Lágskáli

Lágskáli
A view of central Lágskáli, looking towards the river Ekna in the background
Nickname(s): Borgin með Breiðum Herðum (“The City with Broad Shoulders”)
Country	Helminthasse
Commonhold	Sarevi
First settlement	c. 8th century BCE (as Vezes)
Capital of commonhold	1556
Population (2015)
• City	461,422
• Metro	585,947

Lágskáli is the administrative centre and largest city of the commonhold of Sarevi, and the next largest city in Helminthasse after the national capital, Virkið; the greater metropolitan area has a population of approximately 598,000 (up from a recorded 585,947 at the last census in 2015). The city is largely built along the river Ekna, with the city centre located roughly ten kilometres inland from the river’s estuary at Breiðirströnd. The port town of Breiðirströnd was historically a separate entity from Lágskáli, but was formally incorporated into the latter in 1978.

The somewhat larger húð of Lágskáli extends some way beyond the city limits; on the north bank of the Ekna it is bordered by the húðir of Vað to the north and by Músarskot to the east; on the south bank its neighbours are Skurðarskot to the south-east and Vittflöt to the south-west, with the open sea of the Æthelflói to the west.

Etymology

The name Lágskáli means “small lodge”, and probably refers to a summer home used by the theinar of Hábrekka, who ruled the area to the south and east of the present city from the late fifth century CE; it came into common usage from around the end of the eighth century. The original lodge stood on the south bank of the Ekna close to the current site of the city’s athletics stadium, but was destroyed during running battles between rival factions in the Vinadeila dispute in the city in 1450.

History

Pre-Common Era

The area around Lágskáli has probably been inhabited at least as early as 5000 BCE, and it was known to have been a focal point for the early Vítrör culture, with substantial remains left by the Vítrör being excavated at Fruma, on the coast to the south-west, in 1895. The Vossar people, sometimes thought to be descendants of the Vítrör, settled in Sarevi from the early eighth century BCE as part of the First Great Migrations. Far enough to the north to remain largely outside the grip of the Antissans and the later Larhine Empire, the Ekna estuary was a natural point at which a larger settlement would form; and Vezes, founded roughly a kilometre downriver from Lágskáli’s modern city centre, became the first major city to come into being in the far west of Messenia. It became the capital of the settled Vossari kingdom from the middle seventh century BCE, and was perhaps the most prominent settlement in western Messenia before Ostari began to eclipse it from around the beginning of the first century BCE.

First millennium CE

As one of the largest population centres in the region, Lágskáli could hardly avoid becoming a front-line in the war of words between the nascent Arlatur and the then-dominant Thúrun faith as Arlatur spread across the Siur lands in the seventh and eighth centuries. Proselytisation for the new faith was in progress at an early stage of Ragna Hrafnamaður’s travels around the Siur lands, and local theinar and thossir are recorded as taking “stern actions” against growing Arlaturi communities in and around the Lágskáli region from at least as early as 640 CE; however, the old faith seems to have been largely sidelined in the area by the middle of the eighth century.

The location of Lágskáli in the far north-west of the Siur country made it something of a magnet for troubles during the ninth century, as the land between the town and the present-day border with Vernland was the target of frequent raids from the north; while the invading Secote had been pushed over the Halðamar by Siur forces under Jukka af Essingi at the beginning of the ninth century, they had since become established in the Veyskur commonholds in what are now Vernland and Arakan. The “secotised” Veyskur under their war leader Hjórr Yellowbreeks were in the vanguard when the Secote army launched its second, successful invasion in the 11th century; the thein of Hábrekka, Hroþgar af Rennsæli, was briefly deposed before recovering his fief and leading an army to meet the Secote forces near Lofthús in Floridy 1047. The Siur force was overpowered and put to the sword without mercy, with Hroþgar and his brother Forsjáll both killed (the latter being beheaded by Hjórr personally).

The Trying Times period

During the Years of Bloody Hands which followed the Secote victory, Lágskáli itself, although ferociously defended under the leadership of Hroþgar’s widow Malæsi, was besieged on two separate occasions (1048 and 1050). In 1055, the battle of Fáni – now a city suburb, but at that time some ten kilometres north of the main settled area – finally saw Lágskáli fall to the invaders, and Hjórr declared himself the new thein of Hábrekka.

Hjórr and his family would hold Lágskáli – which they renamed Lógrod, roughly “city of law”, after Hjórr’s proclamation of Secote sovereignty in the town – for almost a hundred years before finally overreaching themselves; as the fringes of the Secote empire began to fray in the middle twelfth century, they set out to absorb parts of the western marches of the Principality of Foss in 1147, and were forcibly repulsed. Although the two realms were allies out of necessity during the Wars of the Marcher Lords in the early 13th century, Lágskáli and Foss would continue to vie for supremacy in what is now Sarevi, even as both polities held off the aspirations of smaller rivals. Lágskáli was particularly harassed by the upper valley commonhold of Eknará, although the War of the Ekna (1380-83) ultimately forced the valley folk into a subordinate position, even if they did not become outright vassals. The question of overall supremacy in the region was probably not truly settled until 1421, when Sviðrann Derringur af Fossi surrendered to, and pledged his oath under axareiður to, Þekking Hlýr af Lágskála following the Battle of Hvítbrú in Nollonger of that year.

Sölvína Hlýr; an artistic, albeit anachronistic, impression.

The Hlýr dynasty quickly began to consolidate their new position of power, both locally and further afield, as they turned their attentions towards the challenges posed by Vonskil and Helminthasse to the south. While the latter was still largely an agricultural economy at that time, Vonskil was a direct opponent as Lágskáli sought to project its influence into the Medius Sea, before partially withdrawing from the field in favour of less explored markets in northern Messenia and, to an extent, in the Arcedian Sea littoral. Nor were they the only factor in the region; an initially purely economic dispute between fishing fleets from Lágskáli and other Siur commonholds and the islands of Tassedar to the north escalated into interordinate conflict over the period of the Herring War (Hártal Sildastrið) during 1480-82.

However, the Hlýrs were hardly immune from the internal disputes which broke out with depressing frequency during the Trying Times. The Vinadeila period during the 15th century saw no less than four outbreaks of rioting and civil disobedience in Lágskáli between 1440 and 1470, for much of the early period, in particular, the city was almost evenly split between traditionalists and reformers. However, the worst such violence in the city and its hinterlands probably came in 1492-94, when Sölvína Hlýr raised a force in challenge to her brother Tilvalinn over the theinic succession. After a series of armed battles ranging across most of the commonhold, the victorious Tilvalinn forced his sister into exile, in which she would take up a career of piracy across the southern Medius.

That being said, this was in many respects only a short-term hiccup as Lágskáli’s reach across the country – and, indeed across the region – lengthened. For almost three centuries (1430-1710) Lágskáli was a member of the Tolvic League, a regional trading alliance, and the southernmost of the group, which extended in the north as far as Quènie (the name derives from Hártal tólf, “twelve”, although twenty-eight towns and cities were part of the League at various times in its history). As trade with the Tassean islands advanced and began to reach out towards the Sabhian lands of north-eastern Ascesia, Lágskáli was at the centre of the advance. The city and the larger commonhold were formally distinguished in 1556, when the Lágskálskur realm was restyled Sarevi, a name which it has retained into the present day. Vitur Hlýr, as first thein of Sarevi, retained his personal rule over the city of Lágskáli, although this title was downgraded to the status of a thosseship. At various times over the ensuing years practical rule over Lágskáli – as opposed to the overall commonhold – would be in the hands of cadet members of the theinic family.

Lágskáli was severely damaged by the widespread flooding which swept the Æthelflói coast in 1630, with the city centre being inundated and the central ædur being so badly damaged that it had to be torn down and completely rebuilt. This did have the unintended benefit of allowing thein Pétur Skaldar the opportunity to rebuild his city to a more pleasing design; Skaldar anticipated a number of modern city planners in laying out the new Lágskáli on a grid of wide streets broadly running parallel with the river. (Part of the Miðja district is still known today as Nýrbær or the “New Town”.) While organic growth in the later centuries has obscured some of Skaldar’s basic plan, much remains reasonably intact, giving the city a remarkably modern appearance as against more randomly-developed cities like Virkið and Ostari.

The Summer War and independence

During the breakdown of relations between the coastal and interior commonholds in the early 19th century, Sarevi occupied an awkward position; Lágskáli and its immediate hinterland had shared to an extent in the greater prosperity of the coastal regions, but inland Sarevi was more impoverished by comparison, and the commonhold’s decision to declare for the rebellion was far from certain. It was largely through the forceful arguments of Armæða Bani, then the thein of Sarevi, and Fórn Eldhress that the commonhold sided with the rebels.

In the immediate aftermath of the declaration of secession, there was little overt aggression, but reports in late Metrial 1812 of the Battle of Lágröð, the first military engagement of the Summer War, prompted substantial rioting in the city; although supposedly acting only to restore the peace, the city’s militia probably took a harder hand against the Siursk loyalist contingent among the population The area around Lágskáli saw comparatively little fighting on land during the war, but the city was a hub of the more limited war at sea, with the Siurskeyti ship of the line Spori being captured by pro-secession crewmen while on station in Lágskáli and turned over to the new Alliance navy. Most of the ships which were later used in the ill-fated attempt to blockade Hélla into submission also came from the city.

Now elevated from a mere provincial centre to the second city of a new state, Lágskáli regained its momentum as one of the drive-wheels of the independent Helmin economy. Although it lost out to Virkið in negotiations over the location of the capital – despite Virkið’s proximity to Ostari, which had been a serious concern during the war – it otherwise gained in prestige; it acquired a status as the focus of law in the Alliance with the prominent Ædsthirð court in the city being adopted as the country's new supreme court, and through this it was chosen as the site of the negotiations with Siurskeyti in 1847 which resolved most of the residual issues from the Summer War and formally ended the conflict.

Development in the new Alliance

A meeting of striking dockers is addressed by one of their leaders.

The beginnings of industrialisation in the Siur country saw a marked shift towards urbanisation and the steady expansion of Lágskáli as it absorbed neighbouring villages and towns. The first railway line in the city, linking it to Foss in the Sarevi interior, was completed in early 1882, and Lágskáli emerged from this development as a key transportation hub for the export of Helmin agricultural goods. A line joining Lágskáli to Virkið opened in the autumn of 1883, as did interordinate connections to Vernland and Arakan.

However, with industrialisation came the first industrial disputes; Lágskáli, much more than elsewhere in Helminthasse, became a hotbed of early samvaldism, and a dispute arising out of higher wage demands by dock workers in the city prompted the Lágskáli dock strike of 1890, which closed down the wharves for a week before the strike was broken with the intervention of army units dispatched on orders of the alráðherra, Fjarri Skæð. Although successful as a short-term solution, it represented a step too far for public opinion, which turned against Skæð’s government soon afterwards. The strike represented a significant turning point in the history of labour relations and the development of samvaldism in Helminthasse. In the later 19th century and into the early 20th, Lágskáli, and Sarevi more widely, led the country in terms of its provision for the health of its community, a process driven strongly by successive theinar; Ærutal Hárfell, his son Eiðsvarinn and the latter’s daughter Sálleit all had prior careers in medicine before donning the sash, and viewed such action in some respects as a natural outgrowth of the promises they had made as students. A fair number of practices within Helminthasse’s health systems were pioneered in Sarevi before being taken to other parts of the country.

The 20th century

As Helminthasse’s only significant port city, Lágskáli was a centre for concerns over the country’s being drawn into combat in the Long War period from at least the early 1940s; the proximity of Siurskeyti – which, as an acknowledged great power, remained a low-level menace on the Skil, Helminthasse’s southern border - obliged the Helmin government and defence chiefs to plan against the possibility of an invasion. Controversy over the close approach made by a Siursk warship to Helmin inshore waters and the navy base at Breiðirströnd – and excuses by Ostari which were thought less than convincing – were a significant factor in the failure of support for Kapp Elsturhæð which allowed Atgervi Moll to become alráðherra in 1944. The same base became a much busier centre of activity later during the Long War years as Helminthasse made common cause with Zeppengeran in the Sleepwalker War against Madaria, following that country’s attack on the Helmin Gleymtlönd in Serania. Helmin ships played a significant supporting role to the Zepnish navy during the war, balancing the similar role played by Zepnish forces in the concurrent War of the Gold Coast.

In the immediate post-war years, as Helminthasse was rocked by bad harvests and food shortages during the years of the climatic upheavals (1959–65), Lágskáli and its docks became a critical conduit for imported foodstuffs from less severely affected southern latitudes. Keeping the lines open became critical; and when an attempt was made in 1960 to close the docks by strike action – an unpleasant echo of seventy years prior – this time the thein (and a former althein) Björn Hönd sided firmly with alráðherra Jónas Örvum in using all means available to keep them open. Although this was a popular action at the state level, it nonetheless caused political damage to both men; Örvum, in particular, had been seen as more sympathetic to samvaldist positions in the past.

The city was again severely hit by flooding in 1966, with swathes of the riverside districts being inundated by flood waters following on the highest king tides since the great 1630 flood. Kal Hesturmaður, then head of the Sarevi viðaldsdeild and also active within the Helmin Landsþing as a co-opted member from Sarevi, mobilised police and army units to search for victims and to deal with the bailout of affected areas. The swift action (although illegal in many respects, particularly as regards the army) helped to bring Hesturmaður to national attention, and probably helped significantly in making him a viable candidate as alráðherra.

A major source of controversy in the city arose over the period from 1988 to 1992, surrounding the construction of the Norðflöt public housing complex in the north of the city. The project, the largest of its kind ever undertaken in the Alliance at the time, was beset by problems almost throughout its existence, and is generally seen as a contributory factor in the death of the then thein Pillan Hönd in 1990 at the remarkably young age of 48 years. Norðflöt, while a significant improvement on the run-down properties in the city centre which it largely replaced, never lived up to the high hopes envisaged for it, and critics have claimed that it only succeeded in moving the problems to the city fringe.

Lágskáli claimed a significant distinction in 2017 when it announced the impending implementation of a plan to close a sizeable part of the city centre, covering both banks of the Ekna, to most private vehicular traffic from mid-Metrial 2018. The plan would ban private cars from entering a defined “red zone” at any time; entry by other vehicles would be permitted only outside the period from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, unless the vehicle was covered by exemption (broadly, applying to only public transport and emergency services vehicles). The plan, largely the brainchild of the recently-appointed thein Alvara Hönd, was widely criticised as unworkable and an imposition on the city’s commerce, but has been credited with causing an uptick in the quality of daily life for the average Lágskálskur.

The city today

The decision to locate the capital of the Helmin alliance at Virkið, the capital of the commonhold of Helminthasse, was not reached without extended debate, and some serious consideration was given to nominating Lágskáli, the country’s only significant port city, instead, as well as to the idea of spreading the functions of a traditional capital city across the five commonhold capitals. The Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has its headquarters here; and the importance of Lágskáli as the country’s largest port has seen it become the main base of Helminthasse’s relatively small navy, with an initially limited facility at Breiðirströnd being drastically expanded over the country’s two centuries of existence.

Historically, there has been a long-standing (and not always good-natured) rivalry between Lágskáli and Virkið; much of this arises out of the relative standing of their respective commonholds. There is still a perception on the part of many Lágskálskur that they are much more outwardly-focused and go-getting than the people of the capital, and that the city makes its living by hard labour, as opposed to the perceived rentier status of Virkið. The city’s current motto, borgin með breiðum herðum (“the city with broad shoulders”), stems from that hard-working self-image. For their part, the Virkskur (and, indeed, many others across the country) regard the people of Lágskáli as mostly acquisitive and tight-fisted; the skinflint Lágskálskur is a stock figure in Helmin humour, and the citizens’ own name for themselves, sandjörðarar (“sand-grounders”) is often replaced further afield by klóhendur (“claw-hands”).

This is not to say that Lágskáli and Sarevi should be equated; indeed, in some important respects the city is markedly distinct in outlook from the commonhold of which it is capital – a point not always picked up on by some past theinar, on occasion to the commonhold’s overall detriment. More recent rulers have gone some way to addressing these concerns, and Sarevi is currently the only one of the five Alliance commonholds to have decentralised its governmental functions to any significant extent.

Administration

Lágskáli is the centre of one of Sarevi’s traditional húðir, and the title of thosse of Lágskáli is held de jure as a subsidiary title by the thein of Sarevi, although de facto possession is usually given to a younger relative. Although originally administered by a húðarráð similarly to other large towns in Helminthasse, Lágskáli moved to administration by a municipal council (sveitarstjórn) in 1939, following the model pioneered by Virkið thirty years earlier. For administrative purposes, the city is divided into seven districts (sýslur): Breiðirströnd, Dröfnóttur, Hálkirkja, Hlýrhöfn, Hvíttþogn, Miðja and Stóhæð.

Economy

As befitting the country’s largest port, fishing has for long periods been a mainstay of Lágskáli’s economic and civic life. Commercial fishing in the northern Medius Sea sustained the city in the medieval period, and its position ensured its importance as Sarevi challenged Skjóll and Vonskil by sea and Helminthasse on land during the Trying Times, and as post-unification Siurskeyti expanded its power and influence in the region. In the present day, although Helminthasse’s navy is much smaller than that of its southern sibling, Lágskáli is its main base; commercial fishing, however, has declined in recent times as concerns about over-fishing in the Medius have worsened and quota systems developed jointly by the maritime nations of the region have begun to bite into profit margins.

For much of the lifetime of the original union of Siurskeyti, Lágskáli, along with the Siursk cities of Ostari and Reylatur, was a centre for the whaling industry, with its ships travelling widely across the seas of the northern hemisphere in search of their prey. Aðal Mælarborg, whose classic novel Hvalurinn is set largely aboard a Lágskálskur whaling ship, was the son of a whaler’s captain, and lived for most of his life within sight of the Norðurkví harbour district. The activities of the whalers were, however, ferociously resisted by active Arlaturi concerned by what they saw as the needless slaughter of these creatures; their pressure ultimately saw the trade substantially reduced by the late 18th century, and almost ceased by the 1812 secession. The rendering facility operated by Bræður Rósindur in the Norðurkví has been converted into a museum to the industry.

Lágskáli is the centre of Helminthasse’s insurance industry; in large part this developed from history, in which the early need to insure maritime trade concentrated the business in coastal ports. Skjöld og Sverð HF (“Shield and Sword”, SoS) is the largest company based in the city; while it currently remains an independent company, overtures have been made towards it by the larger Siursk company VTS (Verslunartryggingar Skjóls HF or “Skjóll Commercial Insurance”). VTS currently holds a 13% share of SoS’ share capital, but further pushes have repeatedly fallen foul of Helmin laws prohibiting direct foreign ownership of Helmin companies.

For much of the 19th century the Lágskáli district of Djertendur was the centre of Helminthasse’s gun-making industry, producing both military and sporting weapons; at its peak the industry supported over 250 firms and, although much reduced today, it continues as a significant contributor to the economy of the city and commonhold. Þrumugnýr HF, which began life as a gunsmith’s shop in Djertendur, has grown from this starting point to become the major supplier of small arms and smaller military vehicles to the Helmin army, including its manufacture of the Ýlfur armoured personnel carrier, operating from a purpose-built plant in Hólræn in Lágskáli’s eastern suburbs.

Education

The principal institute of education in the city is the University of Lágskáli (Háskóli Lágskála) in the Dröfnóttur district; the university was formed in 1902 as the amalgamation of three smaller tertiary-level colleges, of which the oldest, Hlýr College (Háskóli Hlýr) traces its origins back to the pre-secession period as a theinic endowment in 1785. Outside the regular education system, Lágskáli is also host to Helminthasse’s merchant marine academy (Háskóli Kaupskipaflota); formerly dispersed across seven buildings in the Miðja district, the academy relocated to a new, purpose-designed facility in Breiðirströnd in 2013.

Transport

Lágskáli is the northern terminus of the Landsvegur (national highway) L1 from Virkið, with the road officially ending outside the Kaupmannshöll in the city centre; from the city important transordinate highways continue northward into Vernland and west towards Arakan. Lágskáli is also a regional centre for the Helmin rail network, as well as continuing to thrive as a working port; while Breiðirströnd has developed in recent years as an important overseas freight terminal – located to the north of the navy base – passenger traffic by sea still arrives mainly through the old port district of Hlýrhöfn, where a modern passenger terminal building was erected in 2008.

Lágskáli’s airport is located to the south-west of the city proper, at Bigerðfell in the húð of Vittflöt; the recent redevelopment of the main terminal building has allowed for the construction of a railway station approximately five minutes by regular shuttle bus from the terminal, from which the city centre can be reached in about thirty minutes.