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Swedish County Flags Quiz

Drag the square flags of Sweden's 21 counties onto a flat map of Sweden, three tries each. No labels.

Banners of arms: twenty-one shields spread on square cloth

Sweden's counties are known by coats of arms rather than flags, and the way to fly arms is the banner of arms: the shield's field becomes the cloth and the charge sits on it. Every county here is drawn that way, as a square. The arms are mostly older than the counties: nearly all of Sweden's historical provinces received theirs in 1560, for the funeral procession of Gustav Vasa, and when the counties adopted arms in the twentieth century they took over the arms of the provinces they cover, quartering the shield where a county spans more than one. The deck is a set of provincial beasts, alone or combined.

One province, one banner: the simple ten

Uppsala is Uppland's gold orb on red. Södermanland is a black griffin on gold and Östergötland a gold griffin on red between four white roses. Skåne is a crowned golden griffin's head on red, usually traced to the arms Eric of Pomerania, a king of the Griffin dynasty, gave Malmö in the 1430s. Halland is a white lion with red claws on blue. Gotland is the paschal lamb of the island's medieval seal, white with curled gold horns, carrying a red banner on a gold cross-staff on blue. Blekinge is a golden oak, acorns and roots included, on blue. Värmland is a blue eagle spread wide on white; Västmanland is three blue mountains with red flames on white, for the mines and furnaces of Bergslagen; Dalarna is two crossed gold arrows under a gold crown on blue.

Lions with crossbows, and a town's castle

Småland's arms, a red lion holding a crossbow on gold, serve two counties. Kronoberg flies the lion alone, standing on a green mound. Kalmar quarters it with Öland's golden stag with red antlers on blue, so each appears twice. Jönköping, the third Småland county, uses the arms of its county town instead: three gold crowns on blue over a white castle on red, with blue water at the foot. Västra Götaland, formed in 1998 from three older counties, is the busiest banner: quarters for Västergötland, Dalsland, Bohuslän and the city of Gothenburg holding three lions, a red bull, a red fortress and two swords. Stockholm folds three arms into one: the crowned head of St Erik on blue for the city, Uppland's orb on red, and a yellow wedge rising from the base with the black griffin of Södermanland, of which only the head fits.

The north: elk, reindeer, salmon and wild men

Gävleborg quarters Gästrikland, a red elk with gold antlers among blue balls on white, with Hälsingland, a golden goat rearing on black. Västernorrland sets Ångermanland's three white salmon on blue beside the wavy white and red band of Medelpad. Jämtland's upper half is the arms granted in 1635, when the province was still Danish-Norwegian: a white elk with red antlers set upon by a golden falcon from above and a golden hound from the side; the lower half is Härjedalen's smith's tongs and two more tools in black and red. Västerbotten shows a white reindeer with red antlers among gold stars across the top, with Lappland's red wild man swinging a club and Ångermanland's salmon again below. Norrbotten, the largest county, quarters the reindeer and the wild man, each twice. Örebro is the other three-in-one: Närke's crossed arrows between four white roses on red, over Värmland's blue eagle and Västmanland's burning mountains.

Which banners get mixed up

Småland's lion: a green mound means Kronoberg, stags in the other quarters Kalmar. The blue eagle and the burning mountains stand alone for Värmland and Västmanland and share Örebro's quarters, so a banner with both is Örebro. Crossed arrows on blue under a crown are Dalarna; crossed arrows on red with roses are Närke, and so Örebro. Three griffins: black on gold is Södermanland, gold on red with roses is Östergötland, a head alone is Skåne. Reindeer above and salmon below is Västerbotten; reindeer and wild man in a checkerboard is Norrbotten; salmon beside waves is Västernorrland. The red elk is Gävleborg, the white one Jämtland.

All 21 counties and their county towns

21 counties are on this map, listed in alphabetical order with their county towns — the same facts the Hint button draws on. All of them are in the deck.

1. BlekingeKarlskrona
2. DalarnaFalun
3. GävleborgGävle
4. GotlandVisby
5. HallandHalmstad
6. JämtlandÖstersund
7. JönköpingJönköping
8. KalmarKalmar
9. KronobergVäxjö
10. NorrbottenLuleå
11. ÖrebroÖrebro
12. ÖstergötlandLinköping
13. SkåneMalmö
14. SödermanlandNyköping
15. StockholmStockholm
16. UppsalaUppsala
17. VärmlandKarlstad
18. VästerbottenUmeå
19. VästernorrlandHärnösand
20. VästmanlandVästerås
21. Västra GötalandGothenburg

Questions about these flags

Why are the Swedish county flags square?

Because they are banners of arms. Swedish counties are known by their coats of arms, and the heraldic way to fly arms is to spread the shield's field and charge over a square cloth. The deck draws every county that way, so the lion of Halland, the orb of Uppland or the reindeer of Västerbotten fill the whole square instead of sitting on a striped field.

Where do the beasts on the county arms come from?

From the historical provinces. Most provincial arms were created for the funeral procession of Gustav Vasa in 1560, when each province's shield was carried in the cortege, and the counties took them over when they adopted arms in the twentieth century. Jämtland's elk came later, in 1635, and Västra Götaland's four quarters were assembled when that county was formed in 1998.

Which counties share the same arms?

Several beasts appear more than once. Småland's red lion with a crossbow is in Kronoberg and Kalmar; Ångermanland's three salmon are in Västernorrland and Västerbotten; the reindeer and the wild man of Lappland are in both Västerbotten and Norrbotten; Värmland's eagle and Västmanland's burning mountains reappear in Örebro; and Stockholm borrows Uppland's orb and Södermanland's griffin.

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