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Sweden

Sverige

Zeljko Heimer1996-FEB-07

Dimensions of the flag
Heraldry of some municipalities
Arms
Naval Jack

See also:

Dimensions of the flag

The dimensions of the Swedish flag are 5:2:9 horizontally and 4:2:4 vertically.

The dimensions of the Swedish flag with a swallow-tail are 5:2:5:8 horizontally and 4:2:4 vertically.

Mark Sensen 1995-SEP-25
James Dignan 1995-SEP-26

Heraldry of some municipalities

As far as I know, the flags of most Swedish municipalities are based on the arms.

Arms of Norrk�ping

On a field of gold St. Olaf (in 'natural' colours) in blue clothes, with a blue halo and holding a blue axe and a blue orb, sitting on a red throne.

Huskvarna

This town has been a part on J�nk�ping since 1971. The arms of the town from 1911 to 1970 was divided per bend wavy with rifles and wings on each side (pardon my halting blazon). There is no indication of the colours in my source, and I have only a black and white illustration.

The arms of J�nk�ping

A red field with a castle with three towers and a wavy blue stripe at the bottom.

Some sources

My source for this information is:
Clara Neveus: Ny svensk vapenbok,
Stockholm: Streiffert, 1992,
191 pages, summary in English
ISBN: 917886092X

The text is written by the Swedish state heraldist Clara Neveus, the illustrations are by Bror Jacques de Waern. A beautiful book covering all Swedish municipal arms (illustrated in colour), as well as some other regional arms (old arms in black and white). I bought a copy of this book recently, and paid NOK 375 for it.

If you have full internet access, you can find out more about Norrk�ping by going to http://www.lio.se/norrkoping/. Unfortunately, they have not put out their arms on the net (instead they give us one of those ugly logos...). I couldn't find a page for J�nk�ping (or Huskvarna), but I didn't look hard for it either.

There is some Swedish municipal heraldry to see on the net, starting for example at http://www.sunet.se/sweden/regional.

Jan Engene Oskar

Arms of Sweden

The Bernadotte dynasty superimposes an inescutcheon of the Vasa and Bernadotte families, impaled, over the traditional arms of Sweden (and Norway till 1905) which are the gold lion on a blue and white striped field (the original medieval arms of the Folkunga dynasty) quartered with the 14th century three gold crowns on a blue field, the quarters divided by a gold cross. The Vasa arms are a gold vase on a diagonally divided field of red, white and blue. The Bernadotte arms--granted by Napoleon when Bernadotte was made the Prince of Ponte Corvo--are more complex with what looks like a castle on a river, surmounted by a Napoleonic eagle in gold with the gold stars of Ursa Major above it.

The source for this is Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe by Jiri Louda and Michael Maclagan, Clarkson Potter, New York, 1981. It's a spectacular reference book and occasionally I've seen it in remainder lists in catalogues and at bookstores. The Cornell Library might have it. Also, if you have access to usegroups, you might want to read alt.talk.heraldry and alt.talk.royalty.

John Andrew Lowe, 1995-OCT-15

The arms of Marshal Bernadotte, part of the above-mentioned Napoleonic system, are incorporated in the arms of King Gustav.

Will Linden, 1995-OCT-15

Naval Jack

Sweden has a naval ensign, the square version of the flag. [bro68]

Pascal Vagnat, 1996-MAY-02