Consolidation of Sweden

Based on the origins of the name of the kingdom as meaning (Kingdom of the Swedes), some historians have argued that Sweden was unified when the Swedes first solidified their control over the regions they were living in. The earliest date for this is based on a brief section in the Roman historian Tacitus discussing the Suiones tribe."Suionum hinc civitates", Germania 44, 45

This would imply that a Swedish kingdom would have existed in the first to second centuries AD. However, with the increased rigour of historical method advanced in 20th century historical research, in Sweden as elsewhere, historians such as Curt Weibull and his brother Lauritz maintained that these perspectives have become obsolete. Modern historians noted that a millennium had passed between Tacitus and more in-depth and reliable documented accounts (or notices of contemporary events relating to Sweden by Frankish and German writers) of Swedish history. The work of Birger Nerman (1925), who argued that Sweden held a senior rank among the existing European states at the time represents a nationalist reaction to the academic historiography, with the latter taking a critical or cautious view of the value of old layers of sources of history{{citation |title=Nordic historiography in the 20th century |year=2000 |isbn=82-550-1057-2|last1=Meyer |first1=Frank |last2=Myhre |first2=Jan Eivind |publisher=University of Oslo, Department of History }} especially if these documents and traditions are unsupported by any direct traces, any footprint of events and social or political conditions in the archaeological records, buildings, coinage etc. of the age in question.

The names Swedes and Geats are attested in the Old English poems Beowulf (written down in the 11th century) and Widsith (from the 8th century) and building on older legendary and folklore material collected in England.Thunberg, Carl L. (2012). Att tolka Svitjod. Göteborgs universitet. CLTS. pp. 41-44. {{ISBN|978-91-981859-4-2}}. In both poems, an Ongentheow (corresponding to Angantyr in Icelandic sagas) is named as the King of the Swedes, and the Geats are mentioned as a separate people. These names of peoples living in present-day Sweden, the Anglo-Saxon references and now lost tales they were attached to must have travelled across the North Sea. The first time the two peoples are documented to have had a common ruler is during the reign of Olof Skötkonung about AD 1000.{{citation|title=Nationalencyclopedin online|url=http://www.ne.se/uppslagsverk/encyklopedi/l%C3%A5ng/olof-sk%C3%B6tkonung}}"Olof Skötkonung brukar anföras som den förste kung som med säkerhet kan sägas ha regerat över såväl Svealand som Götaland.", "Olof Skötkonung is usually attributed as the first king that we know for sure ruled over both Svealand and Götaland".

Rather than the unification of tribes under one king, others maintain that the process of consolidation was gradual. Nineteenth-century scholars saw the unification as a result of a series of wars based on evidence from the Norse sagas. For example, according to the Norwegian Historia Norwegiae and the Icelandic historian Snorri Sturlusson, a 7th-century king called Ingjald illråde burnt a number of subordinate kings to death inside his hall, thus abolishing the petty kingdoms in the consolidation of Sweden.

According to Sverre Bagge, unification in Sweden centered on controlling the areas around the major lakes in Sweden.{{Cite book|last=Bagge|first=Sverre|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fgk28|title=Early state formation in Scandinavia|date=2009|publisher=Austrian Academy of Sciences Press|isbn=978-3-7001-6604-7|volume=16|pages=150|jstor=j.ctt3fgk28}}

• Sweden proper
• History of Scandinavia
• Early Swedish history
• Götaland theory

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|author=Maja Hagerman|title=Spåren av kungens män: om när Sverige blev ett kristet rike i skiftet mellan vikingatid och medeltid|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BdvkXwAACAAJ|year=2004|publisher=Pan|language=Swedish|isbn=978-91-7263-558-6}}
• {{cite book|author=Dick Harrison|title=Jarlens sekel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bvE5Xhvr3vUC|year=2002|publisher=Ordfront Förlag|language=Swedish|isbn=978-91-7441-359-5}}
• {{cite book|author1=Stig Hadenius|author2=Torbjörn Nilsson|author3=Gunnar Åselius|title=Sveriges historia: vad varje svensk bör veta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8rspNAAACAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Bonnier Alba|language=Swedish|isbn=978-91-34-51784-4}}
• {{cite book|author=Jan Arvid Hellström|title=Vägar till Sveriges kristnande|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nt23AAAACAAJ|year=1996|publisher=Atlantis|language=Swedish|isbn=978-91-7486-233-1}}
• {{cite book|author1=Henrik Lindström|author2=Fredrik Lindström|title=Svitjods undergång och Sveriges födelse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HegnAQAAMAAJ|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Albert Bonniers Förlag|isbn=9789100107895|language=Swedish}}
• {{cite book|author=Birger Nerman|title=Det Svenska Rikets Uppkomst|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEqdmgEACAAJ|year=1925|publisher=Generalstab|language=Swedish}}
• {{cite book|author=P. H. Sawyer|title=The Making of Sweden|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TxvHAAAAIAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Viktoria Bokförlag|isbn=978-91-86708-08-5}}
• {{cite book|author=Carl L. Thunberg|title=Att tolka Svitjod|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IBNgzgEACAAJ|year=2012|publisher=Göteborgs universitet. CLTS|isbn=978-91-981859-4-2}}

{{Barbarian kingdoms}}

{{Germanic peoples}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Consolidation Of Sweden}}

Category:States and territories disestablished in the 1000s

Category:Medieval history of Sweden

Sweden

Category:Historical geography of Sweden

Category:Political history of Sweden

Category:Barbarian kingdoms