Eric Julius Biörner (modern Swedish spelling ''Erik Julius Björner'') was born on 22 July 1696 in the Swedish parish of Timrå in

Medelpad Medelpad ( or ) is a historical province or ''landskap'' in the north of Sweden. It borders Hälsingland, Härjedalen, Jämtland, Ångermanland and the Gulf of Bothnia. The province is a part of Norrland and as such considered to be Northern ...

and died in 1750.Herman Hofberg, 'Björner, Erik Julius', in ''Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon'', 2nd edn (1906), https://runeberg.org/sbh/bjornerj.html. He was a state official and a scholar of ancient history.

Biography

The son of the sheriff Mauritz Björner and Anna Katarina Teet, Biörner began to study at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

in 1715. Biörner was a faithful disciple of

Olaus Rudbeck Olaus Rudbeck (also known as Olof Rudbeck the Elder, to distinguish him from his son, and occasionally with the surname Latinized as ''Olaus Rudbeckius'') (13 September 1630 – 12 December 1702) was a Swedish scientist and writer, professor o ...

and his teachings about Sweden's ancient history, which Peter Fjagesund has characterised as an 'ambitious and highly speculative project of constructing a heroic national past' for Sweden.Peter Fjagesund, ''The Dream of the North: A Cultural History to 1920'', Studia imagologica, 23 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2014), p. 164. In 1717, when he was 21, Biörner published a fifty-page, Latin dissertation entitled ''De Suedia boreali'' ('About Northern Sweden'). This 'discusses the ancient history of the areas around the Bay of Bothnia, including Finland and northern Norway, connecting their population not just with the Goths and the Vikings, but also with the Flood and with Japheth, Noah's son, often regarded as the father of all Europeans'. This was highly regarded, and Biörner won the favour of another disciple of Rudbeck's,

Johan Peringskiöld Johan Peringskiöld (6 October 1654 – 24 March 1720) was a Swedish antiquarian. Biography Johan Peringer was born at Strängnäs in Södermanland County, Sweden. His father Lars Fredrik Peringer (1613-1687) was senior master at the gymnasi ...

, then the Chief Inspector of ancient monuments and historical buildings. Biörner became a clerk at the Stockholm Antikvitetskollegium. On the death of Johan Peringskiöld's son Johan Fredrik Peringskiöld in 1725, Biörner was promoted first to secretary and then, in 1738, to assessor. He was a committed antiquarian and in his younger years toured

Ångermanland Ångermanland ( or ) is a historical province (''landskap'') in the northern part of Sweden. It is bordered (clockwise from the north) by Swedish Lapland, Västerbotten, the Gulf of Bothnia, Medelpad and Jämtland. The name is derived from ...

and

Hälsingland Hälsingland (), sometimes referred to as Helsingia in English, is a historical province or ''landskap'' in central Sweden. It borders Gästrikland, Dalarna, Härjedalen, Medelpad and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is part of the land of Norrland. ...

to sketch and describe ancient finds and rune stones. He then worked as a translator and translated a large number of

Icelandic sagas The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early el ...

into Swedish, since these were then considered one of the main sources for Sweden's early history. In time, however, Biörner was increasingly isolated in his credulous ideas about Sweden's past; one of his main critics was the historian

Olof von Dalin Olof von Dalin (29 August 1708 – 12 August 1763) was a Swedish nobleman, poet, historian and courtier. He was an influential literary figure of the Swedish Enlightenment. Background Olof Dalin was born in the parish of Vinberg in Halland. H ...

. Biörner married Ebba Hadelin on 2 April 1734, but the marriage was childless. His most famous work is probably his ''Nordiska kämpa dater, i en sagoflock samlade om forna kongar och hjältar'' (1737), an edition and translation of a large number of Old Icelandic chivalric sagas and

legendary saga A legendary saga or ''fornaldarsaga'' (literally, "story/history of the ancient era") is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the settlement of Iceland.The article ''Fornaldarsagor'' in ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (1991 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biorner, Erik Julius 1696 births 1750 deaths Swedish-language writers Swedish antiquarians 18th-century Swedish people