Olaus Magnus - On the three Main Gods of the Geats

''Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus'' was a monumental work by

Olaus Magnus Olaus Magnus (October 1490 – 1 August 1557) was a Swedish writer, cartographer, and Catholic ecclesiastic. Biography Olaus Magnus (a Latin translation of his birth name Olof Månsson) was born in Linköping in October 1490. Like his elder ...

on the Nordic countries, printed in Rome 1555. It was a work which long remained for the rest of Europe the authority on Swedish matters. Its popularity increased by the numerous woodcuts of people and their customs, amazing the rest of Europe. It is still today a valuable repertory of much curious information in regard to Scandinavian customs and folklore. It was translated into Italian (1565), German (1567), English (1658) and Dutch (1665). Abridgments of the work appeared also at Antwerp (1558 and 1562), Paris (1561), Basel (1567), Amsterdam (1586), Frankfurt (1618) and Leiden (1652). An exemplar was given to William Cecil during the Swedish king's wooing of queen

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...

of England, and in 1822 it would be referred to by

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...

.Wawn, Andrew (2000). The Vikings and the Victorians: Inventing the Old North in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge: Brewer. . pp. 17f.

Notes

References

(1555) ''Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus'', Ashgate Pub Co, /

External links

*
Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus
' at

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Description Of The Northern Peoples Historiography of Sweden Sources on Germanic paganism 1555 books 1555 in Sweden 16th-century Latin books