Lundius’s specialties included, among other things, Swedish law, Roman law, and natural law theories of the influential thinker Samuel Pufendorf, who was then in Sweden as royal historiographer (Lindroth, Stormaktstiden, 368–70). Lindroth also discusses Lundius as a Rudbeckian (300–301). Lundius’s Zamolxis, primus getarum legislator (1687) has been translated from Latin by Maria Crisan and into English by Honorius Crisan (available on the Web at www.dacia.org).
Outright forgeries and fabrications were circulating around Uppsala, according to Joseph Svennung in Zur Geschichte Gothicismus, 91–92. Svenbro discusses “veritable counterfeit workshops” in “L’ideologie ‘gothisante’ et l’Atlantica d’ Olof Rudbeck. Le mythe platonicien de l’Atlantide au service de l’Empire suedois du XVIIe siecle,” in Quaderni di storia 6, no. 11 (January–June 1980): 137. Gunnar Eriksson’s comments on the forgery are found in (2002), 307–9. The phrase “the conscious effort to deceive” comes from Nils Ahnlund’s definition of forger in his study Nils Rabenius (1648–1717): Studier i svensk historiografi (1927).
The runes were among the last findings to be incorporated into Atlantica, though Rudbeck had made the initial discovery at least as early as the end of 1675. The problem he faced, as usual, was how to find time for all the discoveries. His words about “how the Greeks have received their letters from us” is from chapter 38, Atl. I, 524. Loccenius, Verelius, and Norcopensis were reading Rudbeck’s theories “with admiration,” he noted in a letter to De la Gardie, 29 November 1675, Annerstedt, Bref II, 126.
Pliny discussed the transmission of the alphabet in Natural History VII, 192. Runes were “stones with old letters or unknown carved marks” overgrown with moss and not effaced by heat, cold, fire, or water (Atl. I, 14). The derivation of the word runes from “mystery” and “secret” appears in Ralph W. V. Elliot’s Runes: An Introduction (1989), 1.
According to the Edda, nothing of importance escaped Heimdall, a god who could hear the wool grow on the backs of sheep. No wonder he was chosen to guard the entrance to the world of the gods at the rainbow bridge Bifrost, and send divine messages with his massive, earth-shaking horn (Gylf. 27).
Pan, fire, and many of the words Rudbeck chose for showing the Swedish impact on ancient Greece can be found in Plato’s Cratylus dialogue (408C, 409D–410B). In this work, Socrates and his students discuss the roots of the Greek language, and openly admit the overwhelming barbarian, or non-Greek, influence—golden words for Olof Rudbeck, for he believed that each of Plato’s words could be found in Swedish, or at least he believed that he could show they could. In either case, the words were from the barbarians, or more accurately, in his view, bor-barn, “children of Bor.”
Discussion of world chronology, particularly the four or five hundred years after Noah, comes from Atl. I, 525–26. Rudbeck’s dating of Swedish civilization back to 2300–200 B.C., or Anno Mundi 1700–1800, is found in Atl. I, 77–78, and Atl. II, 199. Rudbeck’s investigations of the soil around the monuments are related in Atl. I, 66–79, 91, and applied to the runes on pages 525–26. The history of the ancient Greek alphabet, and its derivation from Scandinavian runes, is outlined in Atl. I, 527–39. The theory of Mercury’s Swedish origins is argued in Atl. I, 457–66, and continued on 539–42. The illustration of the staff appears on page 541, and its interpretation is on 539–42. Later, Mercury’s position in ancient Sweden was elaborated and, in some ways, altered (Atl. IV, esp. 104ff.). Hermes, Zeus’s favorite son, appears as the messenger of the gods more in the Odyssey than in the Iliad. “Hermes the Wayfinder” comes from Odyssey V, line 48ff., and his ambrosial golden sandals, wand, and other descriptions are found here, as well as at many other places in the epic, for instance Odyssey I, line 123ff. Hermes leads the suitors to the Underworld in Odyssey XXIV, line 409.
Rudbeck thought the runic staffs were as old as the runes themselves. In Rudbeck’s scheme, they were invented by Atle (Atlas) or Atin, and approved by Disa (Isis). The story of the peasant in the anatomy theater follows Rudbeck’s own account in Atl. I, 562–63; and the gardener, on page 563, is also discussed by Eriksson (2002), 340.
CHAPTER 14: ON NOTHING
The first volume of Atlantica, published in March 1679 at Curio’s press, appears in a number of different ways. Some have no title page, some a title page and no date, some the correct year of publication, some the year 1679 and the words “second edition,” and some the publication year 1675. This last instance has led some authorities to claim, incorrectly, that Atlantica was published in that year, and some even to accuse Rudbeck of backdating the publication year. This is possible, but a simpler explanation is that Rudbeck started printing the work in 1675, as he in fact intended at the end of 1674. The work was not finished at the press until March 1679, as seen in Rudbeck’s letter of 20 March 1679, printed in Annerstedt, Bref II, 164–65. One of Rudbeck’s descendants, Johannes Rudbeckius, investigated the surviving copies of his ancestor’s book (1918). He found a total of 111 copies of the first edition, dispersed around European libraries.
Inclement weather delayed the transport of De la Gardie’s copy, Rudbeck wrote to De la Gardie, 22 March 1679, RA, Kanslers embetets handlingar for Uppsala universitet arkiv E.11:6.
The priest in Stockholm, Olaus Bergius, vicar of St. Clara’s Church, noted Rudbeck’s strengths, “immeasurable labor” and “wonderful genius,” in an undated letter, probably from late 1682, inserted in the collection Auctarium Testimoniorum de Cl Rudbeckii Atlantica, reprinted in Nelson (1950), 43. D. G. Morhof describes his reading of Atlantica in a letter from Kiel, 23 June 1681 (Nelson [1950], 28). In his enthusiasm, Morhof claims that he, too, had once planned to write a book about the importance of the north in the ancient world. The title was to have been Mysterium Septentrionis (Secrets of the North). Pleased that his own work “lay dormant for many years,” Morhof now rejoiced that many of his suspicions had been confirmed. After reading Rudbeck’s Atlantica, he threw away his notes, remarking how “foolish and ill-considered” it was to dance after this master. (He must have retrieved them, however, since a few years later Morhof would publish his own theory about the ancient past, with the Germans very much playing the role of Rudbeck’s Swedes.)
The director of the Witchcraft Commission, Anders Stiernhook, noted how Rudbeck had satisfied him astonishingly, 1 September 1679, Nelson (1950), 5. By November, Stiernhook was continuing according to his plan of daily readings, and this had not changed his previously reported positive opinion of Atlantica (20 November 1679, Nelson [1950], 11). Information about the admiring Germans who visited Old Uppsala comes from Rudbeck’s letter to De la Gardie, 5 May 1679, Annerstedt, Bref II, 170–71. The reference to the envy of his contemporaries is found in Lund University professor of history and poetry Stobaeus (Nelson [1950], 103). The description of the Furies comes from Aeschylus’s Libation Bearers, 1048–49.
The Royal Society’s secretary Francis Aston wrote to Rudbeck to say that Atlantica was “very much desired in these regions,” 11 January 1682 (Nelson [1950], 34). Aston also wrote to thank Rudbeck for his copy of Atlantica, with his words on the “power of genius and the abundance of learning” found in the letter of 11 January 1682. This was evidently the letter President Christopher Wren asked him to write, 4 January 1681/82 (Birch, History of the Royal Society, 4 vols. [1756–57]).
The passage on “this deservedly famous Author” is taken from the anonymous review in Philosophical Transactions, 10 January 1681/2, reprinted in Nelson (1950), 33. The reviewer also praised Rudbeck’s conclusions on the location of the cradle of civilization in Sweden: “That Japhet and the first Race inhabited there, may be probable, in that it’s said he possest the Isles, under which title Sweonia has gone.” About the classical gods coming from Sweden, the reviewer commented on how well the Swedish language suited the names of the gods.
Rudbeck was proposed as a member of the Royal Society at the meeting on 14 December 1681. He had been mentioned as a possible candidate for membership for some time, at least since Oldenburg extended the offer as early as the late 1660s (RS, Letterbook III, Oldenburg to Rudbeck, 8 January 1668/69; RS, Letterbook III, Oldenburg to Rudbeck, 9 December 1669). But it was not until Atlantica was published and reviewed that the proposal of membership was official. There is some uncertainty on who reviewed
