New website, new plans, new chapter

Four years. Time flies! Soon we will all be dead and buried, and other feet will tread the familiar paths that we ourselves walk today. Well, not too soon I hope! But yes, a new website. What's that all about, anyway? Ones and zeros. Pretty meaningless. But still not.

I have always admired the old granite foundations on which our beautiful Nordic log houses, barns, castles and fortresses are built. Real. Sturdy. Immortal. That's exactly what this new website is, a solid foundation. What will be built on that foundation in the future? I have my ideas, oh what ideas, but of course it's up to Allmogens members to have their say too.

To start with, navigation and categorisation have been simplified to make it easier to dig into Allmogens editorial material and archives. All editorial material is now found in four categories, History, Culture, Chronicles and News. All digitised material, all old texts, speeches, poems, books and songs, can now be found in Archive. Then there is also a category with exciting destination around our vast country.

The first website I knocked together on a November evening 4 years ago? It was just a soil survey. The results have come in; there is soil here to grow. Something lasting will be built here. Because our history, the knowledge of ourselves and our Swedish and Nordic culture, is worth preserving and passing on to our descendants. That task falls to no one but ourselves.

And what we have achieved together over these years to raise awareness and interest in our history! We who read, like, share and support Allmogens work, and in other ways engage with our cultural heritage. This year alone, 123,944 unique visitors have found their way to the website, and only last month 130,909 people have been reached by Allmogens storytelling on Facebook. We are not only helping to preserve our own history and awaken the interest of a new generation, Allmogens work has also had repercussions at the political level, reaching all the way up to the pinnacles and towers of power.

You are the members, Allmogens true friends, which makes it possible. You are the bedrock on which the granite blocks rest. You are the primordial source from which Allmogens gets its power. You are the general public. Instead of talking about the plans for Allmogens I thought I'd just show you instead. Actions speak louder than words. Follow-up to come...

So what's the deal with the star in the picture?

Eight-leaf rose, selburose (from the Norwegian village of Selbu in Sør-Trøndelag), Nordic rose, kannuksenpyörä, the dear child has many names. This symbol, Allmogens new logo and symbol, can be traced back to Nordic Viking times, including its use as a tree mark. It is a symbol that has been used in Nordic, Baltic and Slavic folklore to ward off danger, to protect home and hearth from misfortune and evil forces. Today you may recognise the symbol as an extremely popular motif on knitted mittens and woollen sweaters.

The symbol is found not only in Nordic culture but also in Baltic culture, where it is known as Auseklis, the morning star, the protective star, a symbol of the planet Venus that can be seen at sunrise. In Latvian mythology, the god Auseklis is the embodiment of the morning star and as such represents the dawn, the victory of light over darkness, the rebirth of life generation after generation. In times of war and crisis, the star is said to guide people to safety.

What's not to like about that symbolism? Especially this time of autumn when darkness is settling over the country. The light and life are coming back. Always. Especially if you wear a little morning star as a pendant around your neck, which of course you'll be able to buy in the store soon (hehe).

The symbol also has a deeper meaning for me and this project, as the morning star has been Allmogens official symbol ever since this public education project started in 2015 under the name Project Moberg (after the author Vilhelm Moberg). But it's not the star in the sky, it's the morning star. A wooden handle with a large iron lump with sharp spikes on it. It doesn't sound very inviting, I know. But read on!

Vilhelm Moberg used this weapon as the summoning symbol of the omnipotent in his novel "Rid i natt!", and Moberg in turn got the idea from Alfred Kämpe's history work The struggle for freedom of the Swedish Ommogens. Kämpe depicts a real peasant uprising from Närke in 1653, when some 15 peasants rebelled against the Swedish state's soldier drafts and heavy taxes. They were said to have used the morning star during their short-lived struggle for freedom. The rebellion was quickly put down and many of the peasants were executed, but the morning star would live on as a symbol of freedom and justice into our time. Vilhelm Moberg writes in "Rid i natt!":

"Jon Stånge stands with the board in his hand, the message board, bearing the sign of the morning star. He has received a message from fellow brothers who share with him the lot of oppression. This board is carved from the hands of bread, it has been carried through nights and days, it has run mile after mile, it has passed from hand to hand. This cloak has been covered and worn by many hands, which have grasped it and thumbed it and left their marks. It has run through a long chain of heavy peasant hands, each of which is unable to free itself, but which now grope and grope for support from one another. There are a hundred hands stretched out against him with this board, there are the hands of fellow-brothers, there are a thousand living hands. Now it is his turn to join his hand to the chain."

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