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

Öland

The long limestone island off Kalmar, with its own hundreds (five in later times) and its own thing, in the diocese of Linköping.

It was 'subject to the Sweons' already about 900 (Wulfstan). Its trading place at Köpingsvik on the west coast had been the island's market since the Viking age. Nineteen Iron Age ring forts stand on the island; Eketorp, the one fully excavated, was reused in the Middle Ages (its late phase is dated by the excavators to about the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: not re-checked).

The crown later kept royal game parks at Ottenby and Halltorp (dates not pinned). The castle of Borgholm is later.

Who holds it

Name
no leader named
Title
the farmers of Öland
Confidence
low

Overlord

King Sverker II

What it holds

  • the island's hundreds
  • the market at Köpingsvik (Köpingsvik)

How things stand that morning

Under the Swedish king, quiet in winter; exposed to raiders in summer.

Threats

  • Baltic raiders in summer

Law and courts

Its own thing and hundred things; the law in 1200 is not pinned.

Why a province

No lord or royal officer is known on Öland in 1200; the island acts through its own assemblies.

Places of note

  • Eketorp: ring fort, reused in the Middle Ages
  • Gråborg: the island's largest ring fort

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Very little written evidence before the later thirteenth century.

On the map: The island's two modern municipalities (Borgholm and Mörbylånga) cover exactly the island.

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: Öland

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