Skvader

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Rudolf Granberg's prepared skvader

The skvader (pronounced

taxidermist Rudolf Granberg and is permanently displayed at the museum at Norra Berget in Sundsvall. It has the forequarters and hindlegs of a European hare (Lepus europaeus), and the back, wings and tail of a female wood grouse (Tetrao urogallus). It was later jokingly given the Latin name Tetrao lepus pseudo-hybridus rarissimus L.[1]

The term has taken on a general meaning of two disparate elements put together, often conveying a sense of a less fortunate such combination.

Name

The name is a combination of two words, explained by the Svenska Akademiens ordbok (Dictionary of the Swedish Academy) as being from the "prefix skva- from skvattra (quack or chirp), and the suffix -der from tjäder (wood grouse)".

Origins

The skvader originates from a

taxidermist Rudolf Granberg. He then mentioned the hunting story and the painting and asked Granberg if he could re-construct the animal. In 1918 Granberg had completed the skvader and it has since then been a very popular exhibition item at the museum, which also has the painting on display.[2]

Similar creatures

Wolpertinger edited from a drawing of a hare by Albrecht Dürer.

A strikingly similar creature called the "rabbit-bird" was described by Pliny the Elder in Natural History. This creature had the body of a bird with a rabbit's head and was said to have inhabited the Alps.[3]

Other similar creatures include the

American jackalope
.

Symbolism

A road sign on the approach to the museum warns drivers for skvaders on the road.

The skvader has since then often been seen as an unofficial symbol of Sundsvall and when the province Medelpad was to be given a provincial animal (in addition to the provincial flower) in 1987, many locals voted for the skvader. The final choice was a kind of compromise, the mountain hare, which is the front-end of the skvader.

Other uses

A typical skvader bus

The term skvader can be used colloquially in Swedish to mean 'a combination of contradicting elements'.[4]

Skvader also became the nickname in the 1950s and 1960s for a bruck, a combination of bus and truck (lorry in British English) with the front-end of a bus taking passengers and the back-end as an open loading bay. The skvader was used on small bus routes in Norrland and to deliver milk from small farmers to the nearest dairy.

"Skvaderns" is also a herbal liqueur made with herbs from the forest Lunde Skog, the place Skvaderns first were shot at.[5][6]

References

  1. ^ https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6969118 (in Swedish)
  2. ^ Thaning, Olof, Sverigeboken, Det Bästa, 1982
  3. ^ Pliny the Elder (77–79 CE). Natural History.
  4. ^ ""Skvader" in Svenska Akademiens ordbok". Retrieved 2022-12-25.
  5. ^ https://www.alltomwhisky.se/2013/08/jagarskrona-bakom-lansering-av-svensk-ortlikor/
  6. ^ "Produktsida". Retrieved 1 April 2016.[permanent dead link]

External links

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