Land or people · Kingdom of the Swedes and the Götar · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Ångermanland

The northernmost Swedish-settled land in 1200: the valley of the Ångerman river and the High Coast.

It is first named in the Historia Norwegie (about 1170, 'Angariuam'); it has runestones of the 11th century and is thought to have been Christianised in the 12th. Late Iron Age burial mounds run in a strip up to about 100 km inland along the river, and its dialect reaches north-west deep into the Sami lands (de.wikipedia). Counted part of 'Hälsingland' in the wide sense and later under the Hälsinge law, in the archdiocese of Uppsala.

The royal castle at Styresholm belongs to the 14th century. Beyond its farms, north of Nordmaling and up the rivers into Lapland, the land is Sami country, with Swedish settlement on the Västerbotten coast only from the 14th century (general knowledge; fin writes the Sami).

Who holds it

Name
not named
Title
the land's thing
Confidence
low

en.wikipedia and de.wikipedia Ångermanland; sv.wikipedia Hälsingland

Overlord

King Sverker II, as king of the Svear (nominal)

What it holds

  • the lower Ångerman valley (Ådalen) up toward Sollefteå and beyond
  • the High Coast (Nordingrå, Själevad, Arnäs)
  • the northern coast to Nordmaling

Allies and rivals

Neighbours: Norwegian Jämtland up the Faxälven and the Indalsälven (now); the Sami to the north and west (fin).

How things stand that morning

Quiet; nothing is recorded that winter.

Wealth

Fish and seal, furs bought from the Sami, cattle, forest goods; iron from bog ore.

Places of note

  • Gudmundrå: old church district of Ådalen
  • Själevad: old church district of the northern coast

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Very little is recorded before the 14th century; the boundary with the Sami lands in 1200 is an estimate from archaeology and later settlement.

On the map: The coast and the valleys up to Junsele and Ramsele; the inland of the later province (Fjällsjö, Tåsjö, Bjurholm) is left to the Sami lands.

Primary sources for Sweden

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • The Danish annals of Lund, Ryd and other houses (12th and 13th centuries; Lund continued to 1307, Ryd to 1288). Short dated entries from Lund, the archbishop's seat, and from Ryd in Schleswig. Read online
  • Deeds of the Danes, Saxo Grammaticus (about 1185 to 1208). Saxo was writing at Lund in 1200 under Absalon, who died in March 1201, and his last books are an insider's history of Valdemar I and Knud VI to 1185: the Wendish wars, the taking of Rügen, the submission of Pomerania in 1185, the Danish fleet, Absalon's power and the Danish quarrel with the Empire. Read online
  • The saga of King Sverre of Norway, Karl Jónsson and a continuator (begun about 1185 under Sverre's own supervision, completed about 1210 to 1220). The king's own authorised saga. Read online
  • The sagas of the Baglers (about 1210 to 1220, in a shorter and a longer version). Begins with Sverre's death in March 1202 and the reigns of Hákon Sverrisson, Guttorm and Inge Bårdsson against the Bagler kings Erling Steinvegg and Philippus, so it has nothing for 1200 itself. Read online
  • The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
  • The Danish diplomatarium: charters and letters concerning Denmark, with Danish translation (documents of 789 to 1448; the online edition is continuing). Twenty-seven documents are dated to 1200: Innocent III's letters of February and March 1200 to Philip Augustus and Queen Ingeborg and his order for the interdict on France, Otto IV's letter to the pope expecting King Knud VI to move into Saxony, the reports of the legate Octavian and the French bishops on the lifting of the interdict in September, the pope's letters to Knud VI asking him to send advocates for his sister, Knud VI's ordinance on manslaughter for Skåne of 28 December 1200, and private gifts to Roskilde and Næstved. Read online
  • The Swedish diplomatarium and its main register, SDHK (documents of 817 to 1540). The register of every known Swedish medieval letter, with full texts for the early centuries. Read online
  • The law of the Gotlanders; The saga of the Gotlanders (Guta lag about 1220, Guta saga about 1220 to 1275; manuscript of about 1350). The law and the short history of the self-governing island. Read online

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia (en): Ångermanland
  2. Wikipedia (de): Ångermanland
  3. Wikipedia (sv): Hälsingland

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.