Monster hunting in mid-Sweden (and very old tapestries)

Andrew eaten by a lake beast

For Brits, Nessie will be more familiar, but Sweden has its own lake monster legend - the Storsjöodjur (lit: Great Lake Beast). Written records date back more than 400 years but presumably the legend is much older as writers in the 17th century linked the monster to the Frösö Runestone (raised between 1030 and 1050) which shows an image of a serpent, but no reference is made to it in the text itself.

We took a short walk along the lakeside in the late summer sunshine - probably not the best for shy creatures autumnal mists are needed to create the atmospheric pics.

We were amazed at the size of the town's Stora Torget (Great Square). As there was an election campaign on each of the political parties had set up its own, well chalet is probably the best word.

Political campaigning Swedish style

The election posters had earlier caused us some amusement due to David misreading one. The problem came with reading the word poliser (policemen) as pølser (the Danish word for sausages). Nya Moderaterna were telling Swedes that feeling safer didn't require ever more of whichever. Thinking they were saying "Greater safety doesn't just need more sausages" gave us pause for thought. Amused one of our friends working on the opposition campaign!

Jamtli
Go and see the tapestries if you're in town.

Museum entrance

 
Dating from between 800 and 1100 they were "discovered"  in 1910 in Överhogdal. The description on what happened is to modern ears all quite innocently pre-modern.

An artist was travelling round the region by bike to make an inventory of items of rural culture. In a shed in Överhogdal, he found a bundle stored with all kinds of rubbish from the church that had recently been restored. Clearly the church had seen nothing in them as prior to that they´d been in the box used for storing wood for the stove. Taken to Östersund the bundle was handed over to the County Governor's wife. She (the museum´s website tells us "promptly gave it a wash in the bath tub in the basement".

What I liked was the fact that no-one´s quite sure what interpretation to put on the tapestries. So when you go the museum see what story you can see in them.

Does it show

• Ragnarök the end of the world in Norse mythology?
• Doomsday visions of both Paganism and Christianity?
• Scenes from the Völsungasaga?
• The Christianization of Härjedalen?