Gothic Society

The Geatish Society, or Gothic League (Götiska Förbundet) was created by a number of Swedish poets and authors in 1811, as a social club for literary studies among academics in Sweden, with a view to raising the moral tone of society through contemplating Scandinavian antiquity (EB 1911). The society was formally dissolved in 1844, being dormant for more than 10 years.

In the context of contentious debate over the suitability of Norse mythology as subjects of high art, in which the strong neoclassical training of northern academies, both Swedish and Danish, furnished powerful prejudices in favor of Biblical and Classical subjects, the members of the Götiska Förbundet sought to revive Viking spirit and related matters. When in 1800 the University of Copenhagen had made the debate the subject of a competition, the Danish Romantic Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger expressed himself in favor of Norse mythology. Not only was it native, but because it had not become hackneyed and characteristically for the direction Northern European Romanticism nationalism was to take, because it was considered morally superior to Greek mythology. In 1817 Förbundet announced a competition for sculpture on Nordic themes.

The club published a magazine, Iduna, in which it printed a great deal of poetry, and expounded its views, particularly as regards the study of old Icelandic literature and history. Swedish antiquarian Jakob Adlerbeth (1785–1844) was a leader in this organization and one of its most active members. He wrote several essays which were published in Iduna including translations of Edda and Vaulundurs saga.

The members wrote extensively on the Æsir and other parts of Norse mythology. The historical writings of Olaus Rudbeck were also revived and used for creating vivid imagery. In their poems, especially the rich illustrations, actual Norse elements would be mixed with, for instance Nordic Bronze Age, Anglo-Saxon and Viking Era elements in order to create a modern mythology of the past.

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