Menü
A song from many centuries ago sings of a stone, inscribed with an ancient prophecy – about the world coming to an end.
The fateful stone can be found between Norway and Jämtland, so the legend goes. In mysterious scripture, it describes a humankind in crisis. And it points to our oldest writings in order to change course.
In 1675, a polymath from Uppsala sent out a first expedition to the northern regions of Sweden. Olof Rudbeck’s men returned with maps and mountain panoramas, but also the drawing of a stone, carved with characters unknown.
Four years later, Rudbeck published the first volume of his Atlantica. The material from the remoter parts of the kingdom appeared among the hundreds of woodcuts illustrating Rudbeck’s vision.
The places promised in ancient myth, he argued in this work, had not been an invention of Greek or Roman writers. The stories they told of Atlantis or the Elysium were inspired by something that was tangible and real.
His home country, so Rudbeck claimed, held the keys to advance to the true meaning behind our oldest stories. And the prime evidence was still out there for everyone to witness – the nature of Sweden, which his Atlantica made bask in the glow of ancient promise.
Clear cut area near Lake Idre, Dalarna, Sweden. For Rudbeck, the ancient myth connected to Atlas anchored in the forests and mountains around Idre.
Frozen Atlantis is an outreach initiative by our Freigeist-project on the 17th-century polymath Olof Rudbeck and his Atlantica.
Across one generation, changes of mythical dimensions have begun to impact all life on earth. Apathetic we stand in the white noise of disturbing images and alarming numbers. The old narratives of who we are and what we may hope for are losing ground. And we do not know what will take their place.
As a research project, we are passionate about stories by which human beings connect with the world around them. We believe that in the 21st century they respond to an essential human need – to order the world and describe our place within it.
In a time of global crisis, Frozen Atlantis returns to one of the most spectacular – and controversial – attempts at defining a place in the world around us. Going back and forth between the outdoors and the library, we set out to the landscapes that, in Rudbeck’s vision, brought forth our earliest stories – changing landscapes which he still considered unchangeable.
As a project in Public History, we lead avenues for a wider public into academic research. Applying innovative media formats and visual storytelling, we target audiences beyond the university.
At the core of the project are stories that tell of 21st-century encounters with landscapes and their deeper histories. Stories that raise awareness for environments in rapid change. Stories that nourish our enduring need to find meaning and belonging in the world around us.
