A nisse, tomte, tomtenisse, or tonttu is a mythological creature from Nordic folklore today typically associated with the winter solstice and the Christmas season. They are generally described as being short, having a long white beard, and wearing a conical or knit cap in gray, red or some other bright colour. They often have an appearance somewhat similar to that of a garden gnome.
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum is considered to be the first true modern atlas. Written by Abraham Ortelius, strongly encouraged by Gillis Hooftman and originally printed on 20 May 1570 in Antwerp, it consisted of a collection of uniform map sheets and supporting text bound to form a book for which copper printing plates were specifically engraved. The Ortelius atlas is sometimes referred to as the summary of sixteenth-century cartography. The publication of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570) is often considered as the official beginning of the Golden Age of Netherlandish cartography.
Olof Persson, sometimes Petersson, better known under the Latin form of his name, Olaus Petri, was a clergyman, writer, judge, and major contributor to the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. His brother, Laurentius Petri, became the first Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop of Sweden.
Bjarmaland was a territory mentioned in Norse sagas from the Viking Age and in geographical accounts until the 16th century. The term is usually understood to have referred to the southern shores of the White Sea and to the basin of the Northern Dvina River as well as, presumably, to some of the surrounding areas. Today, those territories comprise a part of the Arkhangelsk Oblast of Russia, as well as the Kola Peninsula.
Olaus Magnus was a Swedish writer, cartographer, and Catholic clergyman.
Johannes Magnus was the last functioning Catholic Archbishop in Sweden, and also a theologian, genealogist, and historian.
"Here be dragons" means dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist.
The Hilleviones were a Germanic people occupying an island called Scatinavia in the 1st century AD, according to the Roman geographer Pliny the Elder in Naturalis Historia, written circa 77 AD. Pliny's Scatinavia is generally believed to have referred to the Scandinavian peninsula, which in the 1st century AD had not yet been fully explored by the Romans and was therefore described as an island. Pliny wrote that it was an island "of a magnitude as yet unascertained". The Hilleviones lived in the only part of the island that was known, and according to Pliny, they thought of their 500 villages as a separate (alterum) world.
Scanian law is the oldest Danish provincial law and one of the first Nordic provincial laws to be written down. It was used in the geographic region of Danish Skåneland, which at the time included Scania, Halland, Blekinge and the island of Bornholm. It was also used for a short period on the island of Zealand. According to some scholars, the Scanian Law was first set down between 1202 and 1216, around the same time it was translated into Latin by the Danish Archbishop Anders Sunesøn.
The cartographic Renaissance of the sixteenth century in Europe was based on a rapid increase in geographical knowledge sourced from exploration and discovery, and the European map of the world "had literally doubled in size within just over a century." Especially in the important trading centers of Rome and Venice, many individual maps were printed in Italy from about 1544. Each publisher worked independently, producing maps based upon his own customers' needs. These maps often varied greatly in size.
A few Icelandic sagas tell about kings that ruled in Kvenland.
Frederik de Wit was a Dutch cartographer and artist.
The kraken is a legendary sea monster of enormous size, per its etymology something akin to a cephalopod, said to appear in the sea between Norway and Iceland. It is believed that the legend of the Kraken may have originated from sightings of giant squid, which may grow to 12–15 m in length.
Tabula Hungariae is the earliest surviving printed map of Hungary, which has supposedly been made by Hungarian Lázár deák before 1528. It was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2007.
Swenske songer eller wisor nw på nytt prentade / forökade / och under en annan skick än tilförenna utsatte, often abbreviated as just Swenske songer eller wisor 1536, is the first preserved hymnal published in the Swedish language and was released in 1536. It consists of 47 songs or hymns, all of which have been issued anonymously. Olaus Petri, a major contributor to the Protestant Reformation in Sweden, is however believed to have authored most of them, with contributions from Ericus Olai and Laurentius Petri. A large amount are translations of Latin and German hymns.
Olaus or Olof Verelius was a Swedish scholar of Northern antiquities who published the first edition of a saga and the first Old Norse-Swedish dictionary and is held to have been the founder of the Hyperborean School which led to Gothicism.
Otter fishing is a fishing technique which uses trained otters to fish in rivers. This method has been practised since the 6th century in various parts of the world, and is still practiced in southern Bangladesh.
Uppland Runic Inscription 92 is carved on a rune that now stands in the park at Jakobsberg folk highschool in Jakobsberg, in Järfälla Municipality just north of Stockholm. The rock is lightgrey granite.
Anders Bure was a Swedish cartographer, considered the "father of Swedish cartography". He worked in the royal chancery and in 1603 was commissioned to produce a map of the Nordic countries by the future King Charles IX of Sweden. He produced a first map, covering the northern parts of Sweden, in 1611; it was considerably more accurate than earlier attempts at mapmaking and has been called the first real map of Sweden. It was followed by a more comprehensive map of Scandinavia in 1626, which would become a model for mapmakers for generations. In 1628, he became de facto the first head of Lantmäteriet, the Swedish Mapping, Cadastral, and Land Registration Authority. He was ennobled in 1624.
Gerd Margareta Enequist, born 24 February 1903 in Luleå, died 21 May 1989 in Uppsala, was a Swedish geographer. In 1949, she was the first Swede to be named a professor of cultural geography and became the first female professor at Uppsala University.
