FT264

Sweden has its fair share of weird folkloric fauna. When studying the maps and literary works of 16th-century Swedish bishop Olaus Magnus, one might think that Scandinavia was completely monster-infested. Magnus’s seminal work Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Northern People), printed in Rome in 1555, contains detailed, but wildly imaginative, information about the zoology of Sweden. The reader is treated to vivid descriptions of dwarves warring with cranes, sea serpents devouring ships and dancing, satyr-like fairies. His Carta Marina from 1539 shows maps of Scandinavia where the waters are teeming with monsters that look like refugees from a Godzilla movie.