Forteana before Fort

A review of Olaus Magnus´ "Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus". 

Olaus Magnus was a 16th century Swedish churchman and Catholic, who was forced to leave Sweden after the Protestant reformation. He eventually settled in Italy, where the pope appointed him archbishop of Uppsala, a purely symbolic appointment since the Swedish archdiocese was, of course, controlled by the Protestants. In 1555, he published his magnum opus, “Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus”, a vast collection of facts and factoids about the Nordic countries. The work, written in Latin, became immensely popular and was translated to several other languages. Ironically, it wasn't translated to Swedish until 1909-1925 (in four volumes). My paperback copy is dated 2001. The language is archaic, to the point of humorous (it's difficult to communicate to non-Swedes how grotesquely funny words like “ehurunär” , “törhända” and “landamären” sounds to a modern Swede), and the work itself is so vast that I doubt anyone except super-nerds really read all of it. I admit that I haven't read literally all of it myself, and probably never will! Still, some sections are classics, such as the chapter on the Skridfinns, strange people in the far north who actually use skis to get by in winter… Imagine that!

Olaus Magnus was a learned man by the standards of his day, but to a modern reader, “A Description of the Northern Peoples” nevertheless sounds peculiar (even apart from the funny lingo). It's a bewildering mixture of ethnography, mythology dressed as history, rank superstition, anti-Reformation propaganda and constant detours through the works of Pliny, Cassiodorus, Aristotle and other ancient writers (perhaps to show Olaus Magnus' vast erudition). The splendor of the ancient Goths, regarded as ancestors of the Swedes, is an oft-repeated theme. Despite Olaus Magnus' criticism of paganism or Christian heresy, he nevertheless has a soft spot for the pagan or Arian Goths. So did his uncle, Johannes Magnus, who wrote a fanciful work on Goth history, which I suspect is one of Olaus' main sources.

Apart from historians and history Über-buffs, “Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus” is of some interest to Forteans and other anomalists. I admit that I found these sections very readable myself. Thus, the archbishop-in-exile describes the astral travels of Lapp (Sami) shamans, various encounters with fairies (including the “glamour” also described in other folkloric traditions), spirits of the dead hovering around Icelandic volcanoes, and the inevitable sea-serpents. A Norwegian version of the legend of the seven sleepers (also known from the Roman Empire and the Islamic world) is retold, naturally set in Norway. The author also makes the strange claim that swallows don't migrate during winter, but rather hibernate at the bottom of Swedish lakes! This claim was treated seriously (or semi-seriously) in a Fortean book I devoured as a teenager. Yes, I was skeptical…

The most entertaining claim concerns Greenland, where Magnus claims that dwarfs and cranes fight veritable wars. The dwarfs mount goats to attack the cranes, which for some reason fight walking on land (you would think they could just swoop down on the dwarfs air force style). The pygmies also make raids on the nests of the cranes, eating or destroying their chicks and eggs, to stop them from multiplying. Olaus Magnus believes this bizarre legend since Pliny tells a similar story from Scythia!

But sure, I admit that I do believe *some* of the weird stuff retold by the “last Catholic archbishop of Uppsala”. Just don't ask me which ones, ha ha.