- In 1874, a hunter shot a flying hare. He referred to the beast as a “Skvader.”
- Skvader resembles a blend of hare and wood grouse.
- The animal swiftly became an icon in the country.
Skvader is a fantastical beast from Sweden that resembles a cross between a hare and a wood grouse. Håkan Dahlmark (1832–1922), a timber rafting inspector in Medelpad, is credited with creating the Skvader in a hunting myth. It was painted and then stuffed at the end. Skvader eventually became shorthand for any “unusual or unsuccessful mixture” in the common language.
Story of the Skvader
Håkan Dahlmark was a famous hunter in addition to his occupation as a timber rafting inspector at Lövudden on the Indalsälven. At Sundsvall’s Hotel Knaust, he often reminisced about his hunting adventures and told false tales. During a hunt in the Lunde woodland west of Timrå in 1874, he supposedly shot a flying hare. He referred to the beast as a “Skvader.”
Lova Lindahl, Dahlmark’s housekeeper, painted a picture of this “Skvader” for his birthday in 1907. A hare and a wood grouse that she had bought at Stora Torget allowed her nephew Halvar Frisendahl to create the painting. Dahlmark gave the artwork to the Medelpad Antiquarian Society shortly before his death in 1912.
Carl Eric Hammarberg, the museum’s new curator, suggested making a stuffed replica of the legendary beast. In 1916, he met taxidermist Rudolf Granberg from Granloholm at an exhibition at Örnsköldsvik and told him about the Skvader. The stuffed Skvader was donated by Granberg in 1918, and it has been on display at the Antiquities Society museum on Norra Berget in Sundsvall ever since. A Medelpad student association named “Skvader” in Norrlands country, Uppsala, and the Biological Museum in Djurgården, Stockholm, both have similar specimens.
Where Did the Name Come From?
The Swedish Academy’s lexicon has made an effort to deduce Håkan Dahlmark’s name for the beast, and it suggests that “skva-” derives from “skva-ttra” which means “chirping” or “charlatanism.” On the other hand, “-der” comes from “tjä-der” which means “wood grouse”.
Olof Högberg gave the Skvader the comical scientific name Tetrao lepus pseudo-hybridus rarissimus L. since the genus name for hares is Lepus and the genus name for the wood grouse is Tetrao. Because of Högberg’s classification, you’ll actually find the imaginary Skvader in a number of encyclopedias.
Other Imaginary Creatures
In the Alps, Pliny the Elder, writing in 77–79 AD for his Naturalis Historia, described a similar fabled creature with a bird’s body and a hare’s head. Wolpertinger in Bavaria, Raurakl in Austria, Rasselbock in the Thüringer Wald, Elwedritsche in Pfalz, and Jackalope in the United States are all examples of comparable mythological animals to the Skvader.
Skvader in Culture
In little time at all, the Skvader became an unofficial icon of Sundsvall, and the term “skvader” evolved to mean “bad compromise” or “combination of contradictory things.” The term “skvader” also caught on as a slang term for the cargo-equipped buses that plied the highways of northern Sweden up until the 1970s.
There was a big Skvader statue on Norra Stadsberget in Sundsvall, and within it was a slide. Due to damage caused by ants and water, the slide had to be closed in the spring of 2016. Dismantling of the structure began later in 2016. The future of the structure, whether it will be rebuilt or replaced, was up in the air at the time.
The Gastronomic Academy in Sweden released a spoof almanac in 1986, which included a recipe for oven-baked Skvader: wood grouse stuffed with hare meat seasoned with juniper berries and parsley. Swedish actor Pierre Lindstedt has starred in both a novel and a play based on the Skvader.
Sundsvall is home to a high school with the same name, Skvader Gymnasium, in the Haga district. Skvader High School is a private institution that opened its doors to students in 2002.
Norrlands Nation in Uppsala has a student group called Skvader, and the Swedish Systembolaget offers a product called “Skvader’s herbal liqueur.”
Born and raised in Härnösand, artist Göran Janulf forged the bronze “Skvader.” Sundsvall’s museum has acquired this sculpture for its public collection. The Museum of Sundsvall and the Medelpad Antiquarian Society on Norra Stadsberget in Sundsvall now own it thanks to a donation.
Additionally, Göran Janulf has made the sculptures “Stora Skvader” and “Lilla Skvader.” Both statues are made of bronze and rest on a pedestal made of black dolerite. Another Skvader was molded in concrete by the Eskilstuna-based sculptor Stanislaw Lux.