the 19th century, Finland has produced Swedish-language writers such as Johan Ludvig Runeberg, who wrote the Finnish national epic The Tales of Ensign Stål, and Tove Jansson. Old Norse Most runestones had a practical, rather than a literary, purpose and are therefore mainly of interest to historians and philologists. Several runic inscriptions are also nonsensical by nature, being used for magical or incantatory purposes. The most notable literary exception is the Rök runestone from circa 800 AD. It contains the longest known inscription, and encompasses several different passages from sagas and legends, in various prosodic forms. Part of it is written in alliterative verse, or fornyrdislag. It is generally regarded as the beginning of Swedish literature. Middle Ages The Christianization of Sweden was one of the main events in the country's history, and it naturally had an equally profound impact on literature. The Gök runestone is a case in point of how the older literature dissolved. It uses the same imagery as the Ramsund carving, but a Christian cross has been added and the images are combined in a way that completely distorts the internal logic of events. Whatever the reason may have been, the Gök stone illustrates how the pagan heroic mythos was going towards its dissolution, during the introduction of Christianity. Literature now looked to foreign texts to provide models. By 1200, Christianity was firmly established and a Medieval European culture appeared in Sweden. Only a selected few mastered the written language, but little was written down. The earliest works written in Swedish were provincial laws, first written down in the 13th century. Most education was provided by the Catholic Church, and therefore the literature from this period is mainly of a theological or clerical nature. The majority of other literature written consists of law texts. An exception to this are the rhyming chronicles, written in knittelvers. 16th and 17th century Reformation literature Swedish Reformation literature is considered to have been written between 1526 and 1658. However, this period has not been highly regarded from a literary point of view. It is generally considered a step back in terms of literary development. The main reason was King Gustav Vasa's wish to control and censor all publications, with the result that only the Bible and a few other religious works were published. At the same time, Catholic monasteries were plundered and Catholic books were burnt. The king did not