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THE IMMIGRATION OF OUR FOREFATHERS TO THE NORTH
BY
OSCAR MONTELIUS
STOCKHOLM
Amongst other precious relics, which have been
preserved to the present day from the time of the sumptuous Erik XIV,
is a valuable tapestry. This shows a life-size representation of the first
king of Sweden, according to a Latin inscription. The name of the king is Sven,
as one would expect of the progenitor of the Swedes; he was the son of Magog,
whom we recognize from the First Book of Moses, as a son of Japhet, and a
grandson of Noah.
The tapestry is an illustration of »The History of the Götar and the Svear»,
published at that time by Archbishop Johannes Magni, according to whom Magog
was the first king of the Götar (Goths), and his son Sven the first king of the
Svear. Ubbe, the brother of Sven, succeeded him about 246 years after the Deluge,
and built the city of Upsala, according to the Archbishop’s history.
The question regarding our forefathers’ immigration to the North was, 400
years ago, easily responded to, and the answer was very satisfactory: »our
forefathers arrived here immediately after the Deluge».
Towards the end of the 17th century, when Sweden was at the height of her
political power, this date was not ancient enough for the Swedish people. Olof
Rudbeck in the »Atlantica» informed his delighted contemporaries, that the
Swedish peninsula was peopled before the Deluge, and that even then, the inhabitants
of Sweden were in a high state of culture. After the Deluge, Japhet’s sons Magog
and Mesek came to the North. The former founded in Sweden the ancient Gothic,
and the latter in Finland, the Finnish Empire. Magog’s realm was divided
between his sons Sven and Getar, who founded the Svea and Gothic Empires.
We must not forget that this belief was advanced quite seriously, and proof
thereof was developed with all the wisdom, invention, and ingenuity, which
distinguished Olof Rudbeck, one of the mightiest and most esteemed figures we meet
with in the history of Swedish science. The doctrines of the »Atlantica» delighted
both king and people. To deny their truth, was looked upon as a crime against
our native country, and the few doubters were compelled to silence by the fear
of Charles XI, and Magnus de la Gardie.
The foregoing remarks formed the introduction to an article I published in
the first number of the »Nordisk Tidskrift» for 1884, in which I attempted, as
well as I could at that time, to solve the problem: »Of the immigration of our
forefathers to the North».
I showed that our Germanic forefathers lived in Scandinavia as far back as
the later Stone-Age, thus about 5,000 years ago. The grounds for this statement
were principally two. One was, that after the end of the Stone-Age there are
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