elder fuþark

After visiting the impressive cloister ruins of Avestra, we doubled back before continuing through Östergötland to the village of Rök Whose parish church hosts the famous runestone (Rökstenen, Rundata inscription number 136), the five tonne megalith considered the first written document of Sweden and thus the starting point of recorded history was rediscovered in the nineteenth century as part of the medieval church’s wall. Removing it for study and conservation—revived interest in such artefacts coinciding the 1865 deciphering of the runic alphabet by Norwegian academics retrieving a lexicon lost to the ages, at around seven hundred characters, the inscription represents the longest extant pre-Christian passage and contains a bit of Norde mythology and a reference to the Roman emperor of the latter day rump state—dating the writing to the ninth century. 

Most scholars agree on the translation but many forward competing theories on allegorical interpretation. There was also an informative exhibit on runic writing in an outdoor pavilion and signs reminding that the church was open and welcomed one’s visit as well.

mervärdeskatt

Having arrived late at our third choice campsite near the city of Vadstena—for which everything ultimately worked out though it was extra driving, on the lakefront, we opted instead for pizza from the resident restauranteur and we’re delighted to discover not only the Swedish version of the meal that one can’t get wrong (doughy but cheesy and delicious) but also that the twelve percent value added tax applied to take-out is called—because we taught you how to budget and cook for yourself—is abbreviated as “Moms.” 

Skydad alternatively is the Swedish term for protection, security. Though the campgrounds were crowded,the protracted period of dusk as the sun never quite sets afforded some nice vistas of the lake beyond.

vägarna attraktioner

Traveling on towards Götaland following the shoreline of Sweden’s second largest great lake—the sixth largest in the whole of Europe and thrice the size of Lake Constance (Boddensee), we spent quite a few hours circumnavigating the large body of water, whose name just means that though more rhapsodic academics maintain it refers to the ancient personifications, deifications of the source of sustenance and commerce of the region. 

A motorway rest stop offered a pedestrian link under the elevated highway to the grounds of the ruined, unfinished structure called the Brahehus, with a commanding, panoramic view of the lake and the island Visingsö. First conceived as a spot for prime real estate development, Count Per Brahe the Younger decided to build on the promontory called Gudsbacka in the 1630s—offering the monumental retreat as a dower home for his new wife. 

Sadly his bethrothed Countess Kristina Katarina Stenbock died soon after construction began. Plans were altered and the mansion found some use as a guest house for dignitaries but its location made upkeep logistical impossible. Count Brahe founded the town of Granna on the shore below in 1651, orientated to face Brahehus.

slottruin

After departing from our natural campground in the woods at the border of the farmstead on the shores of Helgasjön, we first visited the nearby ruins of the fortress Kronoberg, built originally as a summer retreat for the bishop of Växjö, destroyed during the Dano-Swedish War in 1470, rebuilt and fortified and eventually appropriated by Gustav I with the country’s conversion to protestantism. 

 Our rebel leader Nils Dacke captured the castle in 1542, nearly repudiating the king’s authority by depriving the army, albeit temporarily, of this strategic stronghold. 

The eventual retreat of the border from Småland to Öresund meant Kronoberg lost military significance and fell into disrepair.  Continuing north towards the Vättern region, the lesser of the great lakes—we stopped to inspect the old church of a village called Hjälmseyrd 

chevron of chain counterchanged argent, sable, argent

Winning entrant designed by vexillologist Gracie Sheppard in a contest sponsored by a local museum to create a symbol for the region, the flag of Black County was first hoisted in 2012—thereafter on this day to mark the invention of the Newcomen steam engine in 1712 that heralded the beginning of the Industrial Revolution with a county fête.

The heavily industrialised area in the West Midlands after Birmingham has no single set of defined boundaries to the satisfaction of all with the most common being where the coal seam has come to the surface and refers to the layer of soot that covered everything from all the mining, mills and factories by the mid-1800s. Chain-manufacture was big business there, as was glass-making and brickworks. Charles Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop established the region’s first literary conceit as a vicious hellscape in 1841 with others upholding it including J. R. R. Tolkien’s Mordor—elvish for dark land—corresponding with contemporary accountings, with some suggestion that activist and Communist and Labour party mayor of Bilston in Staffordshire, Ben Bilboe, was the inspiration and namesake for the hobbit character, the author’s family having roots in the West Midlands.

the glass realm

Continuing through the heavily wooded, sparsely peopled royal charter called Sweden’s Gladriket—Emmaboda and surrounding forges like the internationally renowned Kosta Boda, the host village renamed for the successful glasbruk commissioned by the king of two entrepreneurs Anders Koskull and Georg Bogislaus Staël von Holstein to promote the manufacture of practical glass products (Ko + Sta being a portmanteau of the two founders’ names).  

Along the way, we stopped at a studio and boutique set up in a former glashutte, workshop with the grounds and outbuildings decorated with enchanting art glass objects.  A bit further on, we visited a nature enclosure for moose (Alces alces, Älg, Elch) and learned quite a lot about their behaviour and habitat and got to encounter them quite up close, which is not something we’d like experiencing on the motorway, though it would be rather majestic to find one at the campsite.

vissefjärda

Our first stop in the forested finger lakes district of Småland known as Sweden‘s Crystal Empire (Glasriket, more to follow and of course both important fuel for the industry and enterprise) was the village of Visselfjärda spread across an archipelago of tiny islands and dominated by the 1773 church (kyrka) with detached bell tower—a common feature of sacred architecture of this region. 

Directly opposite the churchyard is a boulder monument to native son Nils Dacke who as a yeomen in 1523 rose up to lead a revolutionary peasant army and nearly succeeded in deposing the king, thereby securing more rights for farmers including a lower tax burden and continued cross-border trade with their area’s recent concession from Denmark.

your daily demon: aim

Also known as Haborym, this twenty-third spirit and infernal duke governs from today until 17 July and exhibits pyromaniacal tendencies, presenting as a three-headed (one of a handsome man, one of a serpent and one of a calf) apparition riding a viper and bearing a firebrand and will upon request set things a-blaze. A secondary virtue is in imbuing wit to those who summon him. Twenty-six legions at his command, Aim is countered by the guardian angel Melahel.