Cross and Scepter by Bagge Sverre

Author:Bagge, Sverre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2014-10-05T04:00:00+00:00

The State and the People: Nationalism and Loyalty

As in the rest of Europe, the Church was the main source of explicit ideology in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, and the evidence of its output is overwhelming. Its precise effect on the people is more difficult to ascertain. Less is known about similar attempts by the monarchy. Recent debates about nationalism have focused on the question of whether this is a specifically modern phenomenon, only to be found in the period after the French Revolution, or whether it goes back to, or at least was anticipated in earlier periods, including the Middle Ages. The answer is largely a matter of definition, but there is at least some evidence of patriotic sentiments in the Middle Ages, in Scandinavia as elsewhere. Despite his strongly religious attitude, even Theodoricus Monachus, writing around 1180, gives voice to some patriotic pride at the exploits of his Viking ancestors who raided all over Europe. Saxo similarly opens his work by pointing to national pride as the main motive for writing history. As all other nations boast of their great deeds and take pleasure in remembering their ancestors, so too the Danish archbishop Absalon, always intent on the glory of his fatherland, could not bear the thought of its being cheated of such fame and remembrance. He therefore commissioned Saxo himself with the task of preserving Denmark’s heroic legacy. And Saxo did not confine his accolades to his preface; his entire narrative is filled with heroes; the Danes are a great nation and their enemies (Norwegians, Germans, and others) far inferior in virtue and military skill, only able to defeat Danes by means of treachery and deceit. In Sweden, where the writing of history began late, the early-fourteenth-century Chronicle of Erik expresses similar ideas. The prologue, praising God and his creation, soon turns to Sweden:

There can be found good men

chivalry and good heroes

who held their own against Didrik of Bern.

Didrik of Bern is the Gothic king Theodoric (493-526) who in medieval legend was transformed into one of the greatest and bravest knights of all Europe. The Swedes eventually developed a particular relationship with him by identifying themselves with the ancient Goths, allegedly the most ancient people on the earth. The connection is to be found already in a history of Gotland written in the thirteenth century, in which the Goths are said to have emigrated from this island. Later, the myth was further developed in Ericus Olai’s (Erik Olofsson’s) Chronica regni Gothorum of the 1470s or 80s. Swedish representatives at the Council of Basel (1431–1449) used the Gothic origins of the Swedes as an argument for claiming precedence, although unsuccessfully. The Chronicle of Erik continues with numerous examples of the Swedes’ heroism and great deeds. During an expedition in Karelia against the Russians, they defeat an army ten times the size of their own. When their leader, Matts Kettilmundsson—later the leader of the rebellion against King Birger—challenges the Russians to single combat, no one dares to take up the challenge, even though Matts spends the whole day waiting.

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