Lyngholmen

Close to the shipping lane in the Bømla Fjord west in Sveijo lies Lyngholmen. This is one of the places along the lane where ships might be lying waiting for favourable wind or seek shelter from rough weather. In the Icelandic annals and in Swedish histories from the Middle Ages it is said that king MAGNUS 7. EIRIKSSON, who had been king both in Norway and Sweden, ended his days here in the winter of 1374. In the Icelandic sources it is recorded that king Magnus and his men – 25 in all – went down and drowned. Only the corpse of the king floated ashore.

We find this story also in the oral tradition in Sveijo up until our time. A story was told of a king or a chieftain who shipwrecked at Lyngholmen a long time ago. According to legend the king was buried in the large burial mound at Lyngholmen that was called “Kongsvarden” (the King’s Cairn), but this is not likely. The custom of burying the dead in mounds ended with the introduction of Christianity, and archaeologists assume that the mound is from the Bronze Age , around 3000 years old. But there is a lot of evidence that the story of king Magnus’ sad fate at Lyngholmen is based on a real event