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

Hälsingland

The land of the Hälsingar along the coast north of the Ödmården forest and up the Ljusnan and Voxnan valleys.

Until the 14th century 'Hälsingland' meant all the Swedish-settled Norrland coast (sv.wikipedia); this record draws Hälsingland proper, the later deaneries of Alir (south-west) and Sundhed (north-east), and Medelpad and Ångermanland have their own records. The land keeps its own law, written down in the early 14th century as the Hälsinge law, which then applied to all Swedish speakers in Norrland, and its own thing; its lawspeaker was later subordinate to the Uppland lawspeaker. The name appears in Adam of Bremen at the end of the 11th century.

Christian by the 12th century, in the archdiocese of Uppsala. The Uppsala king's lordship is real but distant: the later law lists royal estates (Uppsala öd) in the land and fixes its share of the levy, but no royal officer is named and the farmers' thing runs the land.

Who holds it

Name
not named
Title
the lawspeaker of Hälsingland and the land's thing
Confidence
low

sv.wikipedia Hälsingland; en.wikipedia Uppsala öd

Overlord

King Sverker II, as king of the Svear

What it holds

  • the coast from Ödmården to Gnarp
  • the Ljusnan valley (Bollnäs, Arbrå, Järvsö, Ljusdal)
  • the Voxnan valley (Alfta, Ovanåker)
  • the old centres and churches round Hudiksvall bay (Hälsingtuna, Hög, Forsa, Delsbo) and Norrala

How it was acquired

An old land of the Svear's kingdom; how it came under the Uppsala kings is not known.

Allies and rivals

Jämtland, upriver to the north-west, is Norway's (now). No quarrel is recorded for 1200.

How things stand that morning

Quiet; nothing is recorded that winter.

Wealth

Cattle, flax and linen (later famous), fish and seal, furs and forest goods traded with the Sami and carried south.

Military

The land's share of the levy (fixed in the later law); no castles.

Places of note

  • Norrala: old church site of southern Hälsingland, tied in legend to the missionary St Staffan (not checked)
  • Hälsingtuna: old central place on Hudiksvall bay ('tuna' names often mark old chief farms)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The law, the deaneries and the lawspeakers are known from the 14th century; for 1200 almost nothing is recorded, so the picture is drawn back from later evidence and marked as such.

On the map: The settled coast and river valleys of the later province; the western forests (Los, Hamra, Ramsjö, Ytterhogdal) are left out as thinly settled or used by the Sami in 1200.

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 (sv): Hälsingland
  2. Wikipedia (en): Uppsala öd

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