The historiography in Sweden was at least in its modern meaning, almost non-existent during the 1600s. Before Christianity came to the North, literacy did not exist. What existed were hard-to-read runestones. The essay deals with early-modern Swedish historiography, how it came to be and what it came to mean for the nation. Gothicism and neo-Gothicism have in various ways secured their place in Swedish historiography. Through the Goths and Vikings, the foundation was laid for the historiography Sweden has today. Stories of the lost city of Atlantis to a people who sailed with dragon ships are only a small but important part of it. Using Nordgren’s theory of the use of history and Chartier’s theory of reading and textual criticism, the essay will show a small part of the work that men like Olof Rudbeck and Erik Gustaf Geijer did during the 1600s and 1800s in Sweden.