horse, ox, swine, sheep, and, perhaps, also the goat. Hence they were certainly a pastoral people, notliving exclusively by hunting and fishing. But whether they practiced agriculture cannot be decided in the present state of our knowledge. The fact that the very oldest graves are found in the most fertile districts of Southern Sweden seems to speak in favor of the supposition that agriculture was known and appreciated.
Of metals, even of gold, the people of the late Stone Age were entirely ignorant, also of the art of writing. Hence no monuments of their language will ever be found. Still it is highly probable that the Teutonic ancestors of the Swedes began to settle in the land from the beginning of the Stone Age.
It is true that some skulls, very much like those of the Laps, have also been found in the graves of the Stone Age; but it must be borne in mind that these burial places, impressive through their size and the amount of work and mechanical skill necessary for their erection, can be believed to have been originally intended only for kings or chieftains, and their families. It was probably a custom, as in later heathen times, to bury with such distinguished people a number of slaves, dead or alive. The presence of skulls of a non-Scandinavian type can thus be explained, without the necessity of accepting the theory of an early mixture of two races.
In the northern part of Sweden have been found relics of stone, usually of slate, which do not appear to have belonged to the people of the dolmens or passage-graves. They bear a close resemblance to those found in Finland and in other countries inhabited by Laps, Finns and peoples related to them. This seems to prove that these so-called Arctic stone implements are relics of the Laps and belong to the time when this people was still ignorant ofthe use of metal. Judging from the number of relics found on the coast, from Westerbotten to Gestrikland, and in Dalecarlia, the Laps dwelt also in somewhat more southerly parts of Sweden than at the present day. So far south as in the middle provinces, no Arctic stone relics have been found, still less in any of the southern provinces. This seems to indicate that the Laps and the Swedes did not dwell in the same parts of the country during the Stone Age, and their intercourse, if any, must have been of a very accidental and casual nature.
That the Stone Age lasted a very long time in the North is proved by the fact that it reached a far higher development there than anywhere else in Europe. The best authorities think that it must have ended rather before than after 1500B.C., or 3,500 years before our time.
The Bronze Agefollowed upon the Stone Age. Flint exists in Sweden and was easily found. There are also copper mines, but their working is of comparatively modern date. The copper of the Bronze Age must have been brought from abroad, and tin, necessary for the production of bronze, is foreign to Scandinavia. The knowledge of the working of any metal proves an immense progress. Yet there are strong grounds for the opinion that the beginning of the Bronze Age in Sweden was not connected with any great immigration of a new race, but that the inhabitants learned the art of working bronze by intercourse with other nations. The resemblance of the graves during the last part of the Stone Age and the early part of the Bronze Age points most strongly to such a conclusion. From Asia the knowledge of bronze, and the higher civilization dependent on it, had gradually spread itselfover the continent of Europe, in a northerly and northwesterly direction, until it reached the coasts of the Baltic.
The Bronze Age of Sweden began about 1500B.C., and lasted for a thousand years, or until the beginning of the fifth century before Christ. The period has been divided into an Earlier and a Later Bronze Age, a division which has been questioned as to its absolute correctness. The works from the former are decorated with fine spiral ornaments and zigzag lines. The graves generally contain remains of unburned bodies. The antiquities of the Earlier Bronze Age, almost without an exception, appear to be of native workmanship. They are distinguished by artistic forms and point to a highly developed taste in the working of bronze. They generally surpass in this respect the relics of the Bronze Age found in almost all other European countries. The works belonging to the Later Bronze Age are characterized by a very different taste and style of ornamentation, though even they are often the result of great skill. The spiral ornaments are no longer predominant, but the ends of rings, knife-handles, and the like, are often rolled up in spiral volutes.
During this period the dead were always burned. Buttons, sword-hilts, and other works of bronze were sometimes decorated with pieces of amber and resin inlaid. Objects are also often found overlaid with thin plates of gold.
Remarkable are the rock-carvings from this period. The Swedes of the Bronze Age understood, by a kind of picture-writing, how to preserve the memory of important events, although an alphabet of any kind was unknown. The rock-carvings have been found abundantly in Bohuslæn (formerly a part of West Gothland) and East Gothland, but also occur in Scania and other parts of Sweden. At the time of the arrival of Cortez in Mexico the Aztecs were exactly on the same standpoint. In spite of their high civilization, they were in the Bronze Age and possessed a picture-writing, but were not acquainted with an alphabet. In Sweden, as in Mexico, there certainly once existed an oral tradition necessary for its interpretation, which, now lost, leaves little hope for their present or future explanation. Yet they throw considerable light on Swedish civilization during this remote period. Thus they show that horses were already used for riding and driving. Cattle are represented. In pairs these are harnessed to a plow, which is being driven by a man. Boats are depicted, generally very large ones, without masts, but with thirty pairs of oars or more. They are usually unlike at the two ends, sometimes adorned with an animal’s head in the high and narrow stem, sometimes with a similar decoration also in the stern.
The rock-carvings tell us nothing of the dwellings or the dress of the Swedes in the Bronze Age. All the instruments and tools necessary for the construction of wooden houses existed and appear to have been in use. The material was ever abundantly supplied by the Swedish forests, but it was not strong enough to withstand the influence of time. All the more surprising it is that articles of dress from such a remote period as the Earlier Bronze Age, 1000B.C., should have been preserved to our time. Still such is the case, thanks to a combination of exceptionally favorable circumstances. These garments are of wool of a very simple substance; some have been worn by men, others by women. The man’s dress consisted of an unbrimmed cap of thick woven wool, a wide circular mantle, a kindof tunic, kept together with a woollen belt, and some narrow strips of wool which probably covered the legs. In a man’s grave was found a shawl of wool with fringes. The woman’s dress consisted then, as it does now, chiefly of two garments, a jacket with sleeves and a long robe, the latter held together with a belt of wool, ending in ornamental tassels. Large mantles, of mixed wool and cow hair, were used as wraps. The women wore splendid bronze ornaments, such as finger-rings, bracelets, torques and brooches. From the finds it becomes apparent that many women in those days carried weapons, a dagger often being found at the side of the body.
Besides swords and axes of beautiful workmanship, fishhooks, sickles and the different parts of harness have been found; also vessels of gold or bronze, evidently used for temple service. The Swedes of the Bronze Age were not acquainted with the art of forging the heated metal, but they possessed much technical skill in the art of casting. When the implement was taken out of the mold it was dipped in cold water, and very often the surface was ornamented by means of punches made of bronze. Their good taste was as highly developed as their skill. That the work was done in the North is proven by numerous finds of the very molds in which weapons and agricultural implements were cast. During the Stone Age only Gothaland and parts of Svealand were inhabited. The finds of the Bronze Age prove that the limits of the population were about the same during this period. The southern provinces continued to be the more thickly settled. Twenty times as many finds have been made in the soil of Scania as in the rest of the country. Norrland was hardly settled to any extent until the Iron Age, and has offered comparatively few finds fromthe Bronze Age, the total of which for the whole of Sweden amounts to about 4,000.
The Iron Agefollowed upon the Bronze Age. It lasts to this very day, we ourselves still living in the Iron Age; but the term is generally applied to that part of the period which commences with the close of the Bronze Age, and ends with the fall of heathendom. During the Iron Age, the Swedes first became acquainted with iron, silver, brass, lead, glass, stamped coins from foreign lands, and learned how to solder and gild metal. Archæologists have divided the period into two main parts, the Earlier and the Later Iron Age, both with subdivisions. The Earlier Iron Age includes the time from the fifth centuryB.C.to about the beginning of the fifth centuryA.D.The first half of the Earlier Iron Age is characterized by swords with both blades and sheaths made of iron, thin crescent-shaped knives, brooches of iron, collars, and decorative plates overlaid with bronze. The graves resemble those from the end of the Bronze Age, containing burned bones in urns, or laid together in a heap. This circumstance makes it more than probable that the first introduction of iron in the North was not connected with any immigration of a new people. The finds of the earliest Iron Age are not very rich, but they prove that the people who have left them behind had been subjected to a very strong influence from the Gallic tribes living close to the south of the Teutonic area of population. Then came the second half of the Earlier Iron Age, characterized by a strong Roman influence. It commences with the extension of the Roman empire toward the North, about the beginning of the Christian era, and winds up with the beginning of the fifth century, when Teutonic migrations and invasions put an end to the power of Rome. In thehostile or friendly relations between Romans and Teutons the Swedes were not involved. But by the peaceful ways of commerce the influence of Rome penetrated to the people of the North. Great numbers of Roman coins have been found in Sweden, and also vessels of bronze and glass, weapons, etc., as well as works of art, all turned out of workshops in Rome or its provinces. Out of about 4,760 Roman coins of this time found in Sweden, no less than 4,000 were found in the remarkable Island of Gothland, in the southern half of the Baltic, 90 in the neighboring island of Œland, 650 in Scania, but only 23 on the mainland of Sweden, excluding Scania. About 250 were found in Bornholm, 600 in Denmark, but only 3 in Norway. It becomes evident from these finds that there existed a regular traffic over the Baltic, through Germany, between the Island of Gothland and the Roman provinces, from the epoch of the Marcomannic war down to the time of Septimius Severus. Similar finds have been made on the southern shore of the Baltic, showing that the traffic came from the southeast, along the valleys of the Vistula and the Oder.
One of the most important discoveries of this period was the art of writing, which the inhabitants of the North seem to have acquired soon after the beginning of the Christian era. The earliest alphabetic symbols in Sweden, and the only ones used there during the whole of heathen times, wererunes. These were probably invented a little before the Christian era by a South Teutonic tribe, in imitation of the Roman writing which the Teutons received from one of the Celtic tribes living just to the north of the Alps. The Roman characters were adapted for the use of inscriptions in stone and wood, the curves being changed into straightlines. The Runic characters, in use among all Teutonic tribes, were twenty-four in number; these older runes were, by the Scandinavians, later simplified and reduced to sixteen. There is a number of inscriptions in older runes in Sweden, dating from about 300 to 500A.D.They are found chiefly on stones and gold bracteates, also in England, France, Germany, Wallachia and the west of Russia. All belong to about the same date, and are of Teutonic origin. The early Runic inscriptions do not contain any accounts of historically known persons or events. Yet they are of the greatest historical importance, for they show that during the Earlier Iron Age, in the fourth and fifth centuries, the language of Sweden, and consequently also the people, were Teutonic. These inscriptions in Sweden and neighboring countries give samples of the earliest known form of the Northern language, which is considerably different from its descendants, the Old Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic, but very much resembling the language spoken by the Goths on the Danube during the same period.
The Later Iron Age commences with the fifth century and stretches to the beginning of the eighth centuryA.D.When Italy had been overrun by the “barbarians,” the centre of the old civilization shifted to Byzantium, and there are many traces of an active intercourse with the capital of the Byzantine rule in the finds made in Swedish soil. Most of these finds consist of gold coins of the fifth century, the majority of them having been found in the islands of Œland and Gothland. The stream of gold coming from Byzantium must have been quite considerable, having its source in the tribute which many of the Byzantine emperors had to pay to the Goths on the Danube.They are the very same emperors whose names appear on the coins found in Sweden. The great number of costly and beautiful ornaments of gold found in Sweden, and dating from this period, must have been made out of Roman and Byzantine coins, melted down. One of the largest hoards of gold ever found in Europe was discovered in the Swedish province of Sœdermanland. Its weight was twenty-seven pounds, and it contained several ornaments of consummate workmanship.
Remarkable are the graves from this period, discovered in the province of Upland. They are barrows containing the more or less mouldering remains of a large boat in which the dead man has been buried unburned with his weapons, horses, and other domestic animals. The swords found in these graves are of iron with hilts of beautiful designs in gilded or enamelled bronze. The shields and helmets are often of elaborate workmanship. Unlike the swords, which mostly, or perhaps always, are of foreign, generally of Celtic make, these ornaments and weapons are of domestic origin.
It appears, from the many beautiful and artistic finds in Swedish soil, as if the inhabitants have benefited by their situation, aside and outside of the rest of the world. Continual migrations subjected the tribes of the continent to repeated changes and to a never-ceasing series of new and heterogeneous impressions. The tribes of the North remained on the same spot, and their whole development was slower but more consistent. The foreign influences penetrated slowly and gradually, without crushing the old civilization. The industrial arts blossomed not so often in the North as in the South, but steadier, giving a clearer expression of the national traditions and peculiarities.These circumstances make the study of Northern antiquities of absorbing interest.
Before the end of this period, not only Gothaland and Svealand, but also the coast of Norrland, as far north as the province of Medelpad, were inhabited. As a whole, the first part of the Later Iron Age forms a transition between the Earlier Iron Age and the Viking Age, the archæological finds of which we must leave aside to take up the threads of the earliest history. The Viking Age is exceedingly rich in stones with inscriptions in the later runes, some of these inscriptions being quite lengthy, and containing strophes of alliterative verse in Old Swedish.
Before entering into an account of early Swedish history, let us gather what information the classical writers of history have to give in regard to the countries of the North, or rather whatever of such information that has been preserved to our day.
The Scandinavian countries are for the first time mentioned by the historians of antiquity in an account of a journey which Pyteas from Massilia (the present Marseille) made through Northern Europe, about 300B.C.He visited Britain, and there heard of a great country, Thule, situated six days’ journey to the north, and verging on the Arctic Sea. The inhabitants in Thule were an agricultural people who gathered their harvest into big houses for threshing, on account of the very few sunny days and the plentiful rain in their regions. From corn and honey they prepared a beverage (probably the mead). By Thule is no doubt meant the Scandinavian peninsula, or rather the western coast of it. Pyteas also tells of the land of amber, or the southern shores of the Baltic, where theguttonesare dwelling. As the northern and southern shores of the Baltic from the very earliest period seem to have been inhabited by the same race which has shared the same development and civilization, there is every reason to recognize the nameguttonesas identical with the one given to the inhabitants of the Swedish Gothaland and Island of Gothland.
Several centuries pass without any notice of Scandinavia in the classical literature. In the still preserved manuscripts of the geographical work by Pomponius Mela, written in the middle of the first centuryA.D., is found a reference to Codania, a large and fertile island inhabited by Teutons. Codania is likely some scribe’s misspelling of Scandinavia
Pliny the Elder, who himself visited the shores of the Baltic in the first century after Christ, is the first to mention plainly the name of Scandinavia. He says that he has received advices of immense islands “recently discovered from Germany.” The most famous of the many islands situated in the Codanian Bay was Scandinavia, of as yet unexplored size; the known parts were inhabited by a people calledhilleviones, who gave it the name of another world. When he speaks of the British isles, Pliny again gives notice of islands, situated opposite Britain in the Teutonic Sea, without suspecting their identity with Scandinavia. He mentions Scandia, Nerigon, the largest of them all, and Thule. Scandia and Scandinavia are only different forms of the same name, denoting the southernmost part of the peninsula, and is yet preserved in the name of the province of Scania. Nerigon stands for Norway, the northern part of which is mentioned as an island by the name Thule. It is not surprising to find the classical writers ignorant of the fact that Scandinavia was not a group of large islands, but one great peninsula, as thenorthern parts were as yet uninhabited and their physical connection with Finland and Russia unknown.
Tacitus is the first who mentions the Swedish name. In his work “Germania,” of such great importance for the knowledge of the ancient Teutons, their conditions and institutions, and written about 100 years after Christ, the Baltic is described as an open sea called the Suevian Sea, shut out from the west by the Danish mainland of Jutland, by the Romans called the Cimbric Peninsula. The eastern shore is the country of amber. The Swedes are by Tacitus called Suiones, and he speaks of them thus:
“Next occur the communities of the Suiones, seated in the very sea, who, besides their strength in men and arms, also possess a naval force. The form of their vessels differs from ours in having a prow at each end, so that they are always ready to advance. They make no use of sails, nor have they regular benches of oars at the sides: they row, as is practiced in some rivers, without order, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, as occasion requires. These people honor wealth; for which reason they are subject to monarchial government, without any limitations or precarious conditions of allegiance. Nor are arms allowed to be kept promiscuously, as among the other Teutonic nations: but are committed to the charge of a keeper, and he, too, a slave. The pretext is that the sea defends them from any sudden incursions, and men unemployed, with arms in their hands, readily become licentious. In fact, it is for the king’s interest not to intrust a noble, a freeman, or even an emancipated slave, with the custody of arms.”
These remarks by Tacitus, in all their brevity, are of great importance. Boats, exactly corresponding to thedescription as given, have been found in Swedish graves of this period, and that they were used for river traffic, to bring the gold and products of Rome and Byzantium up the Vistula and Oder, is evident. The great opulence in dress and temple service of which the archæological finds bear witness, and of which later writers also speak as characteristic of the Swedes, is a proof of the wealth that at all times has attended naval dominion. Thus far all the statements being fully corroborated, one cannot but place great importance upon those that follow. The Roman historian tells us that, on account of the honor which the Swedes held for wealth, they were subject to a monarchial government, without any limitations; that is, the crown was hereditary, not elective. This coincides in every way with Swedish conditions of political affairs, such as we know them from later times. The important conclusions to be gathered from the statements of Tacitus, are that the Swedes already at the dawn of the Christian era held the political supremacy in the Scandinavian peninsula, or at least in its eastern and southern parts, and that the various lesser communities stood in allegiance to the hereditary king of the Sviar (Svear), or Swedes in a limited sense, the inhabitants of Svealand.
The psychological conclusions made by Tacitus, on the basis of his own statements, hold good of the Swedes of to-day as well as of those of 2,000 years ago. They still honor wealth and a monarchial government and consider the sea their best defence against foreign foes.
Ptolemy, the Alexandrine geographer of the second century after Christ, speaks of the Scandinavian islands, situated east of the Cimbrian peninsula. The fourth and most easterly of these is the one originally called Scandeia.He enumerates six tribes which inhabit it, the names being unrecognizable, except the one of Gutai, Gauts or Goths, by him for the first time mentioned as dwelling in Scandinavia.
To this information, gathered from classical authors, nothing is added for the next four hundred years in regard to the countries of the North. Only in the sixth century, when Rome has succumbed before the Gothic invasions, and the Teutonic tribes have divided between themselves the provinces of the West Roman empire, new information about Sweden is given by a Byzantine author, Prokopios, a contemporary of emperor Justinian. He mentions Scandinavia by the name Thule, and says he bases his statements upon information obtained from people “who come from there.”
Prokopios says that in the immense island of Thule, in the northern part of which the midnight sun can be seen, thirteen large tribes occupy its inhabitable parts, each tribe having its own king. One of the largest tribes is the Gauts (the Gœtar, or the inhabitants of Swedish Gothaland). These tribes very much resemble the people of southern Europe, with the exception of the Skee Finns, who dress in skins and live from the chase.
Prokopios tells a remarkable story about an immigration to Sweden of Herulians, a Teutonic tribe closely connected to the Goths on the Danube. In the beginning of the sixth century, it happened that the Herulians, after an unsuccessful war with the Longobardians, were divided into two branches, of which the one received land from the emperor Anastasius south of the Danube, while the other made a resolve to seek a home in the Scandinavian peninsula. When they had passed the Slavs, they came touninhabited regions, whence they continued to the country of the Varinians, and later to that of the Danes. The Danes granted them a free passage and the use of ships, in which they crossed to the island of Thule. Here the Herulians went to the Gauts and were well received by them. Some decades later the Herulians in South Europe were in want of a king. They resolved to send messengers to their kinsmen who had settled in Sweden, hoping that some descendant of their old royal family might be found there who was willing to assume the dignity of king among them. The messengers returned with two brothers who belonged to the ancient family of rulers, and these were escorted by two hundred young Herulians from Sweden. That this immigration really took place there is no doubt. The district of Sweden where these kinsmen of the Goths settled was early distinguished from the surrounding ones, inhabited by the Gauts of Sweden, through the peculiarities of its laws and customs, of which some survived into the commencement of the nineteenth century. This district forms the southern part of the province of Smaland, called Værend, its inhabitants Virdar, and the adjoining province of Bleking.
The Gothic historian Jordanes, or Jornandes, called Master Ardan, who was a contemporary of Prokopios, has taken upon himself to explain the reason of the strange resolve of the Herulians to seek a home in Sweden. He speaks of the traditions of the East Goths, which tell of their descent from the people of the North. Similar traditions also have existed among the West Goths, Longobardians, Gepidæ, Burgundians, Herulians, Franks, Saxons, Swabians and Alemannians. Thus Jordanes: “In the North there is a great ocean, and in this ocean there is a largeisland called Scandza, out of whose loins our race burst forth like a swarm of bees and spread over Europe.” The island of Scandza, he says, has beenofficina gentium,vagina nationum—the source of races, the mother of nations. And thence also the Goths have emigrated.
Material is lacking to prove the historical truth of the Teutonic traditions which point to Scandinavia as the cradle of the Teutonic tribes. But Jordanes, the first historian of Teutonic birth who speaks of Scandinavia, stands at the cradle of Swedish history, and, as a modern historian has expressed it, his shadow throws an umbrage across the whole field of Swedish historical research. The mistake, based upon Jordanes’ history, of identifying the Swedish Gauts with the Goths has caused a great deal of mischief and ridiculous chauvinism, Gothic and Swedish history and royal lines being mixed up or put in connection with each other.
In leaving aside the Teutonic traditions of the island of Scandza, or Scania, as the cradle of the race, let us quote a remark by Tacitus which seems to point to the conclusion that such traditions were current already in the first century of the Christian era: “I should think that the Teutons themselves are aborigines, and not at all mixed through immigrations or connections with non-Teutonic tribes. For those desiring to change homes did not in early times come by land, but in ships across the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean—a sea seldom visited by ships from the Roman world.”
The Old English poem of Beowulf must also be mentioned among the sources which throw light on early Swedish history. Whether the Geátas of Beowulf are identical with the Jutes of Denmark, or with the Gauts of Sweden,is a much disputed question. Although, phonetically, the Old English name Geátas corresponds to the Old SwedishGautar, it seems most plausible to suppose that by this term is meant the Jutes, and not the inhabitants of Swedish West or East Gothland. This accepted, the poem does not contain much about the Swedes. But the information, therein given, of the Swedish kings is of great value, because it renders the service of a firm chronological support to the facts gathered from another source. This source, of vastly greater importance, is the Ynglinga Saga, or rather the poem around which it is spun, in Heimskringla, of which more in the next chapter.
The first information of the religion practiced by the inhabitants of Scandinavia is given by Prokopios, who says that they worshipped many gods and spirits of the sky, air, earth, sea, and also some who were supposed to dwell in springs and rivers. Offerings were constantly made, the chief ones being of human beings, for which the first prisoner made in a war was destined. This sacrifice was made to “Mars,” who was the highest god. The statements of Prokopios without doubt are correct. The Scandinavian war-god who corresponds to the Mars of classical mythology was Tyr. Odin, originally the ruler of the wind, became the highest god during the Viking Age. He is an aristocratic god, the god of the select few, whose cult succeeded that of Tyr as the cult of the latter had succeeded that of Thor, the thunderer, as the highest god. The idea of a supreme God was probably unknown until the contact with Christianity, or at least not common. Thor, the peasant god, is probably the oldest of the gods of Teutonic mythology, the representative of stern power and law-bound order. Thor was the most popular godof the Swedes, to judge from the great number of ancient Swedish proper names of which his forms a part. Besides Thor, Odin and Frey were the most honored. All the other gods and goddesses mentioned in Old Norse literature were probably known, but few of them much worshipped in Sweden.
Snorre Sturleson, the great historian and poet of Iceland, of the earlier half of the thirteenth century, is considered to be the author of the history of the kings of Norway which, after the first words of the first chapter, has been called Heimskringla. As an introduction to the work he has put the saga of the Yngling kings of Sweden, of whom many of the Norwegian kings were supposed to be descendants. The Ynglinga Saga is a paraphrase to the much older song of Ynglingatal, a poem composed by the Norwegian poet Thiodulf of Hvin (who lived in the latter part of the ninth century) in praise of the supposed Swedish ancestors of the Norwegian king Ragnvald. The Ynglings were probably not identical with the kings of Upsala, who were of the race of the Skilfings, but of South Swedish or Danish origin. It is either out of ignorance, or out of sagacity, that the poet selected the Upsala rulers as originators of the Norwegian line of kings, but he has been unfortunate in the choice of a name for the dynasty. The poem itself is a trustworthy historical document, at least as far as the times are concerned which come comparatively close to the time of its own composition, the first part containing many traits of a mythicalcharacter. The saga spun around it is far from trustworthy. Of the poem evidently the first, or first few, strophes are missing, but the “historian” supplies the vacuum with stories of the gods Odin, Niord and Frey, whom he, according to the ideas of his time, changes from gods into historic kings, the first who ruled Svithiod (Sweden). Among learned men in Snorre’s day there was a craze for tracing the pedigree of all nations of any renown back to some of the heroes of ancient Troy. Snorre serves us a saga of Odin’s migration from Troy which, besides being confuse, would appear only ridiculous, if it had not wielded about as highly disastrous an influence upon correct conceptions of Swedish history as the work by Jordanes. This migration saga is found in a still more elaborate form in an introduction to Snorre’s Edda, and is responsible for the erroneous opinion held by earlier Swedish historians, that the Swedes had migrated from Asia under the leadership of a chief who called himself Odin, and that the Swedes and the Gauts were, if not of different origin, at least of a habitation of differing age in their present locations.
Based upon the information found in Ynglinga Saga we will give a review of the history of the early kings of Sweden, although the first dozen, and more, of these kings are of a doubtful “historic” character. At the dawn of history, Sweden was, like most other countries of Northern Europe, divided into petty communities, each ruled by a king. These communities seem to have been nearly identical with the “lands” or later provinces into which Sweden is yet divided, although the administrative divisions are different. In spite of the fact that it is about 1,200 years since these communities were united into one singlerealm, the inhabitants preserve to this day their respective peculiarities of customs and language.
The most important among the chieftains of Sweden was, since time immemorial, the king of Upsala, who conducted the sacrifices and temple service at Upsala, the oldest and most celebrated place of heathen worship in the Scandinavian North. Originally, he had under his rule only one-third of the present province of Upland, the chief settlement of the Sviar, or Swedes in a limited sense. The Upsala kings belonged to the ancient royal race of Skilfings (or “Ynglings,” according to Snorre), who traced their origin from the gods. The founder of the dynasty as accepted by Thiodulf and others wasYngve, who is said to have built the great temple at Upsala, moving thither the capital from the older Sigtuna and contributing to the temple all his lands and riches. Yngve’s son wasFiolner. King Fiolner was drowned by accident in a huge vessel full of mead, during a visit paid to King Frode in Denmark.
His sonSveigderdisappeared during a journey which he made in order to find Odin, the old. Both the names Fiolner and Sveigder appear to be mythical. Sveigder’s sonVanlandewas a great warrior. He is said once to have taken up his winter abode in Finland, which, together with several archæological finds, point to an early intercourse between Sweden and Finland.Visbursucceeded his father Vanlande, marrying the daughter of Aude (the Rich), whom he afterward left and took another wife, bringing on himself a curse by so doing. Visbur’s sons fell unexpectedly over him, burning him in his house.Domalde, his son, succeeded him. During a great famine in Svithiod he was offered to the gods in order to obtaingood seasons. Domalde’s son and grandson,DomarandDygve, both reigned and died in peace.Dag, the son of Dygve, was so wise a man that he understood the language of birds.Agne, the son of Dag, was the ruler after him. One summer he invaded Finland with his army. When the Finns gathered there was a great battle, in which Agne gained victory, subduing all Finland. The daughter of a conquered chief, Skialf, was carried back to Sweden as his bride. But after a drinking feast, Agne was hanged in a tree by Skialf and her men. The place where this happened was called Agnefit, and is said to be identical with the site of Stockholm, the later capital of the country.AlrekandEricbecame kings after the death of their father Agne. They got into a dispute one day while out walking. Having no weapons, they assailed and killed each other with their horses’ bridles. Their successors,YngveandAlf, the sons of Alrek, shared a similar fate, killing each other in the royal hall by the high-seat. After themHugleik, the son of Alf, became king of the Swedes. On the Fyrisvols, the plains by the river Fyris in Upland, Hugleik was killed in battle against a famous sea-king Hake, who subdued the country and became king of Svithiod. The saga mentions that this Hake was a brother of Hagbard, whose love for the king’s daughter, Signe, cost him his life. This love story is one of the most famous in the North and much spoken of in saga and song. The spot where Hagbard was hanged in a tree is still pointed out. When Hake had ruled as king for three years,JorundandEric, the sons of Yngve, returned with warships and warriors. They had grown up and become famous by conquering the king Gudlaug, of the Haleygians in Norway, whom they had met in Denmark.Now they met King Hake and his army at the Fyrisvols. In the battle, Eric was killed and Jorund fled to his ship. But King Hake was himself so grievously wounded that he ordered a warship to be loaded with his dead men and their weapons, and himself to be placed upon it. The sails were hoisted and the ship set on fire, and out it flew, with the dying king on board, between the skerries to the sea. Jorund now became king in Upsala. When he was one summer marauding in Jutland, he met a son of King Gudlaug, in the battle with whom he was overpowered, captured and hanged.
KingAuneorAnewas the son of Jorund. He was a wise man who made great sacrifices to the gods. Being no warrior he lived quietly at home. Twice he fled from Upsala, on account of Danish invasions, remaining in West Gothland twenty-five years each time, and holding sway at Upsala for an equally long time between his periods of exile. He lived to become 110 years of age. The secret of his longevity was that he sacrificed one of his sons to Odin every tenth year, and was granted in return a decade of prolonged life. When about to sacrifice his tenth son, the people interfered, and he died from old age. The last ten years of his life he was very feeble, drinking out of a horn like an infant. He was buried in a mound at Upsala.
KingEgilwas the son of Ane, and, like his father, no warrior. Under his reign and that of his son, kingOttar, Sweden suffered a good deal of trouble from Denmark. The Danish king Frode had helped Egil against the revolt of one of his subjects, and demanded from his son a scat, or tribute, in return. Ottar fell in battle against the jarls of Frode. Both he and his sonAudils, who ruled Svithiod after him, are mentioned in Beowulf as Ôhthereand his son Eadgils of the royal Swedish line of the Scylfingas (Skilfings). This fact gives to Swedish history its first reliable date. The Danish king Hugleik, a contemporary of King Ottar, died in 515A.D., which renders with a certainty Ottar’s reign as falling in the first part of the sixth century. Audils ruled for a long time and often went on viking expeditions to Saxonland, Denmark and Norway. In Saxonland, Audils captured the household of King Geirthiof, among whom was a remarkably beautiful girl, called Yrsa. The king married her, but she was afterward taken to Denmark by King Helge of Leire after a successful plundering expedition in Svithiod. Helge had a son by her, Rolf Krake, but Yrsa returned to her first husband, after being told by Queen Alof, the wife of Geirthiof, that Helge was her father and Alof her mother. When Rolf Krake later became king his men once helped King Audils in one of his expeditions in Norway. King Rolf’s men did not receive the compensation promised them, and Rolf came to Upsala to demand it for them. King Rolf was warned by his mother Yrsa that Audils was not well disposed, and he and his men made in haste for their ships. King Audils and his men started out in their pursuit. Then Rolf took a horn filled with gold, a recent gift of his mother, emptying its contents on the plain. Audils and his men stopped to pick up the gold, and Rolf thus made his escape. Rolf Krake is one of the most famous of Danish heroes. In the poetic language of the Old Northern literature, gold is often called “the seed of the Fyrisvols” or “Rolf Krake’s seed.” As King Audils once rode around the hall at a sacrifice his horse stumbled and fell, and the king was killed.
Eystein, the son of Audils, ruled after him and was succeeded by his sonYngvar. Eystein was never able todefend his people against the Danes, while Yngvar was a successful warrior, both at home and abroad. But one summer when he was fighting in Esthonia he was killed by the Esthonians. He was buried in a mound close to the seashore.
Anundwas Yngvar’s son and successor. He went to Esthonia to avenge his father, ravaging the country and returning with great booty. In his time there were fruitful seasons in Svithiod. On this account, and because he made many roads, cleared the woods and cultivated the new land, he became one of the most popular of early Swedish kings. He was calledBrœt-Anund, viz., Anund Roadmaker.
Ingiald, the son of Anund, became king in Upsala after his father. He was the most remarkable of all the Ynglings (Skilfings), for, through violence and cunning, he united all the communities of Sweden into one realm. When his father died, the king at Upsala was certainly the supremely powerful ruler in Svithiod, but not the only one, for there were many district-kings who were to a great extent independent. There were not only kings in East Gothland, Sœdermanland, and Nerike, but in Upland there were, besides the Upsala king, also kings in each of the three “lands” into which this province was formerly divided; viz., Tiundaland, Attundaland, and Fiedrundaland. Ingiald ordered a great feast to celebrate the fact that he had come to the throne after his father, and invited seven other kings, all of whom were present, except Granmar, king of Sœdermanland. When the Brage-bowl, on which promises were made, was carried in, King Ingiald made a solemn vow to enlarge his dominions by one-half, toward all the four corners of the world, or die. In the evening Ingiald set fire to the hall, and all the six royalguests perished with their followers. Ingiald took possession of all the dominions belonging to the unfortunate kings. In the next year he surrounded the hall in which King Granmar found himself at the time, killing him and taking his land in possession. “It was a common saying,” Snorre tells us, “that King Ingiald had killed twelve kings and deceived them all under pretence of peace; therefore he was called Ingiald Illrade (the evil-adviser).” His daughter, Asa, was of the same disposition as her father. She was married to Gudrod, king of Scania, but had to flee from the land after having caused the death of her husband and his brother. When it was learned that King Ivar, nephew of Gudrod, had entered Svithiod with an army, Asa counselled her father to set fire to the hall of the king after his men were drunk and asleep. Thus perished Ingiald Illrade with his daughter, very much in the same fashion in which he had killed so many of the petty kings.
For the centuries following upon Ingiald’s death, Snorre has a very short, or almost no account to give about Sweden and her rulers. What can be gathered from other sources, principally from late Icelandic sagas, is not trustworthy, mythical and fictitious elements being discernible.
After Ingiald,Ivar Vidfamne(the Far-stretching) is said to have ruled Sweden, “also Denmark, Saxonland, all of Austria and one-fifth of England.” One account has it that Ivar was the head of a new dynasty in Sweden. As he was originally king of Scania, perhaps these were the real Ynglings. Another source claims for the succeeding Swedish kings descent from the old race of the Ynglings (viz., the Skilfings). Ingiald’s son Olof, according to Snorre, fled to the woods of Vermland, until thenuninhabited, and later came to Norway. But it is a misunderstanding of Thiodulf’s lines which causes Snorre to say that King Olof was buried close by the Lake Venar, in Vermland. The province of Vermland was inhabited much earlier than in Olof’s time, and the Olof who became the founder of a Norwegian dynasty was probably a Danish prince.
Harald Hildetandof Denmark is said to have succeeded Ivar, and to have ruled over as much territory as his mother’s father. Several sources speak of King Harald and the battle of Bravols, in which his life was ended and which battle generally is taken as a historic milestone, marking the opening of the Viking Age. It was fought somewhere about the year 740. King Harald had become old and almost blind. In Svithiod and West Gothland, the kings Sigurd and Ring (by the sagas made into one hero by the name “Sigurd Ring”) ruled under Harald, while he reigned himself over Denmark and East Gothland. The relations were good at first, but their aspect soon changed. After great preparations on either side, Ring met Harald on the plains of Bravik in East Gothland. The battle was a long and bloody one and the most renowned in song and saga. King Harald, too old to take an active part, mounted a chariot, which carried him into the midst of the fight. When King Ring at last saw the chariot empty, he understood that the aged king had fallen and gave the sign that the battle should come to an end. King Ring caused the remains of his fallen foe to be burned with great pomp and ceremony on a pile with his horse, weapons and many a costly treasure of gold and silver. KingRingwas said to have been ruler of Sweden and Denmark after King Harald. The sagas mention the hero,Ragnar Lodbrok, as his sonand successor. While this great viking and sea-king appears to have been a historic personage in the earlier half of the ninth century, it is impossible that he could have been identical with King Ring’s sonRagnar, or that he or his sons ever were kings in Upsala or Sweden.
With the first attempts to introduce Christianity into Sweden (of which more later) a more definite knowledge of Swedish rulers and conditions is gained. When Ansgar, the apostle of Sweden, visited the country for the first time, about 830, the ruling king wasBiœrn. Shortly afterward KingAnundis mentioned. He fled from his land, but was reinstated with the help of the Danes. KingOlofwas on the throne at the time of Ansgar’s second visit to Sweden, about 850. These kings must have been of the same family as those who held the throne up to the middle of the eleventh century, for their names all occur again in the line of later Swedish kings, the reigns of whom fall in the broad light of history.
We have seen how Ingiald Illrade joined the various communities into one single realm. Although there is doubt whether this realm from the start embraced all Sweden, there is no historical evidence or any reliable traditions whatever to show that Sweden was ever divided into smaller kingdoms after the death of King Ingiald. When Ansgar reaches Sweden he travels through half of the country in order to reach the commercial centre of Birka, where the king of Sweden is dwelling. No other king, great or petty, is spoken of, while the contemporary Icelanders mention jarls (earls) in Gothaland, which proves that the once independent kings in that district were made away with.
Of particular importance is the account of a journeywhich a certain Wulfstan made to the North, at the close of the ninth century. This account is given in an Old English translation of Orosii Historia, credited to King Alfred of England. Thus it runs: “Wulfstan said that he went from Schleswig to Truso in seven days, that the ship was all the way running under sail. Wendland was on his right, but Langeland, Lolland, Falster and Scania on his left, and all these lands belong to Denmark, and then Bornholm was on our left, which has a king of its own. Then after Bornholm, the lands of Bleking, Mœre, Œland, and Gotland, were first on our left, and these lands belong to Sweden.”
Wulfstan’s account, besides furnishing evidence to prove the political consolidation of Sweden, also gives a good idea of the size of the country in this period. The once independent province of Scania, which had kings of its own, already belongs to Denmark. So does also the province of Halland, while Bohuslæn belongs to Norway. Dal and Vermland are contested provinces between the kings of Sweden and Norway, while great parts of Norrland are yet uninhabited, except by Laps, who ramble from one place to another, without a fixed dwelling place. In King Alfred’s Orosius, Danish Jutland and Swedish Gautland (Gothaland) are alike calledGotland, which recalls the supposition of the majority of modern scholars that Gotland was in the earliest times the common Teutonic name of the North, and Goths the common name of its Teutonic inhabitants.