CHAPTER 5: FOLLOW THE FISH!
The words of the biochemist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi come from Royston M. Roberts’s discussion of “how accidents become discoveries” in Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Science (1989), 245. Rudbeck was working with the “greatest enthusiasm” in his letter to Count de la Gardie, 23 March 1674, Annerstedt, Bref II, 95. “Beautiful things” was one way Rudbeck often referred to his discoveries. “One thousand curses” comes from Rudbeck’s defense, 1 July 1670, Annerstedt, Bref I, 57. The comparison to Achilles appears in Annerstedt, Bref II, lv.
Rudbeck’s method of investigation is elaborated in Atl. I, 81–92. He describes the soil used in the method—the matjord or svartmylla—in Atl. I, 81, and its origins on page 82. The discussion is based on my translation of Rudbeck’s own words: “All thenna Swartmylla samlar sig Arligen meer och meer, men hafwer pa atskilliga orter nagon atskilnad til sin fetma och farg,” Atl. I, 83.
Information about Rudbeck’s trial with the container in his garden, his efforts to seek out difficult places, the interview with Swensson, and the tips to the reader is found in Atl. I, 82–85. The image of the staff and the humus comes from the Atlas volume (table 31, fig. 102). Eriksson discusses the significance of this method (1994), 15–16, 110–11. It is also treated by Eriksson (1984); Swederus, “Olof Rudbeck den aldre: Huvudsakligen betraktad i sin verksamhet som naturforskare. En skildring,” in Nordisk Tidskrift (1878); and Sune Lindqvist’s article “Olof Rudbeck d.a. som faltarkeolog,” in Rudbecksstudier (1930), 249–58. Translation of Rudbeck’s words on pollution and reference to this early awareness come from Eriksson (1994), 110. Bruce Trigger provides a brief discussion of Rudbeck in his History of Archaeological Thought (1989), 49; and Ole Klindt-Jensen in A History of Scandinavian Archaeology, translated by G. Russell Poole (1975), 30– 31.
The effects of the burial-mound investigations on his contemporaries have never been fully examined. There are many cases, though, of people who were reading closely, and taking note. The superintendent general of Pomerania, C. T. Rango, praised the “incomparable” Atlantica, and tried Rudbeck’s methods many times at Greifswald, reporting that it led to accurate results, 8 May 1690, and printed by Nelson (1950), 101. Years before, the Kiel polyhistor D. G. Morhof also admired the “ingenious reasonings” Rudbeck drew by investigating the surface of the earth, 23 June 1681, Nelson (1950), 28. There were of course critiques as well, including a rather lengthy one in the journal Monatliche Unterredungen einiger Guten Freunde von Allerhand Buchern . . . appearing in the months February through July 1690.
Homer’s words about the Achaean heroes at Troy were taken from the Iliad II, lines 472–73. Rudbeck’s discussion of the golden age comes from Atl. I, 39. As a later addition to this theory, explaining why the Swedes were so silent about their great deeds, Rudbeck pointed to an old piece of parchment that referred to a great burning of old books and manuscripts, ordered in 1001 by King Olof Skotking (Atl. III, 12).
The references to the Flood are from Genesis 7:11–12, and Atl. I, 81 and 91. The chronology was discussed in many places in the work, for instance I, 546ff., and the calculations based on population, Atl. I, 34–38. Eriksson treats Rudbeck’s work as an early statistician (1994), 113–17. For more on seventeenth-century views of the Flood, see D. C. Allen’s The Legend of Noah: Renaissance Rationalism in Art, Science, and Letters (1949), though there is unfortunately nothing here on Rudbeck’s theory.
Rudbeck’s discussion on the importance of rivers in the development of civilization is found in Atl. I, 40–41. Newton’s Chronology of the Ancient Kingdoms Amended and his “Short Chronicle from the First Memory of Things in Europe, to the Conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great” were published posthumously (1728) and discussed by Frank Manuel, Isaac Newton, Historian (1963). Despite many eccentricities in the natural philosopher’s published and unpublished work, Manuel argues (page 9) that “the new scientific method pervaded Newton’s most recondite antiquarian investigations.”
No one could rival the north in fish, Atl. I, 56. “Sweden is the inexhaustible cradle of civilization” comes from Professor Musaeus’s Latin oration on 26 April 1688 at Kiel University; the text is reprinted in Nelson (1950), 100. The description of Sweden as rich in forests, flocks, and fish also comes from this speech, as did the magnet comparison.
“Clearer than the sun” and more certain than Greek, Latin, and other literary sources references are found in Atl. I, 91. Rudbeck explains his certainty about why Sweden must have been one of the first lands inhabited after the Flood, Atl. I, 41, as well as 34–41. “The Book of Nature,” a very traditional seventeenth-century metaphor, is found in many places of Rudbeck’s work, calling it for instance “the greatest, the wisest and the most certain book,” Atl. II, 49.
Verelius’s letter to Count de la Gardie, 20 December 1673, is cited in Atl. I, 3–4, and another copy at Uppsala University, Palmsk. samlingen (344). Loccenius’s letter was written two days later, and can be found in the same two places.
CHAPTER 6: GAZING AT THE FACE OF THOR
The opening words are from Lucius Apuleius, The Golden Ass (1951), translated by Robert Graves, 267. My discussion of Count de la Gardie is based on many sources, particularly Fahraeus’s Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie (1936), Magnusson’s Magnus Gabriel (1993), Aslund’s De la Gardie och valtaligheten (1992), and Rystad’s “Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie,” in Michael Roberts, ed., Sweden’s Age of Greatness 1632– 1718 (1973), 203–36.
The description of De la Gardie’s physical appearance and restless building projects is from Lorenzo Magalotti’s eyewitness account, Sverige under ar 1674 (1996), 101. See also Magalotti’s discussion, 24–31 and 89ff. The number of rooms and the staff in Lacko castle is in Magnusson (1993), 63 and 73– 74. De la Gardie is discussed as a patron in Lindahl, Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie, hans gods och hans folk (1968); and Hahr, “Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie som konstmecenat,” in Svensk Tidskrift (1925). These works cover some of the many churches, hospitals, universities, and other institutions the count supported, as well as his fine collection of art including Titian, Tintoretto, Cranach, and Holbein the Younger. The Swedish National Museum’s Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie (1980) also provides an overview of the Baroque atmosphere.
Queen Christina’s words were translated by Bulstrode Whitelocke, Journal of the Swedish Embassy (1855), 344–45. When I was in Stockholm, I was able to see the actual letter Christina wrote to the count, 5 December 1653, RA, De la Gardiska samlingen. Skrivelser till Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie E 1371. There is another one dated 11 December 1653, RA, De la Gardiska samlingen. Skrivelser till Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie E 1371.
Cutting through the “tall, terrifyingly impenetrable overgrowth” is taken from Atl. I, 6, and Rudbeck’s arguments about the lack of historical writing in a golden age are from Atl. I, 39–40. As he noted, historians must have something to write about, and conflict is one of history’s earliest subjects. Nordstrom (1930) discusses the uses of the Hyperborean legend in Sweden, and other works, cited in the notes for chapter 2, outline the background to Swedish Gothicism. Rudbeck’s discussion of the Hyperboreans is found mainly in Atl. I, 228–65. Karl Marx’s words are from The Manifesto of the Communist Party, in The Revolutions of 1848 Political Writings I, edited by David Fernbach (1981), 67.
“Wondrous way” comes from Pindar’s Pythian X, 30, which presents a vivid image of the lyres, flutes, and laurels in a Hyperborean celebration. Herodotus’s words on the Hyperboreans are in his Histories IV, 13, and also IV, 33ff. Pliny’s description of this “happy race” enjoying longevity and bliss in their “woods and groves” (as well as a little skepticism “if we can believe it”) is found in Natural History IV, 89–91. Pliny discusses them in many other places as well, noting for instance that the “majority of authorities” situated them in Europe (VI, 34). Diodorus Siculus treats the “legendary accounts of the Hyperboreans” in his Library of History II, 47.
Rudbeck’s mapmaking exercise to demonstrate Ptolemy’s errors is recounted in
