A Halloween Eve Story from Stegeborg
The clocks went back one hour here on Sunday. It's pitch black outside at 5pm (17:00). Yesterday was stormy and there was snow on the car that had to be scraped off before leaving for work at 7:30. Today was milder and rainy. As I haven't yet got winter tires on my car I was glad we had rain instead of snow today.
Here's the fire and I'm sitting beside it writing, casting my mind back to a few weeks ago, when autumn was still mellow and the leaves golden. I'm going to introduce a bit of local history, which is one of my passions.
On a warm autumn Sunday in mid-October I loaded Monty into the car and set off to a place I've been curious about for as long as I can remember, even as a child spending carefree summer days on Liljestad, the farm where my mother grew up, which is about 7 kilometers from where I now live. Looking across the waters of Slätbaken, the fjord that runs past my new home, my eye rests on a white tower in the distance. It's not a lighthouse. Although that would be a good guess, it's actually all that remains of a medieval fortress, a defensive castle guarding one of the most important inlets to Sweden from the Baltic Sea.
The Baltic Sea lies between Sweden on the west and Finland and the Baltic States on the east. Both Finland and the Baltic States have at one time been part of Russia or the USSR. Russia has historically been regarded as a major threat to Sweden's autonomy and just this week news was released regarding the sighting in August by teachers and kids in a sailing school in Stockholm of what was likely a submarine. A week or so ago there was a news story about two women from the Åland Islands, which lie in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, politically part of Finland, but culturally and linguistically Swedish. In November 1984 these women were teenagers out in an open row boat that got lost at sea and after 48 hours were rescued by a Russian ship. Helena af Klercker and Lou Åberg have now told their story to the Swedish press, Dagens Nyheter, The News of the Day, 34 years after the event! In Sweden there is a sense of this timeless enemy lurking across the water. The enemy is ancient and has existed since before Stegeborg was built, which reliable sources tell us must have predated 1310. Another fortress in this area is even older than Stegeborg. Skällviks borg is now a pile of stones on a hilltop overlooking a bay to the west of Stegeborg.
Why was this area so significant? After all, it's a good two hours drive south of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Stockholm has only been the capital of Sweden since 1634. In the middle ages Söderköping was equally as important. According to Dick Harrison, who wrote En Medeltida Storstad: Historien om Söderköping, A City of the Middle Ages: The History of Söderköping, "During the decades around 1300 Söderköping was a power-center of equal rank with Stockholm. Here Kings and Queens were crowned...trade and church life flowered here as in few other towns. The inhabitants of Söderköping developed a well-documented system of elder-care and health-care and had their own local saints." I will write more about the local patron saint, St. Ragnhild, in future posts.
Stegeborg was destroyed in 1318, according to Erikskrönikan, The Chronicle of Erik, the oldest written history of Sweden. Thought to have been created by Birger Persson, the father of another local saint, St. Birgitta, of whom more in later posts, Erikskrönikan documents the history of Sweden from around 1250, and in particular the events leading to the choice of three-year old Magnus Eriksson as King of Sweden in 1319.
Skällviks borg is actually mentioned as existing as early as 1287 in written sources. At this time it belonged to the Bishop of Linköping, confirming Skällviks borg's strategic significance. Why else would the mighty Bishop of Linköping, a cathedral city many days ride away from here, have cared to own it? In early writings it is referred to as Skieldvig Slot, Shield Bay Castle. While there I saw a huge raven (korp) in an oak tree, recorded it and share it here in honor of Halloween, which is tomorrow (apologies if the film doesn't work, you can see it on my Facebook page):
On a warm autumn Sunday in mid-October I loaded Monty into the car and set off to a place I've been curious about for as long as I can remember, even as a child spending carefree summer days on Liljestad, the farm where my mother grew up, which is about 7 kilometers from where I now live. Looking across the waters of Slätbaken, the fjord that runs past my new home, my eye rests on a white tower in the distance. It's not a lighthouse. Although that would be a good guess, it's actually all that remains of a medieval fortress, a defensive castle guarding one of the most important inlets to Sweden from the Baltic Sea.
The Baltic Sea lies between Sweden on the west and Finland and the Baltic States on the east. Both Finland and the Baltic States have at one time been part of Russia or the USSR. Russia has historically been regarded as a major threat to Sweden's autonomy and just this week news was released regarding the sighting in August by teachers and kids in a sailing school in Stockholm of what was likely a submarine. A week or so ago there was a news story about two women from the Åland Islands, which lie in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, politically part of Finland, but culturally and linguistically Swedish. In November 1984 these women were teenagers out in an open row boat that got lost at sea and after 48 hours were rescued by a Russian ship. Helena af Klercker and Lou Åberg have now told their story to the Swedish press, Dagens Nyheter, The News of the Day, 34 years after the event! In Sweden there is a sense of this timeless enemy lurking across the water. The enemy is ancient and has existed since before Stegeborg was built, which reliable sources tell us must have predated 1310. Another fortress in this area is even older than Stegeborg. Skällviks borg is now a pile of stones on a hilltop overlooking a bay to the west of Stegeborg.
Stegeborg was destroyed in 1318, according to Erikskrönikan, The Chronicle of Erik, the oldest written history of Sweden. Thought to have been created by Birger Persson, the father of another local saint, St. Birgitta, of whom more in later posts, Erikskrönikan documents the history of Sweden from around 1250, and in particular the events leading to the choice of three-year old Magnus Eriksson as King of Sweden in 1319.
Skällviks borg is actually mentioned as existing as early as 1287 in written sources. At this time it belonged to the Bishop of Linköping, confirming Skällviks borg's strategic significance. Why else would the mighty Bishop of Linköping, a cathedral city many days ride away from here, have cared to own it? In early writings it is referred to as Skieldvig Slot, Shield Bay Castle. While there I saw a huge raven (korp) in an oak tree, recorded it and share it here in honor of Halloween, which is tomorrow (apologies if the film doesn't work, you can see it on my Facebook page):
Stegeborg, the more impressive of the two ancient fortresses today, is a
name derived from Stikkeborg, meaning place of sticks or stakes in the
water. Those defending this place drove stakes into the water to
make it impossible for large ships to pass other than through a very
narrow and easily defended opening.
The castle was refurbished at great expense in the 1560s by King Johan
III whose first wife, Katarina Jagelonica was a Polish Catholic, and whose second wife was a local noble-woman named Gunilla Bielke, who just happened to have grown up on the same farm as my mother. She was said to haunt
the main house and as children we knew her as Vita Damen, The White
Lady. Johan III was one of the children of Gustav Vasa, Sweden's
answer to Henry VIII, but with only three wives. In another post I will
write about his daughter, Cecilia, sister of Johan III, who idolized, became pen-friends with, and eventually met Queen Elizabeth I of England, but who accumulated so many debts that she eventually was forced to resort to the piracy of ships on the Baltic Sea! More of Cecilia Vasa in a later post, Happy Halloween!
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