 Old Swedish ( fornsvenska ) is the term used for the medieval Swedish language . The start date is usually set to 1225 since this is the year that <unk> ( " the <unk> Law " ) is believed to have been compiled for the first time . It is among the most important documents of the period written in Latin script and the oldest Swedish law codes . Old Swedish is divided into <unk> fornsvenska ( 1225 – 1375 ) and <unk> fornsvenska ( 1375 – 1526 ) , " older " and " younger " Old Swedish Important outside influences during this time came with the firm establishment of the Christian church and various monastic orders , introducing many Greek and Latin loanwords . With the rise of Hanseatic power in the late 13th and early 14th century , Middle Low German became very influential . The Hanseatic league provided Swedish commerce and administration with a large number of Low German @-@ speaking immigrants . Many became quite influential members of Swedish medieval society , and brought terms from their native languages into the vocabulary . Besides a great number of loanwords for such areas as warfare , trade and administration , general grammatical suffixes and even conjunctions were imported . The League also brought a certain measure of influence from Danish ( at the time much more similar than today 's language ) . 
