Southern Gothenburg Archipelago

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Southern Gothenburg Archipelago lies off the coast of Gothenburg, Sweden's second-largest city. It has 5,000 permanent and another 6,000 summer residents. The archipelago is completely car free.

In the Norse sagas, it was called Elfarsker (the river islets), as the river Göta älv had its estuary there. The islands appear to have been famous as a location for holmgangs during the Viking Age.

Sagas where the location appears:

• Orvar-Odd's saga [1].
• Bósa saga ok Herrauds [2].
• Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar [3]

One of the islands, Brännö, is described as an important location for fairs in the Laxdaela saga, and it is also considered to be the likely location of Breca and the Brondings of the Anglo-Saxon poems Widsith and Beowulf.

[edit] Islands

The islands in the archipelago include (in alphabetical order):

Asperö - Brännö - Donsö - Knarrholmen - Sjumansholmen - Stora Förö - Styrsö - Vargö - Vrångö

[edit] External links

• Official site

Coordinates: 57°37′N 11°47′E