Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Page 258

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faces the Kattegat, is in all probability also very old, and certainly
goes back to a time before the year 1000. On the other hand,
evidence has been preserved to show that Bleking was reckoned
a Swedish province at the end of the 9th century. Indeed, its
ethnographical connection with the ancient Swedish province of
Smaland is pretty obvious. Bleking probably became Danish as
the result of the earliest Christian missionary activities, the centre
of which was the diocese of Scania. So much is, however, certain,
that all the three provinces of Scania, Halland, and Bleking are
stated to be Danish in an account which has been handed down
to us, and which describes the first known frontier delimitation
in Scandinavia. The account in question is, however, based on an
oral tradition, and its authenticity is somewhat uncertain. From
the context it appears that this frontier delimitation took place
at a meeting in which all the three Scandinavian Kings took part,
and which was held about the middle of the nth century. It
took place in the vicinity of the Göta River, a tract which was
under Swedish rule — since when is unknown and difficult to
ascertain — and which gave Sweden an outlet to open water
in the "West. It was agreed to set up boundary marks between
the Swedish and Danish dominions. Six boundary stones are
enumerated, scattered over the long frontier, which then — as
was also the case at a much later date — passed through unin-
habited forest regions where there were hardly any roads. Modern
investigators have succeeded in locating at least four of these
boundary marks, all of them on or near the present Provincial
boundary between Vastergötland and Smáland on one side and
Halland, Scania, and Bleking on the other. This primitive but
effective frontier continued unaltered for many centuries, apart
from the period 1332—1360. That during this period Scania and
its “ancillary” provinces — if one may so describe them — were
attached to Sweden in a personal union was in some measure
due to a desire on the part of Scanians themselves to enter into
closer relations with their neighbours, but it was above all a
result of the weakening of the Danish State during the preceding
years, and the German domination of that country.
This union of Scania with Sweden was a source of great
gratification to the Swedes, as is seen from the writings of St.
Bridget, but it was again dissolved when Valdemar Atterdag
succeeded in restoring the strength and stability of the Danish
Kingdom. About the same time, in 1361, he also made himself