Scriptures and chronists of Sweden
The article discusses an extensive and diverse set of written sources. These are the oldest texts filled with letters that replaced the Scandinavian runes. Scriptures (annals) and chronicles are two independent genres of narrative sources, and the principle of such a distinction is set forth in the article. The Swedish annals begin in Denmark, from which not only this genre was borrowed, but also its style and composition. The same can be said of the chronicles. Both the first and second are thoroughly analyzed in the article. This even applies to text carriers - they were parchment or paper. The article presents two groups of annals - the oldest and youngest and their composition. Various versions of the origin of these annals are explored, as presented by Swedish historians. In this case, a huge role was played by the changes in political situations in which the chroniclers were. The work of the authors of the chronicles depended even more on this. This genre itself assumed a kind of moralizing conclusion, usually outwardly inconspicuous. It was in him that political sympathies and antipathies of chroniclers were manifested, which were practically absent among chroniclers. The place of their writing also influenced the content of the chronicles. Provincial authors were often limited to local history. They mentioned kings, but they did not know the background of sovereign politics. In contrast, authors who worked in Uppsala or Lund, located at the crossroads of trade routes, had much greater opportunities. They wrote about events not only throughout Sweden, but also in Central Europe.