Homeland :: hostland – An 11th century micro geography southeast of Arlanda Airport.

Abstract

This case study is a dolly shot that eventually stops and zooms in on the small settlement area defined by the adjacent settlements Torsholma and Rolsta in the 11th century. It starts with an overview of the larger string of settlements of which Torsholma-Rolsta represents the eastern end. Secondly, it discusses the entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (E-version) for the year 1025 and this analysis corroborates Bo Gräslund’s 1986 identification of Helgå in Frösunda as the sacred river referred to in medieval sources on the war between Olav den helige (Saint Olaf), Anund Jakob and Knut den store (Canute the Great). However, in this micro-geography case study, only the possible bridgehead is in focus. The relation between Knut’s army and the local families is understood to reflect an interaction between a homeland and a hostland. Originally, Frösunda and Orkesta made up the homeland. Finally, the post-1025 runic inscriptions related to this interaction are seen as fragments of a rhetorical historiography of a near past.