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Home , Kalmar Union, Swedes, Viking Age

Learning from ’s

By John Bechtel, Freelance Writerr

either heritage nor history are boring, arcane subjects best suited for Heritage is about memories and identities; it seductively promises to aging seniors with nothing better to do than take dreamy trips down answer the question, where do I belong? Heritage is about geography and nostalgia lane. The only that can be said to be boring about topography and landscapes of the familiar; it is about emotional attachments to history from time to time is its teachers, who fail to communicate that history land and and places; it is about our personal history and experiences does in fact repeat itself, its lessons lost upon successive generations who with such places and things, especially from an early age. But our attitudes and cannot remember yesteryear’s unkept political promises and failed ideologies. longings are also affected by others, outsiders, who may visit but who never lived it, who have other memories of other places. Both the insider’s viewpoint History is a living art; what we do, think, and act out today is tomorrow’s and the tourist’s perceptions can be valuable, because there is a certain amount history. How can that be boring? History is about taking nothing for granted, of mythmaking and whitewashing in all heritage stories. To truly benefit making no assumptions about the present or the future. History is an antidote from our heritage, we need to do more than romanticize the past. We need to to overconfidence by today’s ideologues. History is about insatiable curiosity experience it as closely as possible to the way it was to live it, not just by the about how we got to where we are, and the interplay of ideas, people—human elites of the day, but at all levels of society. As time travelers into the past, we nature—and randomness; the immutable fact that actions often have wildly become scientists and archeologists all, and it takes patience and courage to sift unanticipated consequences. Only a fool could move forward with confidence through the legends and look for what we admire as well as tragedies to avoid. having ignored the lessons of the past. But of course fools often do. IMAGE: WALL.ALPHACODERS.COM (Continued on page 00)

O FALL-2016 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | FALL-2016 O (Continued from page 00) Safety in numbers when he dies, his sons Whether as predators or finding protection from predators, man lose control of The Origin of Thrones found strength and safety in groups. Even today, every seasoned again. Then Canute the tourist knows safety lies in staying with a group when in uncertain Great, of England, istory, as it has been traditionally or suspicious neighborhoods. Some men were better at fighting also becomes the king of taught in schools the world over, than at farming, so they became part-time or full-time specialists, a , and promptly has been an endless litany of the warrior class, and they were rewarded for their efforts by being given wages war against both riseH and fall of governments, of wars and rulers land, usually land taken away from other groups or tribes. Since the and and dates and tallies of who lost and who won, they protected the others in their own group, it was only logical that the in 1026, and changes in arbitrary lines drawn on maps. the farmers and fishermen owed them something in return for the and conquers a part of Although this may be boring to the reluctant protections rendered, and they paid with what they had—food and/ Norway and of . student of history, it was a living nightmare or other services. This was a beginning of taxation without the name. You get the idea. Let it be for the participants. As the lines were redrawn The warriors achieved an elevated status in their communities and said that over this period after each conflict, neighboring villages had to became noblemen, and their leaders became chieftains, and over of 500 years Denmark be frequently re-educated as to who the new time, . Their protected communities became their kingdoms. went from having control enemy was, as determined by distant rulers Special privileges and status accrued to these individuals, ultimately of England, Norway, parts and capitals and administrative centers far based on their weapons and ability to kill others in large numbers of Sweden, the northern removed from the ebb and flow of local civilian using them. coast of , and life. Populations that lived in “borderlands” What began as a protection service often became a protection to almost ceasing between two countries had to rethink their racket, and in addition to the power to tax the producers of the to exist in 1332. heritage and loyalties, and in some parts of realm to pay for the many wars, in times of great need the king Scandinavia as we shall see later in this article, would draft the males of the kingdom to supplement his own this often resulted in “peasant peace-treaties”, Norway fighting forces. Sometimes the “need” for these fighting forces had Norway reaches its where the locals ignored instructions from MAP: The pink area indicates the areas dominated by the from 700-1100 AD. The more to do with the ego and ambitions of the regional leader and peak in the mid-1200s, afar and continued to live in peace with their Norwegian Vikings concentrated on travel to the (England, , ), was of dubious interest or benefit to the recruited soldier. The lines when it controls, besides neighbors, even though technically they , , and ; The focused on the western continental coast of between rulers and the ruled became drawn early on. Those who had Norway, the now lived in separate countries, sometimes and the area, while the Swedes headed east into the Baltic states “served” their fellow men became their masters. and countries still at war with each other. As and , moving south into the Black and regions, Islands, the , the Thomas Germundsson stated in his essay in were discovering and flexing their new the neighboring Swedish King Erik , the Faroe Nordic Landscapes—Region and Belonging on The Age 700-1100 A.D. found muscle by working together, (the Victorious), which only lasts a Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. The the Northern Edge of Europe: “For centuries These groups, tribes, and kingdoms occasionally competed with both gaining in authority and ambition few years (no longer “Victorious”). Hebrides and the Isle of Man were these local agreements were to confuse Swedish each other, and the more successful grew in population and territory. through politics and the . Towns When Denmark subsequently loses lost to Scotland in 1266. Less than a and Danish officers fighting for their respective Others disappeared, either wiped served the dual role of secular and Norway, it regroups with Sweden hundred years later Norway lost half its armies.” out or absorbed by the larger groups. ecclesiastical centers, and in 1103 the to defeat the Norwegian king Olav population to the (1349) Let’s take a very brief overview of human During the in what is first bishopric was founded in , Tryggvason, and the Danes and which changed everything, and it lost history. Beginning with prehistoric man, now Scandinavia, there were many which was then part of Denmark. The Swedes divide up Norway between Orkney and Shetland to the Scots in daily survival depended on food sources. Like such kingdoms, and the nation-states three kingdoms became preoccupied them. The Danish ruler Sven at this 1468-9. other species, man followed the food source. of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden with competing with each other for time becomes the king of England, but If the herd moved, man moved. Eventually did not yet exist. The Vikings were power and territory. Thus begins a the greatest revolution of all time (thus far) farmers, fishermen, seafarers, and most amazing that happened; the agricultural revolution. Man fighters. Their culture lasted approximately 400 years, from about Finland, per se, didn’t exist during the lasted almost a thousand years. stayed put in one location and learned to 700 to as late as 1100 A.D. They were not known as Vikings, and Viking era. There were of course tribes cultivate crops, develop tools, and civilizations they were not a unified kingdom. During that four hundred years that for centuries had vied for power. were born. Some people became fishermen they settled lands to the north and west such as Ireland, Scotland, Denmark All the inhabitants spoke a Uralic and others became farmers. But not everyone Iceland, Greenland, the , Labrador, and Newfoundland; Denmark becomes a language. The Finns lived mostly along wanted to fish or farm; they found it more to the west and south in England and ; in the east to western as early as 800, but it only lasts a few the coastal areas of the Gulf of Bothnia expeditious to prey on the others and steal Russia; in the southeast to Istanbul, and even to , the center years. It is reunited and falls apart and the Gulf of Finland. Up until about what they wanted. If they resisted, the of the Islamic empire. The Vikings raided and they traded, developed several more times as kings die, are the end of the Viking era (1100) the predators killed them and took what they colonies, and acted as . deposed or conquered. The first Swedes lacked regional clout, and in wanted anyway. Any they didn’t kill, usually Why this burst of exploration, adventure, and conquest? There are objective of a would-be king is to unite the upper reaches of Sweden some the women or the very young, they turned into theories, but the short answer is probably, again, because they could. the local and regional tribes and avoid inhabitants spoke Finnish, not Swedish. slaves. Sometimes conflict arose out of seeming They were seafarers, and there was no organized naval opposition, civil war, and the second is to ward There were doubtless cross-border necessity; competition for limited resources. so they seized the available opportunities. Why did their era end? off foreign invaders. In 970 Harold skirmishes going both ways. Viking Other times conflict was about greed, and the Because back home in Scandinavia, the three kingdoms of Denmark, Bluetooth unites Denmark (again) expeditions that passed through this killing was just, well, because they could. And Norway, and Sweden had begun to take shape, and were being and invades Norway and some parts region on their way to Russia picked who couldn’t use a few slaves to do the grunt legitimized by the , which by 1100 A.D. had moved of northern Germany. Twenty-two Harold Bluetooth unites Denmark. up Finnish participants. These work and make life a little easier? beyond the missionary stage. The Church and these fledgling states years later his successor is deposed by His name is in runic letters. (Continued on page 00)

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years of Swedish rule abruptly ended. Albert, Queen Margaret had lost the subdued Novgorod and brought his The Russians moved their new national territories of Schleswig and forces directly to the border with boundary to the Åland Islands between in the south of mainland Denmark to Finland (then part of Sweden). In 1493 Finland and Sweden at the entrance to the . with the continent Denmark cleverly concluded a treaty the Gulf of Bothnia. After a number was cut off, and Swedish prices rose. with Muscovy, and two years later of foreign occupations, this group of Revolt broke out in Sweden in 1434, Muscovite forces invaded Finland, islands has enjoyed autonomous status and in the early the Danish army forcing Sweden to fight conflicts on two within Finland since 1921 when it invaded Sweden. Margaret’s successors fronts simultaneously. In 1497 Sweden was imposed by edict of the League controlled Sweden for only brief signed a peace treaty, but the local of Nations. This in spite of the fact periods. Finns/Swedes had paid the human cost that 95% of the Swedish-speaking without much support from the distant population of Åland at the time voted Finland pays the price Swedish capital. to go with Sweden. For about a century of frequent warfare between Denmark and Sweden, Aftermath Sweden Finland, as part of Sweden, paid a A revolt against the Union led In the late 1300s there was a power high price in the form of taxation, the by Swedish nobleman Gustav struggle between the king of Sweden Queen Margaret interruption of commerce, and drain in 1523 resulted in the creation of a and his noblemen. The aristocrats of human resources—Finnish men separate Swedish state. Later known created the to present appealed to Albert, the leader of a to fight the war on behalf of Swedish as Gustav Vasa I, his dynasty ruled a united front against the foreigners— Varangian routes taken by Vikings to the and beyond. north German municipality called aristocrats. To complicate matters for Sweden-Finland for more than a meaning mostly Germans. Under , who provided them with the Finns, the Grand Duke of Muscovy century. He is generally credited with King Albert, the German influence (Continued from page 00) 1362 the Finns were permitted to vote military backing to successfully depose (the forerunner of the ) (Continued on page 00) in Sweden was expanding quickly, Viking expeditions ruled Novgorod in the election for the Swedish king. their king and elect this Albert of and German sheriffs were collecting in 862 and Kiev (today’s ) a It was primarily Catholic until the Mecklenburg as their new king. taxes, sometimes brutally. The Swedish few years later. Eventually the Vikings , with a strong influence At about this same time the Hanseatic aristocrats appealed to Danish/ carried their civilization all the way from the eastern side by the Orthodox League, a group of northern German Norwegian Queen Margaret for help, to (today’s Istanbul in Church. Today Finland has two state merchant communities joined forces and in 1389 her forces defeated King Turkey), where some of them served religions, Evangelical Lutheran and in trade. Some of these communities Albert. (For the sake of brevity here, let Finnish Orthodox. even raised their own armed forces as bodyguards at the Byzantine court it be noted that we are blithely skipping In 1703 construction of St. to fight off the pirate traffic then rife and were known as the . The over what may be one of history’s most Petersburg, the largest city in northern in the Baltic area. The Danes, Swedes, Byzantine civilization likewise worked tangled cases of intermarriage and Europe, was completed by the Russians and Norwegians were so alarmed by its way in the opposite direction, intractable problems with in-laws.) bringing with it the Eastern Orthodox on Finnish land and with Finnish labor. this aggressive commercial stance, Church to western Russia and In 1808 the Russians invaded Sweden’s not to mention the presence of a “eastern province” (Finland) and 650 German as king of Sweden, that they The Kalmar Union eventually to Finland. The Finns found A relative of Queen Margaret, Erik themselves sandwiched between the of , was elected King of Swedes and the Catholic Church in the Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The west and the nascent Russian Empire Queen had assured the unhappy German and the Orthodox Church in the east. Swedish aristocrats that Sweden The Swedes were the first to invade, would be ruled by Swedes, but Erik = Major trading posts under the cover of the cross, in 1155. = Hanseatic city ignored that and all of a sudden there They even called it the First Crusade. = Ship routes was a surge of Danish influence in By the Third Crusade in 1293 they Swedish politics. So the Germans reached the end of the Gulf of were out, but now the Danish were Finland, Viipuri (Viborg), where they interfering. Bear in mind that none built a fortress that still stands. The of this had much to do with the rank and file Swedish civilians, but was Russians in Novgorod were alarmed entirely focused on the power sharing and advanced into Karelia. In 1323 structure and prestige and perks of the eastern border of Finland was the aristocracy. Even worse, Erik was established and it held for the next promoting a “traditional Danish” 600 years, even though it was violated foreign policy, which meant trouble • Kalmar periodically over the years. with the Hanseatic League, which led Finland became a bi-lingual province to another war and serious impact on of Sweden, but it was not subjugated. An overview of various large and small Hanseatic cities and trade routes by land the Swedish economy. In 1386, just It kept its unique language, and in and by sea. Four major trading posts also indicated. three years before her defeat of King The Kalmar Union countries in orange.

O FALL-2016 | SCANDINAVIAN PRESS SCANDINAVIAN PRESS | FALL-2016 O (Continued from page 00) dispute did not reach its final establishing the modern Swedish state resolution until 1920, almost four and its reaching status. hundred years later. Between 1645 and 1658 Sweden gained Jämtland, Bohuslän, , Epilogue Blekinge, and Scania (from whence the After all these wars during the last You decide. All civilizations have term Scandinavia) from Norway and thousand years—who can count them? their achievements and sources Denmark. —what has been gained? Borders have of both pride and shame. No one been moved, again and again and has a clean slate. When we seek to again, for reasons that are now hard preserve our heritage, we celebrate to remember or completely unknown. the best in ourselves and occasionally The names of those responsible, and have the courage to identify and pass their ambitions, egos, and power on lessons learned the hard way. By lusting have mostly been lost to the making good choices and practicing dustbins of history. But what of the life-sustaining values today we become innumerable, faceless hundreds of the curators of tomorrow’s heritage. thousands, or millions, who have been Ethnicity is largely an accident of sacrificed as pawns in the power politics birth and something we had no control and greed for resources of their time? over. It by itself is no guarantor of good All governments go to great lengths or bad character. Culture however is to create a national sense of identity, acquired and passed on by immersion with the intent that it results in in a soup of influences, and the nature cohesiveness, which is needed in time of the soup changes with the quantity of war. We need our young people and quality of everything (and willing to die, and our taxation to everyone) that is added to it. pay for their weapons, in order to Being brought up in a culture that continue our wars. The human cost is values freedom, individual rights, horrific, and in a few short years we creativity, private property, self- Portrait of Gustav Vasa I can’t remember what we were fighting responsibility, honest effort, fair by Ulrica Fredrica Pasch about. At the time it was enough to dealing, and mutual respect means know it was us versus them. we are more likely to contribute to an After the demise of the Kalmar Historically, when Danes were already good soup. If enough of the Union, in 1524 Norway entered into a fighting Swedes in border regions like wrong influences are dumped in the with Denmark, which Scania, rulers were confronted with pot, it can overwhelm the positive means they shared a monarch, but how to identify and encourage Danish- ingredients and the batch goes bad. their boundaries, laws and interests ness vs Swedish-ness; or in the case Preserving a culture that enshrines remained separate and distinct. of Schleswig-Holstein conflict, how values we embrace may tip the scales There was no central government. do you separate German-ness from in favor of our children and our However, future palaces were built Danish-ness? During war, emphasizing children’s children. in Denmark, not Norway, as perhaps the differences became complicated We all have shared DNA, but values, a reminder to potentially ambitious but important. Most of the time the like heritage worth preserving, involve Norwegian aristocrats to restrain any arguments were over power struggles choices. Values are an idea that we power lusting. In 1536 Norway was and status among the political and may associate with a certain place, integrated into Denmark, abolishing business elites, but the cause had to be but they transcend that place; it is our Norway’s Council of the Realm. This presented differently for the forgotten values that define the content of our personal union lasted until 1814 when man who had to be sacrificed in character. There are infinite acceptable the victors of the military service to preserve or promote ways to live a life, but our values are demanded that Norway be ceded back these special interests far removed the constant and the compass for to Sweden. Norway resisted, and after from his life, family, and farm. Dying successful and peaceful interaction another short war, a compromise was on behalf of his group identity was his with others. It is only natural that we reached where Norway entered another reward, and nation-states made much seek the freedom to associate with personal union, with its old nemesis of their fallen heroes as the benefit to those who share our values wherever Sweden. It remained under the Swedish the survivors and to maintain support we might live. When we enjoy this crown until 1905 when it won its for ongoing conflicts. freedom of association, we feel “at independence. Are we learning from history? home.” We know where we belong. The Schleswig-Holstein-Denmark

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