Scandinavian History Podcast

07/11/2025

In episode 120 of the SHP, we continue to explore how the Treaty of Tilsit between France and Russia in 1807 shook Scandinavia. This time, it's Sweden's turn. Just like the Danes, the Swedes underestimated the threat of the new Franco-Russian alliance, and they soon found themselves fighting yet another war against Russia in Finland. Links in the comments.

06/11/2025

Today, November 6, but in 1632, Gustavus Adolphus fell in the Battle of Lützen. In Sweden, the day used to be a thing, but not so much anymore.

In Finland, the day is still marked, but as Swedish Day, celebrating the bi-national aspect of the country.

04/11/2025

In 1811, when the Gunboat War was still going on, the Norwegian-born economist Christen Pram calculated how the war against Britain was affecting the subjects of King Fredrik VI. He concluded that eight percent of the Danes were worse off due to the war. No fewer than 48 percent of the population in Slesvig-Holstein were worse off, but in Norway a whopping 78 percent of the people were worse off. That, he felt, summed up how unevenly the war had hit Denmark-Norway. The implied conclusion was that Copenhagen had let Norway down.

30/10/2025

Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) wasn’t ashamed of his involvement in the bombardment of Copenhagen. On the contrary–he was quite proud of his achievements during the campaign. A horse foaled in 1808 (the year following the attack on Denmark) was named Copenhagen to celebrate the campaign. Wellesley bought the horse and rode it frequently, most famously during the Battle of Waterloo (a non-Scandinavian battle that lives on through the song by the properly Scandinavian group ABBA).

29/10/2025

As listeners of the SHP already know, there was a battle/massacre outside the walls of Visby on the island of Gotland in 1361. Now 900 skeletons from the battle will be DNA tested. Primarily to learn more about the plague a decade before, not to find their modern-day descendants.

https://www.helagotland.se/nyheter/visby/artikel/ny-studie-900-skelett-fran-1361-dna-testas-kan-spara-anhoriga/jp2391mr?fbclid=IwdGRjcANvFq1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHjDLSFSdn2mMVKvLPHi8wAlToWp98gikjPfB-eVNemcsCY301Z-Y9Z-8S5Oz_aem_3Kr5et2tEDM1xChnLbx53Q

För första gången ska det bli möjligt att spåra släktingar som stupade i slaget 1361. Just nu provtas nära 900 av de döda i ett världsunikt projekt. –...

27/10/2025

An unfortunate effect of the British bombardment of Copenhagen in 1807, was that the work of Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin went up in smoke. This Icelandic scholar had spent the previous 20 years of his life preparing the first modern edition of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. Luckily for Thorkelin, and the field of Old English literature, he managed to piece together the text again from surviving fragments, and could eventually publish his book in 1815.

21/10/2025

The latest episode of the Scandinavian History Podcast described the Laki eruption in 1783 and its consequences for events in Europe. But did you know that you can actually go and see the site of the eruption? If you ever visit Iceland, I definitely recommend that you include Laki in your plans. It's one of my favorite day trips when I'm touring the island of ice and fire.

You can find more information here:

At Laki a visitor trail tells the story of the catastrophic Laki Fires eruption in 1783–1784, and informs the visitor about the natural environment of the Lakagígar craters. The trail passes through one of the craters. The start of the visitor trail is marked by an information sign, where the vis...

18/10/2025

If you've ever been to London, I bet you've gone to Trafalgar Square to gawk at Horatio Nelson at the top of his column. The monument was erected to commemorate Nelson's triumph against the French at Trafalgar, but at the bottom are four large bronze panels depicting other important events in Nelson's life. One of the panels depicts Nelson during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

15/10/2025

You may think that I didn't give a complete picture of the French Revolution in the latest episode. You'd be right, but since the topic of this particular pocast is Scandinavian history, I felt I couldn't go on a 10-50 episode French tangent.

But don't worry: there are other podcasts you can listen to that deal with the goingson in France and on the continent in some detail. Here are my Top Three recommendations:

1) Mike Duncan's Revolutions (season 3)
2) Grey History's French Revolution & Napoleon
3) Everett Rummage's The Age of Napoleon

You'll find them wherever you listen to podcasts.

12/10/2025

The other evening I used AI to generate posters for three movies based on the latest episode of the podcast. Which one of these potential blockbusters would you run to the theaters to see?

10/10/2025

A new episode is here! As Gustav III strengthened the power of the crown, his French colleague Louis XVI was just about to lose his. The French revolution was a cataclysmic event that changed the world forever, both politically and culturally. Scandinavia was no exception. That’s perhaps only fair, since a dramatic Nordic event allegedly contributed to the revolution in the first place.

Listen to the episode to make sense of the attention grabbing pictures. Links in the comments below.

08/10/2025

The opera house that Gustav III built in the 1770s, and where he was shot some twenty years later, no longer exists. It was torn down in the 1880s to make way for the current royal opera. But we have a few photos of the building, taken shortly before it was demolished. The first one shows the facade, facing Gustavus Adolphus Square. The second photo is from the interior, with the royal box at the center (naturally). If you're curious to know what the old opera house looked like in color, you're in luck. At the other end of the square, Gustav's scheeming sister, Sophia Albertina, built a palace with a facade that mirrored the opera exactly. This building still stands, and today it houses the Swedish Foreign Office.