Lapland

[Olof_imp]

About the Nyköping Banquet: history is a bit vague in the details, but seems to agree on this: the brothers Erik and Valdemar had been warned about King Birger banquet but ignored the warning as they each had their armed guards with them. However King Birger convinced the brothers that the guards, due to.lack of space, had to be lodged in the nearby Nyköping town. There they were served plenty of food and wine as thus were out of the game. At the castle the brothers were given the same treatment and went to bed, pretty drunk, in the castle's major guest bedroom. A few hours later King Erik and his men barged in, tied up Erik and Valdemar, brought them to the dungeon and lowered them down with a rope. There they were chained with neck irons. After a few days they were persuaded/forced to write their wills in which they handed over to King Birger most of their land and rights. After that they were simply starved to death. However, King Birger didn't get away with it. When the word spread the Swedish and Norwegian aristocracy took to arms and sieged the Nyköping Castle. King Birger and his wife Märta gled to the Stegeborg Castle, two days ride south of Nyköping and from there sailed over to Denmark where he lived in exile for the rest of his life. Today the dungeon is empty, and open for visitors who can there also see the key that King Birger threw into the stream.