Götiska Förbundet
The Götiska Förbundet (Gothic League) was an association of Swedish writers who wanted to bring the spirit of Norse mythology into the first half of the 19th century.
The beginnings of the association were regular meetings of some (former) fellow students who wanted to celebrate the "old northerners". At these meetings they wore Viking helmets, drank from horns and gave themselves old Nordic names. Over time, the common idea developed at the meetings to bring the Scandinavian people closer to the spirit of the northerners through poetry and stories. Based on this idea, the group founded Götiska Förbundet in 1811. In their poems they mixed Old Norse with Celtic, Greek and Roman elements, thereby trying to make the old world of the north the subject of poetic treatment and historical research.
The most important founding members (with their Nordic names) were:
- Jakob Adlerbeth (Rolf, 1785–1844)
- Erik Gustaf Geijer (Einar, 1783–1847), Swedish writer
- Esaias Tegnér (Bodwar Bjarke, 1782–1846), Swedish poet
- Pehr Henrik Ling (Bosi, 1776–1839), Swedish poet and author
Erik Gustaf Geijer and Esaias Tegnér were the main authors of the Iduna magazine . She served the federal government as a mouthpiece for her poems and heroic sagas. Vikingen (Wikinger) and Odalbonden (Freibauer), two of Geijer's most famous poems, were published in the first issue of the magazine. In addition to countless poems, sagas, epics and songs, the greeting Hej! Is still used every day in Sweden today . come from the Gothic Covenant. The thoughts and ideas of this time became popular again in the German Empire and later during the time of National Socialism . However, the members of Götiska Förbundet did not have such an extreme attitude towards their Nordic roots as was taught, for example, under Hitler.
When Jakob Adlerbeth, the driving force behind the Gothic Covenant, died in 1844, the covenant was formally dissolved. The books collected over the years were donated to the Kungliga Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (Royal Academy for Scholarship, History and Antiques).
There is a second Götiska Förbundet, which, unlike the literary union, still exists today. The goals of both are similar, but they have nothing to do with each other.
Remarks
- ^ Meyers Konversationslexikon, Volume 14, Page 719
literature
- Otto Gottfried Lüttgendorff-Leinburg: House Treasure of Swedish Poetry, a Swedish anthology and literary history. Third volume. The Gothic School. 1810-1847 . Arnoldische Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1860 ( digitized version )