Place:Härjedalen (province), Sweden

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Härjedalen (; or ) is a historical province (landskap) in the centre of Sweden. It borders the Norwegian county of Trøndelag as well as the provinces of Dalarna, Hälsingland, Medelpad, and Jämtland. The province originally belonged to Norway, but was ceded to Sweden in the Treaty of Brömsebro, 1645. The province forms the bulk of Härjedalen Municipality, of which the village of Sveg is the seat.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Jämtland and Härjedalen were provinces of Denmark-Norway until the mid-17th century. After the Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645, Härjedalen, along with Jämtland, were ceded to Sweden.

The first population of Härjedalen is estimated to have migrated there circa 7,000 BC. The population lived from hunting and fishing, close to the inland ice which by then had started to melt. Ruändan, in the in northwestern Härjedalen, is the location of a large site of rock paintings. The rock paintings at Ruändan consists of some twenty figures depicting people, bear, moose and reindeer. The rock paintings was first reported in 1896 and are estimated to be over 4000 years old.

According to legend, Härjedalen is named after a powerful Norseman who had to flee east from the Norwegian court of King Halfdan Svarte after killing one of the king's men with a horn. Thereafter he was known as (lit. "Härjulf the Hornbreaker"). For a time he entered the service of the Svea King Anund, until he eloped with that king's sister, Helga, and together they disappeared into the remote location in the region eventually named after him. Today a statue stands dedicated to them in the village of Lillhärdal. Härjulf and Helga were the foreparents to the Icelander, Bjarni Herjólfsson, who was the first Norseman to see the "new world" when he was blown off-course whilst on a voyage to Greenland. His boat is the one Leif Erikson acquired about 15 years later for Leif's famed landing on Vinland.

Christianization of Härjedalen took place after the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. Agriculture remained Härjedalen's largest industry for a long time, supplemented by ironmaking and trade mainly to Røros in Trøndelag. Extensive forestry also played a major role in Härjedalen resulting of industrialization which occurred in the mid-1850s. A large portion of Härjedalen residents emigrated to America, principally to Northwestern Minnesota during the late 1800s. More recently, Härjedalen has increasingly taken up the position as a tourist landscape with large mountain facilities in Funäsdalen, Vemdalen and Lofsdalen.

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