Götaland

Götaland (Swedish: [ˈjø̂ːtaˌland] ^ⓘ; also Gothia, Gothland, Gothenland or Gautland) is one of three lands of Sweden and comprises ten provinces. Geographically it is located in the south of Sweden, bounded to the north by Svealand, with the deep woods of Tiveden, Tylöskog and Kolmården marking the border.

Götaland once consisted of petty kingdoms, and their inhabitants were called Gautar in Old Norse. However, the term mainly referred to the population of modern Västergötland. It is agreed that these were the same as the Geats, the people of the hero Beowulf in England's national epic, Beowulf.

The modern state of Sweden started forming when some provinces of Götaland gradually became more and more politically intertwined with those of Svealand. This process can be traced back to at least the 10th century, and would continue for several hundred years. Other parts of modern Götaland were at that time either Danish or Norwegian. The province of Småland, with the historically important city Kalmar on its coast, was sparsely populated and the status of the Baltic island Gotland varied during the Middle Ages. Bohuslän became Swedish first during the 17th century after being taken from Norway, around the same time as Denmark lost Scania, Halland and Blekinge to Sweden.

The earliest possible mentions of the götar is by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy, who mentions the Goutai (Γούται in Greek). Later, the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf (8th–11th century) is partly set among the Gēatas. Norwegian and Icelandic sources sometimes use Gautar only for the people of Västergötland, but sometimes as a common ethnic term for the people of both Västergötland and Östergötland. Västergötland appears in medieval Icelandic and Norwegian sources as Gautland (Götland), a form which is not etymologically identical to Götaland.

The name Götaland replaced the old Götland in the 15th century, and it was probably to distinguish the wider region it denoted from the traditional heartland in Västergötland. The name Götaland probably originally referred only to Västergötland and Östergötland, but was later extended to adjoining districts. The name Götaland is possibly a plural construction and means the "lands of the Geats", where Göta- is the genitive plural of the ethnonym Göt (Geat). The interpretation that the neuter noun -land is a plural and not a singular noun is indicated by Bo Jonsson Grip's will in 1384, where he stated that he donated property in Swerige (Sweden, i.e. Svealand), Österlandom (Finland) and in Göthalandom to monasteries. Here Götaland appears in the plural form of the dative case.

For the etymology of the element Geat/Gaut/Göt and Goth, see Geat.

Västergötland and Östergötland, once rival kingdoms themselves, constitute Götaland proper. The Geatish kings, however, belong to the domain of Norse mythology. Both Västergötland and Östergötland have large agricultural areas where villages and towns were established in the past. The large river Göta Älv drains the third largest lake in Europe, Lake Vänern. At its mouth (where Gothenburg emerged during the earlier part of the 17th century) the population in Västergötland had access to the Kattegat sea. The Göta Älv estuary also formed the border between the Kingdoms of Norway and Denmark until the 13th century.

Geatland is the land in which the medieval hero of the poem Beowulf is said to have lived.