View source for Roslagen

{{Short description|Coastal areas of Uppland province in Sweden}}
{{Coord|59.52488|N|18.40820|E|display=title}}
[[Image:Folklands.png|thumb|300px|Folklands in [[Svitjod]] (Uppland and Gästrikland)
{{legend|red|Tiunda}}
{{legend|cyan|Attunda}}
{{legend|yellow|Roden}}
{{legend|lime|Fjärdhundra}}
The coastline has changed considerably in the last millennium due to [[post-glacial rebound]]. Originally there was a sea bay coming in from the north all the way into Uppsala. ''Roslagen'' is the modern name for the area which roughly corresponds to what was called ''Roden'' in the [[Middle Ages]].]]

'''Roslagen''' is a coastal area in eastern [[Uppland]] in [[Sweden]]. It constitutes the northern part of the [[Stockholm archipelago]] and extends north along the coast. The old designation for the area was '''Roden'''.

In the Viking Age, Roden was divided into ''skeppslag'' ("ship districts"), each responsible for supplying ships and crews when the king issued a call to the [[leidang]], the conscript navy system. Unlike the inland [[Hundred (county division)|hundreds]], Roden lay outside the regular division of the Uppland [[Folkland (Swedish provinces)|folklands]]. It mainly covered the coastal areas of [[Tiundaland]] and [[Attundaland]], sometimes reaching into [[Gästrikland]], and in some sources even included islands further south such as [[Lidingö]] and [[Värmdö (island)|Värmdö]].<ref name=":0" />

Over time, especially from the 1500s onward, the term ''Roslagen'' came to be used more generally for the entire Uppland coast and even some inland areas.<ref name=":0" />

A person from Roslagen is called a ''Rospigg'', a modernized form of ''rosbyggiar'' ("inhabitant of Roden").<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hellquist |first=Elof |date=1922 |page=654 |title=Svensk etymologisk ordbok |url=https://runeberg.org/svetym/0742.html |access-date=2025-10-11 |language=sv}}</ref> The area also gives its name to the endangered domesticated [[Roslag sheep]], which originated from the area centuries ago.

== Etymology ==
The name ''Roslagen is'' first attested in 1493 as ''Rodzlagen''.<ref name=":0">[http://www.vato-sorgarden.se/filer/roden.php?select=meny12 Roslagen — från forntid till nutid] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180813175331/http://www.vato-sorgarden.se/filer/roden.php?select=meny12|date=2018-08-13}} {{in lang|sv}}. Vätö-Sörgårdens samfällighetsförening.</ref> Before that, the area was known as ''Roden (''from Old Swedish ''roðer,'' "''rowing''"'')'', which referred to the coastal districts organized for naval defense.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Svenskt ortnamnslexikon: R |url=https://www.isof.se/namn/ortnamn/sol/ortnamnslexikon/rabbalshede-rosanger |access-date=2025-10-03 |website=www.isof.se |language=sv}}</ref> The second element ''-lagen'' comes from Old Swedish ''lag'', meaning a group or team acting together, the same word that appears in ''skeppslag'' ("ship district").<ref name=":1" />

The name ''Roden'' itself may be attested already in the 11th century on two Uppland runestones (inscribed ''i roþ'' and ''i ruþi'').<ref name=":1" /> It was called ''roþi'' by Northmen in the 11th century that wrote down the words on the [[Uppland Runic Inscription 11]]. In written medieval sources it appears in the 14th century (''Rodhinum'' 1316, ''Rodhin'' 1344).<ref name=":1" /> ''Roden'' was later contracted to ''Ron'' (attested in 1545 and 1608) before it disappeared from common usage, and ''Roslagen'' became the established name.<ref name=":1" />

== ''Ruotsi'', ''Rus''' and ''Russia'' ==

Etymologically, Roslagen or Roden is the source of the [[Finnish language|Finnish]] and [[Estonian language|Estonian]] names for [[Sweden]]: {{lang|fi|Ruotsi}} and {{lang|et|Rootsi}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Benedikz |first1=Benedikt S |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFRug14ui7gC&q=%22this+traffic+originated+mainly+in+sweden%22&pg=PA1 |title=The Varangians of Byzantium |date=2007-04-16 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-03552-1}}</ref><ref name="RPC">The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text Translated by O. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor {{ISBN|0-910956-34-0}}</ref> 

Swedes from the Roslagen area also gave their name to the [[Rus' people]] and [[Russia]] (see [[Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia]]).<ref>Harper, Douglas. [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Russia "Russia"]. ''Online Etymology Dictionary''.</ref> The scholarly consensus<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/the-vikings-at-home/|title=The Vikings at home}}</ref> is that the [[Rus' people]] originated in what is currently coastal [[East Middle Sweden|eastern Sweden]] around the eighth century and that their name has the same origin as ''Roslagen''.<ref>[https://www.worldhistory.org/Kievan_Rus/ worldhistory.org]</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/vikg/hd_vikg.htm | title=The Vikings (780–1100) &#124; Essay &#124; the Metropolitan Museum of Art &#124; Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timetraveltours.se/blog/swedish-vikings-and-the-eastern-world/|title=Swedish Vikings and the Eastern World|access-date=2025-10-11|archive-date=2020-03-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328125930/https://www.timetraveltours.se/blog/swedish-vikings-and-the-eastern-world/|url-status=dead}}</ref> According to the prevalent theory, the name ''Rus''{{'}}, like the Proto-Finnic name for Sweden  (''*roocci'').<ref>{{Cite book |last=Saarikivi |first=Janne |title=The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-876766-4 |editor-last=Bakró-Nagy |editor-first=Marianne |location=Oxford |chapter=The divergence of proto-Uralic and its offspring |editor-last2=Laakso |editor-first2=Johanna |editor-last3=Skribnik |editor-first3=Elena K.|page=45}}</ref> is derived from an [[Old Norse]] term for "the men who row" (''rods-'') as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, and that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen.<ref name="Blöndal2007">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFRug14ui7gC&pg=PA1|title=The Varangians of Byzantium|last=Blöndal|first=Sigfús|date=1978|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521035521|page=1|access-date=2 February 2014}}</ref><ref name="auto">Stefan Brink, 'Who were the Vikings?', in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=wuN-AgAAQBAJ The Viking World]'', ed. by Stefan Brink and Neil Price (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), pp. 4-10 (pp. 6-7).</ref> The name ''Rus{{'}}'' would then have the same origin as the [[Finnish language|Finnish]] and [[Estonian language|Estonian]] names for Sweden.<ref name="auto" /><ref name="etymonline.com">"Russ, adj. and n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/169069. Accessed 25 July 2018.</ref>

==Communications==
The region is served by the [[Roslagsbanan]], a narrow-gauge railway network from Stockholm, going as far north as [[Kårsta]]. The motorway [[European route E18|E18]] goes through Roslagen between [[Kapellskär]] and Stockholm.

==Nature==
The hiking trail [[Roslagsleden]] crosses the region starting in [[Danderyd]] and ending in [[Grisslehamn]].

==See also==
*[[Attundaland]]
*[[Fjärdhundraland]]
*[[Fälö by]]
*[[Tiundaland]]
*[[Stones of Mora]]
*[[Swedes (Germanic tribe)]]
*[[Norrtälje]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{in lang|sv}} http://www.roslagen.se/ Tourism page

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Regions of Sweden]]
[[Category:Coasts of the Baltic Sea]]
[[Category:Uppland]]
[[Category:Historical geography of Sweden]]
[[Category:History of the Rus' people]]

{{Sweden-geo-stub}}
[[Category:Varangians]]