I have several Belemnites in my collection. They are quite common here in the south of Sweden and most of them date from the Cretaceous deposits (few Jurassic deposits here).

Nordic folklore and mythology refered to the Belemnites as “Vätteljus” – Candles of Wights. Wights are some sort of small mythological people or spirits that people on the countryside used to fear back in the 19th century and before basically. People thought that these “candles” where left behind after the wights have danced in a certain place. People also thought that these candles could protect them from curses and spells from the wights themselves. The vätte is related to the pagan "tomte" and the "nisse" (two creatures thats the model for the modern illustration of Santa Claus "army" of helpers)

I have two questions. Are belemnites common elsewhere in the world, and is the small one on the photo below really a belemnite despite its different color and shape? An adolescent specimen perhaps?

Picture below: A real life Vätte (also known as "Tomte" or "Nisse".) 

I have two pieces of rock which I cannot identify for sure since Im quite new at geology. I would like your opinions of them and what you know or think. I have no instruments at home so the photos is basically what you get. If you aren’t sure, an educated guess is better than nothing.

Rock A

Found on the island of Gotland (as you now know have a primarily Silurian lime stone bedrock). Def. sedimentary. Perhaps a conglomerate of some sort? White circular or oval granules surrounded by grey filling. The white filling however looks a bit precipitated almost. And the white granules seems to erode more quicker than the surrounding area. Also a couple of charcoal-looking black crystals (but a lot harder than ordinary coal. Perhaps a hornblende?) embed inside some of the white granules. No certain trace of any distinct macro fossils. Low density/weight.

Rock B

A rock with heavy density and large milkywhite plagioclase-looking crystals (they look more transparent on the closeup picture than in reality so ignore the transparent effect on the close up) embedded in a black igneous rock. No traces of quartz what I can see. There are also a few random red granules or "holes". Found on the Swedish mainland so it could very well have come from anywhere due to the ice age.

Gotland is the largest island in Sweden. It’s a great place to visit for many reasons, not the least for its history and geology.

The islands largest town Visby belonged to the German Hanseatic-league during the middle ages (it was a community of traders that controlled most of northern Europe at this time). A town of great wealth back then. But after the middle ages the economy fell and that’s basically the reason that the town today is such a great place to visit if you are historically interested, since so much is preserved and not destroyed. Nothing or nobody came after and tore away the medieval town.

For this reason Visby is a haven for people who likes medieval activities. They even have a huge medieval festival and market in early August with everything you would expect to find at such an event. If you are planning a trip to Sweden, then try to fit in a trip to Gotland, you won’t regret it. The picture below shows a medieval knight standing outside the medieval town wall of Visby.

Geology vise the island of Gotland is just one big rock of Silurian limestone, primarily reef built limestone that was deposited at a time when Gotland was a giant reef near the equator. There’s not much other types of bedrock there. But who cares since Gotland is a haven of Silurian fossils.

One basically just has to pick up a rock and it will contain fossils from the Silurian period. I collected some fossils on my week long vacation trip there in August of 2007. I primarily found Anthozoa (corals) of different types. Here are three examples of the several pounds which I dragged with me home after the vacation.

The picture below shows four samples of Rugosa coral.

The picture below shows a sample of Favosites, a tabulate coral.

The picture below shows a sample of Heliosites or “Sun coral”, also a tabulate coral.

The pictures below show the strange formation knows as Rauks. They are the result of erosion that has exposed more harder reef sediments when the more brittle limestone around eroded away. It’s a quite recent event that started after the ice receded from this area after the last ice age (12000 Bp). These rauks are found in great numbers around the coast of Gotland. And yes, they are packed with fossils.

The picture below shows a closeup of the bedrock. As you can se its full of visible macro fossils.

During the excursion yesterday we visited a place called “the priests bathtub” (Swe. “prästens badkar”).  It’s a rocky sandstone beach in the village of of Vik on the east coast of the province of Skåne (Scania) in Sweden. The sandstone is called “Hardeberga sandstone” (or Hardeberga quartzite since most parts of it actually has metamorphosed to some degree). I believe its the oldest forms of sedimentary rocks we have in Sweden.

The sandstone was deposited in the early Cambrian (542-513 Ma). That means that the ocean that slowly erodes the sandstone today isn’t the same ocean as the ocean that the sandstone once was a white beach at. Literally speaking, since the continents have migrated a lot since then. The sandstone was formed on a great depth and pressure and the rocks that were above it have eroded away. Perhaps a mile or two of rocks have eroded for this sandstone to reveal itself. It becomes quite a mental challenge trying to depict this in front of you. First the deposit of the sand, then the rise of new layers of sediments above this, mile after mile, pushing the sand lower and lower and then finally the rise of it all due to tectonic movements, but mostly, actually because of erosion. Quite a journey.  The early Cambrian was another world with another climate, and hardly any breathable air to breathe. No life on land at all, just in the oceans. Hundreds of millions of years before the first dinosaurs even. And now over 500 million years later, half a billion years, it’s a beach, once more.

And inside the rocks, the trace fossils of ancient life that actually survived the journey.

Picture below. Beach overview.

Picture Below. Example of stratigraphy. 

Picture below. Trace fossils. Tracks of "worms". 

Picture below. Sample of Hardeberga Sandstone with trace fossils. You can see small "tubes" that are filled with other sedimentary material. The oldest fossils in my collection. Early Cambrian.

Todays excursion took us, among many things and places to the oil shale deposits (Sv. Alunskiffer) at Andrarum in the south east of Skåne (Scania) in Sweden. These shales dates from the middle and late Cambrian periods (around 500 Ma)

These are my first trilobites ever! They are very small, Agnostus pisiformis, around 0.5 mm - 4 mm in size are seen in the first picture (size slightly increased in this photo). The two larger Olenus attenuatus in the last picture are around 1-3 cm in size when found complete (Ive only got fragmets). One headshot (the "UFO"), one topside back (the "ribs"). The observant viewer can of course see traces of several more Olenus in the image.