Ture Lång: a club-bearing statue of justice in Skänninge

Ture Lång is the counterpart of continental Rolandsstatyer associating Hanseatic cities, including Skänninge. The first Ture Lång statue was erected by immigrants who brought the tradition from their hometowns. This tradition was created after several hundred years of struggle between feudal power, imperial power, and city dwellers. The immigrants also let a similar statue be raised in Visby and in Stockholm, where a man-figure with a stick stood on Stortorget, called kopparmatte.

Club-bearing statues exist, e.g. in Münster. In the Tyrol, Hall, a statue alternates between bearing sword and club. Club-bearing statues also exist in the former colonies in Siebenbürgen. Olaus Magnus (1490-1557) described a giant statue, a Rolandsstod, called Turelang which stood on the square in Skänninge before his time. It was a symbol of the town's justice. At its knees, people were punished after public inquiry and judgment, especially for adultery. This involved placing a burden of stones, tied with iron chains to the statue's arms, over their necks. It was intended to deter from seduction of the weaker sex.

Another source about the statue in Skänninge is Johannes Bureus' work Sumlen, which refers to Per Bältare, a man over 90 years old in 1609, who allegedly saw the statue: "Ty war Ture lång (ett stort manne träbeläte så högt at en stor karl näppast rekte till Taskan hans) satt der före til en åminnelse mitt på store Torget." This confirms that the image Olaus Magnus gives is not exaggerated. The Kopparmatte in Stockholm during the 1600s was not as imposing, standing at 45 centimeters. There is no information about Visby's Roland statue, but its existence is confirmed by a plan from the 1700s, where a small square bears the name "Roland".

Professor of archaeology Oscar Almgren wrote about Ture Lång: "If we know a Roland in Visby only through the name, so is it the opposite in Skänninge with the image itself, which through its giant size, its placement and its attributes invites us, like Olaus Magnus 400 years ago, to make comparisons with the Rolandsbilder. Almgren notes that the name in Skänninge is Swedish, but that the entire arrangement is influenced by the prototype from Germany, where club-carrying Rolandsstoder have existed since the 1200s.

He also suggests that if the prototype had been a Torsbild, as suggested by some, Ture would have carried a hammer or axe instead of a club. Debate remains over the stop that Ture Lång holds in his hand, with opinions divided: some think it was a fixed measurement for the city, while Almgren asks if the measurement might have played a role in games corresponding to "slå katten ur tunnan". Such games were sometimes associated with festivities around the Rolandsstoderna.

It is likely that Ture Lång has stood at approximately the same location as the current replica, as indicated on a map from 1795. There was supposedly a depiction of Ture Lång inside Vårfrukyrkan, as per Johan Engdahls manuscript from 1753. The current Ture Lång statue was placed on the location in 1990 and was made by local blacksmiths Bo and Stefan Asp from Asp & Karlsson in Skänninge. Following a 2006 referendum, the statue was decided to remain on the square.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons