1912 Olympic Games Official Report Part 2

the reasons that has impelled the Swedish hosts at this International Entertainmentfor Athletes, to ask for, and hospitably receive, permission to make just thisplace the scene of the festival, for there can be nothing nearer to an athlete’s,or a rifleman’s spirit, than a landscape, breathing of liberty, such as the one thatsurrounds us here.It is a Swedish landscape that here meets our gaze; it is the most distinctivelySwedish place that can be found in this part of our country and, what ismore, it is not only a piece of Swedish scenery, but also a fragment of Swedishculture — living scenery; primeval culture. This is a place of which, and where,one can most rightly quote the ancient thought:“Listen to that fir-tree’s whisper,At whose foot thy dwelling’s rooted.”With joy, and not without a certain pride, we have thought that to this place,we should lead you, too, our Northern kinsmen, whose native-lands and whoseculture has so much in common with ours, although each possesses its own distinctivefeatures.Dr. Artur Hazelius, the creator of this Open Air Museum, intended to givenew life to the past, that it might serve as a reminder and an impulse to thisand coming generations. Folk-dances and melodies; folk-games and ancient Swedishhumour — all live again on the dancing-platforms and in the cottages, on thepaths and in the meadows of Skansen.This is a place that, we believe, ought to appeal to an athlete, both to histhoughts and his feelings; both to his soul and his heart, by the impressions whichan unconfined landscape and ancient culture in union, ought to make on a healthyand receptive mind.Athletic sports are of ancient date in the life of the Scandinavian nations. InNorthern mythology, what prominence is not given to the story of Thor’s driving hispair of he-goats, to say nothing of the hammer-throwing of the gigantic charioteer— he who has just passed above us and cleansed the air with his lightning-bolts— or of his mighty bow and spear.And athletics has been a custom of our peoples, and has been cherished bythem, from the earliest childhood of each nation until the present day. Athletics has presentedboth serious and humorous forms, from the combats of “belt-wrestlers” and therivalry of knightly tournaments, down to “knocking the cat out of the barrel” andclimbing the greasy pole, but it has always been warmly cherished and, sometimes,has found expression in forms which, in strength and agility, if not in grandeur,could well compare with the displays of the classic Olympic Games.When, then, at the present moment, all the athletes of the world have met infriendly competition in the capital of the ancient land of Sweden, we regard it asa recognition of what has been done during the course of many ages, and of whatis still being done at the present day, in the sphere of athletics.Our country has experienced varying fortunes, not only in the field of athletics,but in other respects too.To-day, on the 9 of July, about two hundred years ago, the glorious sun of ourtemporal power set for ever in a sea of blood, in a battle widely renowned inhistory. But over our land another sun has since risen — the sun of peace andlabour, of mental and material labour. While still honouring our nation and itsflag above everything else in the world, we see that in peace, justice, co-operation793