Gautland
| Götaland | |
|---|---|
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| Coordinates: 57°39′N 14°41′E / 57.650°N 14.683°ECoordinates: 57°39′N 14°41′E / 57.650°N 14.683°E | |
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) |
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) |
Götaland (Swedish: [ˈjøːtaland], also Gothia, Gothland,Gothenland, Gautland or Geatland) is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises ten provinces. Geographically it is located in the south of Sweden, bounded to the north by Svealand, with the deep woods of Tiveden, Tylöskog and Kolmården marking the border.
Götaland once consisted of petty kingdoms, and their inhabitants were called Gautar in Old Norse. It is generally agreed that these were the same as the Geats, the people of the hero Beowulf in England's national epic, Beowulf.
A part of today's Götaland merged with Svealand around year 1100 and thereby formed Sweden; other parts were at that time either Danish or Norwegian. The province of Småland, with the historically important city Kalmar on its coast, was sparsely populated and the status of the Baltic island Gotland varied during the Middle Ages. Bohuslän became Swedish first during the 17th Century after being lost from Norway, around the same time as Denmark lost Scania, Halland and Blekinge to Sweden.
The earliest possible mentions of the götar is Ptolemaios (2nd century AD) who mentions the Goutai (Γούται in Greek). Later, Beowulf (8th–11th century) partially takes place among the Géatas. Norwegian and Icelandic sources sometimes use Gautar only for the people of Västergötland, but sometimes as a common ethnic term for the people of both Västergötland and Östergötland. Västergötland appears in medieval Icelandic and Norwegian sources as Gautland (Götland), a form which is not etymologically identical to Götaland.
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