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"He had skill and excellent soldiers. My family soldiered for Gustavus and Charles XII, I know this is so! He also had an extremely able and reliable prime minister in Oxenstierna. He was very motivated by his Lutheran faith.

There is a Lutheran College named for him. (In Minnesota, of course!)"

That is a wonderful thing to be aware of!

My maternal grandfather had a surname that "proves" an ancestor of his was a soldier at that time.

I'm not into different myths of the "blood" like a certain 19th century Austrian.

However,

When I occasionally have found myself in situations when I've had to perform very hard work or walk over long distances in extreme winter temperatures, I've been surprised over the fact that my body, my concentrational skills and my musculature gears up to a kind of almost "Hulk" level - I'm not joking. Every time this happens, I get the sense in my mind of wishing to survive a very, very long march back home - in resemblance to the survivors of Charles the XII:s crusade against Russia.

If that is just in my imagination, I don't mind. Whatever type of soldier my unknown ancestor was, I'm sure that from his heaven, he can look down on offsprings honoring his fate, honoring Sweden and honoring Western Civilization.

Today, both Russia and Germany are free countries and educated people of these great nations today understand why Swedes of the 17th and 18th century, as well as Americans of the 19th century, attacked them with all of their might.

One day, The Western World will be one.

It would be interesting to speculate what would have happened if Charles had not been wounded at Poltava. They were 30,000 against what? about 90,000, supply lines cut, had almost no powder, attacked and still almost beat the Russians. Another Swedish soldier king!

I can't even imagine what the survivors endured in their years of captivity in Peter the Great's Russia.

"Every time this happens, I get the sense in my mind of wishing to survive a very, very long march back home - in resemblance to the survivors of Charles the XII:s crusade against Russia."

I believe you! The Germans have a word,(you probably know it) "sehnsucht," a deep, almost mystical longing for something, something that is probably in the past, something that you can only enter into with your knowledge and imagination.

I sometimes have a feeling like this when I see pictures of northern forests and lakes, a desire to return to that place, or some place like it. Oh Well.