Wonder if it was named by Swedish immigrants, or if people from other parts of the world have their Malmo, too? (That wouldn't be too surprising...)Ask a Swedish teenager what "Malmö" really means, and he or she will start thinking about "mal" (short for "mala" = grind, mince) and "mö" = maid. Some wild stories are told about how a horribly cruel powerful person had a poor maid ground and minced and put in his super-sized mince pie!
Another interpretation of the name is that it means "moth" + "maid", giving you the association of a poor maid surrounded by a swarm of moths! I googled "moth" and came across this incredibly handsome species, actually called the "Comet moth", increidibly suitable for a forum like Starship Asterisk!
Well, we don't have such magnificent moths in Malmö. Sorry.
In reality, the name of Malmö is a combination of "malm", which now means "ore" but used to mean "sand", and "hög", a pile or a small hill. So Malmö was a sandy hill, situated by the strait of Öresund.
The original Malmö?
Malmö began as a small fishing village in the 13th century and started flourishing in the 16th century, when there was a great demand for fish in then all-Catholic Western Europe. On Fridays, all the good Catholics had to eat fish, and fish was not always easily available. Back then there was an incredible abundance of herring in the strait of Öresund, and the fishermen of Malmö caught it and preserved it by salting it. As salted herring it would keep at room temperature for months, and people came from all over Europe to buy it.
The castle or fort of Malmö from 1530. There was a fort here already in 1434.
Ann
Old TV series Route 66
well, let's wrap it up, shall we. owlice, do you have a son named Kyle?