Sweden entered the European Christian community around the year 1000. Although mainly a society of oral traditions, Sweden already had a written language. Larsson (Swedish, Stockholm University) traces the transition from memory to vernacular written records in Sweden from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. The movement to a literate laity started at the royal court and moved outward until, by the end of the period, secular administrators and legal authorities were relying on records rather than the oaths of witnesses as had been the custom. Larsson also notes the spread of ability to write as well as read and the transition from the runic to the roman alphabet. The growth of the use of the vernacular in official documents is an indicator of the number of literate people outside the aristocracy. A valuable addition to the study of medieval literacy. Distributed in North America by the David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)