Page "Ballad of Eric" Paragraph 1

The ballad was published for the first time in Latin by Johannes Magnus in his Historia de omnibus gothorum sueonumque regibus ( 1554 ).

He states that the original was a song widely sung in Sweden at the time, but Johannes Magnus is not entirely reliable.

The Latin text is composed of ten Sapphic stanzas.

It tells the story of King Eric, whose career bears some similarities to a later king Berig whom Magnus claimed united the Swedes and Goths 400 years after Erik.

Berig is also found in the Jordanes ' 6th-century work Getica.

According to the text Eric, the first king of the Goths, sent troops southwards to a country named Vetala, where no one had yet cultivated the land.

In their company there was a wise man, a lawspeaker, who was to uphold the law.

Finally, the Gothic king Humli set his son Dan to rule the settlers, and after Dan, Vetala was named Denmark.

The first stanza: