Scandinavian History Podcast

04/04/2025

Picking up literature for a future episode

01/04/2025

A new episode of the SHP is here!

After the disaster at Poltava, the Swedish empire started to unravel. But instead of hurrying home to try and save what he could, Karl XII spent years in the Ottoman Empire. He wasn’t enjoying an extended vacation in southern climes, though. He was trying to convince the sultan to attack Russia, thereby easing the pressure on Sweden.

Links in the comments.

23/03/2025

After the battle of Helsingborg in 1710 that featured in the latest episode, the victorious Swedish general Magnus Stenbock dispatched a messenger to Stockholm to let the Council know that he had saved the kingdom from total collapse.

The arrival of Stenbock's courier has been immortalized in a poem by Carl Snoilsky called "Stenbock's Courier" (what else?), as well as in a painting by Nils Forsberg called (you guessed it) "Stenbock's Courier". In the poem, the messenger hurries to Stockholm to inform the dowager queen of the victory at Helsingborg, and when he arrives he's exhausted. He's so tired that the poem end with a truly shocking scene: "he sits, and she stands".

For those of you who want to challenge yourselves a little more than Duolingo does, here's the last stanza of the poem in the original Swedish:

Med lugn på skrynklig panna
Men dödsblek som en hamn,
Den ädla fru sig reser
Ur kronprydd länstols famn.
"Sitt, herr kornett!" hon säger,
Och hovet skåda får
En syn förutan like:
Han sitter, och hon står.

20/03/2025

It may not come as a huge surprise to you that few Swedish painters have been inspired to depict the battle of Poltava in their monumental works.

So instead I bring you this painting by the 19th century artist Alexander Kotzebue. Note that the scene mirrors the one from Narva that I posted last time, but here it's the Swedes who are forced to present their regimental colors to the winning Russians.

17/03/2025

The results from the Episode 102 Spotify Poll are in! I know you're all excited to hear how it turned out, so without any further ado, here we go:

The question accompanying the episode was:
In your opinion, what should Karl XII have done after beating Denmark and Poland?

Not a single one of you thought he should have joined the War of Spanish Succession, showing that I have uncommonly intelligent listeners.

A third of you thought he should have invaded Russia.

Two thirds of you thought he should have done the opposite and made peace with Russia instead. In light of the developments in episode 103, I can only assume that you feel vindicated.

Congratulations!

16/03/2025

is this true 🤣🤣

14/03/2025

Episode 103 has dropped! After defeating Denmark and Poland, Karl XII only needed to crush the Russians in order to declare victory in the Great Northern War. So as soon as he was done with his side quest in Saxony, he marched on Moscow to face the Final Boss, Peter the Great.

Links in the comments.

11/03/2025

This is how Ejnar Mikkelsen, a Danish explorer, was photographed in 1912 when he was found. Ejnar was isolated with Iver Iversen, from his own expedition, for two and a half years in a cabin in Greenland awaiting rescue.
Ejnar was sent from Denmark to recover the map and journal of a previous lost expedition that sought to prove that Peary Sound did not exist. According to the United States, Greenland was not a single island, but was divided by the Peary Sound, so it claimed that part of the territory as its own.
Mikkelsen's expedition had numerous problems and delays, and eventually Ejnar and Iver were abandoned by the other members. Due to lack of food, they were forced to eat the dogs that pulled their sled, suffered hallucinations while chasing imaginary animals, were attacked by bears, etc.
A photograph can be seen on the wall behind Ejnar in the photo. It shows the 53 female students of a home economics school who filled their long Arctic days. They talked so much about the photo that a fight even broke out when Iversen dedicated a love song to the girl Mikkelsen had chosen as his girlfriend. Iversen had chosen four friends in the photo, so Ejnar was angry when the other tried to take the one she had chosen away from him. He was so upset that he did not speak to Iversen for two days.
Mikkelsen returned to Denmark a hero, having managed to recover the maps from the previous expedition, which showed that the Peary Channel did not exist and that Greenland was therefore Danish. He also ended his photographic courtship when he met Naja Marie Heiberg Holm, the daughter of another explorer, whom he married a few months later.

06/03/2025

Since it's become something of a tradition to add paintings to illustrate the goings-on covered in the episodes, I can't keep this 3x4 meter gem from you.

In 1905, Gustaf Cederström made this massive painting called "The Victory at Narva". It depicts defeated Russians surrendering their regimental standards to Karl XII. To the right in the background you can see the city of Narva.

The original painting can be admired at the National Museum of Art in Stockholm.

03/03/2025

In the Spotify poll for Episode 101, "Empire", I asked:

In your opinion, which of Karl XI’s three reforms was the most important to strengthen Sweden?

A solid majority of you agreed that one of these reforms was more important than the others, because these were your responses:

1) Land confiscations (11%)
2) The Allotment System (67%)
3) Absolutism (22%)

A new poll is live now. Go check it out!*

*) But remember to listen to the episode first.

28/02/2025

It's every other Friday, so you know what that means: another episode is here to distract you from February going on outside.

In the year 1700, Sweden was ruled by an autocratic teenager with impulse control issues. That could have been bad enough, but then Denmark, Poland and Russia declared war and attacked simultaneously. Karl XII was going to have to shape up, and fast, if he wanted to remain king of anything at all in the years to come.

Links in the comments.

24/02/2025

You're asking yourself what absolute monarchs of the 1600s did to amuse themselves? I don't know if Christian V is representative of any trend, but he had a whoopie cushion chair.

Chair from the court of Christian V of Denmark. The chair has trapping mechanisms in the arms, a bellow in the seat that acts as a whoopee cushion and a water tank in the back to emulate the sound of the sitter peeing their pants. Late 17th century.

19/02/2025

In the latest episode, I mentioned the fire that destroyed the medieval royal castle in Stockholm, known as "Three Crowns". Here's a 1866 painting by Johan Fredrik Höckert, depicting the evacuation of the royal family with Karl XII leading his grandmother, dowager queen Hedvig Eleonora, down the stairs.

The second image is a paiting of what the castle looked like in 1661, painted by Govert Camphuysen.

19/02/2025

A Danish coin minted to celebrate that Karl X Gustav failed to capture Copenhagen. Hear all about it in episode 97.

This Denmark 1659 Krone was struck during a war that almost saw Sweden capture Copenhagen. It shows the hand of God cutting off the hand of the Swedish king as it reaches for the Danish crown. This is one of nearly 1,000 NGC-certified Scandinavian coins from the L. E. Bruun Collection being offered by Stack's Bowers this month. Learn more: NGCcoin.com/news/article/13775

16/02/2025

The results from the Spotify poll about epsiode 100 are ready!

The question was: "What surprised you the most in the episode about Scandinavian witch trials?"

Your answers:
1) Sweden beheaded witches before burning them (33.3%)
2) Mostly men were executed for witchcraft in Iceland (16.7%)
3) Witchcraft was illegal in Norway until 1842 (50%)

Concratulations to the winners, that is all of you who were surprised to find that there was still a Norwegian law against witchcraft when Queen Victoria acceeded to the throne.