During the early AFU years in the 1970s and 80s we became increasingly aware of that any type of serious UFO research required an extensive and easily accessible archive, covering all aspects of the phenomenon. Not just reports, books, magazines etc. but also private correspondence and organizational files, facilitating a thorough study of the history of the UFO movement, including the psychological and sociological aspects. From the Heureka Moment when we became aware of the importance of saving archives the AFU team has consistently ”pestered” old ufologists with requests to donate their collections. No wonder Robert ”Bob” Rickard has named us The Viking Raiders.
In the 1990s we began a
systematic effort to locate old Swedish ufologists and representatives of UFO
groups no longer active, to salvage and retrieve as many archives as possible.
In this way much of Swedish UFO history was saved for future research.
Practically all people contacted generously donated their archives but now and
then our inquiry came to late and we were informed that all material had been
burnt or dumped not long ago. A sad message when the collection was especially
large or valuable. But many times we could celebrate a happy ending to our
efforts when travelling home to AFU with still another archive in the car.
During the Summers of 1992-1993 Clas Svahn and I
made two memorable road trips to the south of Sweden, combining field
investigation with archive retrieval.
June 22, 1992
Clas Svahn pick me up by car in Norrköping and our first stop is Mariestad,
birthplace of Clas. When 16 years old he began his ufological career by founding
the local UFO-Sweden group UFO-Mariestad in 1974.
June 23, 1992
We head south towards Ängelholm and the home of pioneer ufologist and science
fiction author Henrik Nanne. He wrote several sf-novels using the pen name Carl
Henner. Henrik was a close associate of Edith Nicolaisen, founder of the
publishing house Parthenon and he was the translator of the Swedish edition of
Flying Saucers Have Landed by Desmond Leslie and George Adamski. Together with
Henrik Nanne we first make a visit to the UFO monument outside Ängelholm
sponsored by Swedish close encounter witness and contactee Gösta Carlsson. We
spend the rest of the day in Henrik´s small one room apartment listening to his
memories of the early UFO movement and also packing part of the Parthenon
archive donated to AFU by Henrik. He offer us to stay the night in his small
apartment but there are no beds for us so we try to sleep on the kitchen floor
with only some sheets underneath. Not much sleep of course. We wake up every
half hour with aching limbs. Luckily we were offered a couple of Whiskys before
bedtime.
June 24, 1992
Tired and with aching limbs – but with high spirits - we continue our journey
to Ebbe Johansson, another of the Swedish UFO pioneers, chairman of Malmö
Interplanetariska Sällskap (MIS), founded in 1958. We also met Gert Carlsson
and his wife. Gert was one of the founders of the magazine Arcanum, with
articles on esoterism, UFOs and ancient mysteries. Arcanum also had a large library,
which was now to be donated to AFU so we loaded the car with books and
magazines. After saying godbye to our friends we returned to Norrköping and AFU
with our latest donations.
As we were promised further donations from several
ufologists Clas and I made another road trip to the same southern part of
Sweden during the Summer of 1993.
July 11, 1993
I go by train to Stockholm where Clas, together with his young son Niklas, pick
me up by car and we travel to Enköping, loading the latest issue of
UFO-Aktuellt. Crop circles was a big issue in the 1990s. Before going south we
visit a field outside Sala to study a reported crop circle. Here we are met by
UFO-Sweden board member Mats Nilsson and Ingrid Roxhed.
After having documented the crop circle the journey
continues to Mariestad where little Niklas is taken care of by Clas´ parents
and we head for Gothenburg and dinner with two UFO-interested ladies Louise and
Wiweka.
July 12, 1993.
After breakfast at a Gothenburg hotel we spend a few hours visiting antiquarian
bookshops. I bought a biography of French esotericist René Guénon and then our
next stop was Henrik Nanne, Ängelholm.
July 13, 1993
As we had been promised further donations from the Arcanum library we travel to
the home of Yngve Freij. Here to our great joy the entire library is given to
AFU so now the car is once again filled with books.
One of the real pioneers of the Swedish UFO movement
was librarian, translator and writer Roland Adlerberth (1923-1993). We had been
promised a donation of his extensive collection of UFO and Fortean clippings.
At his home we are met by his wife who helped us load the clipping collection,
now housed at AFU.
Before returning home our last visit was Gösta
Carlsson at his home in Ängelholm. We waited a long time before he appeared but
finally he let us in for an extended interview. The result of this interview
and many others done by Clas Svahn resulted in the by now classic Mötet i
gläntan (Meeting in the Glade). Already published in two editions, a third
edition is in the planning.
