Fable and Lutheranization in 16th and early 17th century Sweden

This paper argues that the Reformation and the adoption of Lutheranism as a state religion had a great and lasting impact on the history of the Aesopic fable in Sweden. During the 16th and early 17th century, it is shown, the genre was explicitly Lutheranized and ascribed vital functions in the process of Lutheran confessionalization within the Swedish national state. In particular, it is demonstrated how the fable – following the models of Melanchthon and Luther – was used in the teaching of classical languages at school and, in the Swedish language, served as an instrument for the moral and religious education of the common people.