ABSTRACT
AMONG the spectacles presented by water in the North is one that is not so much frequent as harmful to the inhabitants of Medelpad province, towards the northern parts of Upper Sweden, where 114almost more men than not are given the name of Hun, as if the people had once warred gloriously against the Huns and been victorious. 1 In that province there is a very wide river, Vhose waters are carried down with such a headlong swirl that animals, losing their power to swim, in most cases sink to the bottom. This river, flowing down from the topmost peaks of the mountains, passes through the rugged steeps and is dashed against the rocks which stand in its way, until it tumbles into the deep valleys with a redoubled roar of its waters. Yet, although it is hurled back by the rocks that persistently block its path, the speed of its onrush is always maintained at the same rate; since therefore its waves are thrown into an unrelieved turmoil along the whole of its bed, a foaming whiteness abounds everywhere. 2 But we must examine the terrifying nature of this river: in some years, a little before the summer solstice, it is filled up and choked in three places by such a huge, interlocked mass of floating ice and trees that, when the river is about to break the dam and burst its banks, those who live along the sides of the lower reaches are compelled to flee to higher ground. Meanwhile by employing scouts they try to find out what point it has reached in its terrifying descent, so that it may not wreak wanton violence in its swift course.
Medelpad
Huns
Swift river
Inhabitants flee from the torrent
