Twice ToldSmålandsposten, 26 July 1884: the squib "Lindormen är funnen och förevisad i Wexiö" and a letter from Allbo
- Language
- Swedish
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
Two items stacked in one column of the Växjö daily. The first is an unsigned joke that other papers copied within days. The second is a letter “from Allbo” that begins by saying the whole Swedish press has taken up the snakes of southern Allbo and Sunnerbo, with “some irony”, and that the researcher Hyltén-Cavallius has been mocked by the humour papers. We transcribed the squib in full and the letter as far as the column runs on this page; the letter’s last sentence is cut by the end of the column. The print is clear.
Lindormen är funnen och förevisad i Wexiö, se der dagens stora nyhet. I förrgår kördes vidundret å en vanlig höhäck midt igenom staden. Han var kolsvart till färgen, hade spetsig, uppstående nos, var 14 fot lång och ej mindre än 10 fot i omkrets. Dertill var han hård som en bräda och hade en mycket fast, men ändock smäcker, ja, man kan nästan säga elegant kroppsbyggnad. Tvärt emot gifna föreskrifter ämnade man ej lägga honom i sprit, utan i vatten i en stor sjö icke långt härifrån, der han skall — ros två par åror. Att det var den “rigtige lindormen” kunde man tydligt se, ty namnet stod med stora bokstäfver måladt å bogen.
Ormhistorier. Från Allbo skrifves till oss: Hela svenska tidningspressen, har på sista tiden med synnerligt intresse och något lite ironi tagit del af vissa ormförhållanden här nere i södra Allbo och Sunnerbo samt dermed sammanhängande omständigheter. Sannaböke backe, Hinneryd m. fl. ställen hafva härigenom blifvit riksbekanta, öfver allmogens enfald har skämtats duktigt och den kände, aktade forskaren Hyltén-Cavallius har hånats af skämttidningarna.
Men den som en tid vistats i dessa trakter och vill med sundt förnuft tänka på saken, han finner intet löjligt alls i allt detta, som andra tycka är så enfaldigt och roligt. Ovanligt stora ormar finnas här i verkligheten och ha alltid funnits. Trakten, så rik på mossar, kärr, mader och dypölar är synnerligen väl danad för att uppamma dylika här mer än annorstädes, och ormar på fem alnar, ja kanske till och med deröfver, finnas utan allt tvifvel. Den, som skrifver detta, slog helt nyligen ihjäl en orm, som höll fullt ut tre alnar i längd, hvilket på en annan ort skulle väckt uppmärksamhet, men här ingalunda betraktades såsom något i minsta mån ovanligt.
Det är ju helt naturligt att de fleste menniskor, när de hastigt få se en ovanligt stor orm, nästan alltid tycka honom vida större och hemskare än han i verkligheten är. Ormarne, som visat sig vid Hinneryd, Sannaböke m. fl. ställen, äro nog ingen synvilla eller diktade, de ha nog synts, ej, som uppgifvits, 9 à 10 alnar långa, men väl 4—5, ja möjligen 6 alnar. Det är dylika ormar, som ända från hedenhös till närvarande tid benämnas drakar eller lindormar, och om hvilka sagan haft så mycket att förkunna.
Att en och annan dylik här i trakten under tidernas lopp blifvit ihjelslagen är äfven troligt, men ytterst sällan har nog detta skett, ty något hvar, som får syn [the column ends here]
Translation
The lindworm has been found and put on show in Växjö: that is the big news of the day. The day before yesterday the monster was driven through the middle of town on an ordinary haycart. He was coal-black, with a pointed, upturned nose, 14 feet long and no less than 10 feet around. On top of that he was hard as a board, and had a very firm yet slender, one might almost say elegant build. Contrary to the instructions given, they did not mean to put him in spirits but in the water of a big lake not far from here, where he is to be rowed with two pairs of oars. That this was the “real lindworm” one could plainly see, for the name was painted in big letters on the bow.
Snake stories. We are written to from Allbo: The whole Swedish press has lately taken up, with particular interest and a little irony, certain goings-on with snakes down here in southern Allbo and Sunnerbo, and the circumstances tied to them. Sannaböke hill, Hinneryd and other places have become known across the country through it, there has been plenty of joking at the simplicity of the common people, and the well-known, respected researcher Hyltén-Cavallius has been mocked by the humour papers.
But anyone who has lived in these parts for a time and wants to think about the matter with sound sense finds nothing at all ridiculous in it, though others think it so foolish and amusing. Unusually large snakes do exist here and always have. The district, so rich in bogs, fens, marshy meadows and mud pools, is exceptionally well suited to raise such snakes more than other places, and snakes of five alnar, perhaps even more, certainly exist. The writer of this killed a snake only recently that was a full three alnar long, which elsewhere would have drawn attention, but here was not regarded as the least unusual.
It is quite natural that most people, when they suddenly see an unusually large snake, nearly always think it far bigger and more frightening than it really is. The snakes that have shown themselves at Hinneryd, Sannaböke and other places are surely no illusion or invention. They have surely been seen, though not, as reported, 9 or 10 alnar long, but rather 4 to 5, perhaps 6 alnar. Such snakes are what has been called dragons or lindworms since ancient times, and what the legend has had so much to say about.
That one or another such snake in this district has been struck dead over the years is also likely, but this has probably happened extremely rarely, for many a person who catches sight [the column ends here]
Notes
The squib is a joke, and the “monster” is a boat: it is hard as a board, is rowed with two pairs of oars, and has its name painted on the bow. Malm (2020, p. 6) translates the same passage and says the author was an anonymous jester; the paper prints no name. “Aln” (plural alnar) is the Swedish ell; we leave it unconverted because the letter gives no figure in metres. The writer of the Allbo letter is unnamed. His “9 or 10 alnar” is what he says was reported, not a figure we found in the booklet.