They hunted seals and fished in the rich waters. Gustav Vasa is the first King in Swedish history of whose life we have a clear view. The legendary kings of Sweden ( Swedish: sagokonungar, sagokungar, lit. During this time there was Scandinavian influence in Eastern Europe. In 844, Vikings stormed Seville (then controlled by the Arabs); in 859, they plundered Pisa, though an Arab fleet battered them on the way back north. Britain believed Germany was planning to invade and made counter plans for its own invasion. [8] Historical evidence of early geopolitics in Scandinavia suggests that larger political structures, kingdoms such as medieval Sweden, Norway and Denmark, did not form until the late Viking Age. [1] The figure for Norway represents almost 80% of the national population in 1800. Before long other Vikings realized that Frankish rulers were willing to pay them rich sums to prevent them from attacking their subjects, making Frankia an irresistible target for further Viking activity. No more Danish attempts would be made to re-create the Kalmar Union following this war. The Swedish intervention began in 1630 and lasted until 1635. Denmark and Norway were also unlike in their cooperation with Germany's genocidal policy. Industrialization of Sweden experienced a boom during the First World War. The Nstvet and Lihult tribes learnt new technology from the advancing farmers (but not agriculture) and became the Pitted Ware cultures towards the end of the 4th millennium BC. Though only a few examples survive, medieval Swedish lists of kings overwhelmingly begin with Olof Sktkonung, the first Christian king of Sweden, suggesting that he, and not any of the previous legendary figures, was seen as Sweden's first king. Great ships made for rowing have been found from the 4th century in Nydam mosse in Schleswig. In most sources Yngvi is presented as the same figure as Freyr, the son of Njrr. Though the stories of some of the kings may be embellished tales of local rulers or chiefs that actually existed. In February 2020, Secrets of the Ice Program researchers discovered a 1,500-year-old Viking arrowhead dating back to the Germanic Iron Age and locked in a glacier in southern Norway caused by the climate change in the Jotunheimen Mountains. Ynglingatal is not a reliable source either, though traditionally believed to have been composed at the end of the 9th or beginning of the 10th century, it might be from as late as the 12th century. witosawa 3. According to Rimbert the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in the 9th century, king Olof at Birka was sent a message from King Horik of Denmark to allow the monk Ansgar to introduce Christianity. The transmission of metallurgy to southern Scandinavia coincided with the introduction of long barrows, causewayed enclosures, two-aisled houses, and certain types of artefacts, and seems to have enabled the establishment of a fully Neolithic society.[3]. These pagan Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish warriors were probably prompted to undertake their raids by a combination of factors ranging from overpopulation at . Vlvas, practitioners of seid, a Scandinavian pre-Christian tradition, were executed or exiled under newly Christianized governments in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They successfully cultivated peace with the Germans, supplying them with needed raw materials. These early peoples followed cultural traditions similar to those practised throughout other regions in the far north areas including modern Finland, Russia, and across the Bering Strait into the northernmost strip of North America. From c. 9,000 to 6,000 B.P. The name Viking came from the Scandinavians themselves, from the Old Norse word "vik" (bay or creek) which formed the root of "vikingr" (pirate). Sweden remained neutral after a heated debate. Industrialization began in the mid 19th century in Scandinavia. Though a majority of the kings from Olof Sktkonung onwards appear in the Icelandic sources with the same name and overall chronology, the Icelandic sources also contain the figure Blot-Sweyn, who is only present in some of the Swedish sources (and notably absent in Vstgtalagen, an important early Swedish legal document) and a king by the name Kol or Erik rsll, completely absent in the Swedish sources. ", Erik Thomson, "Beyond the Military State: Sweden's Great Power Period in Recent Historiography,". To the north, in Norway and most of southern Sweden, lived the Fosna-Hensbacka culture, who lived mostly along the edge of the forest. Several petroglyphs depict ships, and the large stone formations known as stone ships indicate that shipping played an important role in the culture. Famous Scandinavian Kings from Sweden All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. This made King Sweyn of Denmark angry. The first mention of a King of Norway - as a unified entity - is found upon the Jelling Stones, which were carved runestones from the 10th century in Denmark. The only sources that mention Ivar are Icelandic sagas from centuries after his death. hgin, Dith. Large-scale raids, often organized by royal leaders, hit the coasts of Europe and especially England, where the line of kings descended from Alfred the Great was faltering. This would prove useful when Cnut sailed to Denmark in 1019 to assert his claim to that country's throne. Opposition parties were eliminated and Nasjonal Samling ("National Unity"), the Norwegian fascist political party, appointed all government officials. can be found in the traditional lands of the Sami. Both East India Companies folded over the course of the Napoleonic Wars. For instance, the figure of Aun, described as being driven from Uppsala and taking up court in Vstergtland instead, is similar to the historical Swedish king Inge the Elder (r.c. 10791084, 10871105), who was driven from Uppsala into Vstergtland in the 11th century. A relatively large number of ethnic Danes from southern Jutland fought in the German army.[32][33]. These eastern-traveling Scandinavian migrants were eventually known as Varangians (vringjar, meaning "sworn men"),and according to the oldest Slavic sources[citation needed] , these varangians founded Kievan Rus, the major East European state prior to the Mongol invasions. North of the Kongemose people lived other hunter-gatherers in most of southern Norway and Sweden called the Nstvet and Lihult cultures, descendants of the Fosna and Hensbacka cultures. Moberg, Vilhelm, and Paul Britten Austin. During the 6th millennium BC, southern Scandinavia was covered in temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. These Pitted Ware tribes halted the advance of the farmers and pushed them south into southwestern Sweden, but some say that the farmers were not killed or chased away, but that they voluntarily joined the Pitted Ware culture and became part of them. [35] Denmark surrendered two hours after invasion, having lost just sixteen men. He was recognized as the best of the Norsemen that secured the French territory and was recognized as the ruler of the area when the French king ceded it to them in 911. The Danish intervention began when Christian IV (15771648) the King of Denmark-Norway, himself a Lutheran, helped the German Protestants by leading an army against the Holy Roman Empire, fearing that Denmark's sovereignty as a Protestant nation was being threatened. [7] The Icelandic sources are substantially different from his work, not only in the kings preceding Olof Sktkonung. Odin, also called Wodan, Woden, or Wotan, one of the principal gods in Norse mythology. These seafaring warriors-known collectively as Vikings or Norsemen. Sven died the following year, leaving his son Knut (or Canute) to rule a Scandinavian empire (comprising England, Denmark, and Norway) on the North Sea. The Great Northern War was fought between a coalition of Russia, Denmark-Norway and Saxony-Poland (from 1715 also Prussia and Hanover) on one side and Sweden on the other side from 1700 to 1721. He succeeded his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, since his own father, Prince Gustaf Adolf, had died in a plane crash in 1947, when Carl Gustaf was less than a year old. Contemporary primary sources from 9th11th century Germany, such as the accounts of Adam of Bremen and Rimbert, contradict the line of Muns kings purported to have existed by the sagas. The three Scandinavian countries would, if they had entered into an alliance, have remained separate sovereign countries but acted as a single bloc in foreign policy and security issues. In Iceland, the Vikings left an extensive body of literature, the Icelandic sagas, in which they celebrated the greatest victories of their glorious past. The early Germanic Iron Age is the period when the Danes appear in history, and according to Jordanes, they were of the same stock as the Swedes (suehans, suetidi) and had replaced the Heruls. Many Scandinavians emigrated to Canada, the United States, Australia, Africa, and New Zealand during the later nineteenth century. Over the next three centuries, they would leave their mark as pirates, raiders, traders and settlers on much of Britain and the European continent, as well as parts of modern-day Russia, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. Vidkun Quisling was installed as Minister-President, a puppet to Berlin's High Command. One million came from Sweden, 300,000 from Denmark, and 730,000 from Norway. Armistice negotiations concluded on 14 August 1814. However, the treaty of Kiel never came into force. Denmark called up much of its military, but Germany still violated Danish sovereignty to some extent, for example by mining the resund. Treat yourself to a night in the original design hotel, the Royal Hotel Copenhagen, whose architect Arne Jacobsen is the father of Danish Modernism. The inept government of King Gustav IV Adolf led to his deposition and banishment. Rollo is remarkable mostly for his descendants. He is the first Swedish king in a consecutive regnal succession, who is attested in sources independent of each other, Sweden's list of rulers usually begins with him. Leaving Wessex, the Danes settled to the north, in an area known as Danelaw. Many of them became farmers and traders and established York as a leading mercantile city. A new constitution was introduced, and his uncle Charles XIII was enthroned. At least one settlement appears to be mixed, the Alvastra pile-dwelling. Apart from raiding, they were also settlers and traders who traveled through much of Europe and Central Asia, trading goods and slaves. During the fall of the Roman empire, there was an abundance of gold that flowed into Scandinavia, and there are excellent works in gold from this period. While there had been a handful of silent films and some smaller movies, the first Viking film with real cultural impact is Richard Fleischer's aptly named The Vikings in 1958.