A small town in Sweden fights to preserve the Elfdalian language By Bianca Hillier A sign in a Swedish town that reads, "Welcome to Älvdalen" in the language Elfdalian. An organization called Ulum Dalska, based in a small Swedish town called Älvdalen, is on a mission. For decades, members have been working hard to help save a language called Elfdalian, a remnant of Old Norse. “We had our first meeting on the 1st of June in 1984,” said press secretary Björn Rehnström. “And the biggest hall in Älvdalen was filled with people.” Elfdalian sounds nothing like the country’s national language, Swedish, which Rehnström said destabilized the language about 100 years ago. At that point, Elfdalian became stigmatized.