Swedish History

Swedish history: A sidenote about surnames

29/01/2015 Mikaela

During the middle ages (and before that, too) Swedish naming practices were very straightforward. While there were some exceptions, most people had the combination of father’s name+son/daughter. This was the tradition no matter which class you belonged to. Or at least that was the case for most persons. There were exceptions for both men and women. Men that reached a certain position, or were appointed to one, often added that to their surname, simply to stand out among the…

Swedish History: Ingrid Ylva

11/01/2015 Mikaela

At first I hesitated if I should include Ingrid Ylva, since not much is known about her, but she is an important figure in Swedish History, since her descendants helped shaped Sweden into the Country it is today. She is also representative for what noblewomen did. Not much is known about Ingrid Ylva. She was born in the late 1100s into a Swedish noble family. Some historians believe that she was the granddaughter of Sverker the Elder, a…

Swedish History: An introduction

10/01/2015 Mikaela

I have been talking about writing a series of blogposts about Swedish History for a long time, but I have been pondering how to structure it. Swedish history is… complex, to put it mildly. ( I am avoiding the 1100’s. The reigns of the kings were short.) But I have finally settled on a structure. More or less. First. I am not going to tell the complete Swedish History, but primarily focus on 1200-1500ish. At least at first. Second, I…