Why English?

I've had a number of persons ask me why I chose to write in English.

The first answer that came to mind was that the only decent market for fantasy is the US and UK. I have, however, come to the conclusion it is not entirely correct. Not as in there being any other equal market for my preferred genre. It's the part of the answer being the first and foremost that is a lie.
I guess that answer was an excuse, or internal bribe if you prefer, to get me past a rather difficult barrier. There's writing, and there's writing in a non-native language. I needed a reason to dare the second. As excuses go, "there's in no measurable market for fantasy written in Swedish" is a rather good one.

Still, what is the primary reason for me to write in English? It's not that I'm likely to make a fortune no matter what language I prefer to write in, and if I only wanted to get published and read then I could as well have stuck to the language I'm raised with.

The answer, I guess, is much, much simpler. English is in fact my preferred language. Again given that we're referring to fantasy. I don't like fantasy written in Swedish set in an environment Swedish history doesn't mirror.

This is a nation of a vast wilderness, at least by European standards. We have forests you could hide an army in. We have an endless coastline. We have, all in all, the perfect setting for a story where nature and nature's mysteries take a main role. What we don't have is a setting suited for densely populated civilizations, and as far as I am concerned it shows in our language.

We don't have a history of living packed together. We do indeed have a history of invading places where cities and villages lie only a day's walking apart. I guess that would work wonders if I wanted to write about barbarian hordes laying waste to a decadent civilization -- written from the barbarian side. Wonderful story, a bucketful of ideas. Someone should write it, and that someone is not me.