Sweden - The Land of Today [antikvár]

I' I .! ' ¦ ¦ '' • ¦ •' •-tX-i- I.' I'i.l ' .I'l 1 1,1,A u'l.iisj Once upon a time there was a Swedish boy called NUs Holgersson who, since the beginning of the century, was known to aU of the schoolchildren in his country. Through Nils they learned about their homeland of Sweden (Sverige to them) because he had the good fortune to travel the length ofthe country - on the back of a goose. Nils was one of the characters created by the much-loved Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlof, and the Wonderful Adventures of NUs, as the tale is called, enabled him to give a bird's-eye description of the big northern land of which, in his day, rather few Swedes saw very much. Thie enough, the railway had already Unked south Sweden's Canaan - the grain-rich province of Skane - by means of 1500 kilometres of broad-gauge track to the frosty fells of Lapland; but most Swedes were not very well-off in those days, and those who had money for travelling went in search of winter simshine. Through NUs Holgersson's flight of fancy they became armchair travellers in their home country. Today, Sweden is a rich coimtry. A network of domestic air Unes, flUed with Swedes on their manifold business and pleasure trips, spreads some 25,000 feet above the migrating vrild geese. At such an altitude, even on a clear day, cabin windows only offer a two dimensional scene - a repetitious mosaic of grey-green forests, shining water, brownrocky outcrops, oases of farmland, with towns increasingly widely spaced as you j oumey northwards over this long land. For Sweden is the fourth largest country in Europe, much bigger than the United Kingdom. Sweden is situated in high latitudes. As a result, winter is the longest season, with the grey and blue of most of the countryside being transformed into the white of snow and ice for months on end. And, because winter days are short - only a few hours of daylight at midwinter in north Sweden - a flight is hkely to be by night. The Swedish poet, Per Lagerqvist, wrote of "the darkness that drinks the light". It must have seemed that way to most Swedes before the coming of electricity, which a few began to switch on about a century ago. Today, a flight by night reveals myriad pinpricks and criss-crossing ribbons of Ught, for now just about every Swedish home, however remote, has electricity. The stretches of utter darkness that become apparent as the aircraft flies northward to skies where the aumra boiealis dances, impress on you the extent of the uninhabited areas. The same northward flight in summer takes place In continuous dayUght, because nearly a quarter of Sweden lies beyond the Arctic Circle and may see the midnight sun for several weeks on end. The seasonal rhythm of daylight and darkness, as well as of heat and cold, makes for striking contrasts between winter and summer in the people's work, play and attitudes.