THE IMMIGRATION OF OUR FORE* 

 FATHERS TO THE NORTH 



BY 



OSCAR MONTELIUS 



STOCKHOLM 



AMONGST OTHER PRECIOUS RELICS, WHICH HAVE BEEN 

 preserved to the present day from the time of the sumptuous Erik XIV, 

 is a valuable tapestry. This shows a Iife»size representation of the first 

 king of Sweden, according to a Latin inscription. The name of the king is Sven, 

 as one would expect of the progenitor of the Swedes; he was the son of Magog, 

 whom we recognize from the First Book of Moses, as a son of Japhet, and a 

 grandson of Noah. 



The tapestry is an illustration of »The History of the Gotar and the Svear», 

 published at that time by Archbishop Johannes Magni, according to whom Magog 

 was the first king of the Gotar (Goths), and his son Sven the first king of the 

 Svear. Ubbe, the brother of Sven, succeeded him about 246 years after the Deluge, 

 and built the city of Upsala, according to the Archbishop's history. 



The question regarding our forefathers' immigration to the North was, 400 

 years ago, easily responded to, and the answer was very satisfactory: »our fore* 

 fathers arrived here immediately after the Deluge». 



Towards the end of the 17th century, when Sweden was at the height of her 

 political power, this date was not ancient enough for the Swedish people. Olof 

 Rudbeck in the »Atlantica» informed his delighted contemporaries, that the Swed» 

 ish peninsula was peopled before the Deluge, and that even then, the inhabitants 

 of Sweden were in a high state of culture. After the Deluge, Japhet's sons Magog 

 ^ and Mesek came to the North. The former founded in Sweden the ancient Gothic, 

 and the latter in Finland, the Finnish Empire. Magog's realm was divided bet« 

 ween his sons Sven and Getar, who founded the Svea and Gothic Empires. 



We must not forget that this belief was advanced quite seriously, and proof 

 thereof was developed with all the wisdom, invention, and ingenuity, which di* 

 stinguished Olof Rudbeck, one of the mightiest and most esteemed figures we meet 

 with in the history of Swedish science. The doctrines of the »Atlantica» delighted 

 both king and people. To deny their truth, was looked upon as a crime against 

 our native country, and the few doubters were compelled to silence by the fear 

 of Charles XI, and Magnus de la Gardie. 



The foregoing remarks formed the introduction to an article I published in 

 the first number of the »Nordisk Tidskrift* for^ 1884j^in which I attempted, as 

 well as I could at that time, to solve the problem: »Of the immigration of our 

 forefathers to the North». 



I showed that our Germanic forefathers lived in Scandinavia as far back as 

 the later Stone«Age, thus about 5,000 years ago. The grounds for this statement 

 were principally two. One was, that after the end of the Stone^Age there are 



