On Frösön there is an excellent golf course with a charming view of the mountains.

All Roads lead to Jämtland

by Per Nilsson-Tannér

ROMAN or Roman-like the title of this article may sound - and not without justification. Take a ruler and place it across the map of Sweden in a north-south position and the center of the ruler will be right over the Östersund district. Now place it east-west between Sundsvall on the Baltic coast of Sweden and Trondheim on the Atlantic coast of Norway - again the center will be right over the Östersund district. We, the people of Jämtland, are rather proud of our central position. Naturally, we regard ourselves as wholehearted Northeners, but we like to tell the people of central Sweden that it is we who live in the center of Sweden - and with all that this implies.

How can one begin to describe this very heart of Scandinavia? There is so much to talk about, to emphasize and to show if the visitor is to understand the very nature of the country he is now visiting. We are rather anxious to point to our ancient culture and the more recent culture faithfully preserved by those who are active in this County of Jämtland. When travelling in strange latitudes and one's thoughts turn to home, we of Jämtland think of the slopes covered with Nigritella, our county flower, of the brooks in spring, of the dove-blue slopes of the fjelds and the magical glimpses of woodland lakes with the calls of the wild waterfowl, and the enchanting solitude. However, perhaps we think even more of its culture in which we are so firmly rooted and fostered.

All this may sound like boasting to the stranger who looks at us with indifferent eyes, but it is not really so. We of Jämtland are not as proud as the Dalecarlians - but almost. We have not the sunny temperament of the men of Hälsingland to the south, but then the man of Jämtland is somewhat of a country fiddler and of a dreamer, and above all he is faithful to his home. In many ways he is bound by tradition but at the same time he is amenable to new ideas, machinery and modern methods. This peculiar mixture of temperament and disposition is somewhat unusual. By and by we shall try to find the reasons why.

Good roads lead to the Jämtland mountains.

The man of Jämtland is a fierce local patriot. Farmers plough the land which has often belonged to their families for five hundred years or more. Recently when a survey was made of family farmsteads, Jämtland took the first place, though surely there are even older family farmsteads although the owners have not been able to produce the precise evidence of ownership giving the points in this survey. Thus there are family traditions and other traditions just as in the most blue-blooded nobility of Skåne, the chateaux county of Sweden. We do not take on airs about our traditions but we love them. Few of the counties of Sweden can show such a lively interest in local preservation work as Jämtland. Almost every parish has its local preservation society, its local chronicles, its local museum and the like. All this has come about not because anybody has ordered it but because it has been wanted. The man of Härjedalen, our next-door neighbor to the south, goes even better, because it was here that Swedish local preservation activity started at about the time Arthur Hazelius founded the well-known open-air museum of Skansen in Stockholm. Numerous research workers are to be found in peasant homes in Jämtland looking into the history of these farms or the parish or the county or into family-trees or into something else which has to do with Jämtland's ancient past.

Should we now, after this very sketchy outline of the character of the man of Jämtland, try to explain why it is so, we must go into history. We must not forget that Jämtland is border country and for thousands of years this territory was fought over by Swedes and Norwegians (to say nothing of the Danes). It was not until 1645 that the people of Jämtland officially became Swedes, although they had fought on the Swedish side on several occasions. Strangely enough we became out-and-out Swedes rather quickly, even if at first there was the fear that in battle the men of Jämtland would go over to their old brothers in arms, the Norwegians. In any case, the uncertainty of centuries has left a certain fickleness in the Jämtland character, but at the same time we inherited a quality from the Norwegians and Icelanders - tradition and the love of history. Perhaps our memories do not go as far back as the Icelandic sagas or the legends of Trondheim, but that we can claim some kind of relationship is quite evident - indeed, it is not much of an exaggeration to call us the Icelanders of Sweden, a title which we accept with pleasure and honor.

View of Östersund from Frösön.

Jämtland can no longer be said to be “remote“ - the latest fashions and fancies do not take very much time to appear in Jämtland. We lack neither temptations or tribulations, though idealism, here as well as elsewhere, has suffered certain setbacks from time to time. Parallel with this, it cannot be denied that there has been a certain dampening down of the previously strong feeling for tradition. This very complaint is also being voiced in Iceland!

There is much that cannot be taken in at a cursory glance. How little the speeding tourist of to-day gets to know the everyday life of the part of the country he is visiting. What does he know about the many homes of these villages, of the meeting places and institutes, of all the work carried on quietly around the lamp in the evening in homes and meeting halls? What does he know about the evening classes and the local libraries, about the local cultural interest? True such is going on elsewhere, but nevertheless it is worth mentioning here. Even those people of Jämtland who participate only to a limited extent in these courses and voluntary work are, as a rule, proud of the achievements. Theco-operation which in previous days brought into existence libraries and community centers is still to be found and often culminates in excellent results.

Jämtland cannot boast of a chronicler of such statute as Snorre Sturlasson, but the legend of Arnljot is kept alive and for this the local Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger can be said to be responsible. His music-drama Arnljot is regarded by Swedes as their national opera. Despite the tractors and the aeroplanes the saga still lives in the hillsides of Jämtland, even if it receives hard competition from hit-tunes and jazz. Over the island of the pagan god Fröj, with all its proud memories, fly the aeroplanes, while the tractors upturn the thousand-year-old soil, which sometimes yields treasure trove bearing witness to the ancient history of these parts. Around Lake Storsjön agriculture is being run on modern lines, while in the valley folk still drive their cows up the hills for summer pasture and know little of the stress and strain of industrial life. And modern highly practical flats built by the co-operative housing movement are silhuetted against the background of azure blue fjelds.

A land with old and new side by side. A summer country with brilliant sunshine but with bitter and biting north winds; a winter land with the sun glistening over the snow-covered slopes of the fjelds but also with storms and winds which can force the wanderer to his knees.

Furthermore, the people with their good and less good ideas. A people which are by no means uniform. The mountain folk, the forest people and those who live on the plain, all have different temperaments. What is true for the east is untrue for the west. Jämtland is as large as a kingdom, and even if the number of the population is small on the national scale, one should not jump to conclusions about the people.

These lines are addressed to our fellow-countrymen “in exile“. They are many. Jämtland could not offer all its sons a sufficient and secure living. Some had to go out into the world - “in exile“ through the search for a living or the lust for adventure. Official reports of the last century show how the wave of emigration swept over the villages of Jämtland. It was mostly the youth who travelled abroad, often in great contingents and sometimes whole families. In certain parishes more than ten per cent of the population abandoned their homes and travelled westward. Few returned. They became Americans and Canadians, citizens of a foreign country. They are now thoroughly Americanised. Probably they have forgotten their mother tongue. Perhaps they do not even know from where their families originated. However, many thousands of them know Sweden and love it. Perhaps they will never visit the land of their fathers, but nonetheless they are proud of their origin and they are eager to learn something of the land of their ancestors.

Greeting to all those from Jämtland and Sweden wherever they may be. Greetings from the Old Country. Much has changed - the isolated, meagre, poor country has been reborn, it has created the welfare state, its standard of living is the highest in Europe, times are good, the country has been developed, modernised and mechanised.

Greetings and welcome home.

BACK