Scania

“ King Magnus drove with fire and sword through the land. So says Thiodolf:—
"And now the Norsemen storm along, Following their banner in a throng: King Magnus' banner flames on high, A star to guide our roaming by. To Lund, o'er Scania's peaceful field, My shoulder bore my useless shield; A fairer land, a better road, As friend or foe, I never trod."
They began to burn the habitations all around, and the people fled on every side. So says Thiodolf:—
"Our ice-cold iron in great store, Our arms, beside the king we bore: The Scanian rogues fly at the view Of men and steel all sharp and true. ”

“ Amidst universal anarchy, the young king, barely twenty years of age, inexperienced, ill-served, snatching at every expedient, worked day and night in his newly-formed camp in Scania (Skåne) to arm the nation for its mortal struggle. ”

“ The people do not reckon their own age, but count that of their children, saying: “When he was born I had my rice-field there, the next year there”, and so on [438] . It is amusing and at the same time instructive to note that precisely the same mode of reckoning was found in Scania at the beginning of the last century. ”

“ Amid the crowd of visitors at the fair were seen knights, monks, and burghers of towns, both from Zealand and Scania, among peasants, knights' ladies, and gaily-attired dairy and kitchen maids from the nearest lordly castles, as well as ragged beggars and pretty country maidens, in the national costumes of Scania and Halland. The fair was thronged with musicians and jugglers of all kinds. ”

“ We know how Sweden was settled, not by various tribes, but by pioneers who, from the old home of culture, Scania, penetrated to the wilderness above, settling one district after the other, which, one by one, developed into provinces, little states by themselves, later united into one realm with a common king. One by one these provinces had taken the lead in the political and cultural development, often the youngest before the oldest. ”

“ Holy River is a short stream in the eastern part of Scania that serves as the outlet of a group of lakes not far inland. Between these lakes and the sea the forest was heavy enough to conceal any activities inland. When the Kings learned that the Danish fleet was approaching, they took counsel and decided to draw up their ships in battle order [Pg 217] east of the river mouth, but to act on the defensive. King Anund was to remain in charge of the fleet while King Olaf, who is reputed to have been something of a military engineer, went inland to prepare a trap for the enemy. ”

“ The Danes invaded and plundered the provinces of West Gothland and Smaland, while the Swedes pillaged Bleking and Scania. The king had given orders that the population of a whole district should be killed. He wrote later about the fulfilment of this cruel command: “God granted luck, so that thousands of men were killed on the road and in the woods.” The province of Scania was devastated to a distance of one hundred miles from the Swedish frontier. A new invasion into Halland was made, in 1565, when Duke Charles, then fifteen years of age, commanded the artillery. ”

“ The Danes, commanded by George Rantzau, were routed, and sought a refuge behind the walls of the town. The Danish losses were 4,000 killed and wounded and 3,000 prisoners, with their camp, artillery and baggage. A few days later the Danes evacuated Scania, returning to Seeland. The victory of Helsingborg was the most glorious of the battles fought by Magnus Stenbock. It saved Sweden in the hour of direst distress, rekindling the hope which the battle of Pultowa had extinguished. It was the last time in Swedish history that the Danes entered Scania as enemies. ”

“ In 1332, King Magnus took charge of the government. He was a ruler of a benign and good disposition toward the common people, whose interests he always furthered. But he lacked strength of character and was not able to control the obnoxious nobles. The provinces of Scania and Bleking suffered greatly under Danish rule, which was changed into German oppression when handed over to the counts of Holstein as security for a loan. The people of Scania rose in revolt and asked for protection from King Magnus. At a meeting in Kalmar (in 1332) both provinces were united to Sweden. ”

“ The Irish Elk ranges, in space, from Scania as far as the valley of the Po—and in time, from the Forest-bed era down to the prehistoric peat-bogs, being far more abundant in the Prehistoric than in the Pleistocene strata. It has not, however, been discovered in the latter further north than Quedlinburg, on the Continent, and Kirkdale cave, in Great Britain, although in the prehistoric deposits of Scania it is comparatively abundant (Nilsson, MSS.) . ”

“ In spite of this, Sweden, together with what remains to it of Finland, has not above 4,000,000 inhabitants. The soil is sterile and poor, and Scania is the only district which produces barley. There is not more than four millions current money in the whole land. The public bank, the oldest in Europe, was established to meet a want, because, as payments are made in brass and iron coin, difficulties of transport arose. ”

“ Be that as it may, this is his theory.
Then he tells us how his people were at first called Winils; and how they came out of Scania Insula. Sweden is often, naturally, an island with the early chroniclers; only the south was known to them. The north was magical, unknown, Quenland, the dwelling-place of Yotuns, Elves, Trolls, Scratlings, and all other uncanny inhumanities. The Winils find that they are growing too many for Scanland, and they divide into three parties. Two shall stay behind, and the third go out to seek their fortunes. ”

“ From time immemorial it was considered an appendage to Seeland, but in 1634 it was placed under the jurisdiction of the court of justice at Lund in Scania, because the inhabitants had complained of the long distance to their former court of appeal in Seeland. [1] In consequence of this change the island was ceded to Sweden in 1658, when the Danish provinces east of the Sound were conquered by the king of Sweden. ”

“ Over the greater part of Sweden,—all, in fact, except a strip of coastline on the western side of Scania,—and all along the shore of the Baltic from the Gulf of Bothnia southwards and westwards 312as far as a point midway between the Vistula and the Oder, there are found abundant remains of a primitive civilization which dates from the Neolithic Age, and indeed, from early in that age. ”

“ Harek did as he had said, and waited for a wind, and then sailed west to Scania, until, about the decline of the day, he came with a fresh and fair wind to the eastward of Holar. There he let the sail and the vane, and flag and mast be taken down, and let the upper works of the ship be covered over with some grey tilt-canvas, and let a few men sit at the oars in the fore part and aft, but the most were sitting low down in the vessel. ”

“ At Hordaland he heard that Erling Skialgson had left the country with a great force and several ships, and had sailed westward to England to Canute the Great. King Olaf proceeded eastward and then south to Denmark, where he first ravaged the coast of Seeland, and afterward met King Anund Jacob of Sweden, and with him harried the coast of Skåne (Scania, then a part of Denmark, now belonging to Sweden) . They proclaimed to the people that they intended to conquer Denmark, and asked the support of the people for this purpose. ”

“ Victorious over all, we chase Svein's wounded men from place to place. "Across Fiona's moor again, The paths late trodden by our men We tread once more, until quite near, Through morning mist, the foes appear. Then up our numerous banners flare In the cold early morning air; And they from Magnus' power who fly Cannot this quick war-work deny." Then Svein fled eastwards along Scania, and King Magnus returned to his ships, and steered eastwards also along the Scanian coast, having got ready with the greatest haste to sail. ”

“ The next morning, at five o'clock, the steamer Viken, from Christiania, arrived, and we took passage for Copenhagen. After issuing from the Skärgaard, or rocky archipelago which protects the approach to Gottenburg from the sea, we made a direct course to Elsinore, down the Swedish coast, but too distant to observe more than its general outline. This part of Sweden, however—the province of Halland—is very rough and stony, and not until after passing the Sound does one see the fertile hills and vales of [Pg 229] Scania. ”

“ When this prince ascended the throne, the prospect before him was gloomy: there was no monarchy; there were no revenues. Scania and Holland were in the hands of the Swedes; Fionia and Jutland were forcibly held by the counts of Holstein; Zealand and Laland obeyed another chief; and the rest of the isles had each its ruler who regarded it as his own estate to be inherited by his children. Even these were not the worst evils. The anarchy of so many years had caused the laws to be forgotten; the feeble were every where a prey to the strong ”

“ The concourse of curious guests and spectators was constantly increasing. All the ships in the harbour were hung with wreaths and flags, and the Sound was almost hidden by the fleet of ships arriving from Zealand and the isles. On the quay, in the town, and on the road to Stockholm, crowds of knights, priests, and town's-people, mingled with fishermen and Scanian peasants with their families--there were national costumes to be seen from the farthest Danish isles, and from many Swedish provinces. ”

“ In November 1343 he obtained the town and castle of Copenhagen from King Magnus Smek of Sweden, by reconfirming in still more stringent terms the previous surrender of the rich Scanian provinces, and by the end of the following year he had recovered the whole of North Zealand. In 1347 the remainder of Zealand was redeemed, and the southern isles, Laaland, Falster and Mön, also fell into the king's strenuous hands. ”

“ We will go forward with steam, and with horses—yes, also on our own legs, and glance now and then from reality, over the fence into the region of thought, which is always our near neighbour-land; pluck a flower or a leaf, to be placed in the note-book—for it sprung out during our journey's flight: we fly and we sing. Sweden, thou glorious land! Sweden, where, in ancient times, the sacred gods came from Asia's mountains! land that still retains rays of their lustre, which streams from the flowers in the name of "Linnaeus;" which beams for thy chivalrous men from Charles the Twelfth's banner ”

“ However, as I did not come to Sweden to inculcate my peculiar principles, I refrained from calling attention to the fact—which is very patent to all who have any sort of knowledge of Swedish history—that a large proportion of the men and women who have made Scandinavia the truly great land that it is, and whose memory all Scandinavians delight to honor, were of the so-called “common people.” ”

“ There are grand mountains and glaciers in Switzerland, but they do not rise directly out of the ocean as they do here in Scandinavia; and as to the scenery afforded by the innumerable fjords winding inland, amid forests, cliffs, and impetuous waterfalls, nowhere else can these be seen save on this remarkable coast. Like rivers, and yet so unlike them in width, depth, and placidity, with their broad mouths guarded by clustering islands, one can find nothing in Nature more grand, solemn, and impressive than a Norwegian fjord. ”

“ Scandinavia is there represented as a peninsula with a mountain chain (Kjölen ?) along the middle (see map, p. 223) , and the names “Gotilandia,” “Dacia,” “Suetia,” “Noruega” may be read. On the continent is written “Guenden [Kvænland, or else == “Suenden” == Sweden ?] vel Gotia”; and on the coast to the north of the peninsula is “Liuonia” and to the south of it “Frixia” [Friesland] . As Kretschmer has shown, Scandinavia was originally drawn (in both atlases) as an island, but was afterwards connected with the continent by a narrow isthmus. ”

“ The general aspect of Scandinavia is at once grave and gay. Stern grandeur and soft beauty go hand in hand; gloom alternates with cheerfulness; with the dead and disquieting is linked the living and exhilarating. Black masses of rock rear themselves perpendicularly out of the sea, rise directly from the deeply-cut fjords, and, riven and cleft, tower precipitously upwards and lean threateningly over. On their heads lie masses of ice stretching for miles, covering whole districts and scaring away all life save the torrents to which they themselves have given birth. ”

“ The scenery was strikingly like that on the lake of Zug, in Switzerland, and we missed the only green turf, which this year's rainless spring had left brown and withered. In all Sweden we had seen no such landscapes, not even in Norrland. There, however, the people carried off the palm. We found no farm-houses here so stately and clean as the Swedish, no such symmetrical forms and frank, friendly faces. The Norwegians are big enough, and strong enough, to be sure, but their carriage is awkward, and their faces not only plain but ugly. ”

“ 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. ”