Gotland

“ Numerous coins, Roman, Byzantine and Arabic, found not merely in Gotland itself but also at various points along the route indicated, testify to the long-continued importance of this route. In the middle ages the Oder route was also largely used whether reached by rounding the Carpathians or ascending the Danube, and in connexion with that route the island of Bornholm long formed a focus of commerce answering to that in Gotland farther east. The Danube route was also made use of farther west, and formed a large part of a great route connecting the East with the north-west of Europe. ”

“ Its situation in the Baltic, not far from the east coast of southern Sweden, made it still of great value to merchant-vessels passing between Sweden and the Hanseatic Towns. When Christiern fled from Denmark, Gotland was under the control of Norby, who continued after his master's fall to make depredations along the coast of Sweden and seize all merchantmen that came within his grasp. Danish, Swedish, and Hanse vessels were alike his prey, till Gotland came to be known by all as a "nest of robbers." ”

“ The Skagerak appears more or less correctly, but the Danish islands, including Sealand, usually as a round island, are placed in the Cattegat to the north-east of Jutland. This greatly distorts the picture. Sweden is much too small, and is given too little extension to the south; the Baltic has a curious form: it extends far to the east and has a remarkable narrowing in the middle, through the German coast making a great bend to the north towards Sweden. Gotland lies in the great widening of its inner portion. ”

“ The extreme wealth of the Gotlanders naturally fostered a spirit of independence, and their relations with Sweden were curious. The island at one period paid an annual tribute of 60 marks of silver to Sweden, but it was clearly recognized that it was paid by the desire of the Gotlanders, and not enforced by Sweden. ”

“ The Goths are named after that king who was called Goti, from whom Gotland is named: he was so called after Odin's name, derived from the name Gautr, for Gautland or Gotland was named after Odin's name, and Sweden from the name of Svidurr, which is also a title of Odin's. At that time all the mainland which he possessed was called Reid-Gotaland, and all the islands, Ey-Gotaland: that is now called the Realm of Danes or of Swedes.
"Young men not householders are called Drengs, while they are acquiring wealth and glory: sea-faring Drengs are they who voyage from land to land ”

“ The principal breeds of cattle are the alpine in Norrland, and Ayrshire, short-horn, and red-and-white Swedish in the midlands and south. The Gotland, an old native light yellow breed, survives in the island of Gotland. Oxen, formerly the principal draught animals, have been replaced by horses. Cattle, especially cows, and pigs form the bulk of the livestock, but sheep and goats have greatly decreased in numbers. The Lapps own upwards of 230,000 head of reindeer. ”

“ To the south of Sciringes-heal, a very great sea runs up into the land, which is broader than any one can see over; and Gotland is opposite on the other side, and then Seeland. This sea lies many miles up in that land. And from Sciringes-heal, he said that he sailed in five days, to that port which is called Æt-Hæthum [Sleswig] , which is between the Wends, and Saxons, and Angles, and belongs to Denmark. ”

“ The later map has not the double scale of latitude on any of the copies known, but curiously enough only Ptolemy’s degrees. Besides a more accurate delineation of Jutland and the Danish islands, especially Sealand, Bornholm and Gotland are drawn in closer resemblance to the Medici map; the south coast of Scandinavia has been altered to agree more with compass-charts of the Catalan type. ”

“ First of all, he has Scotland, called Iraland, evidently by mistake, and the Orkney and Shetland islands, which lie between Scotland and Halgoland, on his right hand; and the continent is continually on his left hand, all the way, until he arrive at Sciringes- heal. But farther, a large bay stretches to the northward, deep into the country, along the coast of which he had been continually sailing; and this bay commences quite to the southward of Sciringes-heal, and is so broad that a man cannot see across, and Gotland is directly opposite to this bay [2] . ”

“ The northern railway offers a land route to the Arctic coast of Norway. Along the southern coasts there are many watering-places. Marstrand near Gothenburg is one of the most fashionable; Strömstad, Lysekil and Varberg on the same coast, Ronneby on the Baltic, with its chalybeate springs, Visby the capital of Gotland, and several villages in the neighbourhood of Stockholm may also be noted. The headquarters of the Swedish Touring Club (Svenska Turistföreningen) are in Stockholm, but its organization extends throughout the country, and is of special value to travellers in the far north. ”

“ The ruins of Wisby, the chief port of ancient Gotland, are to this day the greatest wonder of the Baltic, and Öland Isle was another seat of ancient Gothic trade. There is some connection between the ancient trade of the Goths and the settlement of them and their allies in England. The most remarkable native commodity which came in ancient days from the Baltic was the fossil-gum known as amber. The trade in amber can be traced almost as long as any in Europe. ”

“ The skärgård of the Gulf of Bothnia is less fully developed than that of either the Baltic or the Cattegat. The islands of the skärgård as a whole are rugged and picturesque, though never lofty like many of those off the Norwegian coast. In the Baltic many are well wooded, but the majority are bare or heath clad, as are those of the Gulf of Bothnia. Of the large islands in the Baltic and Cattegat, besides Öland, only Gotland is Swedish.
Geology.—The fundamental rocks of Sweden belong to the Azoic or pre-Cambrian formation, and consist of crystalline rocks. ”

“ Lesy (Laesi) , the conqueror of the Pannonians (Huns) , fitted with a sail his swift galley ringed with gold. Thririkar (Erik Helsing) sailed in a ship whose prows were twisted like a dragon. Also Thrygir (Tryggve) and Torwil sailed and brought twelve ships jointly. In the entire fleet of Ring there were 2,500 ships.
The fleet of Gotland was waiting for the Swedish fleet in the harbour named Garnum. So Ring led the land-force, while Ole was instructed to command the fleet. Now the Goths were appointed a time and a place between Wik and Werund for the conflict with the Swedes. ”

“ Finally, the isotherm of 30° runs from Gothenburg towards the south-east to the lake of Åsnen, curves towards the north-east, and passes Calmar and the northern parts of the islands Öland and Gotland. On the summit of the plateau south of Vetter the mean temperature is of course lower than both north and south of the plateau. In July the temperature is almost constant all over the country. With the exception of the interior of Lapland the mean temperature varies generally between 59° and 62°. The warmest point is Linköping on the plain of Östergötland, between Lake Vetter and the Baltic. ”

“ In order to get to Haethum, he left Gotland on the right [3] , and soon afterwards Zeeland likewise, together with the other islands which had been the habitation of the Angles before they went to England, while those which belonged to Denmark were on his left for two days. Sciringes-heal, therefore, is consequently in Sweden, at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia, which runs up into the land northwards, just on that spot where the Baltic, after having passed Zeeland, spreads into a wide gulf, extending several hundred miles into the land. ”

“ The depth of the Sound generally is even less than 12 fathoms. The whole southern part of the Baltic between Sweden and Germany is very shallow. West of Bornholm the depth nowhere reaches 30 fathoms. East of Bornholm the sea is somewhat deeper, and a small area of a depth of 50 to 60 fathoms is found a little east of that island. The whole of that part of the Baltic which lies between Sweden and Russia is divided into two separate basins by a submarine bank. From the southern extremity of Gotland (Hoburg) there extends a nearly uninterrupted bank to the south-west as far as the Prussian coast. ”

“ Victory always followed him, so that great champions and berserks of the land flocked to his standards when he undertook a warlike expedition. Led by him, they felt sure of victory in advance. No man less than eighteen years old or more than fifty could follow him in warfare. All his warriors had to have strength enough to lift a large stone that stood near his residence. The chiefs who resided in Gotland owed him allegiance, and all were his kinsmen, and all those under him had, by law, to furnish him a certain number of ships and warriors when needed. ”

“ Excepting along the coast the island has no scenic attraction, but it is of the highest archaeological interest. Nearly every village has its ruined church, and others occur where no villages remain. The shrunken walled town of Visby was one of the richest commercial centres of the Baltic from the 11th to the 14th century, and its prosperity was shared by the whole island. ”

“ Görz (Gorizia) , county of, 217, 308. annexed by Austria, 318. Gothia; see Perateia or Septimania. Gothland, 470. Goths, their settlements in the Western Empire, 87, 89. defeated by Claudius, 88. driven on by the Huns, ib. their conquests in Spain, 90, 108, 526. make no lasting settlement in the Eastern Empire, 364. Goths, East, their dominion in Italy, 95. Goths, West, extent of their dominions, 526. Goths, Tetraxite, their settlement, 98. Gotland, power of the Hansa in, 494. held by the military orders, 496. conquered by Sweden, 508. Gottorp lands, sovereignty of, resigned by Denmark, 509. ”

“ Hring gathered men from all Sweden and Western Gautland, and many from Norway; it is said that when Swedes and Norwegians went with the levy out of Stokksund the ships were two thousand and five hundred. Hring rode with his hird and the West Gotlanders higher up past Eyrasund, and then westward, to the forest Kolmörk which separates Sweden from Eastern Gautland. When he reached a place called Brávik his ship-host met him, and he encamped on Brávöll near the forest, between it and the bay. ”

“ You have still some hours to journey before you reach Gothenburg, the second city of Sweden. The steamer threads its way through a crowd of rocky islands, very bare, barren, and desolate, with scarcely any vegetation. Here and there can be seen a lonely fisherman’s hut, painted red, and perhaps an occasional lighthouse. If it be a Sunday afternoon or a holiday, there is plenty of life. There in summer can be seen hundreds of men and women bathing in the water, or basking in the open air on the banks of the river or on the islands. ”

“ The rivers which flow down to the sea from the western chain of mountains carry millions of logs from the great dark forests. As soon as the ice breaks up in the spring, whole fleets of fishing boats and lumber vessels sail up and down the coast; sawmills whirr and buzz all day long; the hum of labor is heard all over the land.
In this Northland the winter days are short and cold; but there are the long sunny summer days, when even in the south of Sweden midnight is nothing but a soft twilight, and in the north the sun shines for a whole month without once dipping below the horizon. ”

“ For Scandinavia is commonly recognized as the cradle-land of the Teutonic [127] peoples, of which the Goths were a branch, and the Scandinavians are the purest blooded existing descendants of the ancient Teutons. Of the three Scandinavian countries, Sweden, too, seems the best entitled to the honor of possessing the Goths’ Bible, for one of her provinces is still named Gothland—a survival of the name applied in historic times to the whole south of Sweden, whose inhabitants were called Goths, as their neighbors to the North were called Swedes. ”

“ The high road leads up the mountain with short palings on either side, between which we see extensive plains with hops, wild roses, corn-fields, and delightful beech woods, such as are not to be found in any other place in Sweden. The ivy winds itself around old trees and stones—even to the withered trunk green leaves are lent. We look out over the flat, extended woody plain, to the sunlit church-tower of Maristad, which shines like a white sail on the dark green sea: we look out over the Venern Lake, but cannot see its further shore. ”

“ The coast of Sweden and the banks of the Gotha below the town, offer a striking contrast to the lovely scenery they had left. There are the rocks and the fringing islets, as in Norway, but here they are all flat, and most of them absolutely bare. The coasts, too, where they could be seen, exhibited ledges of rock and wastes of sand, with just enough cultivation to make the desolateness painful, by connecting it with the idea of people living there. ”

“ The canal voyage through Sweden goes at first constantly upwards, through elvs and lakes, forests and rocky land. From the heights we look down on vast extents of forest-land and large waters, and by degrees the vessel sinks again down through mountain torrents. At Mem we are again down by the salt fiord: a solitary tower raises its head between the remains of low, thick walls—it is the ruins of Stegeberg. The coast is covered to a great extent with dark, melancholy forests, which enclose small grass-grown valleys. The screaming sea-gulls fly around our vessel ”