From at least the 13th century, similar to Finland, there has been a Swedish-speaking population along the west coast of Estonia and into the Gulf of Finland and on Ruhnu in the Gulf of Riga. The Swedes are mentioned in Haapsalu’s city law from 1294. It is not entirely clear where they all came from, but some came via the Swedish-speaking areas in Finland. There is a theory that an entire village on northern Öland in Sweden moved to Vormsi around 1206. The Swedish-speaking population has probably never exceeded 12,000 people, but the legally demarcated Swedish areas contributed to the preservation of the language and culture through the centuries. Map with the Swedish settlements of Estonia.
The Estonian Swedes, who called themselves Aibofolke (islanders), distinguished themselves by collective charters of privilege for their lands that regulated the farmers’ dues and their status as freemen. In this way, unlike the Estonian population, they managed to avoid serfdom. For this coastal population, fishing, sealing, shipping and trade were important elements. Around the turn of the century 1800/1900, larger cargo boats began to be built and potatoes and timber were exported to Helsinki, Stockholm and Riga. On the way home, the ships often passed by Burgsvik on Gotland to pick up grindstone. The extra income from the trade was important and eventually contributed to the Estonian Swedes being able to buy their farms in the Swedish villages.
During the period of Estonia’s independence in 1918-1940, the Swedish-speaking population was also better off. An example of this was the opening of the agricultural school in Pürksi, Noarootsi and later a Swedish high school in Haapsalu.
An association that would mean a lot to Estonian Swedes is Svenska Odlingens Vänner (SOV), Friends of Swedish Cultivation (cultivation in the sense of culture).
The association started in 1909 in Noarootsi for the entire Swedish-speaking minority. With support from Sweden and Finland, libraries, schools and sports and cultural activities were built. The newspaper Kustbon was first published in 1918. The association changed its name in year 2000 to Estlandssvenskarnas kulturförening SOV (the Cultural Association of Estonian Swedes SOV) and is still active, as is Kustbon.
Dialects and nature
The Estonian-Swedish dialects, unlike the dialects on Gotland, belong
to the Eastern Swedish dialects. The language on Gotland and Estonian Swedish, on the other hand, have other similarities that come from the fact that older linguistic phenomena such as gender forms and diphthongs have been preserved (stain = stone). Even some local words are common, for example, släke, the word on Gotland for seaweed, corresponds to hläke in Vormsi-Swedish.
Nature and the landscape are very similar to each other, which also shaped life and culture. Estonia and Gotland lie on the same limestone strip that runs across the Baltic Sea. The nature is characterized by pines, junipers and you can find the characteristic dewberries, wooden farm fences, white dirt roads and coastal meadows with orchid species. Lime burning and seal hunting, for example, have traditionally been important sources of income for both Estonian Swedes and Gotlanders.
Gotlanders came to Estonia according to Gutasagan
“Åislar (Oislar) say that their ancestors originate from Gotland” it says in Gotländsk Ordbok, the Gotland Dictionary on the basis of C. and P. A. Säve’s collections. Åislar (Oislar) was the local word for people from Saaremaa island that came to be used for people from Estonia in general. Aistland (Estonia) and Dagaiþi (Hiiumaa) are mentioned in the chronicle Gutasagan as the first stops for the third of Gotland’s population who must leave the island as a result of overpopulation. Saaremaa has not had an officially Swedish-speaking population for a long time, but in the 15th century Saaremaa Swedes born on Gotland are said to have been mentioned in connection with an inheritance settlement, and it is documented in writing that services were still held in Swedish in 1727 on Sõrve, Saaremaa’s southern peninsula. Sastrom (today’s Saastna) in the Bay of Matsalu was a Swedish parish whose Saint Olof chapel was a votive chapel where the Gotlanders are said to have made pilgrimages before the Reformation.
When did the Estonian Swedes come to Gotland and why?
In modern times, there have been three waves of immigration from Estonia to Gotland.
In the 19th century, young men fled in order to escape the long military service in the Tsar’s army. Perhaps the most famous of them today is Anders Söderlund from Noarootsi, whose mausoleum on the island Gotska Sandön still stands and where the dwelling house on Gamla gården is still called Madame Söderlund’s cabin.
The second wave took place in the 1920s and 30s when many, mostly women, took up positions as maids and servants on the Gotland farms, which had a shortage of labour. A priest’s wife born at Hemmungs in Hablingbo, Agnes Klasson b. Welin, lived on Vormsi in Estonia 1923-1929. She began to mediate contacts with Gotland, which became a phenomenon that continued until the outbreak of World War II and also spread to other Swedish speaking areas. Sven Hjalmar Lundberg, proprietor of Norrby’s bookstore and Estonian vice-consul on Gotland during the interwar period, was also involved in the exchange between Gotland and Estonia’s Swedish villages. Many of the Estonian Swedes who came to Gotland during this period stayed and started families.
The third wave took place during World War II. In the 1940s, many refugees from the Baltics came to Sweden. Of these, approximately 8,000 were Estonian Swedes, many of whom came with organized transports. About 60 Estonian Swedes came ashore with their own boats directly to Gotland from the Swedish villages. Another, at least 400 Estonian Swedes, were passed on to relatives and acquaintances on Gotland after arriving in Sweden. Many of those of working age who came as refugees moved on to the Swedish mainland after the end of the war.
Are Svenskbybor and Estonian Swedes the same thing?
Svenskbyborna, the villagers from Gammalsvenskby are decendants of Swedish-speaking farmers who were moved from Hiiumaa island to southern Ukraine in 1781-82. The parish of Röicks on northern Hiiumaa was then emptied of most Swedes. In the adjacent all-Swedish village of Kärrdal, which today is Hiiumaa’s capital Kärdla, around 300 Swedish speakers remained until 1810 when they too were evicted from their farms and around 200 of them moved over to Vormsi.
When Svenskbyborna in Ukraine were given the opportunity to move from Gammalsvenskby to Sweden in 1929, the majority ended up on Gotland. This means that the Vormsi descendants and the Gammalsvenskby descendants on Gotland can have common roots through the origin on Hiiumaa. It has been told how the Hiiumaa and Vormsi descendants who were reunited on Gotland during the 1930s both tried to help each other and appreciated being able to communicate with each other in their own dialect.
