Fyrisån
Uppsala is built on the banks of Fyrisån (“The River Fyris”). Västra Ågatan, Östra Ågatan, and Fyristorg lie on her banks.
It took me a while to understand the name of the river. I was a little confused, as I'd seen it on maps both as Fyris and as Fyrisån, so I'll share my new-found insight: å is the Swedish for “river”, ån is the definite form, i.e. “the river”, so Fyrisån is a compound word for “The River Fyris”. I can't probe any deeper into a translation than that, though there is undeniable appeal in a compound of fyr (“fire”) and is (“ice”).
