Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bluetooth's “conversion” was a ploy to keep the German-Catholic bishops
and missionaries at bay. Under Harald's grandson, King Canute, Denmark
ruled a large empire that included parts of southern England (c. 1020). One
of Canute's battles there inspired the nursery song “London Bridge Is Falling
Down.”
By 1100, the last pagans were gathering at Gamla Uppsala to put on their
ceremonial horned helmets, worship the sun, bury fallen heroes, and retell the
sagasoftheirancestors.VikingcultureblendedintotheEuropeanmainstream,
but we still see traces of it today—in rune stones and burial sites; in surviv-
ing tools, weapons, and jewelry; and in the dragon-prowed designs found on
Christian stave churches and even on contemporary Scandinavian coins.
In the Middle Ages, three separate (if loosely united) kingdoms emerged:
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. They were Christian and feudal, with land
worked by peasants who owed allegiance to a petty noble sworn to the king.
Towns sprang up, including what would become the main cities: Oslo (1048),
Copenhagen (1165), and Stockholm (1255). Rulers began flying flags featur-
ingacross,which eventually became the main motif ineach country'snation-
al flag.
Christianity dominated. Some of the region's oldest churches (especially
in Norway) are wooden stave, made with vertical planks and ornamented with
dragons and other semi-pagan figures to ward off evil and ease the trans-
huge cathedrals, such as the skyscraping Uppsala Cathedral in 1287, Aarhus
Cathedral in 1201, and Stockholm Cathedral in 1306.
Finland entered the Scandinavian sphere when zealous Swedes launched a
series of crusades to forcibly convert their pagan neighbors to the east, farm
their lands, and fish in their lakes. They conquered and assimilated the region
(c. 1200), making it a part of their own country for the next 600 years. Even
today, Swedish is spoken on Finland's southern coast. Danish and German
