Geatish Society

The Geatish Society, or Götiska förbundet in the Swedish language, was a social club for literature studies among academics in Sweden created by a number of poets and authors in 1811.

The Geatish Society sought to revive Viking spirit and related matters, and the members would write extensively on the Aesir and other parts of Norse mythology. The historical writings of Olaus Rudbeckius 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 Scandinavian Bronze Age, Celtic, Greek and Roman elements in order to create a modern mythology of the past.

Among the most famous members were Esaias Tegnér and Erik Gustaf Geijer. Some of their most famous poems were composed under the influence of the ideas and sentiments of the Geatish Society, notably Frithiofs saga by Tegnér, as well as other minor poems named Vikingen, Odalbonden and Skidbladner. The latter were published in Iduna, the newsletter of the society.

Members of the society would write extensively on the Vikings, often in a way that described a kind of brave ancient people that had nothing in common with the actual Vikings. Members of the Geatish Society would occasionally wear horned helmets, which is the source of the myth that Vikings would have worn such helmets. (Actually they never did.)

The mythology and imagery of this movement was very popular in Nazi Germany, and among Nazists (to this day), though ideologically there is no obvious connection.

See also: Geats