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him higher reverence than the other deities.
From this point cultivation was extended over
regions which formerly lay waste, and from the
oldest Suithiod, also called Manhem, arose the
Folklands (Folklanden)[1], the domicile of the
Swedes properly so called. Afterwards, when
their name and power was more widely spread,
these possessed the right of giving a king to the
whole realm, and when this privilege was invaded
by the claims of the other provinces, they still
continued to give the first vote in the election of a
king, whensoever a Swedish elective diet was
convoked, up to the days of Gustavus Vasa. The
Folklands, which for so many centuries preserved
this relic of the prerogative of the old Sweons,
comprehended Tiunda, Attunda, Fierdhundra, and
in general what was anciently called Upland, which
however, in the wider sense, denoted all the settled
region above Lake Mälar, at the time when even
Westmanland seems to have been one of the
Folklands [2]. The inhabitants were called Upper
Swedes (Upp-Svear) in the heathen period; a
proof that they were not the only Swedes, but that
others were already settled beneath them, that part
namely of the population of Sudermania and
Nerike, whose Swedish forefathers had passed the
forests of Käglan and the Mälar. The Folklands
were the chief seat of the Swedes, as the Gothlands
were of the cognate race. Between both, Sudermania
and Nerike were border tracts, which received
their inhabitants from both sides, the former
perhaps, through its sea-kings, from many different
quarters. They were called Gothic or Swedish as
the points of view differed, but were at length
considered as belonging definitively to Swedeland.
They were never included among the Folklands,
from the list of which Westmanland also
disappeared, when by the extension of cultivation it
was parted from Fierdhundra, and formed a
province in itself.
Legends of horrors in the night of paganism are
blended with these earliest accounts of the
occupation of old Suithiod. The same Frey who reaped
perhaps the first harvests of the land, is said to
have also introduced human sacrifices. Of the old
king Ane it is related, that to protract a life which
had already lasted its full space, he sacrificed nine
of his sons, one after another, to Odin. According
to their numerical succession he is said to have
named the Hundreds of his kingdom, and Tiundaland
received its name, because the tenth son,
whom the people rescued, had been destined for
the same fate. We find, however, that afterwards
ia the Christian age, Tiundaland contained ten
hundreds (hundari), Attunda eight, Fierdhundra
at first probably four; and here doubtless we
discover the true origin of the names, which thus
appears to be of earlier date than the introduction
of Christianity. The division into Hundreds, or
Härads, arose out of the oldest structure of society
among our forefathers. Tiunda, as well as Attunda
and Fierdhundra, are already mentioned under the
Yngling line. The divisions of former days are not
in all cases the same with those of later; but the
Hundreds composing the three old Folklands may
still be ascertained, if we compare the detailed
statements we possess respecting them, from the
earlier half of the fourteenth century [3], with the
nature of the country and with earlier accounts.
The earliest settlement in Upland was made where
Odin founded that Sigtuna which the Chronicles of
the Kings call the former; whence the neighbouring
district was called at first Sigtuna, afterwards Habo
Hundred, anciently the first in Tiundaland [4], and
defined by natural boundaries, being even now
almost wholly an island surrounded by the Mälar
lake. Beyond the narrow bay of the Mälar called
Skarfwen, which already receives this name in the
old sagas, and on which Sigtuna rose, the oldest
cultivation of Upland stretched south and north,
from Arland to Oland [5], originally terms denoting
arable land and wilderness. Out of the first, in the
confined acceptation, was formed the hundred of
Arland [6], now Erlinghundra, which was reckoned
as belonging to Attundaland. The latter, still the
extensive hundred of Oland, was formerly called
Olanda-mor, or the untilled wood, and extended
north to the sea [7]. Its middle and northern part
contained the mining district (bergslag) of Upland,
still thickly wooded, in which cultivation, thus
produced, was of late origin; its southern part was
cleared so early, that a saying of the country makes
the boundary of Tiundaland go on the one side
through the present parishes of Skefthammar and
Vendel, and mentions Öresundsbro and Stäket as
border points on the other side. We attach weight
to this tradition, as agreeing with lines of division
fixed by nature herself. This northern boundary
still forms the general line of demarcation between
the chief agricultural district of Upland and its
hilly woodlands, and is at the same time the ridge
which separates the waters flowing to lake Mälar
on the south, from these which run to the Baltic on
the north; the southern border-points, on the other
hand, rest upon lake Mälar. Between these boundaries
lay old Tiundaland, and its ten Hundreds can
still be pointed out within these limits, although
those of the north were not then so extensive as
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