History of the Scottish expedition to Norway in 1612Michell, Thomas
History
History of the Scottish expedition to Norway in 1612
Michell, Thomas
Norway -- History -- Scottish Expedition, 1612
Although Mönnichhofen's expedition through Stordalen, and the
Scottish invasion of Romsdalen and Gudbrandsdalen which formed an
integral but unsuccessful part of that expedition, took place in
1612, no account of the latter appeared in print earlier than the
year 1688, when Puffendorff wrote his "Introduction to Swedish
History;" and it was only three years later that Widikindi, another
Swedish historian, gave a narrative of it in a History of Gustavus
Adolphus.
Among Danish historians, Niels Slange was the first of any eminence
to reproduce the now palpable errors of Puffendorff and Widikindi, in
a History of Christian IV., written in 1732.
In 1782, the subject of the Skottetog first became popularized in
Norway by the publication, in a periodical journal called the _Dansk
Museum_, of the spirit-stirring poem by Edvard Storm, which Norwegian
children still learn by heart and in song, and which has even been
well circulated in the English and German languages.[3]
[Illustration: THE LANDING OF THE SCOTS IN ROMSDALEN, 1612.
As depicted by the Norwegian artists Tiedemann and Gude.
_Page 11._]
But the first really important contribution towards the history of
the event was made in 1838, when Dean Krag of Vaage dedicated to
the descendants of the Bönder[4] who had fought at Kringelen
the _Sagas_, or traditions, he had personally collected in
Gudbrandsdalen, annotated with such historical references as were
then available.[5]
While the traditions he has so scrupulously preserved for us are of
great interest, if only because they indicate plainly the source
of the information on which Swedish, Danish, and even Scottish
accounts of the expedition into Romsdalen had been chiefly based,
he enriched history with copies of the first and only documents
that had apparently ever been drawn before his time, from State or
other archives, relative to the Scots who landed in Romsdalen. Those
documents were: a Report by the Norwegian Stadtholder, Envold Kruse,
to the Danish Chancellor, dated Aggershuus, 17th September 1612; and
three deeds of gift of land (all dated 3rd September 1613) to Lars
Hage, Peder Randklev, and Berdon Sejelstad, for their bravery and
loyal devotion on that occasion.
In that laborious little work Dean Krag pointed out that, with the
exception of Kruse's first Report (of which he had obtained a copy
from Copenhagen), all the writers after Puffendorff (1688) and
Widikindi (1691) had repeated, more or less, only what those two
historians had related. He also showed that Storm's poem had been
preceded by a popular ballad on the same subject, and of which he
collected and printed as much as was still extant in Gudbrandsdalen.
More recent historical research resulted in the discovery, also at
Copenhagen, of a second Report from Envold Kruse, the Stadtholder,
dated 3rd October 1612. It was first published between 1858 and
1860,[6] and was reproduced in a little work printed at Molde in
1877.[7]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account