Jämtland

Who holds it

Name

The Jamts (Jamtamót); leader not pinned

Title

The Jamts' own assembly (Jamtamót) at Frösön; its law-speaker or leaders are not named

Since

The assembly is old (said to date from the 10th century); Norwegian lordship since Sverre's campaign of 1178

Confidence

medium

Sverre came through Jämtland on his marches of 1177-78 and forced the Jamts to submit after beating them on the ice of Storsjön, which later tradition calls the last war the Jamts fought under their own chosen leaders (dated 1178). Before that the sagas say the Jamts paid tax now and then to Norwegian kings, and once to a king in Svealand, for protection. The land kept its own assembly, called mót rather than þing, its own law and a strong sense of being its own country, a farmers' republic led by its leading men; its churches are under the archbishop of Uppsala, not Nidaros.

Store norske leksikon dates Jämtland's political belonging to the Norwegian crown from Sverre's reign and says it was never integrated like the Trøndelag: its position was closer to a tax land (skattland). Later Norwegian kings treated it like the tax lands over the sea (Shetland, Orkney). What the lordship meant in 1200 in detail, whether a royal officer (sysselmann) sat there and what tax was paid, is not recorded: the first royal officers in Jämtland are known only later.

Overlord

King Sverre of Norway, by the submission of 1178

What it holds

• Jämtland round Storsjön: Frösön, Brunflo, Lit, Offerdal, Oviken, the Åre valley, Hammerdal and Ström, and the lands east toward Ragunda

How it was acquired

Submission to Sverre after the battle on the ice of Storsjön, 1178.

Allies and rivals

Trade and kinship with the Trøndelag over the mountains and with Hälsingland and Medelpad down the rivers; the Uppsala church; the Swedish crown has no hold here in 1200.

How things stand that morning

Tributary to Sverre; self-governing in practice. No Bagler presence recorded.

Wealth

Cattle, butter, iron from the bog ore, furs and hunting; trade over the mountains to Nidaros. No figures.

Military

The Jamts' own levy; no castle.

Threats

• Being drawn into the civil war as a road east for either party
• Swedish or Uppsala claims

Laws and assemblies

The Jamtamót at Frösön; the Jamts' own law (not written down in this period); parish churches under Uppsala.

Places of note

• Frösön: Seat of the Jamtamót; the Frösö runestone records the conversion of Jämtland.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Rests on Sverris saga and later tradition; nothing in Jämtland itself documents 1200.

On the map: The outline follows the later province of Jämtland; the eastern limits toward Medelpad and Ångermanland in 1200 are not documented.

Primary sources for Norway (Sverre)

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
• Chronicle of the Kings of Mann and the Isles, Anonymous (monks of Rushen abbey, Mann) (about 1257, with continuations to 1316). The only native record of the kingdom of Mann and the Hebrides. Read online
• The Icelandic annals to 1578 (compiled from the late 13th century onward from older notes). Year-by-year notices that fix Icelandic chronology. 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 saga of the descendants of Knut (the kings of Denmark) (about 1250 to 1260). An Icelandic kings' saga of Denmark that draws on Saxo and Danish tradition and ends in 1187 with Knud VI and Absalon's Wendish wars. 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
• Saga of the Earls of Orkney, Anonymous (Icelandic) (about 1200 to 1230; surviving text mainly from Flateyjarbok, about 1390). The saga's last chapters are about Earl Harald Maddadsson, who in 1200 held Orkney under King Sverre of Norway and Caithness under William the Lion: his long rule, his quarrel with the Scottish king that cost him Caithness in 1196 to 1197, his recovery of it, and the maiming of Bishop John of Caithness and the king's revenge in 1201 to 1202. Read online

6 more in the sources library for Scandinavia.