This article examines the use made by heritage tourism of fiction, authenticity and historical knowledge with a view to augmenting interest in the Västergötland heritage. It takes as its starting point Jan Guillous story of the medieval Knight Templar Arn Magnusson. The series of Arn novels was published between 1998 and 2001, and two feature films were made in 2007 and 2008. Research in recent decades has clearly shown the medieval period to have been one of extensive international contacts and influences, a point which Gulliou highlights. One might therefore expect heritage tourism surrounding Arn to have been informed by narratives concerning the multicultural society of the Middle Ages. The present article investigates this aspect, or which stories have recieved prominence in heritage tourism and which have been rejected. The article shows how authenticity has been used in these connections. The source material is based on the websites of seven tourism providers, and the marketing of Arn-related tourism has been studied at two points of time, namely 2009 and 2011/2012. The article also discusses the use of history and how historically related tourism hepls to shape out view of history.
Marketed Arn tourism changed between 2009 and 2012, through the cutting back of experience-based authenticity in defence to a more object-based authenticity linked mainly to churches and monastic ruins. These historical remains, however, have not been used in heritage tourism as a means of describing the medieval network of international contacts, despite the pivotal role played by both churches and monasticism in these connections. As a result, the picture conveyed is founded on simplified stereotypes and affords a limited, partly inaccurate portrayal of medieval society. International influences and networks in that society could be used by heritage tourism for describing the dynamics of the medieval period, while at the same time indicating that societies have always been changed and developed under the impact of new influences.