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Götaplatsen (Göta Square), in the center of which is the statue of Poseidon
by Carl Milles; the city theatre, concert hall and art musem (Nordic, French
and Dutch art from 19th and 20th centuries) are located by the square.
Ostindiska Huset (the house of the East-Indian Company), built 1750, houses
historical, archaeological and ethnological collections. The city museum is
housed in the oldest house of the city, Kronhuset, from the year 1653.
Kronan is a fortress with a war museum. Off the city lies Älvsborgs Festning
(Ävsborg Fortress), 1670, which can be accessed by boat. The old parts of
the city contain the also the cathedral (1633), Kristine Church (1648), the
law courts (1672), and the opera house (1859). There's a university (1891)
and Chalmers Technical University. The sports stadium Ullevi, with seats for
52,000 people, is Sweden's biggest; the indoors stadium Scandinavium houses
14,000. Two bridges go over the wide Göta River, Götaälvbron and the newer
Älvborgsbron.



7.4.5 Gotland

Gotland is the the largest island (3,023 km²) in the Baltic Sea and has a
population of 56,383 (1989), with the town of Visby as the administrative
center. It lies 80 km off the Swedish coast and can be accessed by daily
boats from the mainland. Close to it are a couple of smalle islands, Fårön,
Gotska Sandön and Karlsö. Gotland is a low limestone plateau with a
temperate, sunny climate. It developed rather early in prehistory etensive
trade contacts with the people of northern Europe, and had a very
distinctive culture, represented by e.g the numerous, beautiful picture
stones erected all over the island. By the 12th century Visby was an
important, independent town and a member of the Hanseatic League. The Danish
king Valdemar Atterdag brutally conquered it in 1361, and after that,
control of Gotland was disputed by several nations. Trade routes shifted,
however, and by the time Sweden gained lasting control in 1645, it had lost
much of its former importance and was impoverished.

Nowadays the island is a very popular summer destination, rich in sights
(including lots of medieval churches) and very good for a cycling holiday.
It has a beautiful, characteristic nature, and the old ring wall around the
medieval city of Visby, no doubt one of the most beautiful towns in
Scandinavia, is almost totally intact. An important event is the Medieval
Week (medeltidsveckan) arranged in Visby in August every year, with knights,
Medieval markets, etc. The Forntidssalen museum in Visby displays the
fascinating prehistory of Gotland, including picture stones and some of the
rich Viking age treasures that are constantly found in the island (metal
detectors are banned in Gotland!) Other absolute "musts" in and around
Gotland include the caves at Lummelunda, the rauk fields (peculiar limestone
formations on the coasts) and Stora Karlsö (an island off the south-west of
Gotland).



7.4.6 The rest of Sweden

In the north, people appreciate the beauty of the mountain range
("fjällvärlden"), where you can hike, fish, pick berries, ski (in the
winter) or see the midnight sun (in the summer and far north). There are
several big national parks here.

The province of Dalarna is the "home" of the traditional Midsummer
celebrations, where people dance around the Midsummer poles in traditional
folk dresses.

Jämtland is one of the latest provinces to have been incorporated in the
Swedish realm, and remains almost half-Norwegian both in customs and
language - and a great resort for hiking and skiing.

A popular route is Göta Kanal, on which you can go on boat from Norrköping
to Gothenburg and at the same time see a cross section of the mid-Sweden
country side.

Skåne (Scania) is the Swedish province that gives an almost Central European
impression. The landscape is very flat and much of it is farmed. You'll find
beautiful beech woods here and everywhere you see the traditional black and
white houses ('korsvirkeshus'). Many like to rent or own summer houses on
the Scanian country side. For more info on Scania, see section 7.6.



------------------------------

Subject: 7.5 Swedish literature

Swedish writing dates back to 11th-century runic inscriptions, but actual
literature originated in the Catholic Middle Ages. Saint Birgitta
(1303-1373) wrote her Revelations, which became internationally known, in
Latin. Another important work from the 14th century is the Erikskrönikan,
which recounts historical events in poetic form. Most medieval Swedish
writings served nonliterary purposes, with the exception of the folk
ballads.

Gustav Vasa's reformation of the church contributed to a cultural decline in
the 16th century. However, of vital importance to the development of the
Swedish language were Olaus Petri's Bible translations of 1526 and 1541.
Another important 16th century work, although in Latin, was Olaus Magnus's
Historia De Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Nordic Peoples,
1523). During this period there also appeared Sweden's first lyric poet,
Lars Wivallius. Another significant early poet is Georg Stiernhelm in the
1600's.

The 18th century, a period of enlightenment, was dominated by prose. Only
toward the close of the century, during the reign of Gustaf III, did other
genres emerge in the wake of French cultural influence. Noteworthy is Carl
Michael Belmman's rococo ballads. Emmanuel Swedenborg's mystical visions
influenced many authors and thinkers around Europe and prompted the
Swedenborgian religion that still exists.

Erik Johan Stagnelius's Neoplatonism, Esaias Tegner's and Erik Gustaf
Geijer's glorification of the nation's past, and Abraham Viktor Rydberg's
idealistic liberalism all reflect the philosophical orientation of Swedish
19th-century romanticism. Carl Jonas Love Almqvist, initially a mystic and
romantic, came later to herald new trends of realism in prose works
characterized by social awareness. The Finland-Swedish poet Johan Ludvig
Runeberg, with his heroic and romantic poetry, had enormous influence in the
Swedish speaking literary circles. But the most important figure of the
century was, however, August Strindberg (1849-1912), Sweden's greatest
writer and the father of modern Swedish drama and fiction. Moving in his
later plays from naturalism to dreamlike symbolism, Strindberg foreshadowed
expressionism. A novelist and playwright, he defied social convention by
writing dramas of sexual conflict and psychological torment, drawn largely
from his personal life. His plays are now esteemed as classics of the modern
stage. Important works include e.g the Red Room (Röda Rummet), Olaus Petri
and Inferno.

The socially opinionated prose writers of the 1880s were succeeded by a new
wave of romantics, who preferred verse and emphasized the past (Selma
Lagerlöf) and the countryside (Erik Axel Karlfeldt). About 1900, Hjalmar
Söderberg published exquisite short stories set in the streets of Stockholm;
but the novelists of the next decade favored small-town Sweden. Modernism
was introduced in the 1920s by the Finno-Swedish poets Edith Södergran,
Gunnar Björling, and Elmer Diktonius, and it was affirmed in Pär
Lagerqvist's innovative dramas and Gunnar Ekelöf's surrealistic poetry. A
new social class of self-educated country writers entered Sweden's literary
world in the 1930s, among them the 1974 Nobel laureates Harry Martinson and
Eyvind Johnson.

Sweden managed to avoid the world wars, but its literature from the 1940s
(Erik Lindegren, Karl Vennberg) reflects the general postwar depression. The
feeling of pessimism and guilt worsened during the following decades because
of the Vietnam War and Third World problems. An intense questioning of
literature's social function and a mistrust of language found many literary
expressions -- from "new simplicity" and "concreteness" in poetry, to
documentaries in prose, but the stories of Astrid Lindgren stand out with
their delighting humor and humanity. Swedish literature of the end of the
1970s was characterized by a new trust in the word and a new delight in
traditional fictio writing.

For electronic versions of some of the works of Nordic literature, see the
collection of Project Runeberg:

   * 
   * 
   * gopher.lysator.liu.se ;  path: /project-runeberg



------------------------------

Subject: 7.6 Scania





7.6.1 Skåne and Skåneland

Lat: Scania,
Eng: Scania,
Ger: die Schonen,
Fr: la Scanie

"Skåne" is old Danish/Scanian and means "the dangerous beach". It is
possibly the same word as modern "skada" / "skade" in Swedish and Danish
respectively which mean "damage".

Skåne is the most southern of the provinces in Sweden. Together with
Blekinge, Halland and Danish Bornholm, it has a unique history while it was
an integral part of Denmark all the years before 1658 except 1332- 1360 when
Denmark had no king and was in chaos and Scania had status as country under
the Swedish king. "Skåneland" in Swedish or "Skånelandene" in Danish is a
name used for the four provinces together. In Latin and English it is
"Scania". In 1658, they all became Swedish, but Bornholm was returned to
Denmark in 1660 while the other provinces remained Swedish.

"Scania" is used for representing "Skåneland" in the text below but not in a
strict sense. Sometimes, the meaning might be closer to the province of
Skåne. And Bornholm will in this use often not be included. When emphasizing
that it is only the southern province that is referred to, "Skåne" is used,
but when emphasizing that all provinces are referred to, "Skåneland" will be
used.



7.6.2 Miscellaneous facts

The populations of the four provinces are today:

Skåne:   1 110 000
Halland:   270 000
Blekinge:  160 000
Bornholm:   50 000

The big cities in Skåne are

Malmö:         250 000
Lund:           90 000
Helsingborg:   110 000
Kristianstad:   70 000

Skåne is sometimes divided into four provinces itself (going from north west
to south east): North Western Skåne, Göingebygden, Sydslätten and Österlen.
The borders of these local provinces are very much disputed though. As a
rule, the historic areas were smaller than some of the uses are today.
"Österlen" for example covers so many positive connotations of semester
paradise that the traditional borders often get transgressed when trying to
sell real estates for example!

The biggest newspaper is "Sydsvenska Dagbladet" that has its base in Malmö
but covers southwestern Skåne equally well. It is independently liberal. In
the same area, there are Social Democratic "Arbetet" and Centre Party
"Skånska Dagbladet". Several other local papers exist like for example
Helsingborgs Dagblad and Nordvästra Skånes Tidningar.

The only university in Scania is Lund University. Other schools for higher
education in the same official university area of southern Sweden are
situated in Växjö, Kalmar, Karlskrona/Ronneby, Kristianstad and Halmstad.
There are also quite big university independent schools in Malmö, and Lund
University offers some courses in Helsingborg and Jönköping (the later
outside Scania) as well.

There are ferries between Copenhagen and Malmö, Helsingborg-Helsingør,
Landskrona-Tuborg (close to Copenhagen) and of course to the islands Ven and
Bornholm. There are also ferries to Germany (Travemünde and Saßnitz) and
Poland and sometimes to Lithuania. A few other ones exist too.



7.6.3 A few marks in history

An event that was in people's minds for a long while was that in 1612,
Gustav II Adolf's troops killed people in 24 congregations in Scania and in
the 1660's, the Scanian rebels - the "snapphanar", a well-known word even
today - were pierced and were put up and made an example of along the
Scanian country roads.

A certain sort of self-governing remained until 1720 but then was abolished.
The last time there was any fighting about the status of Scania was in 1811
in Klågerup outside Malmö. Peasants stood up to get rid of the Swedish
rulers but lost of course.



7.6.4 International status

Scania is a member of the national minority organization FUEV
(Föderalistische Union Europäischer Volksgruppen) which is located in
Flensburg, Germany. Only regions with their own language, clearly defined
border and a history to go back to, are accepted in the FUEV.

It is also a recent member of UNPO (Unrepresented Nations and Peoples
Organization). UNPO is an alternative to the UN for minorities of the world,
which are not represented in there. UNPO is located in Haag, Netherlands
where the Scanian flag now is flying.



7.6.5 The flag

The Scanian flag is red with yellow ribbons and is more square than both the
Danish and Swedish ones. The measurements are based on the old (1748-1926)
Danish measures for its flag. They are 3-1-4.5 in length and 3-1-3 in
height.

The flag is most likely (though not proved) from the archbishop in Lund
Andreas Sunesen (1201-1228) who then was archbishop for all of Norden. (But
the country diocese ("landestiftet") where the Scanian law was in force was
Skåneland). He got the flag pattern from (and used it on) a crusade in
Latvia and a stay in Riga. The fact that the flag is like a Danish-Swedish
combination with what could have been borrowed colors from these flags is a
coincidence. The Swedish flag is younger.

The Scanian flag itself was probably pretty much forgotten (though other
yellow-red symbols existed) until Mathias and Martin Weibull "reinvented" it
around the end of the last century. First, it was used very sparingly but
the use has grown and does so even today. But only outside one of the
Scanian town halls, in Ystad, is the Scanian flag flying so far. It is more
frequently used by the common people, depending on area in Scania. The
Swedish flag is still more common in the province.

As late as in March 1992, the flag was registered in the Scandinavian Roll
of Armor. At the same time, the Scanian coat of arms was registered: a
golden panther on red background with hind legs like a lion and front legs
like an eagle. The day of the Scanian flag is the third Sunday in July.



7.6.6 Culture

Scania is associated (mostly nationally) with certain hallmarks like some
types of food: the goose, the smoked eel ("rögad eål") and "spettkaka"
(Swedish spelling) that is a type of cake. Other associations many have (and
also used in the tourist business) are the clogs a lot of people wear even
today and the national costumes containing a certain distinctive pale yellow
color, with the men wearing pants reaching just below the knee followed by
white socks.

Lately, the Danish red sausage, the "pølse", has made it into the outdoor
food commerce. It was for a long time not allowed in Sweden due to the added
ingredients making the sausage red. When it finally became legal, this was
considerad a great success of the local politicians. Maybe because of the
Scanian habit of eating this sausage when visiting København, it has now
become very popular in Scania too. In Lund there is another sausage called
"lundaknake" that has reached fame, at least locally.

The willows that edges many Scanian roads give the landscape a
characteristic outlook. Scania is like Denmark very flat and without much of
forests (in fact, this was the natural divider before 1658 between Denmark
and Sweden). The willows are supposed to shelter against the wind in an
environment where no other natural shelters exist. Also, the Scanian mills
("möllor") are typical for the province. Often situated on hills, they too
characterize the horizon in the Scanian scenery.

Being a region containing one eighth of the population in Sweden, there
exist of course a great number of nationally famous Scanians, some of these
comedians and singers. There will not be a list here, but the maybe most
famous Scanian, the most Scanian Scanian will be mentioned. His name was
Edward Persson and was the main character and very much dominating
personality in a number of film comedies taken place on some farm in south
eastern Skåne, in Österlen. He more or less established the image of the
Scanian person: fat (!), slow, content with life, felling secure and of
course having the strong accent. He's dead since some years now.

Scanians have often got a bad reputation in Sjælland for going there to get
drunk. The background is different state policies when it comes to the
selling of alcohol. While this is harshly regulated in Sweden and only sold
in certain stores with high prices, it's cheaper and much more easily
accessible in Denmark. The result is irritation between the former fellow
countrymen.



7.6.7 Language

Many people today think that the language spoken today is a dialect of
Swedish (and there are others who disagree saying it's a language of its
own), but there are many differences that are more or less noticable
depending on the speaker. For example:

   * Intonation
   * Scanians use a glottal stop (stød) though not as prominently as the
     Danes.
   * Pronunciation of the "r" is made by the root of the tongue in the
     "French way". Like the Danes do it.
   * When Swedes use t, k and p, Scanians often use d, g, and b. Like the
     Danes.
   * Like in Danish, t and k are pronounced very hard in beginning of words
     whereas in Swedish, they are softer.
   * None of the vowels are pronounced exactly in the same place of the
     mouth they are in Swedish, and you could say that standard Swedish "o"
     and "u" simply do not exist.
   * Every long vowel in Swedish is a diphthong in Scanian. The Swedish
     language lacks diphthongs entirely.

Very dialectal Scanian can be quite difficult even for Swedish speakers to
understand. There are also several examples of grammatical differences and
there are a few hundreds of local words still in use, also by young people.
Just ten examples:

hutta = throw          (Sw: kasta)
klyddig = complicated  (Sw: besvärlig)
lässa = load, put up   (Sw: lasta, lägga upp)
mölla = mill           (Sw: kvarn)
nimm = neat            (Sw: praktisk, lätt)
påg = boy              (Sw: pojke)
rälig = ugly, mean     (Sw: ful, stygg, otäck)
sammedant = likewise   (Sw: likadant)
titt = often           (Sw: ofta)
töj = clothes          (Sw: kläder)

There are no original ethnic minorities living in Scania but there are a few
dozens of thousand of Danes that have moved in after World War II. Some live
in Landskrona and others have houses in Northern Skåne. Of foreign citizens,
there are 9800 Danes, 8700 ex-Yugoslavs and 3150 Finlanders in Skåne. (These
are the three biggest groups.)

There are probably three things that are a salient for the Scanian
development today: membership in the European Union, the bridge over Öresund
(the sea between Sjælland and Skåne) to Denmark/regional cooperation with
Sjælland and Skåne becoming one region politically. These things are in
contrast to much of that of history and culture openly discussed and many
times pushed forward by local Scanian politicians:



7.6.8 Membership in the European Union

In October 1995, Sweden voted a slight yes to become a member of the
European Union. In Skåne, the decision was very clear though. It was the
region the most favorable to membership in all of Sweden.

There is hope that Scania being a member of the EU can have positive
implications for reasons of regional strength. There is talk about a Europe
of the regions where the regions are getting more responsibility of
conducting their own affairs and acting independently. The EU will probably
to a certain degree result in the removal of administrative and political
borders to neighbouring regions in other countries surrounding Scania. That
is at least the explicit goal of the EU. In the long term, an abolition of
customs controls and a common currency are discussed. This will especially
benefit border regions.

The EU membership resulted in that Sweden needed to be divided into so
called NUTS regions. These are regions that the EU use for socio- economic
calculations, for example when determining distribution of subsidies from
the EU structural funds. Of three levels 1-3, NUTS 2 is the most important,
often called the "basic region". It's necessary that it has some sort of
political controlling unit, a council or parliament. As a result of these
demands for NUTS regions, Sweden and the EU agreed in 1995 on a division of
NUTS 2 in Sweden into 8 regions. Skåne and Blekinge became one. Halland was
decided to belong to another region. This EU NUTS 2 division has been made a
business separate from the _internal_ regional one described late in 7.6.9
where Skåne _alone_ will constitute one region). Some people are not so
happy with this that the boundaries had to be different, thereby splitting
the regional focus.

The EU subsidizes the Interreg II program that supports border regional
cooperation within the EU. For the Öresund region - that is: Greater
København and all of Skåne - it will cover the years 1995-1999. The sum will
be 13 million ECU for the whole project and 0.2 of these are used for a
specific cooperation between south eastern Skåne and Bornholm. The same
amount that the EU gives must be invested from the two states, thereby
doubling the amount of money available.

Scania is also represented in the EU Committee of Regions in which the
member states' regions have representatives. 2 of the 12 Swedish
representatives are Scanians but that is not the result of any fixed quota
granted to Skåne. The Committee of Regions has no decisional, but only
advisory, powers in the EU. Still, in some EU countries, regional top
politicians are members and have high hopes for the future of the
institution before the EU intergovernmental congress in that started in Mars
1996.



7.6.9 Cooperation with Sjælland and the bridge over Öresund

There is since a few years a lot of talk in all kinds of sectors in Skåne
public life about the prospect of a cooperative region involving Sjælland
and Copenhagen. That's a goal every local politician seems to acknowledge
nowadays. There are for example ideas about common transportation cards, a
common TV channel, all kinds of cooperation projects in science, sports etc,
a common labor market, and there has even been spoken of common Olympic
Games in the year of 2008. Skåne was supposed to be a part of Copenhagen's
arrangements as cultural capital of Europe in 1996, but in the end, the
Scanian politicians decided to avoid some of its costs.

But maybe the most discussed project for better communications between
Scania and Sjælland is the bridge over Öresund:

A bridge is being built between a point just south of Malmö and the airport
of Copenhagen "Kastrup" which is the biggest airport in northern Europe. The
bridge will be 16.5 km long and will carry cars as well as trains but not
bikes. The current regional trains in Skåne and in Sjælland (the island on
which Copenhagen lies) will be connected. It will take 28 min to go from
Copenhagen to Malmö and 41 min to go to Lund. The university town of
Roskilde will be on the same connection (26 min west of Copenhagen).

The bridge was planned to be finished 1999, but is not on schedule so
current predictions are mentioning the year after. It will be financed by
the car (and of course truck) traffic whose drivers will pay a few hundred
SEK for a single trip, just below the prices of today's ferries. Train
passengers will only pay the normal price of 50 SEK in today's money. The
Swedish and Danish states will act as guarantors for the project.

The bridge was debated a lot because people were worried about hurting
environmental effects. The flow of water between the Baltic Sea and the
North Sea was one of the problems since it could be altered with damaging
effects. The current solution is supposed to make sure there is no change at
all in the water transportation. Other questions raised involved the
increased car traffic and its environmental consequences.



7.6.10 A politically united region

In Skåne, there is a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the
centralization of a lot of cultural and administrative activities around the
capital Stockholm. For example,there has been a famous research that showed
that Stockholm gets six times higher cultural subsidies than Malmö per
inhabitant. The editorial offices of national radio and TV stations are
usually located in Stockholm which many, not only Scanians, are worried give
a particular Stockholm perspective in produced programs.

But Sweden is slowly in a process of getting a new division into regions.
For the moment there are 24 smaller administrative provinces, "län", whose
borders date back to the 1630's. In the future, there might be less than ten
regions. What was long discussed (not a very loud debate though) was which
areas would belong together and many different alternatives came up. Finally
it was determined that Skåne and Western Sweden (including the second
Swedish city Göteborg) would start out reuniting their respective län into
two big regions (while the other Swedish län not involved would be left
intact for the moment). The Scanian politicians were probably the most eager
for this project and pushed rather strongly for it. (Already in 1992, did
the main political organisations in Skåne submit a request to the government
for a Skåne political region.) In this building of regions, the other parts
of Skåneland - Blekinge and Halland - were omitted from being part of the
new region. For now, they will continue being ordinary län.

So, a state official report in 1995 proposed that Skåne politically should
become one region and that a directly elected regional council should be
formed. The date was in a government proposition in 1996 specified to Jan 1,
1997. When this proposal will be carried through, today's two län councils
will disappear and be substituted by the regional council. Some of the state
administrative powers (concerning regional development) will be transferred
to the region. The Swedish parliament will make a decision concerning this
in 1996.

This report also suggested that the site of state administration would be
Kristianstad in northern Skåne and this soon became a heated issue where the
"capital of Skåne" would be. Malmö politicians were upset about making
Kristianstad the administrative site and the positions seemed to be locked.
Finally, this position was given to Malmö, a fact which of course angered
the Kristianstad politicians much and who threatened to leave the project
entirely.

Parallel to having this new common political institution, there is also
already a will from the regional politicians to coordinate and integrate
regional decision making. Many different political domains (eg
communications, economic life, education, tourism) are examined one by one
by selected teams on how to improve the way those decisions that concerns
all of Skåne are made. This will be made with or without the help of a
regional parliament. It seems, the theme is always one Skåne institution or
organisation for different activities. This is not least visible in the
names being used.

Sources: "Skånelands flagga", Sven-Olle R Olsson, 1993
         Newspaper articles from "Sydsvenska Dagbladet", 1992-95
         Brochures by SVEDAB (Svensk-Danska Broförbindelsen AB), 1993-94
         Ett enat Skåne: www.skane.se, Öresundskomiteens: www.orestad.com



------------------------------

Subject: 7.7 Books for learning Swedish

   * Holmes, Philip and Serin, Gunilla: Colloquial Swedish, New York:
     Routledge, 1990, ISBN 0-415-02803-5. Cassette available
   * Beite, Ann-Mari, Englund, Gertrud, Higelin, Siv & Hildeman,
     Nils-Gustav: Basic Swedish Grammar, 1963
   * Hildeman, et al: Learn Swedish, Swedish Reader for Beginners, 1959
   * All Almqvist & Wiksell: Practice Swedish, Exercises in the Swedish
     Language, 1957
   * Nyborg, Roger & Pettersson, Nils-Owe: Svenska Utifrån, Lärobok i
     svenska, Svenska Institutet, 1991 ISBN 91-520-0268-3
   * McClean, R.J: Teach Yourself Swedish, London, The English Universities
     Press, 1947. Newer reprint available.
     In French: Le suedois sans peine - svenska på lätt sätt
   * Part I and II, ed. ASSIMIL, 1986. Easily found in any bookshop. These
     two books are a sort of small FAQ about Sverige : *skål*, herrings and
     bier, Americans with Swedish backgrounds, etc. Two sets of cassettes
     can be bought with the books.

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