DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0333
Bk. VI. Ch. I.
SWEDEN.
313
BOOK YL
CIIAPTER I.
SCANDINAVIA.
CONTENTS.
Sweden — Norway— Denmark — Gotkland —Bound Churclies —Wooden Ckurckcs.
NTo one wlio has listened to all ttiat was said and written in Germany
before the late war about “ Schleswig-Holstein Stamm yerwandt,” can
very well doubt that when he passes the Eyder going northward, he
will enter on a new architectural province. He must, however, be
singularly deficient in ethnographical knowledge if he expects to find
anything either original or beautiful in a country inhabited by races
of such purely Aryan stock. If there is any Einnish or Lap blood in
the veins of the Swedes or Danes it must have dried up veiy early, for
no trace of its effect can be detectecl in any of their architectural
utterances ; unless, indeed, we should ascribe to it that peculiar
fondness for circular forms which is so characteristic of their early
churches, and which may have been derived from the circular mounds
and stone circles which were in use in Sweden till the end of the
lOth century. The country in fact was only converted to Christianity
in the reign of Olof Skôt Konung—1001 to 1026 ; and then, and for
a long time afterwards, was too poor and too thinly inhabited to
require any architectural buildings, and when these came to be erected
the dominant race was one that never showed any real sympathy for
the art in any part of the world.
Sweden.
The largest and most important monument in the province is the
Cathcdral of Upsala, (Woodcut No. 777) measuring 370 ft. by 330 ft.,
though it can hardly be quoted as an example of Scandinavian art ;
SWEDEN.
313
BOOK YL
CIIAPTER I.
SCANDINAVIA.
CONTENTS.
Sweden — Norway— Denmark — Gotkland —Bound Churclies —Wooden Ckurckcs.
NTo one wlio has listened to all ttiat was said and written in Germany
before the late war about “ Schleswig-Holstein Stamm yerwandt,” can
very well doubt that when he passes the Eyder going northward, he
will enter on a new architectural province. He must, however, be
singularly deficient in ethnographical knowledge if he expects to find
anything either original or beautiful in a country inhabited by races
of such purely Aryan stock. If there is any Einnish or Lap blood in
the veins of the Swedes or Danes it must have dried up veiy early, for
no trace of its effect can be detectecl in any of their architectural
utterances ; unless, indeed, we should ascribe to it that peculiar
fondness for circular forms which is so characteristic of their early
churches, and which may have been derived from the circular mounds
and stone circles which were in use in Sweden till the end of the
lOth century. The country in fact was only converted to Christianity
in the reign of Olof Skôt Konung—1001 to 1026 ; and then, and for
a long time afterwards, was too poor and too thinly inhabited to
require any architectural buildings, and when these came to be erected
the dominant race was one that never showed any real sympathy for
the art in any part of the world.
Sweden.
The largest and most important monument in the province is the
Cathcdral of Upsala, (Woodcut No. 777) measuring 370 ft. by 330 ft.,
though it can hardly be quoted as an example of Scandinavian art ;