Word: falun
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...copper "mountain" of unusually pure copper ore located among the gloomy forests of central Sweden. Toward the end of the Dark Ages, when copper was needed to arm Europe's growing armies, hundreds of men migrated to the copper mountain. At the pithead sprang up the village of Falun, Sweden's first industrial center, where the company still has its headquarters. At first each miner dug and smelted the ore himself, but by 1347 King Magnus Eriksson had granted a charter setting up a corporation of master miners. The largest copper supplier in medieval Europe, Kopparberg made Sweden...
...glory that the Kopparberg brought Sweden, mining conditions were appalling. Sulphurous smoke blacked the huts of Falun and killed off all plant life for miles around. The workers' plight in the dark and sooty mines was so bad that a visitor in the 1700s wrote that "no theologian has ever been able to describe hell so frightfully." In the early 19th century, as iron began replacing copper in importance, Stora Kopparberg turned away from the riches of the copper mountain and began the diversification that has kept it alive and thriving...
...Falun, Sweden last week, Finns and Russians met on a happier battleground than they had during the winter war of 1939-40. The two nations, along with 18 others, met for the Federation International de Ski (F.I.S.) world championships in the "Nordic" division,† i-e., jumping and cross-country races, where winning premiums are paid for stamina, endurance and style. The Russians, competing in their first F.I.S. championships, sent a big delegation: 32 skiers, including eight women, plus 19 "leaders," most of whom seemed to prefer fireside comforts to watching the Russian team in action...
...Compete. On opening day of the championships, despite sub-zero weather, little (pop. 18,000) Falun was jammed with some 50,000 ski-mad visitors. In the special jumping event, normally a Norwegian monopoly, the Finns, unveiling a modified "aerodynamic" technique, got their first triumph. Leaning out over his skis in an exaggerated bend that added his whole upper body to his soaring surface, Finland's Matti Pietikainen made jumps of 251 and 256 feet for an easy first place. Russia scored when bantam-size (5 ft. 3 in. 120 Ibs.) Vladimir Kusin, a Leningrad student, beat Finland...
...Falun, Sweden...