Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken natively by 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden, and in parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to some extent with Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Both Norwegian and Danish are generally easier for Swedish speakers to read than to listen to because of difference in accent and tone when speaking. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It has the most speakers of the North Germanic languages.
Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with what they believe to be a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.
Vikings were Norse seafarers, mainly speaking the Old Norse language, who during the late 8th to late 11th centuries, raided and traded from their Northern European homelands across wide areas of Europe, and explored westwards to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. The term is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to the inhabitants of Norse home communities during what has become known as the Viking Age. This period of Nordic military, mercantile and demographic expansion constitutes an important element in the early medieval history of Scandinavia, Estonia, the British Isles, France, Kievan Rus' and Sicily.
Visby City Wall is a medieval defensive wall surrounding the Swedish town of Visby on the island of Gotland. As the strongest, most extensive, and best preserved medieval city wall in Scandinavia, the wall forms an important and integral part of Visby World Heritage Site.
Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author and teacher. She published her first novel, Gösta Berling's Saga, at the age of 33. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she was awarded in 1909. Additionally, she was the first female to be granted a membership in The Swedish Academy in 1914.
Cunning folk, also known as folk healers, are practitioners of folk medicine, folk magic, and divination within the context of the various traditions of folklore in Christian Europe.
Norrland dialects is one of the six major dialect groupings of the Swedish language. It comprises the dialects in most of Norrland, except those of Gästrikland and southern Hälsingland, where Svealand Swedish is spoken. Local dialects from Härjedalen and northwest Jämtland, which traditionally are counted as variants of the Norwegian dialect of Trøndersk, are also excluded, while Jämtland dialects and other dialects of the region are considered to be true Norrland dialects.
The Sørup runestone is a runestone from Sørup close by Svendborg on southern Funen in Denmark. The stone has a relatively long and very debated runic inscription, which has been seen as an unsolved cipher or pure nonsensical, but also has been suggested to be written in Basque.
Josefina Leontina Amanda Wettergrund, née Lundberg pseudonym Lea, was a Swedish writer and poet. She was the editor of the family magazine Svalan in 1871–75.
Charlotta Frölich was a Swedish writer, historian, agronomist and poet. She sometimes used the pseudonym Lotta Triven. She published poems, stories, and work about political and scientific subjects. She was the first female to be published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Hilda Augusta Amanda Kerfstedt, née Hallström, was a Swedish novelist, playwright and translator. She was a popular and noted writer in late 19th and early 20th century Sweden, and participated in the public debate. She was also engaged in the movement for women's rights, and active in the Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundet and Föreningen för gift kvinnas äganderätt. As a feminist, she focused on the debate around sexual equality, and was critical to the contemporary sexual double standards for men and women. As such, she was one of the participants in the Sedlighetsdebatten, the public debate in Swedish papers, books and plays, which took place during the 1880s. She was the editor of the feminist paper Dagny, the organ of the Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundet, in 1888-1891. She was especially noted within the debate on children's literature.
Karl Werner Edmund (KW) Gullers who lived in Stockholm, was a Swedish press and commercial photographer, and also the model for Stieg Trenter's crime novel Harry Friberg. Gullers established his photography business in 1938 under the name Studio Gullers and it was active until 1978.
