Tiveden is a long and wide densely forested rocky ridge in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, throughout history notorious for its wilderness and dangers; historically a hiding place for

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

s. In historic times it, along with

Tylöskog Tylöskog is a forested area in southeast Sweden, intersected by many faults, running from east to west between the agricultural plains of the counties of Närke and Östergötland. Together with Tiveden to its west and Kolmården to its eas ...

and

Kolmården Kolmården () is a long and wide densely forested rocky ridge that separates the Swedish provinces of Södermanland and Östergötland, two of the country's main agricultural areas, from each other, and in historic times, along with Tylöskog and ...

, formed the border between the land of the

Swedes Swedes ( sv, svenskar) are a North Germanic ethnic group native to the Nordic region, primarily their nation state of Sweden, who share a common ancestry, culture, history and language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countr ...

and the land of the

Geats The Geats ( ; ang, gēatas ; non, gautar ; sv, götar ), sometimes called ''Goths'', were a large North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the late Middle Ages. They are one of th ...

. Within it, the

Tiveden National Park Tiveden National Park (Swedish language, Swedish: ) is a national park situated in the Tiveden forest in the municipalities of Laxå (Örebro County) and Karlsborg (Västra Götaland County), in the historical province of Västergötland in Sweden ...

has a designated area of , a comparatively small and arguably the most inaccessible part of the forest. It was established in 1983, and administratively belongs to the municipalities of

Karlsborg Karlsborg (, outdatedly ) is a locality and the seat of Karlsborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 3,551 inhabitants in 2010. This garrison town lies at the shore of lake Vättern in Västergötland. History The town of Karl ...

and

Laxå Laxå is a locality and the seat of Laxå Municipality in Örebro County Örebro County ( sv, Örebro län) is a county or '' län'' in central Sweden. It borders the counties of Västra Götaland, Värmland, Dalarna, Västmanland, Södermanlan ...

History

The name is very old and disputed. -''Ved'' is cognate to English ''Wood'' and the first part of its name, ''Ti''-, either means "god" or refers to the god

Týr (; Old Norse: , ) is a god in Germanic mythology, a valorous and powerful member of the and patron of warriors and mythological heroes. In Norse mythology, which provides most of the surviving narratives about gods among the Germanic peoples, ...

, both descendants of the word meaning “god”. Tiveden separates

Närke Närke () is a Provinces of Sweden, Swedish traditional province, or ''landskap'', situated in Svealand in south central Sweden. It is bordered by Västmanland to the north, Södermanland to the east, Östergötland to the southeast, Västergö ...

from

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Väs ...

, and was formerly a frontier between the

and the

. The national park area has never been inhabited, but there are several ancient remains of human activities such as worshipping grounds and sacrificial sites.

Geography

The forest has small lakes with red

waterlilies ''Water Lilies'' (or ''Nymphéas'', ) is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926). The paintings depict his flower garden at his home in Giverny, and were the main focus of his artistic p ...

. When they were discovered they provided the European varieties of red waterlilies that are in cultivation. The folklore tale of how this became goes as follows: The animal life is scarce, but the forest houses a substantial population of

western capercaillie The western capercaillie (''Tetrao urogallus''), also known as the Eurasian capercaillie, wood grouse, heather cock, cock-of-the-woods, or simply capercaillie , is a heavy member of the grouse family and the largest of all extant grouse species. ...

. Nowadays there are small populations of wolves, lynxes and wolverines in Tiveden. Bears have also been sighted.

References

External links

Tiveden National Park
from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency {{Authority control Forests of Sweden Geography of Örebro County Tourist attractions in Örebro County Geography of Västra Götaland County Tourist attractions in Västra Götaland County

History

Geography

See also

References

External links