A taste of the Swedish medieval age at Skansen

Think about a point in history when modernity was at a trial-and-error stage. It was a time when necessity, not luxury, was the mother of invention. It was a period where basic housing or agricultural tools, and not an upgraded iPhone or iPad, represented state-of-the-art technology. There’s something soothing and relaxing about going back to the medieval ages – how people dressed, existed, and tried to be merry with whatever simple things they have even as, from their point of view, they probably thought of their lifestyles as nothing short of grand.

The idea of a time-warped reality show sounds fascinating, as you transport yourself and experience actual community life in an age long gone. And indeed, it held great reward as I found out while visiting Skansen, the first open–air museum in Sweden that showcases the medieval era. Located in the heart of Stockholm, Skansen is a miniature Sweden from times past. This year, Skansen was voted as the top tourist attraction in the country. Upon entry, visitors are offered a location map to help them navigate a labyrinthine 30 hectares of living history. Each piece of historical treasure is unravelled as one’s curiosity about early lifestyles builds up with each discovery. Skansen museum touts its exhibits as genuinely Swedish, and yet, there is a recurring theme of foreign influence in some aspects of Swedish life. This is to be expected, as cultural influences are fluid. In “Foreigners, Foreignness and the Swedish Folklife Sphere," ethnologist Barbro Klein describes such influences as “cultural forms that survive in exile or diaspora and take on new importance as symbolic commodities as in the case of traditional clothing, instruments, dances and food." At Skansen, forms of Swedishness, whether foreign-influenced or home-grown, abound. Several things are remarkable, such as the Alvros farmstead that portrays the basic needs of food, housing and clothing in Swedish life as represented by structures such as a storage house, cooking shed, and hay barn. Nearby is an allotment garden for growing vegetables and crops for personal consumption, which doubles as a summer house for the lower middle class. Then as now, the idea of a green city is a conscious effort in Sweden. The system of lifting houses with machines that involves unscrewing of structures is also very much evident. To collect the wood for building houses, laborers had to move around Sweden to buy oak. It is a labor-intensive operation, like much of the technology during the medieval ages. Clothing patterns and knitting of materials such as wool exemplify a typical sense of style and comportment back in those times, a built-in coping mechanism to endure the cold weather. The Skanegarden depicts a typical household and lifestyle with exhibits such as the typological series of corner joints, split-level housing that allows livestock to occupy the lower floor, and weather-defensive practical designs. Wallpaper is used to maintain the durability of a house. In the main room lies a folding bed, meant for sleeping at night and folded like a couch during the day to allow more space for children to play inside the house. Ceilings were built low to conserve the heat while activities around the house are based on heat generation and space conservation. Until today, Swedish households are constructed according to these core standards. This is why the Swedish furniture giant IKEA has made it big worldwide, having capitalized on these types of design. Love of nature and the outdoors, especially in the summer months, is a Swedish characteristic demonstrated at Skansen. Well-kept lawns, small gardens, and parks dominate the exterior view of many Swedish homes. Outdoor picnics with fika (snacks) and barbeque is a big thing, for socialization or simply communing with nature. For parents with young children, outdoor activities are always good opportunities to get some sun and fresh air. Is Skansen an apt and substantial representation of Sweden in the earlier periods of history? I would say yes, essentially because Skansen curators have achieved their objective to create a museum filled with structures used in the earlier times, and they were also able to successfully depict the lifestyles in those days. But substantial is always relative to the extent of quality and quantity of representations. Klein emphasized the need for a constant effort to upgrade the resources that are already there and to aspire to acquire more of these cultural representations, whether contemporary or from times past. This is because cultural forms, along with their transmitters, could go into exile and the diaspora may bring external influences to the home environment. In this sense, to contest and disprove the claim that a particular culture is originally his or her own is always a difficult exercise because culture is essentially shareable. Visitors would be pleased to find a craft shop, an adjoining biological museum, a glassworks center, exotic wild animals at the Skansen Aquarium, a children’s funfair and sideshows, and scores of restaurants and coffee shops. Its growing popularity and relative accessibility have made Skansen a strategic channel for spreading the word about Sweden’s historical and cultural treasures. – YA, GMA News