Öland: Encyclopedia - Öland

Öland

Öland ▶ (help·info) is an island in the Baltic Sea, located off the coast of Småland. At 1,342 km² it is the second largest Swedish island, after Gotland.

Administratively it nowadays is counted as a part of Kalmar County, (Kalmar län). Historically however, Öland (or Latin Oelandia) formed one of the Provinces of Sweden (landskap).

Öland - County

For current affairs see: Kalmar County

There was an Öland County between 1819 and 1824, otherwise the island has belonged to Kalmar County since 1634. The island is connected to the mainland through the Öland bridge, which opened in 1972.

Öland - History

The people of the island appear to be mentioned as early as 98 AD, by Tacitus, who called them the "Aviones". The same tribal name appears in Widsith as "Eowan", and Wulfstan later called the island "Eowland", the land of the Eowan.

In Swedish history, the island long served as a royal game park.

Öland - Geography

Main article: Geography of Öland

Oelandia was historically divided into one chartered city and five hundreds.

Öland - City

• Borgholm (1816)

Öland - Hundreds

• Algutsrum Hundred
• Gräsgård Hundred
• Möckleby Hundred
• Runsten Hundred
• Slättbo Hundred
• Åkerbo Hundred

Öland was granted provincal arms in 1560, but it would not be until the 1940s that the province was assigned its proper ones. The arms granted to Öland had been mixed up with the arms granted to Åland and this was not discovered until the 20th century. While Öland changed its, Åland, which was now a Finnish (autonomous) province, kept its established but originally unintended coat of arms. The deer is ment to symbolise the status of Öland as a royal game park and the arms are topped by a dukal crown. Blazon: "Azure a Deer Or attired, hoofed and gorged Gules."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Öland", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki