Skvader
The Skvader ( Tetrao lepus pseudo-hybridus rarissimus L. ) is a fantasy animal or mythical creature from Sweden similar to the Wolpertinger . It has the head, trunk and paws of a hare ( Lepus ) and the wings and tail of a capercaillie ( Tetrao urogallus ).
Svenska Akademiens ordbok derives the name of the animal from the Swedish words skva ttra ("chirp") and tjä der ("capercaillie").
history
The Skvader has its origins in the hunter's Latin of Håkan Dahlmark. Dahlmark, a rafting inspector at the mouth of the Indalsälven and a hunter, told friends at the Hotel Knaust in Sundsvall that in 1874 he had shot a winged hare in the forest of Lunde near Timrå . He named the animal Skvader .
In 1907 his housekeeper Lova Lindahl gave Dahlmark a painting for his birthday that showed such a Skvader. The painting was painted by Lova's nephew Halvar Frisendahl, inspired by a hare and a capercaillie, bought on Sundsvall's market square.
Shortly before his death in 1912, Dahlmark donated it to Medelpads Fornminnesförening (a homeland association in the historic Medelpad province , where Sundsvall and Timrå are). The director of the association, Carl Erik Hammarberg, then had the idea of creating a “real” Skvader. When he at an exhibition in Örnsköldsvik the 1916 taxidermist Rudolf Granberg from Granloholm, a district Sundsvalls met, he reported that his plan. In 1918 Granberg was finally able to hand over the stuffed Skvader to Hammarberg, which has since been exhibited in the Craft and Maritime Museum on Norra Berget in Sundsvall. Frisendahl's painting can also be seen in the museum.
The Skvader quickly became the unofficial symbol for the city. In 1987, the Skvader won an unofficial vote on the animal of the historic Swedish province of Medelpad.
See also
Web links
- Skvadern , website of the Hantverks- och Sjöfartsmuseet in Sundsvall (in Swedish)
- The Skvader , Museum of Hoaxes (in English)
- Forgeries and Frauds : Strange Science (in English)