Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1942, Síða 261

FRONTIERS OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS 249
age-old traditions lived on in these isolated settlements. Further
to the North, however, there is no such correspondence between
the old and the modern frontiers, as the two Norwegian pro-
vinces of Hárjedalen and Jámtland were incorporated in Sweden
by the Peace Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645. Both of these districts
are situated to the East of the Kölen, the great Scandinavian
watershed, which was otherwise usually regarded as the natural
boundary between Sweden and Norway, and which in fact, to
a large extent, separated the two districts from the rest of Nor-
way. Hárjedalen was colonized and christianized from Norway,
and its chief lines of communication may in a sense be said to
have connected it with that country up to the present time. The
civilization of the larger and more populous district of Jámt-
land, on the other hand, represents a curious intermediate form
between Norwegian and Swedish peasant culture. To start with,
Jámtland was a sort of independent peasant republic but at an
early date it became politically dependent on Sweden, from which
country it received the Christian faith. Later on it became part
of the Kingdom of Norway. According to the Icelandic tradition,
this took place by a peaceful arrangement in the early part of
the i2th century, but according to the theories of certain histo-
rians, for which there is a good deal of evidence, this event did
not take place till late in the century, during the reign of King
Sverre. Possibly there was a succession of different frontier deli-
mitations and cessions of territory. There is e. g. evidence that
the large Ragunda settlement on the Indal River remained under
Sweden longer than the rest of Jámtland. The effects of the
political union of Jámtland with Norway were, however, coun-
teracted by the fact that, after its separation from Sweden, it
continued to belong under the Swedish archbishopric of Upp-
sala, to which it paid tithes. This dual arrangement continued in
force till 1570, when it was abrogated by the Peace of Stettin
after the Northern Seven Years’ War. In consequence, we have
the curious fact that the Reformation was introduced in this
Norwegian (or rather, by now, Dano-Norwegian) district by the
Swedish King Gustavus Vasa. The peace of 1645, which in-
corporated Hárjedalen and Jámtland, and that of 1658, which
incorporated Bohuslán in Sweden, gave the frontier between the
Scandinavian Kingdoms its present-day form in all essentials,
though some minor modifications were made at the final frontier
rectification in 1751. The parishes of Idre and Sárna on the
LeNord, 1942, 4 18