Possibly the oldest mention about Lithuanians in Swedish records is in the Eric’s Chronicles written in the 14th century. The chronicles include a story about Junker Carl. The story goes that Junker Carl, a rival of Earl Birger in Sweden, set out on a crusade, fought at the Battle of Durbe in 1260 and was killed by the Lithuanians. This fact was recorded in the context of Sweden’s participation in the Crusades to Christianize pagan Lithuania. Close links, including cultural links, were established when King Sigismund Vasa ruled Lithuania and Sweden between 1592 and 1599. He had been deposed in Sweden for supporting Catholicism. The claim of the Vasa dynasty, who ruled the Commonwealth of the Both nations (i.e. Poland – Lithuania), to the Swedish throne was one of the causes of later wars between the Commonwealth and Sweden. During one of these wars, according to the Treaty of Kėdainiai in 1655, attempts were made to form union between Lithuania and Sweden, by which Lithuania would separate from Poland. Grand Duchy of Lithuania provided for proponents of the Swedish Counter-Reformation. One of the most known of them is Laurentius Boyer (1563-1619). He joined the Jesuits in 1587, went to Vilnius in about 1590 and studied theology here. From 1604 he taught poetics, rhetoric and theology at Vilnius University. L. Boyer‘s poem “Carolomachia”, written in Latin and published in Vilnius in 1606, describes the Battle of Salaspilis (Kirchholm) in 1605 as a confrontation between two Charles - Charles IX and Karolis Chodkevičius (Chodkiewicz), general of Lithuanian troops and the winner of the battle. Olav Algin (1545-1638) studied at the Papal Seminary in Vilnius. On his graduation he served as a priest in Livonia and Lithuania. In the 16th and 17th centuries, several more young Swedes studied at Vilnius University. The Jesuit College student lists include the names of Samuel Base Stockholmensis, Laurentius Borlangius Suecus, Gregorius Laurentii Borastus, Olaus Laurentii Thinstins Lorotensis, Joannes Florentii Stockholmensis, Erasmus Brunus and Ericus Axenbergius Suecus. At the time when the modern Lithuanian nation was being formed, an event not widely known but beneficial to the Lithuanian cultural heritage took place. It was a trip to Sweden undertaken by Eustachy Tyszkiewicz, a pioneer of Lithuanian archaeology, in 1843. He came into contact with researchers on Swedish prehistory, took an interest in the country’s culture, and met various outstanding figures, including the Swedish king Charles XIV Johan. Tyszkiewicz described his impressions of Sweden, its culture and its closeness to Lithuania in his “Letters from Sweden”, published in Polish (Listy o Szwecji). Nevertheless, the cultural links between Lithuania and Sweden were of an incidental character and fragmented until the 20th century and did not leave any more obvious traces.
Cultural relations flourished during the time of the First Lithuanian Republic (1918-1940). In the interwar period many intellectuals in Lithuania promoted the idea of closer links between Lithuania and Sweden as well as the other Scandinavian countries. This idea came to be known as the idea of Baltoscandian union. J. Šliūpas, K. Pakštas, M. Riomeris actively advocated this. Sweden was interested in the independence of the newly created Lithuanian nation-state, although it could not take on greater political, let alone military, responsibility, because of the complicated development of international relations during the interwar period. Therefore, mostly economic and cultural links were built. In April 1932, a Swedish language course started at Vytautas the Great University in Kaunas. Knut Olof Falk, a well-known expert in Slavic languages, was the first to teach Swedish there. Later historian Per Sandberg, expert in Slavic languages and librarian Lenart Kjelberg, followed. Well-known Lithuanian archaeologist Rimutė Rimantienė was one of Kjelberg’s students. Later she translated books by Selma Lagerlöf and henrik Ibsen’s plays into Lithuanian. Kjelberg, on returning to Sweden, translated The Seasons by Kristijonas Donelaitis from Lithuanian into Swedish.
After Lithuania regained its independence, Sweden recognized it on 27 August 1991, and diplomatic relations were reestablished next day. The Swedish Embassy was one of the first embassies to open in Vilnius. Lithuanian community in Sweden helped to revive cultural links between independent Lithuania and Sweden. Some of its more active members were Irvis Šeinius, son of the writer Ignas Jurkūnas-Šeinius, Juozas Lingis, an ethnologist, historian and lecturer of Lithuanian at the universities of Stockholm and Uppsala, as well as Jonas Pajaujis, an architect. Swedish-Lithuanian society, which was reestablished in Stockholm in 1990 and chaired by Leif Windmar, made a significant contribution too. The society arranged celebrations on 16th February, the anniversary of the declaration of independence of Lithuania in 1918. In September 1991, a Lithuanian Week was organized at the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm with the help of local Lithuanian community. When Jarl Branting became leader of Swedish-Lithuanian society, its office was transferred to the town of Växjö. Anders Kreuger, who translated the story “Gyvenimas po klevu” by famous Lithuanian writer Romualdas Granauskas into Swedish, was one of the founders of mentioned society. He also became the first head of the Information Office of the Nordic Council of Ministers established in Vilnius in 1991. It was this organization which, having at its disposal funds for grants and the support of cultural relations, created the conditions necessary to arrange various events involving Scandinavian culture in Lithuania as well as exchanges of artists, writers and scholars. A public library attached to the Office of the Nordic Council of Ministers was opened in Vilnius with a stock of about 4.000 books in Scandinavian languages, as well as movies. Scanorama annual film festival of Northern countries held in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda has recently become very popular in Lithuania. The Information Office of the Nordic Council has supported the development of cultural relations with all the Scandinavian countries, not only with Sweden. Another institution, the Swedish Institute (Svenska Institutet) has also supported mutual cultural relations. Both organizations have helped to organize Swedish studies in Lithuania. The Swedish language has been taught at Vilnius University since 1990. In 1991, the Department of Scandinavian Studies, headed by associate professor Erika Sausverdė was established. A program of Swedish studies was arranged and the first BA students in Swedish graduated in 1994. In 1996, the first MA students in Swedish graduated. The department also began to offer doctoral studies in Swedish language. In 1991, the Center for Scandinavian studies opened at Klaipėda University, where Swedish is taught for students with major in Lithuanian philology. For several years Lennart Lindstedt headed the centre, and lecturers from Sweden comes to work here on regular basis. It is thanks to the graduates in Swedish that the number of translations of fiction literature as well as other books from Swedish into Lithuanian has grown considerably during the last years.