Like many cultural producers in Romantic Nationalism, Erik Gustaf Geijer (Ransäter 1783 – Stockholm 1847) was active in many fields: as poet, historian, composer, social thinker, rector, philosopher, folklorist, education reformer, member of parliament and of the Swedish Academy. This made Geijer especially influential in contributing to the shaping of a Swedish national self-image in the early decades of the 19th century.

A seminal moment for the introduction and dissemination of Romantic Nationalism in Sweden was the establishment of the Götiska förbundet (“Geatish Society”) in 1811. Together with archeologist Jakob Adlerbeth, Geijer was the main driving force behind the initiative. Against the backdrop of the loss of Finland in 1809, the society’s members – who were all prominent figures from the cultural and academic world – aimed to restore national pride through the exploration of the nation’s glorious past, both in scholarship and in the arts. Geijer formulated Götiska förbundet’s programme in the poem Manhem, which was published in the first issue of the society’s journal Iduna, urging the reader to “relive the ancient examples of honour, strength and faith” so that “we will be revenged” and “Manhem’s name will once again resonate throughout the world”.

Iduna’s first issue consisted in its entirety of Geijer’s work. It also contained his “Goth” poems Vikingen, Odalbonden (“The yeoman farmer”) and Den siste kämpen (“The last warrior”), which drew heavily on Nordic mythology, a cornerstone in the national consciousness championed by Götiska förbundet. As mythology was no longer practised religion, Geijer thought it highly unnatural to rework the myths into modern poetry (as Wagner would do). Instead, the poet should use them as a sounding-board for an ethnically conscious concern with the human experience. He held similar opinions with concern to painting and sculpture. When Götiska förbundet organized a painting exhibition with topics taken from Nordic mythology, Geijer became involved in a severe conflict with another eminent gothicist, the poet Pehr Henrik Ling, who propounded a more literal appropriation of Eddic myth. The fact that Geijer’s views were shared by the majority of the other members caused Ling to resign from Förbundet.

Despite such quarrels, Geijer was considered a major authority on Nordic mythology in Sweden, especially after he had accepted the chair of Scandinavian history at the University of Uppsala in 1817, a position he would hold until his death thirty years later. His interest in Nordic mythology was closely connected to a more general interest in folk culture, which he, in line with one of the main dogmas of Romantic thought, considered to contain the purest expressions of the national spirit. His landmark collection of ballads Svenska folkvisor från forntiden (“Swedish folk songs from the past”, 1814-16), prepared in cooperation with Arvid August Afzelius, played a key role in the emancipation of medieval Scandinavian literature vis-à-vis the classical canon.

In 1825 Geijer travelled through Denmark to Germany. In Copenhagen he met Rasmus Rask, the novelist Bernard Severin Ingemann and the poet Adam Oehlenschläger; in Germany he made the acquaintance of Tieck, Schelling, Hegel and Schleiermacher. Later, Geijer would acquire a small readership in German circles through the translation of his Svenska folkets historie (“History of the Swedish people”, 3 vols, 1832-36). In his historiographical work, Geijer had a preference for early Swedish history, harking back to the pagan Middle Ages, the medieval kingdoms and the early-modern period, while his profound religiosity often provided his publications with a theological tinge. In terms of popularity among a wider, non-scholarly audience, Geijer had to cede precedence to the more popular but less thorough Anders Fryxell, with whom he clashed over the historical power relations between the monarchy and the aristocracy.