EMIGRATION FROM SWEDEN 



21 



own times. They brewed in secret. The failure of the crop continued, however, 

 and the people saw themselves on the brink of ruin. A suggestion was made in 

 the thing that all children, cripples and aged people should be put to death, only 

 those capable of bearing arms and of working should be allowed to live. The 

 commonalty and the king assented to this suggestion. But a compassionate woman 

 pointed out to the people the inhuman crime against the natural feelings for parents 

 and children that this decision implied, and suggested instead that lots should 

 be cast so as to select the necessary number of people to leave the country. 

 And this suggestion was accepted by the people. Saxo combines this account, 

 obviously based on old Danish tradition, with the abovementioned legend from 

 Paulus Diaconus as to the emigration of the Langobards. 



Saxo's recital appears again in the work that Olaus Magnus, the last catho> 

 lie archbishop of Sweden, had printed in Rome in 1555, On the Scandinavian 

 peoples*.* 



According to Olaus Magnus** the disting market (annual spring market) 

 at Uppsala got its name from Queen Disa: This gifted and resourceful woman 

 saw that the greater part of her people ran the risk of perishing by a terrible 

 famine caused by the supply of corn and rootcrops coming to an end owing to 

 the extremely unfavourable climate. She succeeded in persuading the people to 

 draw lots in order to decide which of them were to leave their native soil and 

 find new dwelling*places on the other side of the sea. Olaus Magnus adds 

 a few words, probably indicating that they had previously adopted the resolution 

 mentioned by Saxo, namely to kill those who were unfit for work. 



In the Danish Ryd yearbooks, written about 1300, is mentioned an emigra 

 tion of every third man among the bondsmen and poor people to the part of 

 the south coast of the Baltic inhabited by Slavonic and Finnish tribes***. Here 

 they remained, as they found these fertile tracts very pleasant. The fact that serfs 

 are mentioned as an essential contingent of the emigrants implies that it was bad 

 times that caused the emigration, for otherwise the Danes would not voluntarily 

 have resigned so valuable a part of their property as their serfs. 



Finally we may mention in this connection a remarkable account from ancient 

 Gotland. The Gotland legend, written down about 1350, probably composed about 

 a century earlier or somewhat more 1 ', mentions that after Gotland became colo* 

 nized the population increased so greatly in the course of time that the country 

 could not feed the whole of the people. By drawing lots it was decided who 

 had to leave the country so as to make room for those who stayed behind. A 

 third of the population was selected to go into exile. Those chosen were allo* 

 wed to take with them all they possessed above the ground, i. e. all movable 

 property. They did not like to leave their native country, however, and went 

 off to Torsborgen and settled there. But this was not in accordance with what had 

 been decided and they were expelled from there, after which they went to Faron, an 

 Island at the north end of Gotland. Here, however, they were unable to maintain 

 themselves, but crossed the Baltic to Dago on the Esthonian coast, were they built a 



* Bygden in Samlaren, XVII, p. 48. 



" 01. Mag. Ib IV, cap. 6. 



Cf. Stcenstrup, Norm. I, p. 194. 



t Pipping, Guta lag och Guta saga. f. 63. 



