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they afterwards became [1]. Above the northern
frontier, the productive territory of Upland stretched,
not in a due northerly direction, where the present
mining district appears for a long time to have
been almost wholly untilled, but sideways to the
westward, along the stream which runs from lake
Temnar to the sea. Here, in the heart of the
forest, a settlement was formed, within the heathen
age, at Tierp, following, as old remains prove, the
course of the water with scattered habitations.
Here must be placed the common-wood (Almännings-skog),
which separated Tiundaland from
Gestricland. In this manner the coast too was
gradually occupied. A roaming life, the parsimony
of nature, and the piracy of the Finlanders, long
made it impossible for the inhabitants to submit to
the regulations of civic order and fixed partition.
The eight districts of Attundaland reached in the
eleventh century to the sea; that of Sea Hundred
(Sæhundari) indicates the Sealand of which Snorro
makes mention. Yet to this name, more general as
used by him, a definite meaning attaches only in so
far as it marks a portion of old Suithiod distinct
from the Folklands. Lying eastwards on the sea,
as his words imply, it is Suithiod’s coast territory,
Roden, a name remaining in Roslagen, as its
import is preserved in the still subsisting division of
this tract into ship-cantonments [2]. The islets south
of lake Mälar appear to have been formerly
included under it; Tören, now Södertörn, mentioned
in the Ynglingasaga, and by the scald Thiodolf [3],
was in later times still reckoned part of the
jurisdiction (lagsaga) of Upland. The four Hundreds of
Fierdhundraland are undoubtedly the three lying
between Örsundsbro and the Saga stream, with
Thorsaker in the west. With the advance of
cultivation, the limits of this shire extended; after three
other Hundreds had been added to the four oldest,
it appears to have been once called Seven Hundredland [4],
and embraced old Westmanland as far as
Westeras [5]. Beyond, to the end of lake Mälar
and the forest of Käglan, all that part of
Westmanland which was cleared and brought into
cultivation was called and formed Two Hundreds [6].
What is here said of the course and extent of
cultivation in old Westmanland, is confirmed by
memorials remaining from the heathen age. Tracts
of ancient occupancy in Sweden are every where
marked by the barrows which indicate the graves
of those who once tilled the soil. These, common
in the Folklands, are also numerous in Westmanland,
especially from Thorsacre onwards, in the
south, and near the boundary of Upland. Farther
on, they follow the shores of the Mälar, ascending
the water-courses. In this shire they are scattered
over the south and middle districts; in the forests
of the north none are found [7].
Thus did the ancient inhabitants of Sweden
establish themselves on both sides of the Mælar.
This spacious and noble lake, branching with so
many arms, and garlanded with isles, into whose
basin, to use the words of the saga, all the running
waters of Suithiod fall, in their progress to the sea
(whence it is also sometimes called a bay or outlet
of the Baltic), formed in the heart of the kingdom
the principal channel of internal and external traffic,
of friendly as well as hostile intercourse. Its
entrance was in all times narrow [8]; its interior is
studded continuously with island groups, presenting
several good harbours, of which Birca was formerly
the best known. This, we are told, was a town
lying in the centre of Sweden, not far from the
temple of Upsala, the most famous of all among the
Swedes; in the place where a bay of the Baltic or
Barbaric Sea stretching towards the north, forms a
desirable haven for the nations dwelling round; the
navigation was very dangerous to those who were
careless or little conversant with the localities, for
the inhabitants, exposed to the frequent assaults of
sea-robbers, had, by sinking masses of stone for a
great distance, made the passage dangerous both
to themselves and the enemy; yet here was the safest
haven in the Swedish rocks, and the ships of the
Danes, Norsemen, Slavons, and Sembers, as well
as of other people of Scythia, used to assemble here
to a staple, and barter their wares [9]. From Scania
to Sigtuna or Birca was five days’ sail [10]. Lastly, it
is expressly said, that Birca was situated near
Sigtuna [11], and from thence to Upsala was only one
day’s journey [12].
This description is not suitable to the little island
Biörkö, in the Mälar, where, from the resemblance
of names, our antiquarians have wished to find
manifest traces of the old town, although the author
from whom we have extracted the above account
adds, that when he wrote (in 1072), Birca was
desolate and razed to the ground, so that hardly a
vestige of it was to be seen. But we may appeal to
witnesses who had seen it two hundred years before,
in the days of its prosperity. Ansgar, the apostle
of the north, visited it twice; his successor and
biographer, Rimbert, also saw it [13]. They call it the
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