
Roslagen marked in red.
'Roslagen' is the name of the coastal areas of
Uppland province in
Sweden, which also constitutes the northern part of the
Stockholm archipelago. Roslagen consists of the four
Swedish municipalities:
Norrtälje,
Vaxholm,
Österåker and
Östhammar.
Historically, it was the name for all the coastal areas of the
Baltic Sea, including the eastern parts of lake
Mälaren, belonging to
Svealand. The name is derived from
Roden, which is the coastal equivalent to inland
Hundreds. When the king would issue a call to
leidang, the
Viking Age equivalent of military conscript service, a Roden district was responsible for raising a number of ships for the leidang
navy.
Etymologically, Roden, or Roslagen, is the source of the
Finnish and
Estonian names for
Sweden: ''Ruotsi'' and ''Rootsi''. The background of the Russian term
Rus', as in
Kievan Rus',
Ruthenia, and ultimately
Russia, derives from the same source as in the Finnish and Estonian words and is believed to derive from
Varangians, the people from Roslagen.
The area also gives its name to the endangered domesticated
Roslag sheep, which originated from the area centuries ago.
See also
★
Attundaland
★
Fjärdhundraland
★
Tiundaland
★
Stone of Mora
★
Suiones
★
External links
★ http://www.roslagen.se/ Tourism page