A brief history about Öjerviks gård

A Family Farm

My father always recited the same poem when we crossed the border to Värmland, on our annual trip to Öjervik, the family farm. During the rest of the year we lived in Memphis, Tennessee, and every summer we came back to Sweden to be with friends and family and to nourish our roots. The summer vacation from school wasn’t complete until we had spent some time at the farm. The poem roughly translates to:

And here is the grove, where the cuckoo calls,

little ladies ran here,

with bare feet and broken skirts,

to pick the grove's berries,

and here there was shade, and here there was sun,

and here there was plenty of purple blossom,

that grove is dear to me,

my childhood whispers there.

and in Swedish: 

Och här är dungen, där göken gol,

små töser sprungo här

med bara fötter och trasig kjol

att plocka dungens bär,

och här var det skugga och här var sol

och här var det gott om nattviol,

den dungen är mig kär,

min barndom susar där.

By Gustaf Fröding, from the collection of poems “Stänk och flikar,” 1896. Part II in Strövtåg i hembygden

My father grew up in Sunne because his family owned and managed the local mill “Rottneros bruk,” a group of companies involved in wood, pulp and energy businesses. The mill came into the family in 1875, when Edsvallabolaget bought the bankruptcy estate after Gustaf Adolf Wall (a local hero, despite his ultimate bankruptcy). Shortly after the acquisition, one of the major shareholders in Edsvallabolaget gave the mill to his daughter Ebba Waern and son-in-law, Hampus Edvard Montgomery. H.E. Montgomery was gregarious and involved in many activities. Perhaps too many. In 1910, he suddenly died of a heart attack at the age of 52, and the mill was burdened with debt as a result of Montgomery’s aggressive investment activities. The bank was inclined to liquidate the mill, save what it could of its debt, and sell all the land - until Svante Påhlson came to the table. 

Montgomery had 11 children, and the youngest of them, Greta, was married to Svante Påhlson, a man with a resolute will to make the mill profitable. For Påhlson’s plan to work he not only had to convince the bank he was suitable for the job, but he also had to compensate Greta’s 10 siblings who also were interested in taking over the mill. Ultimately, in 1917, after many uncertain years, the bank supported Påhlson. As compensation Påhlson gave the remaining Montgomery siblings family homes in Sunne, which to this day many “Montgomerys” inhabit. 

Many books have been written about what happens next, of how Påhlson built one of Europe’s largest wood pulp and energy businesses. In 1917, when Påhlson took over the business, it was an agriculture parts factory and only a small part of it was dedicated to wood pulp production. 50 years later, in 1970, the Rottneros Group had become the largest exporter of wood pulp in Europe. Rottneros is an old mill with a history that stretches back as far as that of Öjervik. Påhlson himself, like Montgomery and G.A. Wall all lived at the manor house at Rottneros. Probably not a bad place to live as multiple sources from the 18th century cite Rottneros as the most beautiful estate in Värmland. At the end of his life, Påhlson embellished the grounds surrounding the Manor house with a collection of mostly Nordic sculptures, which became what is known today as Rottneros Park, a popular tourist attraction in Värmland. A family trust owns the park and statues and Sunne county operates the park during the summer. 

Both Öjervik and Rottneros have almost always had a single owner throughout its recorded history (roughly 700 years). They are just a few kilometers apart and are topographically similar. That changed in 1917 when Påhlson bought Rottneros, and Greta’s brother Edward Montgomery bought Öjerviks gård. Edward Montgomery wanted to become a farmer and Öjervik was his calling. When it was time for Edward to retire, in 1943, he decided to sell Öjervik to Påhlson. This was a difficult time for Påhlson: he had recently lost his eldest and only son, Pål, in World War II (Pål was a volunteer in Finland where he fought against the Soviets and in Norway where he fought against the Nazis - ultimately a German sniper killed him); Påhlson had financial troubles due to the poor business environment brought about by the war; and lastly Påhlson’s daughter, Ebba, was considering divorcing her husband and father to her three children. It was for this last reason, to make Ebba’s potential divorce decision free of financial considerations, that Påhlson gave her Öjervik in 1943.

The manor house pictured above was the house that Ebba was given in 1943. Unfortunately, during a large renovation in 1947, it succumbed to fire. The old manor house reflects many architectural details that are typical for the region around Fryksdalen (the 1 ½ story height, the non-center entry door, the semi-circle windows, wood panel facade, and shale roofing). In 1969, Ebba and her husband Claes (whom she decided to hang on to) built the house that stands today, a modern house typical for the time in which it was built. After Ebba’s and Claes’ passings, the farm went to the next generation, and in 1997, Pål Horn, Ebba’s oldest son, bought it from his siblings while continuing his business affairs in the USA. Pål passed away in 2018, and his wife Margareta decided it was better for the next generation to take over. In 2020, the youngest of four siblings, Mats Horn (yours truly) bought the farm from his siblings, and currently lives at Öjervik.

Öjervik in Swedish Literature

Between 1880 and 1892, Bengt Fröding, Nobel Prize nominee Gustaf Fröding’s uncle, rented Öjervik. G. Fröding, born in 1860, spent his summers at Öjervik, and perhaps it’s Öjervik he refers to in my father’s favorite poem. He’s written other poems specifically about Öjervik (“Svampinjoner”), and it was at Öjervik that Fröding became life-long enemies with Selma Lagerlöf, another Sunne native and Nobel prize laureate. In their last correspondence Lagerlöf informs Fröding that his letter wasn’t worth more than toilet paper.  

The Fryksdalen region is usually the setting for Lagerlöf’s stories, and some are clearly derived from events that took place at Öjervik. In Lagerlöfs debut novel, “Gösta Berlings saga,” she writes about a series of quasi-magical events at Rottneros (“Ekeby”), Öjervik (“Sjö”), and a few other farms in the Fryksdalen area. The main characters in the novel are a military Major, his wife, and Gösta Berling, who lives a debaucherous life with an unpredictable group of gentlemen at ‘Sjö.’ According to the historian and journalist Linus Brodin, these characters are derived from a couple that lived at Öjervik. At the risk of spoiling Lagerlöfs story, here’s what happened to this colorful couple in real life, and why Lagerlöf was compelled to tell their story. 

The chief district judge, and in many cases the supreme judge, Jan Sandelin, lived at Öjervik between 1786 and 1824. He lived there with his wife Gustafva Christina who had inherited Öjervik. Öjervik had been the seat for local court affairs for centuries. One of the annexes, which unfortunately no longer stands (you can see a parts of it in the black & white pictures), was the local court in Fryksdalen. According to legend, Gustafva Christina was beautiful and had many suitors. One of which, Bengt Reinhold Antonsson, was so enamored by Gustafva Christina that when he died in 1814, at age 51, unmarried, he willed his entire estate (including Rottneros) to Gustafva Christina, making her the wealthiest woman in Värmland. 

The size of her new estate and the audacity of Antonsson’s will made Sandelin mad with suspicion, jealousy, and rage. He became so mad that he locked Gustafva Christina into a bedroom in the north wing of Öjervik, where she remained for the next 10 years, until Jan Sandelin passed away. What makes the story so eerie is that when Jan Sandelin died, Gustafva Christina could (finally) leave her room - but she didn’t. She stayed in her room for an additional 18 years, never once leaving her quarters. She didn’t even leave her room in 1832 when her own daughter married Gustaf Nauclér, the following chief district judge at Öjervik. Gustafva Christina died in 1842, after 28 years in her room in the north wing at Öjervik. Two 2 years later, in 1824, the manor house at Öjervik burned to the ground. To this day locals at the farm say they’ve seen “Frua” (ENG: “wife”), as was Gustafva Christina’s nickname. 

Selma Lagerlöf cites hearing this story from her house maid, “Racklitzan,” who worked at Öjervik in the early 1800s. Racklitzan came to the Lagerlöf household through Lagerlöf’s grandfather, Daniel Lagerlöf. D. Lagerlöf became Gustafva Christina’s legal guardian in 1824, when she was officially deemed insane (when she didn’t want to leave her room). The crazy events that took place at Öjervik have, at least in part, become eternal through Lagerlöf’s stories.

The Land

“Öijerwiks” history goes as far back as the Bronze Age (1750 - 550 BCE), according to archaeologists who have examined multiple grave sites on the property. Ancient burial sites are spread across the property probably because of the tactical defensibility of wide vistas and high ground. According to local lore it’s said that “Öjer” is buried in one of the mounds by lake Fryken. Öjer was the viking that supposedly conquered the Isle of Man. It’s easy to imagine that many special metals are buried just a few feet below the ground at Öjervik.  

Another source calls the farm “Eiwarswik,” which beckons the thought, maybe the viking’s name was Eivar? A fairly common name among Swedish males. Or did the local dialect pronounce Eivar as Öjer? It’s hard to know given the rules of how to correctly spell words first came about in the late 19th century, far after the names of places in Sweden were established. 

In the 1860s, Öjervik was provided with significant improvements through an owner interested in landscape architecture, Zacharias Abelin. Abelin built a magnificent park with statues and a variety of trees. Only traces of it remain today. In an excerpt from a newspaper article from 1923, 10 years after the railway that cuts across the farm was built, Brodin paints a picture of the farm that reflects how the family still feels today, 100 years after his article was published. 

“The original park has been cut off by a new railway, but flowers still grow among alders and oaks, down by the “viking’s” grave. Small serpentine paths remind us of a time when money cultures didn’t coerce people, rather when we chored with fair and wholesome values, when we also had a culture of which remnants we, subsequent children, cherish as something precious and loved that we have once owned and lost.”

SWE: “Den ursprungliga parken är nu sönderskuren av järnvägen, men nere vid ‘vikingens’ gravkulle växer trädgårdsblomster bland enar och alar, små slingrande vägar minna om tider då ej penningkulturen jäktade människorna utan de hade tid att syssla med reellare värden och dessutom ägde en kultur, vars rester vi, senare tiders barn, glädjas åt som åt något dyrbart och kärt vi ägt och förlorat.”

The buildings and land at Öjervik give us a reason to remember and share these stories. We hope these stories, of life at the farm, may reinstate more wholesome values in us and provide precious moments that we may cherish for ourselves, together with family and friends, and pass down to the coming generations. 

Mats Horn af Åminne

Öjerviks gård

November 5th, 2020