Language: Swedish
The idea to tell about a Gömda Öland appeared in April 2015 during the work to uncover an overgrown burial mound on Stora Alvaret.
St. Per's keys bloomed in the thin elvish earth. In the air could be heard the harsh screeching of a pair of ravens. Were they Odin's ravens? Why has the cairn inherited the name Odensrör from one of our most feared asa gods? The book is about such things, about gods, burial mounds, villages, ancient castles and other things that people left behind. Some are easy to see, but much is hard to find. Remaining in Mittlandsskogen are still the well-preserved ruins of Eriksöre Österskog, the deserted village left by the poorest people of the 19th century. Today, the village where Eriksöre lived has been cleared out of the forest. From the village, it is not far to Lenstad ancient castle, which has left finds from the dramatic fourth century. Things that have disappeared include the old border marker Ingefred's Stone, which, however, has left behind a fantastic history that leads all the way back to the Kingdom of Sweden's takeover of power on Öland. But everything is not that old. You can still walk on the embankment after Öland's railway, where the last trains ran in 1961. The island's rich history has left traces everywhere. In 1897, the draining of Lenstad bog, one of the island's richest wetlands, began. The arable land that was to be won was not much of it. But today, the excavated bogs are some of Öland's finest orchid meadows. Thanks to a couple of Icelandic horses, I ended up in this fascinating borderland between elves and deciduous forest kingdom. There, in Lenstad, Kalkstad and the surrounding villages, I have stayed during the years it took to put this book together. Here I have explored the today increasingly overgrown deciduous forest environments, followed canals, ditches, dirt roads and stone walls. The work also led into the surveyor's treasure of old maps. The hidden Öland is the author's tenth book about the island.
Product information
Author & Photographer: Thorsten Jansson
Edition: 1
ISBN: 9789163969782
Language: Swedish
Weight: 380 grams
Released: 2021
Publisher: Mjöljöportage
Pages: 144