1.
Swedish literature
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Swedish literature refers to literature written in the Swedish language or by writers from Sweden. The first literary text from Sweden is the Rök Runestone, carved during the Viking Age circa 800 AD, with the conversion of the land to Christianity around 1100 AD, Sweden entered the Middle Ages, during which monastic writers preferred to use Latin. Therefore, there are only a few texts in the Old Swedish from that period, Swedish literature only flourished when the Swedish language was standardized in the 16th century, a standardization largely due to the full translation of the Bible into Swedish in 1541. This translation is the so-called Gustav Vasa Bible, with improved education and the freedom brought by secularisation, the 17th century saw several notable authors develop the Swedish language further. In Sweden, the period starting in 1880 is known as realism because the writing had a focus on social realism. In the late 19th and early 20th century, other writers included Ola Hansson. In the 1900s, one of the earliest novelists was Hjalmar Söderberg, the early 20th century continued to produce notable authors, such as Selma Lagerlöf and Pär Lagerkvist. In the 1960s, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö collaborated to produce a series of internationally acclaimed detective novels, the most successful writer of detective novels is Henning Mankell, whose works have been translated into 37 languages. In the spy genre, the most successful writer is Jan Guillou. In recent decades, a handful of Swedish writers have established themselves internationally, such as the detective novelist Henning Mankell, also well-known outside of Sweden is the childrens book writer Astrid Lindgren, author of works such as Pippi Longstocking and Emil of Maple Hills. Most runestones had a practical, rather than a literary, purpose and are mainly of interest to historians. Several runic inscriptions are also nonsensical by nature, being used for magical or incantatory purposes, the most notable literary exception is the Rök Runestone from circa 800 AD. It contains the longest known inscription, and encompasses several different passages from sagas and legends, part of it is written in alliterative verse, or fornyrdislag. It is generally regarded as the beginning of Swedish literature, the Christianization of Sweden was one of the main events in the countrys history, and it naturally had an equally profound impact on literature. The Gök runestone is a case in point of how the older literature dissolved and it uses the same imagery as the Ramsund carving, but a Christian cross has been added and the images are combined in a way that completely distorts the internal logic of events. Whatever the reason may have been, the Gök stone illustrates how the pagan heroic mythos was going towards its dissolution, Literature now looked to foreign texts to provide models. By 1200, Christianity was firmly established and a Medieval European culture appeared in Sweden, only a selected few mastered the written language, but little was written down. Complete manuscripts are found from the early 14th century, written in Latin
2.
Swedish Romantic literature
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Swedish Romantic literature denotes Swedish literature between 1809 and 1830. In Europe, the period from circa 1805–1840 is known as Romanticism and it was also strongly featured in Sweden, based on German influences. During this relatively short period, there were so many great Swedish poets, the period started around 1810 when several periodicals were published that contested the literature of the 18th century. An important society was the Gothic Society, and their periodical Iduna, one significant reason was that several poets for the first time worked towards a common direction. D. A. Geijer was one of the earliest and most prominent members of the neo-gothicist Gothic Society, stagnelius spent his short adult years living as an outsider in Stockholm. Many of his poems deal with the beauty in nature, encompassing the loneliness of the soul, the fame of Atterbom comes from his flower poetry, Lycksalighetens ö, 1824–1827, and a collection of poetry called Blommorna. Esaias Tegnér has been described as the first modern Swedish man and his great success lies on Frithiofs Saga, a romanticized version of the Icelandic sagas but in a modern dress. The work was translated into several languages, put to music in Sweden, fredrika Bremer was the first writer of realism novel, in the spirit of Jane Austen, and her most important contribution is that she introduced the novel in Swedish on a large scale. Her most important novel was her last, Hertha, in 1856, Hertha is not so much a novel as it is a political debate of womens rights. Viktor Rydberg was a key figure in the Swedish culture between 1855 and the breakthrough in 1879. In the spirit of Dickens, Rydberg wrote adventurous novels and stories that in reality were dealing with the poor, several works tried to define a world where Christianity became integrated with humanistic ideals of ancient Greece. Rydberg was also noted for groundbreaking historical and theological works, when Sweden lost Finland in 1809, Finnish literature moved in its own direction. For the remainder of the 19th century however, it was still the educated Swedish speaking minority in Finland that authored most of Finlands literature. A key figure was the Swedish speaking Johan Ludvig Runeberg, was established himself as Finlands national poet and his most important work was The Tales of Ensign Stål, an epic poem about the Finnish War, the first verse of which became Finlands national anthem. After Runeberg, it was to be Zacharius Topelius to take the role of national Finnish author, although he wrote both novels and poetry, his most important contributions were childrens books, with Läsning för barn. Algulin, Ingemar, A History of Swedish Literature, published by the Swedish Institute,1989, ISBN 91-520-0239-X Gustafson, Alrik A History of Swedish Literature,1961
3.
History of Swedish
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In the 9th century, Old Norse began to diverge into Old West Norse and Old East Norse. In the 12th century, the dialects of Denmark and Sweden began to diverge, becoming Old Danish, all were heavily influenced by Middle Low German during the medieval period. In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had some changes. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, Old East Norse is in Sweden called Runic Swedish and in Denmark Runic Danish, but until the 12th century, the dialect was the same in the two countries. The dialects are called runic because the body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, a change that separated Old East Norse from Old West Norse was the change of the diphthong æi to the monophthong e, as in stæin to sten. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain, there was also a change of au as in dauðr into ø as in døðr. This change is shown in inscriptions as a change from tauþr into tuþr. Moreover, the øy diphthong changed into ø as well, as in the Old Norse word for island, from 1100 onwards, the dialect of Denmark began to diverge from that of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark which created a series of minor dialectal boundaries, isoglosses, Old Swedish is the term used for the medieval Swedish language, starting in 1225. Among the most important documents of the written in Latin script is the oldest of the provincial law codes, Västgötalagen. The main influences during this time came with the establishment of the Catholic Church and various monastic orders, introducing many Greek. With the rise of Hanseatic power in the late 13th and early 14th century, the Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of German speaking immigrants. Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society, and brought terms from their mother tongue into the vocabulary, besides a great number of loan words for areas like warfare, trade and administration, general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions where imported. Almost all of the terms were also borrowed from Dutch. Early medieval Swedish was markedly different from the language in that it had a more complex case structure and had not yet experienced a reduction of the gender system. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns and certain numerals were inflected in four cases, besides the modern nominative and genitive there were also dative and accusative, the gender system resembled that of modern German, having the genders masculine, feminine and neuter. Most of the masculine and feminine nouns were later grouped together into a common gender, the verb system was also more complex, it included subjunctive and imperative moods and verbs were conjugated according to person as well as number
4.
Swedish realism
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Swedish realism is the period in Swedish literature that encompassed the last two decades of the 19th century. It is generally considered to have ended in the 1910s but the year is a matter of debate. August Strindberg was a writer world-famous for his dramas and prose, noted for his exceptional talent, in 1879 he published The Red Room, which brought him immediate fame. The Red Room was a novel that relentlessly attacked the political, the academic, the philosophical. After several harsh disputes, Strindberg left Sweden in 1883, in 1884, he briefly returned to Stockholm to stand trial in a blasphemy case against his collection of short stories Married. In 1897 Strindberg engaged himself in occultism, in particular alchemy, the following year, Strindberg moved back to Sweden and settled in the city Lund. There, he resurrected his literary production by publishing Inferno, in 1898, Strindberg moved back to Stockholm. He continued writing but also engaged himself energetically in debates in a range of subjects. His most notable writings during this period were his dramas, such as The Dance of Death, the Swedish 1890s is noted for its poetic neo-romanticism, a reaction to the socio-realistic literature of the 1880s. The first literary key figure to emerge was Verner von Heidenstam, selma Lagerlöf was the arguably brighest star of the 1890s, and her impression has lasted up to modern times. Lagerlöf was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1909 for the imagination, gustaf Fröding was another key figure of the 1890s. His active literary period only spanned between 1891–1898, because of mental problems, Fröding was above all renowned for his flowing poetry. His popularity was at first based on his sense of humor and free treatment of the poetic verse. Erik Axel Karlfeldt was, like Fröding, a depictor of rural life in his native province and his poetry had the intention of sparking a cultural identity within Dalarna, and spoke warmly of traditions, family values, and so on. Although his poetry was narrow, Karlfeldt was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1931, algulin, Ingemar, A History of Swedish Literature, published by the Swedish Institute,1989. ISBN 91-520-0239-X Gustafson, Alrik, A History of Swedish Literature,1961, Swedish Institute, Modern Literature, accessed October 17,2006 Tigerstedt, E. N
5.
Lule River
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Lule River is a major river in Sweden, rising in northern Sweden and flowing southeast for 460 km before reaching the Gulf of Bothnia at Luleå. It is the second longest river by watershed area or length in Norrbotten County and it has a watershed of 25,240.5 km² of which 24,545.6 km² is in Sweden and 694.9 km² in Norway. The river was used extensively for the transportation of timber, with logs floated downstream for processing at Luleå, several major rapids exist along the rivers length, notably the Stora Falls and those at Porjus and Harsprånget. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the river was designated as a line against a dreaded invasion by Imperial Russia. Extensive fortifications exist along the length of the river, culminating in Bodens Fortress in. Most of these fortifications and bunkers are no longer in use today, the Greater Lule River arguably begins somewhere near Sårjåsjaure in the mountains west of Gällivare. The water flows to the Virihaure lake, which collects water from Kerkevare and Alkajaure. The Tukejokk joins the Lule as well in Virihaure, leaving Virihaure to the north, the river reaches the Vastenjaure lake after losing 32m over 2.2 km. It then flows via the Vuojatätno to lake Kutjaure and then Luoktanjarkajaure, collecting a lot of water from lakes in Sarek National Park, like Salohaure. There are numerous waterfalls and rapids in the river, the best known is Stora Sjöfallet at the end of the Akkajaure lake, where the water falls 39.6 m from Kårtjejaure to Langasjaure. In this lake the Vietasajokk joins the Lule, the Stora Lule träsk is the largest of the lakes in the river. Here it reaches the forest, and after the lake is joined by the Muddus River from Muddus National Park, at 75m, near the village of Vuollerim, the river joins with the Lesser Lule River. The Lule passes the Porsiforsen, Edefors and Hedens fors and it flows into the Baltic Sea through the Bälingefjärden and Lulefjärden. Other rivers in the watershed of the Lule with a length of more than 100 km are, Black River, Flarkån, Lesser Lule River, Pärl River, Rissajåkkå, Vietasätno, article Lule älf from Nordisk Familjebok
6.
Scanian dialect
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Scanian is a closely related group of South Swedish dialects spoken in the province of Scania in southern Sweden. Scanian was originally classified as a language in ISO 639-3. A request for reinstatement was submitted during the 2009 annual review process, many of the genuine rural dialects have been in decline subsequent to the industrial revolution and urbanization in Sweden. The population of Skåne County consists of around 13% of the population in Sweden. Swedish and Danish are considered to have been the same dialect, Old East Norse, however, some scholars speculate that there might have been certain dialect differences within the Nordic language area as early as the Proto-Nordic period. Two Scanian fragments dated to around 1325 were initially claimed to be Old Swedish, but further research in modern times has claimed that the language was not Swedish, like the Scanian Law, one of the fragments, a six-leaf fragment, is written in the runic alphabet. The place of writing, according to Frederiksen, has been identified as the Cistercian monastery at Herrevad Abbey in Scania. The fragment contains a translation of Marys lament at the cross, after the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, the former Danish provinces of Blekinge, Halland and Scania became a Swedish dominion, but they were allowed to keep their old privileges, laws and customs. However, from the 1680s, a process of Swedification was introduced, including a switch of languages used in churches and restrictions imposed on cross border travel and trade. The situation in Scania was unique from a point of view. As pointed out by the Norwegian scholar Lars S. Bornholm was once part of Skåneland, the Scanian dialect of Bornholm remained in use as a functioning transitional stage, but Standard Danish soon became dominant in official contexts and the dialect is thought to be disappearing. The gradual transition to Swedish has resulted in the introduction of many new Swedish characteristics into Scanian since the 18th century, especially when it comes to vocabulary and grammar. In spite of the shift, Scanian dialects have maintained a non-Swedish prosody, as well as details of grammar and vocabulary that in some aspects differ from Standard Swedish. The prosody, pronunciation of vowels and consonants in such qualities as length, stress and intonation, has more in common with Danish, German and Dutch than with Swedish. If so, are the formal semantic analytic tools that have been developed mainly for English, however, linguists reject this explanation for the sound change, at present, there are no universally-accepted theories for why sound changes occur. Scanian once possessed many unique words which do not exist in either Swedish or Danish, in attempts to preserve the unique aspects of Scanian, these words have been recorded and documented by the Institute for Dialectology, Onomastics and Folklore Research in Sweden. Preservation is also accomplished through comparative studies such as the Scanian-Swedish-Danish dictionary project and this project is led by Helmer Lång and involves a group of scholars from different fields, including Birger Bergh, linguistics, Inger Elkjær and Inge Lise Pedersen, researcher of Danish dialects. Several Scanian dictionaries have been published through the years, including one by Sten Bertil Vide and this publication and a variety of other Scanian dictionaries are available through the Department of Dialectology and Onomastics in Lund
