Åheden

Where Stockholm has its Dalarö, Gothenburg its Marstrand and Helsingborg its Viken, Umeå in Åheden has its very own refuge for city dwellers who want to breathe the cleanest air and live the simplest life.

Ängsvide

Ängsvide is a low growing rice-like shrub, the bark is beautifully gray-brown. Ängsvide grows on pine moors, in forest edges and meadow slopes. There are two subspecies of the plant that are sometimes considered two separate species, therefore we have let it inspire the design with a two-color front.

Burträsk

When you pass an oversized cheese slicer along the E4 in Västerbotten’s coastal land, you know that you’ve ended up right. There is only one place on earth where the Västerbotten cheese can be made. Right here, in Burträsk.

Eljest

To be a little different, of a certain kind, a bit special and not like the rest, peculiar but loveable, odd but pleasant, strange but in an appealing way. All of this is to be what we in the north of Sweden call eljest.

Ensamheten

Is there any Swedish place name that evokes more immediate feelings than Ensamheten (The Loneliness)? No matter how much melancholy the name entails, Ensamheten does foster great strength and power. (Yep, two world champions in arm wrestling come from here.)

Fara

In Standard Swedish, the word ”fara” is used solely when someone makes an extended trip. You can, for example, ”fara” to Australia. In the north, however, you use ”fara” for any kind of trip, whether it’s to the mountains, to the office or your next-door neighbor.

Han

The north of Sweden is in many ways progressive, but not so much when it comes to how the language evolves. Where others make efforts to use gender neutral pronouns, people in the north still refer to most things as him. ”Where is the car?” ”I put him in the garage.”

He

In Swedish, there are many different words used to cover all meaning of the English verb ”put”. In the North, there is one short word that fulfills the same inclusive function as ”put”: He.

Holmnäs

The best thing about Norrland is the unpredictability. Like when fine culture moves into a sheep house. In the small village of Holmnäs outside Umeå, a well-attended opera performance is held once a year in the sheep house where the acoustics send a libretto echoing far over the meadows in the bright summer night.

Ids

People of the North generally do not care all the much whether the grammar is one hundred percent adequate or whether the one you’re in dialogue with is slightly offended. If you don’t feel like doing something, you let them now by bluntly saying so: ”jag ids int” (I cannot be bothered).

Int

Keeping things simple is of the essence for people in the north. As long as you make yourself understood, skipping out on a letter or two when speaking and/or writing is not a big issue. Inte means not, int means the same.

Jo

There is an affirmative expression – or perhaps more of a sound – that is completely unique for northern Sweden. And no, there is no proper way to spell it. Tutorial: form your lips as to prepare to whistle, inhale swiftly but carefully. There you have it. Use it generously.

Kalix

Anyone who has ever swum in the Kalix River knows that it is refreshingly cold. Fewer may know that the name Kalix is of Sami origin and refers to the river's cool waters. And maybe, just maybe, it is precisely the cold water that makes the roe from the vendace that spawn here a gastronomic success worldwide.

Ljusvattnet

Along the slowest part of the E4, between Umeå and Skellefteå, you pass the seemingly insignificant village with the self-explanatory name Ljusvattnet. Crystal clear lakes, summer and winter.

Malgomaj

The big lake outside Vilhelmina, where every year someone seems to be breaking the biggest char-record, has a name that sounds very much like a Swedish toddler trying to speak English.

Nalta

Nalta means little. In Vänsterbotten, there is a proverb laconically clarifying how nalta is best used: Harta borti harta jer brano, harta borti he, he jer nalta. (You may want to Google it, or better still, ask someone from Västerbotten).

Nausta

For a very small and quiet town just south of Jokkmokk, Nausta has made a loud impression in Swedish history. On 14 August 1961, just after ten in the evening, the first space rocket was launched from Swedish soil. But that blast was nothing compared to the Nausta blast, which was carried out in 1957 to test the results of an atomic bomb. Today, Nausta is quieter.

Nordanskär

Who doesn’t want to check in at a ”kurort” (health resort) at any time in their lives? This beautiful Swedish word that rings so much more holistic well-being than the more contemporary spa. The outlet of the island Nordanskär in the Kalix River was already in the 19th century Sweden’s, and perhaps the world’s most northerly kurort.

Ogjort

What’s northern Swedish for unplugged? ”Oi” (literally meaning ”not in”, referring to the cord). That’s just how efficient they use the language. Instead of using opposite words, simply add ”un” (”o”) as often as you can. If this copy was not yet written, it would remain ”ogjord”

Örsten

If it is true that there are as many stars in the sky as grains on sand on earth, then let’s hope all the velvety fine grains on the sandy beach of Örsten south of Umeå were counted too.

Ramsan

We’ll eat, you’ll cook. So it goes, the chant (ramsa, in Swedish) that is taught to Swedish children in school to remember the names and order of rivers in Halland. To remember the name of the dark water that forms a tributary to the Umeå River, no need to chant. It’s called, in short, Ramsan (”The Chant”).

Renskär

Today a desolate nature reserve, yesterday a gathering point for the fishermen and seal hunters of the area. To visit the island of Renskär in the Kalix archipelago and its well- preserved boulder block maze, is to make a dramatic guest play back in time.

Vars

Where in Sweden you are from, decides how you use the word ”where”. In Standard Swedish, there are two different ways of using the word: ”var” and ”vart”. In the North, the, to amusement for people in southern Sweden, the Swedish language is less refined. Here, they simply replace ”var” and ”vart” with ”vars”, which covers covers both meanings.