Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. Introductory Lecture.—The Country and its Inhabitants in the Heathen Period up to 1000 A.D. - § 2. Natural Features of the Country
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
one. It was advocated by Hans Brask, Bishop of
Linköping, in the time of Gustaf Vasa, and taken up by Charles
XII., but was not completely executed till 1832. The
extent of lakes in this region may be estimated by the fact
that while the distance between the seas along the waterway
is 240 miles, only 56 of it is actual canal (Baedeker: Norway
and Sweden, p. 298, 1903). The largest of these lakes,
Venern, flows into the sea by the Göta-Elf, the old
boundary between Norway and Sweden, at the great port of
Göteborg. Between it and the other lesser lake, Vettern,
lies the thick forest of Tived, the acknowledged though
somewhat indefinite boundary between the two leading
tribes. To the east again of Vettern lies a chain of smaller
lakes which extends to the Baltic, and north of them the
other boundary forest of Kolmord with its marble quarries.
In early days the forests were probably much larger than
they are now, and the lakes considerably so, since the land
has been gradually rising, and many of the old lakes have
become moor and moss, or have been reclaimed for
cultivation. In this way, it may be remarked that many of the
spoils of war devoted by the victors, and thrown into sacred
lakes, as offerings to the gods, and supposed to have been
swallowed up for ever, have been recovered by antiquaries,
and are used to show the mode of life of the inhabitants of
Sweden at the close of the Bronze Age and the earlier part
of the Iron Age. As to the forests, it is interesting to note
that Olaf Trätälja, or the tree-cutter, the last of the
half-mythical Yngling kings of Sweden, got his name from
clearing the forests on the borders between Norway and
Sweden. Some think that the province of Vermland
(or Warmland) was so called because of the fires with
which he consumed the trees of these clearings (Otté:
Scand. Hist., p. 62). Others say that Vermland is called
from a lake, Vermelen, which never freezes. Others
derive it from the name of the first settlers. As to the
forest trees, if I am rightly informed, the dwarf birch is the
hardiest species, which rises to the highest altitude, and
that in the farthest northern latitude. Then come larger
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
