This dissertation describes the Old Swedish Saints' lives from a philological and stylistic view-point, relating vernacular hagiographic texts to social institutions. A complete survey of manuscripts containing Old Swedish Saints' lives and miracles is made. A stratified selection of the manuscripts is then subjected to both qualitative and quantitative analyses of style, in which both diachronic and synchronic aspects are taken into consideration. The study demonstrates that there are considerable differences between Saints' lives written for a lay audience and Saints' lives written for a monastic audience. The latter favour bound transmission from their foreign sources and a monastic ideological information structure, using complex syntax and displaying an elaborate punctuation. This is due to their function as a basis for meditative reflection. Saints' lives for a lay audience, by contrast, are adapted so that narrative information and simple syntax are favoured. These texts are more entertaining - although with a moral point. The highly literate Vadstena Abbey played a crucial role in the development of the monastic hagiographic style in the vernacular. The brethren employed a uniform, religious prose style, ranging from information structure to punctuation, for the hagiographic material as well as for other edifying texts. This style developed into a written Bridgettine Old Swedish standard. Keywords: Philology, stylistics, literacy, Old Swedish Saints' lives, transmission, transcription, information structure, syntax, punctuation, Vadstena Abbey Språk i boken: svenska

Roughly half of the pages of this dissertation constitute a critical edition of the late medieval nobleman Gregers Matsson's account books, C 29-32 in the National Record Office (Riksarkivet), Stockholm. About 80 % of the material is assumed, on grounds of linguistic evidence and content, to have been written by Gregers himself, and his entire known production written in his own hand is included in this edition, with the exception of a few lines in the previously published Upplands lagmansdombok (Upplandic Chief Magistrate's Judgment Book), lines which can now be seen as having been identified. The philological edition is accompanied by a commentary and registers of individuals, places, and words. These registers should enhance the usefulness of the edition, not least for other disciplines, perhaps history in particular. The commentary takes up interesting linguistic features of the 14 different hands, with the emphasis on the hand that is believed to be that of Gregers Matsson himself. Other subjects of introductions and commentaries include the genre of medieval accounting; scribes and their handwriting; the physical appearance of the manuscripts; measures, weights, and coinage; and words of special semantic interest. The edition is illustrated with an appendix of 15 photographs showing samples of the different hands and the covers of the volumes. Keywords: philology, transcription, analysis of handwriting, Old Swedish, epenthetic vowels, delabialization, medieval accounts, Tyresi:i, Stegeborg. Språk i boken: svenska

Roughly two thirds of this volume constitutes a critical edition of the late medieval nobleman Gregers Matsson's food and fodder book for Stegeborg 1487- 1492, C 33 in the National Record Office (Riksarkivet), Stockholm. This work, together with the previous Gregers Matsson's account books (Gregers Matssons riikenskaper, 1996), presents the bulk of his written remains. The philological edition is accompanied by a commentary and registers of individuals, places, and words. These registers should enhance the usefulness of the edition, not least for other disciplines, perhaps history in particular. The commentary takes up some linguistic features of the seven different hands, although in a more cursory manner than in the previous work. This is due to the more stereotype nature of this volume and the small extent of the contributions by all scribes except Francie, who was Danish and probably came from the now Swedish province ofScania (Skane). Other subjects of commentaries include the genre of medieval accounting; scribes and their handwriting; the physical appearance of the manuscript; measures, weights, and coinage; and words of special semantic interest. The edition is illustrated with an appendix of 8 photographs showing samples of the different hands and the cover of the volume. Keywords: philology, transcription, analysis of handwriting, Old Swedish, Old Danish, medieval accounts, Stegeborg. Språk i boken: svenska

Critical edition. Introduction with analysis of genesis of the texts, description of working-model in the bishop's chancery and presentation of the scribes. Analysis of the history of the manuscript after the Reformation. Keywords: Old Swedish, medieval latin, Hans Brask, medieval letters, medieval chancery, registry, history, the Reformation, diocese of Linköping. Språk i boken: svenska

Dans ce volume est présentée une édition d'une collection de sermons médiévaux. Le texte date du xve siècle; il est écrit en ancien suédois, mais il y a aussi des parties en latin, notamment des citations bibliques et patristiques. L'édition se base principalement sur le manuscrit Cod. AM 787 4°. Une introduction générale est suivie par une déscription des differents manuscrits et fragments et un exposé du développement du texte: relations entre les manuscrits et sources utilisées. Le volume contient aussi un tableau avec indications de la structure textuelle des sermons individuels et des registres de citations de la Bible et des Révélations de Sainte Brigitte. Keywords: Old Swedish, Latin, medieval sermons, medieval manuscripts, Vadstena abbey. Språk i boken: engelska

This book is an edition of Cod. Holm. A 3, a manuscript from Vadstena abbey containing the Birgittine sisters' official table readings in Old Swedish, i.e., official text to be read aloud during meal time at the sisters' convent. The manuscript is dated 1502 according to its prologue, and is written by four different hands. The main scribes are known by their names, Katharina Gudhmundi and Anna Girmundi (both were nuns in the abbey). Maybe one of the anonymous hands may be the manuscript's corrector, Elseby Gjordsdotter. The manuscript was commissioned by the abbess Anna Fickesdotter. The manuscript, composed of 156 parchment leaves written on two columnist, contains 98 different texts, complete or partial, of devotion, such as Saint Birgitta's Revelations, commentaries on the Bible, Old Swedish translations of the well-known mystics Henrik Suso and Mechthild of Hacke born, Saints lives and the like. Most of the texts are copied from older manuscripts that were owned by the sisters' convent at Vadstena abbey. The introduction to this edition provides a codicological description of the manuscript together with a presentation of its content. The edition itself follows the manuscript as close as possible. To each folio and each line of the manuscript corresponds a page and a line in the edition. In addition the medieval interpunctuation is edited and the text is not normalised. The text is completed by a critical apparatus which supplies the following information: scribal mistakes, identification of the citations of the Bible and the auctoritates, detailed codicological information, variant readings from other manuscripts containing the same texts as Cod. Holm. A 3. Keywords: Old Swedish, Vadstena abbey, table readings, devotional literature, manuscripts, codicology. Språk i boken: svenska

The object of this dissertation is the range, distribution, and usage of words imported from Middle Low German in medieval charters originating from the Swedish province of Närke. The charters are all written in Old Swedish between the years 1350 and 1520. The study reveals that some examples of certain imported words display traits of being foreign words (Germ. Fremdwörter), although they in many cases have existed in Old Swedish for quite some time in more orthographically and morphologically integrated forms. The forms in question are most frequent in charters issued in the early 16th century, primarily in the office of Örebro castle. The occurrence of imported words containing the three prefixes be-, for(e)- and vidher- can be located mainly to three areas in Närke: the town of Örebro, the convent of Riseberga, and the south-east of the province. Some manifestations of the prefix be- can be traced back to Middle Low German written forms. The amount and diversity of the imported words used in the different formulas which charters are composed of are discussed. The formulas which constitute the main body of the texts and the core of their content are found to display the largest quantity and variety of imported words. The frequency of the imported words is also studied from social, regional and chronological perspectives respectively. The charters issued by the burghers of Örebro and the miners of Noraskogen are found to be richest in imported words, followed by texts issued by members of the nobility. Regarding the regional comparison, the charters originating from the northern parts of Närke, where the town of Örebro and the Noraskogen mining district are located, and from the south-east of the province contain the largest amount of imported words. The chronological comparison shows that both the number and the frequency of the imported words increase over time. Språk i boken: svenska

The literacy and learning that can be attributed to the female convent at Vadstena Abbey have not been yet thoroughly investigated, a lacuna this book aims to remedy. Through an analysis of the social community and a close reading of the texts transmitted by Cod. Holm. A 3, a significant manuscript used in the convent for table reading, this study dis¬cusses the textual world that structured the nuns’ life at Vadstena Abbey and thus attempts for the first time to take seriously the learning of the nuns of Vadstena. The first part of the book deals with the literacy events that were significant for the female convent, then turns to the literacy competences that can be found among the nuns of Vadstena Abbey, and finally describes the form of education the sisters could receive. The convent was literate, in both a professional and a pragmatic perspective. Many nuns were able to read and write in vernacular, some also in Latin. If only occasional examples of literate women at the convent are known before 1450, it appears that the literacy competence then increased signific¬antly, a situation which suggests that the nuns may have learned to read and eventually to write in the monastery under the supervision of a mentor. The learning of the nuns was marked by the mystical movement of the second half of the 15th century. This can be shown by an analysis not only of the works the sisters read but also of the textual structure of the monastic readings at the female convent. The auctoritates quoted in these texts taught the nuns in exegetical questions and ideological issues im¬portant for the Birgittines. Knowledge of the monastic virtues was of considerable importance in this education, especially humility which was explored in nearly all texts read in the convent. The second part of the book offers a close reading of a table reading manuscript which was produced in the beginning of the 16th century. This manuscript proved to be very important for the nunnery’s intellectual context as the daily read¬ings during the meals were an opportu¬nity for the monastery to emphasize ideologies and beliefs that the nuns should support. The table readings followed an old ritual as many of the texts that should be read were copied from older manuscripts. But notwithstanding their textual tradition, the texts to be preferred were obviously didactic and intended to educate the nuns. These texts must be seen as a bridge between the beliefs of the collectivity and the nuns’ private worshipping. There is in these texts a meditative tone which concurred to place the concrete daily routines and duties into an abstract Christological frame. Språk i boken: svenska

This is a commented edition of a series of Late medieval (1500- 1513?) accounts connected to copper mining in the parish of Åtvid, now the town of Åtvidaberg, Sweden, and its vicinities. Most of these accounts report deliveries of household wares from a central but undefined place in Åtvid to farmers, who partly seem to be engaged in copper production, and to seemingly professional copper miners as well. These accounts are kept in the National Archives of Sweden under five manuscripts sigla: C 45, 46, 47, 48 and 50, comprising altogether about 50 pages written by many different hands. The accounts can be traced back to a Johan Bese, a country nobleman, dead 1505, and his daughter Gunnild Johansdotter, married Bielke. Both are known for having been granted Åtvid as a fief by the two succsessive Sture regents. Their residence was Herrsäter in Värna parish near Åtvid. In the introductory part the connection between the accounts and the Bese family is discussed, starting with a paper document dated January 1, 1500, in which some wealthy business men and the future regent Svante Sture agree to initiate copper mining near Åtvidaberg. It is argued that this document can illuminate the accounts. In the main part of the edition all text of the accounts is transcribed and interpreted into Modern Swedish and the commodity for each person or client are commented upon, with focus on C 46 where also older transactions mentioned and crossed out in the other lists are put together and scrutinized. C 46 is shown to be a later summary of the other lists by its scribe and supposedly compiled for Gunnild Johansdotter after her return from Finland in 1513. In C 45, called “the old book” by the compilator and containing older private accounts for Johan Bese, there is a second part with the year 1510 at the top of a column, which indicates that the notes here are connected to Johan Beses heirs. In the accounts we meet people directly involved in copper mining and manufacturing through a great variety of reported transactions, where often copper measured by weight and produced at several local foundries is expected as payment for different imported wares like salt, hops and cloth but also dried fish, corn and meat, the latter consisting of many pairs of oxen, probably used for transport. Often we get collateral information about copper foundries and other localities, and we find here first mention of mines from medieval Sweden. Some notes even indicate that copper kettles and pans were manufactured for sale. In fact, these accounts are the very first written source of copper mining in Åtvidaberg some decades before the efforts of king Gustavus Wasa to exploit copper finds there again, and that in turn takes place more than two centuries before the copper industry of the 18th century. Key words: accounts, copper mining, Åtvid, foundries, medieval, 16th century. Språk i boken: svenska

Svenska fornskriftsällskapet bildades 1843 och har alltsedan dess haft till syfte att ge ut äldre svenska skrifter, företrädesvis fornsvenska, samt arbeten som bygger på eller behandlar sådana; bland dessa kan nämnas Söderwalls fornsvenska ordbok med supplement. Länge var sällskapets intresse begränsat till skrifter som helt, eller i varje fall delvis, var på svenska, men från och med 1924 har, vid sidan av den ursprungliga serien, också latinska skrifter givits ut, bl.a. Sancta Birgitta, Reuelaciones. Ännu en serie, Smärre texter och undersökningar, startades i samband med 150-årsjubileet 1993. En fjärde serie, tidigt påbörjad men sporadiskt utgiven, omfattar bibliografiska arbeten; här är det i första hand fråga om den fornsvenska litteraturen. Varje år utger sällskapet normalt minst ett nummer i någon av dessa serier.

This thesis describes K. F. Söderwall’s dictionary Ordbok öfver svenska medeltids-språket (1884–1918), Sdw, focusing on its representation of Old Swedish in relation to contemporaneous linguistics and lexicography. Lexicography is studied as part of the language sciences and in a socio-cultural context. The study draws on methodological principles of linguistic historiography and on two models based on four types of lexicographic historiography and four metalexicographic structures. Four topics are explored: 1) The lexicographer’s scholarly and socio-cultural context illustrates that the era the dictionary was created in was favourable for the historical study of language, undergoing an epistemological and methodological shift from a romantic view of language in context to a linguistic view of language as a system. 2) The lexicographer does not consistently adhere to contemporaneous – historical-romantic or neogrammarian – scholars, indicating that his aim was not to propound a research program, but rather to describe the Old Swedish encountered in the sources. 3) Sdw remains profoundly important in its field and serves – perhaps unintentionally – as a lexical codification of Old Swedish. This is studied through the dictionary’s printed sources and through the normalization of its lemmas. The sources correspond adequately to the Old Swedish texts published at the time, although the textual references reveal a slight predominance of translated literary texts. The lemma forms suggest that the aim was neither to normalize the lexicon according to certain theories, nor to reflect a certain dialect, genre or other part of the language period; rather the lexicographer takes a philological stance in considering the history and instances of each word. 4) Sdw shares most formal traits with its Old West Scandinavian counterparts in the study of a few Germanic historical dictionaries available at the time. Språk i boken: svenska

This work describes the writing practices of the Vadstena Abbey as they appear in the oldest extant charters of the Abbey. The Abbey is known for the extensive production of manuscripts there, but little is known of the oldest manuscripts as only a limited number have survived. However, charters are a type of text that have been preserved and stored in large number in the Abbey archive. These include 47 charters from the period 1368-1375 in Old Swedish, where the content documents the property belonging to the Abbey. These charters have been systematically examined at various linguistic levels to provide an overview of the oldest use of language in methods of abbreviation vary across various charters but some patterns may be discerned. In line with prior research, it is assumed that these charters were written by the recipients, with some exceptions. It was in the interest of the prospective Abbey to document it’s property. One significant finding is that most of the actors concerned with the charters, those responsible for drawing up the charters, witnesses of seals and the recipients, were part of the network surrounding the founder of the Abbey, Birgitta Birgersdotter. They were from aristocratic families, members of the Privy Council, and many of them were related to Birgitta or had some other close association with her. A paleographic analysis has indicated that the charters have been the work of many writers, suggesting that there were many literate people among the community at the Abbey: the novices, the abbess and the founders. The system of formula for the charters has been based on a fairly consistent pattern with a concentration of fixed phrases, which suggests there was a wish to attain internal consistency. The system of formula employed in the writing of the charters also suggests close collaboration between writers. There are also several charters which have been drawn up in connection with religious festivals. The orthography of the charters has also been examined and this indicates a certain level of orthographic stability with regard to words that occur frequently. The words have been abbreviated more than twice. The most common principle of hyphenation has been to separate syllables of a single word and a hyphen inserted and to carry a consonant cluster to the next line, a principle which facilitates reading comprehension. The punctuation system is well developed and punctuation is predominantly rhythmic, but the units that are punctuated conform closely to syntactic units. Pertinence formulations, proper name phrases and place names are particularly marked. The charters contain few corrections which suggests that no institutional proof-reading was carried out. Most commonly, the writers themselves have corrected their own errors and those corrections that have been made are mainly concerned with content. But a number of corrections related to orthographic form indicate a general orthographic standard existed. The purpose of this research on the oldest charters in Old Swedish at the Abbey has been to outline the oldest writing practices as they appear in the charters. The roots of the written language that eventually developed in the Abbey may be discerned in the oldest writing practices. During the initial stage of a new writing environment various individual features of writing gradually merged into a more uniform form. Keywords: Charters, literacy, Vadstena Abbey, Old Swedish, witnesses of seals, palaeography, system for formula, syllabification, punctuation, orthography, abbreviation, correction. Språk i boken: svenska

The primary aim of this book is to attempt to identify the author of Eric’s Chronicle. Previous argumentation regarding who commissioned the Chronicle has not been impartial, which has also obscured the issue of its authorship. Here it is argued that the instigator was lawspeaker Birger Persson, father of Saint Bridget. With regard to the issue of authorship, the general opinion has been that the author was to be found within the circle close to Duke Eric and Duke Valdemar. Despite this, no researcher has previously considered the solution that lies closest to hand, namely that the author was the Duke’s own secretary. His name was Tyrgils Kristineson. The identity and contacts of the chronicler has been determined using genealogical methods. Tyrgils was a canon in Skara and Växjö, son of a priest and an unmarried woman through whom he was a member of a prominent circle of relatives. Through his mother he was related to several persons who play an important part in Eric’s Chronicle, which throws new light on several aspects of its configuation. Canon Tyrgils’ position as the Dukes’ secretary has similar significance. The interest shown by Dutchess Ingeborg has considerable significance for the genesis of the Chronicle, although Birger Persson was the actual instigator. It is probable that Tyrgils left his post with Ingeborg in 1324 and therefore was provided with the time between 1325 and 1326 to compose the Chronicle. The fact that several characteristics support an origin in Uppland and others an origin in Västergötland is to be explained by the commissioner being lawspeaker Birger Persson from Uppland, and author Canon Tyrgils, from Västergötland. A large part of this book is dedicated to clarifying the manner in which the manuscripts containing Eric’s Chronicle, that is to say Cod. Holm. D 4, D 4 a, D 3 (and D 2), have been passed down. Using detailed genealogical argumentation, the passage of the important manuscripts is followed from generation to generation up to the 17th century. Gustav Algotsson (Sture) emerges as a central figure. D 4 (which section of the Chronicle was later excised) was written for him. He was married to Märta Ulfsdotter (Sparre av Hjulsta and Ängsö) for whom D4 a was written with content which is similar to that of D 4. D 3 was subsequently written for their daughter, Elin Gustavsdotter. His first wife, Elin Arvidsdotter (Oxenstierna) was also of significance for the content of D 4. Thereto there is a relationship between Gustav’s two wives. Thereby it is clear that the central manuscripts and the Chronicle were handed down within the same family. Keywords: Rhymed chronicles, determination of authorship, old Swedish, manuscript tradition, genealogy (medieval noble families), Scandinavian history. Språk i boken: svenska

Svenska fornskriftsällskapet (The Old Swedish Society) was founded as a non-profit association in 1844 for the purpose of publishing documents written in Swedish and Latin and composed in Sweden before about 1600, together with learned works dealing with such documents. The present volume describes the history of the Society during the third fifty-year period of its existence, between 1944 and 1993. The content of the general section includes a description of the charter, board meetings, general meetings of members and membership of the board. In addition, a summary is provided of the works published during this period, together with a brief description of each title listed. There is a specific section dealing with the finances of the Society during the period. This section is followed by a series of short biographies of board members during this same period. Two indexes are provided in this volume, where one lists persons by name and the other lists texts and manuscripts. Ten tables appear at the end of the volume, where the first lists all members of the board and their years of service on the board, the remaining ones cover various aspects of the finances of the Society. Keywords: Medieval texts, publication of learned works, secular texts in Old Swedish, religious literature in Old Swedish, Swedish medieval texts in Latin, Old Swedish laws, the writings of Saint Birgitta. Språk i boken: svenska

The parchment volume C 92 in Uppsala university library contains a catalogue of popes, a list of bishops and archbishops in Uppsala, a Swedish regnal list and an annal. The four texts were written at Uppsala cathedral by one hand, with later additions by other hands. The bishops’ and kings’ lists were written around 1290, the catalogue of popes and the annal around 1305. The annal later became the starting point for the memorial book of Vadstena abbey, but it must have been kept in Uppsala at least until 1344. The Scandinavian catalogues of popes have not been scrutinized earlier and imply French contacts in the late 12th century. The list of bishops contains traces of an obituary list from Uppsala, begun in the 1160’s, and a number of entries in the annal probably derive from the same source. An analysis of the regnal list points to four different Swedish traditions in this genre, two of which were exported to Iceland before 1250. Nearly 20 historical texts, most of which have disappeared, seem to have been at hand in Uppsala before 1344. Most noteworthy are the obituary, a list of bishops begun in the 1160’s, and an annal that probably was written by the Sigtuna Dominicans around 1250. Keywords: catalogue of popes, regnal list, bishops’s list, annals, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Middle Ages, scriptoria, Uppsala cathedral chapter, Sigtuna Dominicans, King Valdemar’s cadaster, Hugo of Saint Victor. Språk i boken: svenska

In medieval western Europe, no capital cities existed. The rulers and their court were constantly travelling from place to place. In this book, the Swedish ‘travelling kingdom’ has been extensively studied. Everything known from the source material about day-by-day migrations of the royal court during four centuries (1200s- 1500s) can be easily surveyed here. The life-conditions of the itinerant kings are described. Travel patterns have been reconstructed. Attempts are made of establishing where ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ were geographically located – and to what extent these concepts were relevant – in an age when power was still based mainly on oral and personal communication between the monarch and local communities, not on written correspondence. (Knowledge of this is important to historians because core regions and outback territories generally behaved in different ways vis-à-vis the sovereign, and were likewise treated differently by him.) Since the studied period was also the time when ‘bureaucratic’ tendencies started to gradually evolve in the royal administration, much attention is devoted to the changes which occurred. (E.g. how the incipient need for records management and archives affected the rulers’ traditional ambulating life-style.) Sweden was sometimes an autonomous ‘national’ kingdom and during other periods part of a larger, all- Scandinavian state; the influence of these general political changes on the rulers’ choices of residence is studied and analyzed. Conclusions about royal whereabouts are based mainly on information in royal letters and charters about where these were issued, but the validity of the results is checked through extensive comparisons with other source material. Comparisons have been made between the Swedish kingdom and conditions abroad. An overall picture emerging from this research is that royal power in medieval Sweden was always based in the region where the capital city Stockholm is now located. Some scholars have maintained that certain south-western parts of the kingdom have once been a political ‘core area’. These theories cannot however be supported by any conclusive evidence in the primary sources, and should thus be abandoned. Keywords: itinerant court, capital city, centre/periphery, medieval state-administration, travelling, core area, oral communication, royal physical presence, records management, archives, royal letters/charters Språk i boken: svenska

This volume in Samlingar utgivna av Svenska fornskriftsällskapet is a catalogue of 325 watermarks in Swedish medieval law manuscripts and in the collection of medieval paper documents (up to 1500) in Uppsala university library. The catalogue contains images of the watermarks and references to the most important previous catalogues and collections, in particular by Charles M. Briquet and Gerhard Piccard, as well as a description of the distribution of watermarks in the mediaeval law manuscripts. Introductions are given in Swedish and German. Keywords: Watermarks, paper, mediaeval, manuscript, Swedish law. Språk i boken: svenska

Just before Christopher of Bavaria took office as king of Sweden in 1442 a revision was made of the Common Law (”Magnus Erikssons landslag”). This revision, later called ”Kristoffers landslag”, had a very limited distribution, judging from the number of surviving manuscripts. The reason for the limited distribution, it has been claimed, was that Kristoffer’s successor, Karl Knutsson Bonde, did not dare to promote the new law, since it had an aristocratic tendency opposed by the common peasantry. The main questions asked here are: 1) What do we actually know about the distribution of the new legislation? 2) Is there an aristocratic influence in the new law, and if not, can we see any other tendency? In the first section of this work the historical background is outlined. The second sec- tion examines how legislative rules were disseminated in Sweden during the late Mid- dle Ages. It is stated that it is difficult to achieve absolute certainty about how widely spread new rules were, since they were reproduced not only in written form (laws and statutes), but also orally, either by reading or from memory. In the third section it is shown that there are no signs of Karl Knutsson abolishing the new law, and, fur- thermore, that there are no unambiguous signs of an aristocratic tendency in the new revision. The fourth section, finally, attempts to trace any influence at all, and comes to the conclusion that there is at least some evidence of an influence from the church, in particular its political ideology and canonical law. Among the appendices, a late medi- eval compilation of some differences between the new and old law is most noteworthy. Keywords: legal history, medieval common law, law distribution, medieval literacy, canon law. Språk i boken: svenska

The present study is a codicological and textual investigation of Codex Holmiensis A 49 (Nådendals klosterbok), a large medieval (c. 1450) manuscript, written almost entirely in old Swedish and containing thirty different texts of various kinds. A 49 is believed to have belonged to the Birgittine House at Nådendal, a double monastery with communities of both sisters and brothers. An attempt has been made to contribute to the clarification of where the different parts of the manuscript were written (Vadstena or Nådendal) and by whom they were read and used (female or male religious communities). A number of theoretical and and methodological questions are discussed: crucial for the analyses are in particular the concepts of production unit (produktionsenhet) and multitext book (multitextbok). Plans for “Nådendals klosterbok” were laid out at Vadstena Abbey, probably with the female house intended as the primary recipient. However, some production units point towards the male house. The fact that the manuscript may have been meant for use in both communities could explain its fairly late binding (after the dissolution of the male monastic community in the middle of the sixteenth century.) In a context of book-loaning between the houses it would have been logistically advantageous to have the texts in smaller units. Keywords: The Birgittine Order, Medieval miscellaneous manuscripts, Old Swedish literature, Nådendal (Naantali) Abbey. Språk i boken: svenska

Svenska fornskriftsällskapet bildades 1843 och har alltsedan dess haft till syfte att ge ut äldre svenska skrifter, företrädesvis fornsvenska, samt arbeten som bygger på eller behandlar sådana; bland dessa kan nämnas Söderwalls fornsvenska ordbok med supplement. Länge var sällskapets intresse begränsat till skrifter som helt, eller i varje fall delvis, var på svenska, men från och med 1924 har, vid sidan av den ursprungliga serien, också latinska skrifter givits ut, bl.a. Sancta Birgitta, Reuelaciones. Ännu en serie, Smärre texter och undersökningar, startades i samband med 150-årsjubileet 1993. En fjärde serie, tidigt påbörjad men sporadiskt utgiven, omfattar bibliografiska arbeten om den fornsvenska litteraturen. Verket består av fyra volymer sålda tillsammans.

This volume contains three essays presenting investigations on various aspects of previously unedited texts or text fragments in Old Swedish. In the first contribution, Ingela Hedström presents a medieval manuscript kept in the library of Vasaskolan in Gävle. The manuscript contains a large number of prayers and has perhaps been in the possession of a guild devoted to the cult of Our Lady’s Psalter. As well as an edition of the text, Hedström gives a historical introduction to this particular type of devotion. The second essay presents a previously very little known manuscript, containing accounts for the province of Uppsala in the year 1433. Dag Retsö provides the historical and political context while Ingela Hedström gives a critical edition of the text. Thirdly, Roger Andersson studies the coexistence of, and language change between, Latin and Old Swedish in a number of unedited religious manuscripts from the fifteenth century. Andersson discusses the causes for the language change and the discussion actualizes questions about the varying status of the vernacular in relation to the omnipresent Latin, and about to what extent the texts were communicated orally or in writing. Keywords: Old Swedish, manuscripts, philology, medieval prayers, medieval accounts, medieval sermons, bilingualism. Språk i boken: svenska

The present monograph deals with the A-redaction of the Old Swedish text Tungulus/Tundalus. This work is a translation and/or adaption of the Latin text Visio Tnugdali, present in a large number of manuscripts in medieval Europe. The Old Swedish A-redaction exists in four manuscripts that are of relevance for its early transmission: Cod. Holm. D 4a (c. 1448, 1449–1463), Cod. Holm. D 3 (c. 1487/1488), Cod. Linc. Saml. 1a (late 15th century or early 16th century) and Cod. Holm. K 45 (1525–1550). The investigation aims at mapping the rela-tionship between these textual witnesses through a comparison of the variation between them, with regard to the following categories: 1) absence/presence of textual elements, 2) lexical variation, 3) syntactic variation with respect to word order and 4) morphological variation with respect to different inflectional forms of the same lemma. This investigation resulted in the following relationship (Greek letters representing now lost steps): α – D 4a – β – D 3 –( γ –) Linc. 1a – K 45 Following this, an investigation is carried out into the case morphology of the textual witnesses, focusing on how the scribes have dealt with this aspect in the copying process. All the textual witnesses have originated during or after the assumed time of the loss of the four-case system. All textual witnesses contain variation between forms inflected according to the older system and forms not conforming to this. However, although there is considerable general variation between inflected and non-inflected forms, it turns out that the inflected and the non-inflected forms are found in the same positions in the different textual witnesses. It appears that all the scribes of the investigated textual witnesses have largely followed their exemplars on a morphological level, rendering the case forms found there, and thus disregarding their own linguistic norm. Keywords: Tungulus/Tundalus, textual criticism, Old Swedish, medieval scribes, case morphology Språk i boken: Svenska

This dissertation describes the Old Swedish Saints' lives from a philological and stylistic view-point, relating vernacular hagiographic texts to social institutions. A complete survey of manuscripts containing Old Swedish Saints' lives and miracles is made. A stratified selection of the manuscripts is then subjected to both qualitative and quantitative analyses of style, in which both diachronic and synchronic aspects are taken into consideration. The study demonstrates that there are considerable differences between Saints' lives written for a lay audience and Saints' lives written for a monastic audience. The latter favour bound transmission from their foreign sources and a monastic ideological information structure, using complex syntax and displaying an elaborate punctuation. This is due to their function as a basis for meditative reflection. Saints' lives for a lay audience, by contrast, are adapted so that narrative information and simple syntax are favoured. These texts are more entertaining - although with a moral point. The highly literate Vadstena Abbey played a crucial role in the development of the monastic hagiographic style in the vernacular. The brethren employed a uniform, religious prose style, ranging from information structure to punctuation, for the hagiographic material as well as for other edifying texts. This style developed into a written Bridgettine Old Swedish standard. Keywords: Philology, stylistics, literacy, Old Swedish Saints' lives, transmission, transcription, information structure, syntax, punctuation, Vadstena Abbey Språk i boken: svenska

Roughly half of the pages of this dissertation constitute a critical edition of the late medieval nobleman Gregers Matsson's account books, C 29-32 in the National Record Office (Riksarkivet), Stockholm. About 80 % of the material is assumed, on grounds of linguistic evidence and content, to have been written by Gregers himself, and his entire known production written in his own hand is included in this edition, with the exception of a few lines in the previously published Upplands lagmansdombok (Upplandic Chief Magistrate's Judgment Book), lines which can now be seen as having been identified. The philological edition is accompanied by a commentary and registers of individuals, places, and words. These registers should enhance the usefulness of the edition, not least for other disciplines, perhaps history in particular. The commentary takes up interesting linguistic features of the 14 different hands, with the emphasis on the hand that is believed to be that of Gregers Matsson himself. Other subjects of introductions and commentaries include the genre of medieval accounting; scribes and their handwriting; the physical appearance of the manuscripts; measures, weights, and coinage; and words of special semantic interest. The edition is illustrated with an appendix of 15 photographs showing samples of the different hands and the covers of the volumes. Keywords: philology, transcription, analysis of handwriting, Old Swedish, epenthetic vowels, delabialization, medieval accounts, Tyresi:i, Stegeborg. Språk i boken: svenska

Roughly two thirds of this volume constitutes a critical edition of the late medieval nobleman Gregers Matsson's food and fodder book for Stegeborg 1487- 1492, C 33 in the National Record Office (Riksarkivet), Stockholm. This work, together with the previous Gregers Matsson's account books (Gregers Matssons riikenskaper, 1996), presents the bulk of his written remains. The philological edition is accompanied by a commentary and registers of individuals, places, and words. These registers should enhance the usefulness of the edition, not least for other disciplines, perhaps history in particular. The commentary takes up some linguistic features of the seven different hands, although in a more cursory manner than in the previous work. This is due to the more stereotype nature of this volume and the small extent of the contributions by all scribes except Francie, who was Danish and probably came from the now Swedish province ofScania (Skane). Other subjects of commentaries include the genre of medieval accounting; scribes and their handwriting; the physical appearance of the manuscript; measures, weights, and coinage; and words of special semantic interest. The edition is illustrated with an appendix of 8 photographs showing samples of the different hands and the cover of the volume. Keywords: philology, transcription, analysis of handwriting, Old Swedish, Old Danish, medieval accounts, Stegeborg. Språk i boken: svenska

Critical edition. Introduction with analysis of genesis of the texts, description of working-model in the bishop's chancery and presentation of the scribes. Analysis of the history of the manuscript after the Reformation. Keywords: Old Swedish, medieval latin, Hans Brask, medieval letters, medieval chancery, registry, history, the Reformation, diocese of Linköping. Språk i boken: svenska

Dans ce volume est présentée une édition d'une collection de sermons médiévaux. Le texte date du xve siècle; il est écrit en ancien suédois, mais il y a aussi des parties en latin, notamment des citations bibliques et patristiques. L'édition se base principalement sur le manuscrit Cod. AM 787 4°. Une introduction générale est suivie par une déscription des differents manuscrits et fragments et un exposé du développement du texte: relations entre les manuscrits et sources utilisées. Le volume contient aussi un tableau avec indications de la structure textuelle des sermons individuels et des registres de citations de la Bible et des Révélations de Sainte Brigitte. Keywords: Old Swedish, Latin, medieval sermons, medieval manuscripts, Vadstena abbey. Språk i boken: engelska

This book is an edition of Cod. Holm. A 3, a manuscript from Vadstena abbey containing the Birgittine sisters' official table readings in Old Swedish, i.e., official text to be read aloud during meal time at the sisters' convent. The manuscript is dated 1502 according to its prologue, and is written by four different hands. The main scribes are known by their names, Katharina Gudhmundi and Anna Girmundi (both were nuns in the abbey). Maybe one of the anonymous hands may be the manuscript's corrector, Elseby Gjordsdotter. The manuscript was commissioned by the abbess Anna Fickesdotter. The manuscript, composed of 156 parchment leaves written on two columnist, contains 98 different texts, complete or partial, of devotion, such as Saint Birgitta's Revelations, commentaries on the Bible, Old Swedish translations of the well-known mystics Henrik Suso and Mechthild of Hacke born, Saints lives and the like. Most of the texts are copied from older manuscripts that were owned by the sisters' convent at Vadstena abbey. The introduction to this edition provides a codicological description of the manuscript together with a presentation of its content. The edition itself follows the manuscript as close as possible. To each folio and each line of the manuscript corresponds a page and a line in the edition. In addition the medieval interpunctuation is edited and the text is not normalised. The text is completed by a critical apparatus which supplies the following information: scribal mistakes, identification of the citations of the Bible and the auctoritates, detailed codicological information, variant readings from other manuscripts containing the same texts as Cod. Holm. A 3. Keywords: Old Swedish, Vadstena abbey, table readings, devotional literature, manuscripts, codicology. Språk i boken: svenska

The object of this dissertation is the range, distribution, and usage of words imported from Middle Low German in medieval charters originating from the Swedish province of Närke. The charters are all written in Old Swedish between the years 1350 and 1520. The study reveals that some examples of certain imported words display traits of being foreign words (Germ. Fremdwörter), although they in many cases have existed in Old Swedish for quite some time in more orthographically and morphologically integrated forms. The forms in question are most frequent in charters issued in the early 16th century, primarily in the office of Örebro castle. The occurrence of imported words containing the three prefixes be-, for(e)- and vidher- can be located mainly to three areas in Närke: the town of Örebro, the convent of Riseberga, and the south-east of the province. Some manifestations of the prefix be- can be traced back to Middle Low German written forms. The amount and diversity of the imported words used in the different formulas which charters are composed of are discussed. The formulas which constitute the main body of the texts and the core of their content are found to display the largest quantity and variety of imported words. The frequency of the imported words is also studied from social, regional and chronological perspectives respectively. The charters issued by the burghers of Örebro and the miners of Noraskogen are found to be richest in imported words, followed by texts issued by members of the nobility. Regarding the regional comparison, the charters originating from the northern parts of Närke, where the town of Örebro and the Noraskogen mining district are located, and from the south-east of the province contain the largest amount of imported words. The chronological comparison shows that both the number and the frequency of the imported words increase over time. Språk i boken: svenska

The literacy and learning that can be attributed to the female convent at Vadstena Abbey have not been yet thoroughly investigated, a lacuna this book aims to remedy. Through an analysis of the social community and a close reading of the texts transmitted by Cod. Holm. A 3, a significant manuscript used in the convent for table reading, this study dis¬cusses the textual world that structured the nuns’ life at Vadstena Abbey and thus attempts for the first time to take seriously the learning of the nuns of Vadstena. The first part of the book deals with the literacy events that were significant for the female convent, then turns to the literacy competences that can be found among the nuns of Vadstena Abbey, and finally describes the form of education the sisters could receive. The convent was literate, in both a professional and a pragmatic perspective. Many nuns were able to read and write in vernacular, some also in Latin. If only occasional examples of literate women at the convent are known before 1450, it appears that the literacy competence then increased signific¬antly, a situation which suggests that the nuns may have learned to read and eventually to write in the monastery under the supervision of a mentor. The learning of the nuns was marked by the mystical movement of the second half of the 15th century. This can be shown by an analysis not only of the works the sisters read but also of the textual structure of the monastic readings at the female convent. The auctoritates quoted in these texts taught the nuns in exegetical questions and ideological issues im¬portant for the Birgittines. Knowledge of the monastic virtues was of considerable importance in this education, especially humility which was explored in nearly all texts read in the convent. The second part of the book offers a close reading of a table reading manuscript which was produced in the beginning of the 16th century. This manuscript proved to be very important for the nunnery’s intellectual context as the daily read¬ings during the meals were an opportu¬nity for the monastery to emphasize ideologies and beliefs that the nuns should support. The table readings followed an old ritual as many of the texts that should be read were copied from older manuscripts. But notwithstanding their textual tradition, the texts to be preferred were obviously didactic and intended to educate the nuns. These texts must be seen as a bridge between the beliefs of the collectivity and the nuns’ private worshipping. There is in these texts a meditative tone which concurred to place the concrete daily routines and duties into an abstract Christological frame. Språk i boken: svenska

This is a commented edition of a series of Late medieval (1500- 1513?) accounts connected to copper mining in the parish of Åtvid, now the town of Åtvidaberg, Sweden, and its vicinities. Most of these accounts report deliveries of household wares from a central but undefined place in Åtvid to farmers, who partly seem to be engaged in copper production, and to seemingly professional copper miners as well. These accounts are kept in the National Archives of Sweden under five manuscripts sigla: C 45, 46, 47, 48 and 50, comprising altogether about 50 pages written by many different hands. The accounts can be traced back to a Johan Bese, a country nobleman, dead 1505, and his daughter Gunnild Johansdotter, married Bielke. Both are known for having been granted Åtvid as a fief by the two succsessive Sture regents. Their residence was Herrsäter in Värna parish near Åtvid. In the introductory part the connection between the accounts and the Bese family is discussed, starting with a paper document dated January 1, 1500, in which some wealthy business men and the future regent Svante Sture agree to initiate copper mining near Åtvidaberg. It is argued that this document can illuminate the accounts. In the main part of the edition all text of the accounts is transcribed and interpreted into Modern Swedish and the commodity for each person or client are commented upon, with focus on C 46 where also older transactions mentioned and crossed out in the other lists are put together and scrutinized. C 46 is shown to be a later summary of the other lists by its scribe and supposedly compiled for Gunnild Johansdotter after her return from Finland in 1513. In C 45, called “the old book” by the compilator and containing older private accounts for Johan Bese, there is a second part with the year 1510 at the top of a column, which indicates that the notes here are connected to Johan Beses heirs. In the accounts we meet people directly involved in copper mining and manufacturing through a great variety of reported transactions, where often copper measured by weight and produced at several local foundries is expected as payment for different imported wares like salt, hops and cloth but also dried fish, corn and meat, the latter consisting of many pairs of oxen, probably used for transport. Often we get collateral information about copper foundries and other localities, and we find here first mention of mines from medieval Sweden. Some notes even indicate that copper kettles and pans were manufactured for sale. In fact, these accounts are the very first written source of copper mining in Åtvidaberg some decades before the efforts of king Gustavus Wasa to exploit copper finds there again, and that in turn takes place more than two centuries before the copper industry of the 18th century. Key words: accounts, copper mining, Åtvid, foundries, medieval, 16th century. Språk i boken: svenska

Svenska fornskriftsällskapet bildades 1843 och har alltsedan dess haft till syfte att ge ut äldre svenska skrifter, företrädesvis fornsvenska, samt arbeten som bygger på eller behandlar sådana; bland dessa kan nämnas Söderwalls fornsvenska ordbok med supplement. Länge var sällskapets intresse begränsat till skrifter som helt, eller i varje fall delvis, var på svenska, men från och med 1924 har, vid sidan av den ursprungliga serien, också latinska skrifter givits ut, bl.a. Sancta Birgitta, Reuelaciones. Ännu en serie, Smärre texter och undersökningar, startades i samband med 150-årsjubileet 1993. En fjärde serie, tidigt påbörjad men sporadiskt utgiven, omfattar bibliografiska arbeten; här är det i första hand fråga om den fornsvenska litteraturen. Varje år utger sällskapet normalt minst ett nummer i någon av dessa serier.

This thesis describes K. F. Söderwall’s dictionary Ordbok öfver svenska medeltids-språket (1884–1918), Sdw, focusing on its representation of Old Swedish in relation to contemporaneous linguistics and lexicography. Lexicography is studied as part of the language sciences and in a socio-cultural context. The study draws on methodological principles of linguistic historiography and on two models based on four types of lexicographic historiography and four metalexicographic structures. Four topics are explored: 1) The lexicographer’s scholarly and socio-cultural context illustrates that the era the dictionary was created in was favourable for the historical study of language, undergoing an epistemological and methodological shift from a romantic view of language in context to a linguistic view of language as a system. 2) The lexicographer does not consistently adhere to contemporaneous – historical-romantic or neogrammarian – scholars, indicating that his aim was not to propound a research program, but rather to describe the Old Swedish encountered in the sources. 3) Sdw remains profoundly important in its field and serves – perhaps unintentionally – as a lexical codification of Old Swedish. This is studied through the dictionary’s printed sources and through the normalization of its lemmas. The sources correspond adequately to the Old Swedish texts published at the time, although the textual references reveal a slight predominance of translated literary texts. The lemma forms suggest that the aim was neither to normalize the lexicon according to certain theories, nor to reflect a certain dialect, genre or other part of the language period; rather the lexicographer takes a philological stance in considering the history and instances of each word. 4) Sdw shares most formal traits with its Old West Scandinavian counterparts in the study of a few Germanic historical dictionaries available at the time. Språk i boken: svenska

This work describes the writing practices of the Vadstena Abbey as they appear in the oldest extant charters of the Abbey. The Abbey is known for the extensive production of manuscripts there, but little is known of the oldest manuscripts as only a limited number have survived. However, charters are a type of text that have been preserved and stored in large number in the Abbey archive. These include 47 charters from the period 1368-1375 in Old Swedish, where the content documents the property belonging to the Abbey. These charters have been systematically examined at various linguistic levels to provide an overview of the oldest use of language in methods of abbreviation vary across various charters but some patterns may be discerned. In line with prior research, it is assumed that these charters were written by the recipients, with some exceptions. It was in the interest of the prospective Abbey to document it’s property. One significant finding is that most of the actors concerned with the charters, those responsible for drawing up the charters, witnesses of seals and the recipients, were part of the network surrounding the founder of the Abbey, Birgitta Birgersdotter. They were from aristocratic families, members of the Privy Council, and many of them were related to Birgitta or had some other close association with her. A paleographic analysis has indicated that the charters have been the work of many writers, suggesting that there were many literate people among the community at the Abbey: the novices, the abbess and the founders. The system of formula for the charters has been based on a fairly consistent pattern with a concentration of fixed phrases, which suggests there was a wish to attain internal consistency. The system of formula employed in the writing of the charters also suggests close collaboration between writers. There are also several charters which have been drawn up in connection with religious festivals. The orthography of the charters has also been examined and this indicates a certain level of orthographic stability with regard to words that occur frequently. The words have been abbreviated more than twice. The most common principle of hyphenation has been to separate syllables of a single word and a hyphen inserted and to carry a consonant cluster to the next line, a principle which facilitates reading comprehension. The punctuation system is well developed and punctuation is predominantly rhythmic, but the units that are punctuated conform closely to syntactic units. Pertinence formulations, proper name phrases and place names are particularly marked. The charters contain few corrections which suggests that no institutional proof-reading was carried out. Most commonly, the writers themselves have corrected their own errors and those corrections that have been made are mainly concerned with content. But a number of corrections related to orthographic form indicate a general orthographic standard existed. The purpose of this research on the oldest charters in Old Swedish at the Abbey has been to outline the oldest writing practices as they appear in the charters. The roots of the written language that eventually developed in the Abbey may be discerned in the oldest writing practices. During the initial stage of a new writing environment various individual features of writing gradually merged into a more uniform form. Keywords: Charters, literacy, Vadstena Abbey, Old Swedish, witnesses of seals, palaeography, system for formula, syllabification, punctuation, orthography, abbreviation, correction. Språk i boken: svenska

The primary aim of this book is to attempt to identify the author of Eric’s Chronicle. Previous argumentation regarding who commissioned the Chronicle has not been impartial, which has also obscured the issue of its authorship. Here it is argued that the instigator was lawspeaker Birger Persson, father of Saint Bridget. With regard to the issue of authorship, the general opinion has been that the author was to be found within the circle close to Duke Eric and Duke Valdemar. Despite this, no researcher has previously considered the solution that lies closest to hand, namely that the author was the Duke’s own secretary. His name was Tyrgils Kristineson. The identity and contacts of the chronicler has been determined using genealogical methods. Tyrgils was a canon in Skara and Växjö, son of a priest and an unmarried woman through whom he was a member of a prominent circle of relatives. Through his mother he was related to several persons who play an important part in Eric’s Chronicle, which throws new light on several aspects of its configuation. Canon Tyrgils’ position as the Dukes’ secretary has similar significance. The interest shown by Dutchess Ingeborg has considerable significance for the genesis of the Chronicle, although Birger Persson was the actual instigator. It is probable that Tyrgils left his post with Ingeborg in 1324 and therefore was provided with the time between 1325 and 1326 to compose the Chronicle. The fact that several characteristics support an origin in Uppland and others an origin in Västergötland is to be explained by the commissioner being lawspeaker Birger Persson from Uppland, and author Canon Tyrgils, from Västergötland. A large part of this book is dedicated to clarifying the manner in which the manuscripts containing Eric’s Chronicle, that is to say Cod. Holm. D 4, D 4 a, D 3 (and D 2), have been passed down. Using detailed genealogical argumentation, the passage of the important manuscripts is followed from generation to generation up to the 17th century. Gustav Algotsson (Sture) emerges as a central figure. D 4 (which section of the Chronicle was later excised) was written for him. He was married to Märta Ulfsdotter (Sparre av Hjulsta and Ängsö) for whom D4 a was written with content which is similar to that of D 4. D 3 was subsequently written for their daughter, Elin Gustavsdotter. His first wife, Elin Arvidsdotter (Oxenstierna) was also of significance for the content of D 4. Thereto there is a relationship between Gustav’s two wives. Thereby it is clear that the central manuscripts and the Chronicle were handed down within the same family. Keywords: Rhymed chronicles, determination of authorship, old Swedish, manuscript tradition, genealogy (medieval noble families), Scandinavian history. Språk i boken: svenska

Svenska fornskriftsällskapet (The Old Swedish Society) was founded as a non-profit association in 1844 for the purpose of publishing documents written in Swedish and Latin and composed in Sweden before about 1600, together with learned works dealing with such documents. The present volume describes the history of the Society during the third fifty-year period of its existence, between 1944 and 1993. The content of the general section includes a description of the charter, board meetings, general meetings of members and membership of the board. In addition, a summary is provided of the works published during this period, together with a brief description of each title listed. There is a specific section dealing with the finances of the Society during the period. This section is followed by a series of short biographies of board members during this same period. Two indexes are provided in this volume, where one lists persons by name and the other lists texts and manuscripts. Ten tables appear at the end of the volume, where the first lists all members of the board and their years of service on the board, the remaining ones cover various aspects of the finances of the Society. Keywords: Medieval texts, publication of learned works, secular texts in Old Swedish, religious literature in Old Swedish, Swedish medieval texts in Latin, Old Swedish laws, the writings of Saint Birgitta. Språk i boken: svenska

The parchment volume C 92 in Uppsala university library contains a catalogue of popes, a list of bishops and archbishops in Uppsala, a Swedish regnal list and an annal. The four texts were written at Uppsala cathedral by one hand, with later additions by other hands. The bishops’ and kings’ lists were written around 1290, the catalogue of popes and the annal around 1305. The annal later became the starting point for the memorial book of Vadstena abbey, but it must have been kept in Uppsala at least until 1344. The Scandinavian catalogues of popes have not been scrutinized earlier and imply French contacts in the late 12th century. The list of bishops contains traces of an obituary list from Uppsala, begun in the 1160’s, and a number of entries in the annal probably derive from the same source. An analysis of the regnal list points to four different Swedish traditions in this genre, two of which were exported to Iceland before 1250. Nearly 20 historical texts, most of which have disappeared, seem to have been at hand in Uppsala before 1344. Most noteworthy are the obituary, a list of bishops begun in the 1160’s, and an annal that probably was written by the Sigtuna Dominicans around 1250. Keywords: catalogue of popes, regnal list, bishops’s list, annals, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Middle Ages, scriptoria, Uppsala cathedral chapter, Sigtuna Dominicans, King Valdemar’s cadaster, Hugo of Saint Victor. Språk i boken: svenska

In medieval western Europe, no capital cities existed. The rulers and their court were constantly travelling from place to place. In this book, the Swedish ‘travelling kingdom’ has been extensively studied. Everything known from the source material about day-by-day migrations of the royal court during four centuries (1200s- 1500s) can be easily surveyed here. The life-conditions of the itinerant kings are described. Travel patterns have been reconstructed. Attempts are made of establishing where ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ were geographically located – and to what extent these concepts were relevant – in an age when power was still based mainly on oral and personal communication between the monarch and local communities, not on written correspondence. (Knowledge of this is important to historians because core regions and outback territories generally behaved in different ways vis-à-vis the sovereign, and were likewise treated differently by him.) Since the studied period was also the time when ‘bureaucratic’ tendencies started to gradually evolve in the royal administration, much attention is devoted to the changes which occurred. (E.g. how the incipient need for records management and archives affected the rulers’ traditional ambulating life-style.) Sweden was sometimes an autonomous ‘national’ kingdom and during other periods part of a larger, all- Scandinavian state; the influence of these general political changes on the rulers’ choices of residence is studied and analyzed. Conclusions about royal whereabouts are based mainly on information in royal letters and charters about where these were issued, but the validity of the results is checked through extensive comparisons with other source material. Comparisons have been made between the Swedish kingdom and conditions abroad. An overall picture emerging from this research is that royal power in medieval Sweden was always based in the region where the capital city Stockholm is now located. Some scholars have maintained that certain south-western parts of the kingdom have once been a political ‘core area’. These theories cannot however be supported by any conclusive evidence in the primary sources, and should thus be abandoned. Keywords: itinerant court, capital city, centre/periphery, medieval state-administration, travelling, core area, oral communication, royal physical presence, records management, archives, royal letters/charters Språk i boken: svenska

This volume in Samlingar utgivna av Svenska fornskriftsällskapet is a catalogue of 325 watermarks in Swedish medieval law manuscripts and in the collection of medieval paper documents (up to 1500) in Uppsala university library. The catalogue contains images of the watermarks and references to the most important previous catalogues and collections, in particular by Charles M. Briquet and Gerhard Piccard, as well as a description of the distribution of watermarks in the mediaeval law manuscripts. Introductions are given in Swedish and German. Keywords: Watermarks, paper, mediaeval, manuscript, Swedish law. Språk i boken: svenska

Just before Christopher of Bavaria took office as king of Sweden in 1442 a revision was made of the Common Law (”Magnus Erikssons landslag”). This revision, later called ”Kristoffers landslag”, had a very limited distribution, judging from the number of surviving manuscripts. The reason for the limited distribution, it has been claimed, was that Kristoffer’s successor, Karl Knutsson Bonde, did not dare to promote the new law, since it had an aristocratic tendency opposed by the common peasantry. The main questions asked here are: 1) What do we actually know about the distribution of the new legislation? 2) Is there an aristocratic influence in the new law, and if not, can we see any other tendency? In the first section of this work the historical background is outlined. The second sec- tion examines how legislative rules were disseminated in Sweden during the late Mid- dle Ages. It is stated that it is difficult to achieve absolute certainty about how widely spread new rules were, since they were reproduced not only in written form (laws and statutes), but also orally, either by reading or from memory. In the third section it is shown that there are no signs of Karl Knutsson abolishing the new law, and, fur- thermore, that there are no unambiguous signs of an aristocratic tendency in the new revision. The fourth section, finally, attempts to trace any influence at all, and comes to the conclusion that there is at least some evidence of an influence from the church, in particular its political ideology and canonical law. Among the appendices, a late medi- eval compilation of some differences between the new and old law is most noteworthy. Keywords: legal history, medieval common law, law distribution, medieval literacy, canon law. Språk i boken: svenska

The present study is a codicological and textual investigation of Codex Holmiensis A 49 (Nådendals klosterbok), a large medieval (c. 1450) manuscript, written almost entirely in old Swedish and containing thirty different texts of various kinds. A 49 is believed to have belonged to the Birgittine House at Nådendal, a double monastery with communities of both sisters and brothers. An attempt has been made to contribute to the clarification of where the different parts of the manuscript were written (Vadstena or Nådendal) and by whom they were read and used (female or male religious communities). A number of theoretical and and methodological questions are discussed: crucial for the analyses are in particular the concepts of production unit (produktionsenhet) and multitext book (multitextbok). Plans for “Nådendals klosterbok” were laid out at Vadstena Abbey, probably with the female house intended as the primary recipient. However, some production units point towards the male house. The fact that the manuscript may have been meant for use in both communities could explain its fairly late binding (after the dissolution of the male monastic community in the middle of the sixteenth century.) In a context of book-loaning between the houses it would have been logistically advantageous to have the texts in smaller units. Keywords: The Birgittine Order, Medieval miscellaneous manuscripts, Old Swedish literature, Nådendal (Naantali) Abbey. Språk i boken: svenska

Svenska fornskriftsällskapet bildades 1843 och har alltsedan dess haft till syfte att ge ut äldre svenska skrifter, företrädesvis fornsvenska, samt arbeten som bygger på eller behandlar sådana; bland dessa kan nämnas Söderwalls fornsvenska ordbok med supplement. Länge var sällskapets intresse begränsat till skrifter som helt, eller i varje fall delvis, var på svenska, men från och med 1924 har, vid sidan av den ursprungliga serien, också latinska skrifter givits ut, bl.a. Sancta Birgitta, Reuelaciones. Ännu en serie, Smärre texter och undersökningar, startades i samband med 150-årsjubileet 1993. En fjärde serie, tidigt påbörjad men sporadiskt utgiven, omfattar bibliografiska arbeten om den fornsvenska litteraturen. Verket består av fyra volymer sålda tillsammans.

This volume contains three essays presenting investigations on various aspects of previously unedited texts or text fragments in Old Swedish. In the first contribution, Ingela Hedström presents a medieval manuscript kept in the library of Vasaskolan in Gävle. The manuscript contains a large number of prayers and has perhaps been in the possession of a guild devoted to the cult of Our Lady’s Psalter. As well as an edition of the text, Hedström gives a historical introduction to this particular type of devotion. The second essay presents a previously very little known manuscript, containing accounts for the province of Uppsala in the year 1433. Dag Retsö provides the historical and political context while Ingela Hedström gives a critical edition of the text. Thirdly, Roger Andersson studies the coexistence of, and language change between, Latin and Old Swedish in a number of unedited religious manuscripts from the fifteenth century. Andersson discusses the causes for the language change and the discussion actualizes questions about the varying status of the vernacular in relation to the omnipresent Latin, and about to what extent the texts were communicated orally or in writing. Keywords: Old Swedish, manuscripts, philology, medieval prayers, medieval accounts, medieval sermons, bilingualism. Språk i boken: svenska

The present monograph deals with the A-redaction of the Old Swedish text Tungulus/Tundalus. This work is a translation and/or adaption of the Latin text Visio Tnugdali, present in a large number of manuscripts in medieval Europe. The Old Swedish A-redaction exists in four manuscripts that are of relevance for its early transmission: Cod. Holm. D 4a (c. 1448, 1449–1463), Cod. Holm. D 3 (c. 1487/1488), Cod. Linc. Saml. 1a (late 15th century or early 16th century) and Cod. Holm. K 45 (1525–1550). The investigation aims at mapping the rela-tionship between these textual witnesses through a comparison of the variation between them, with regard to the following categories: 1) absence/presence of textual elements, 2) lexical variation, 3) syntactic variation with respect to word order and 4) morphological variation with respect to different inflectional forms of the same lemma. This investigation resulted in the following relationship (Greek letters representing now lost steps): α – D 4a – β – D 3 –( γ –) Linc. 1a – K 45 Following this, an investigation is carried out into the case morphology of the textual witnesses, focusing on how the scribes have dealt with this aspect in the copying process. All the textual witnesses have originated during or after the assumed time of the loss of the four-case system. All textual witnesses contain variation between forms inflected according to the older system and forms not conforming to this. However, although there is considerable general variation between inflected and non-inflected forms, it turns out that the inflected and the non-inflected forms are found in the same positions in the different textual witnesses. It appears that all the scribes of the investigated textual witnesses have largely followed their exemplars on a morphological level, rendering the case forms found there, and thus disregarding their own linguistic norm. Keywords: Tungulus/Tundalus, textual criticism, Old Swedish, medieval scribes, case morphology Språk i boken: Svenska