Sacred tree at Uppsala
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The Sacred tree at Uppsala was a sacred tree located at the Temple at Uppsala, Sweden, in the second half of the 11th century.
It is even more sparsely documented than the famous temple by which it stood. In the 1070s, Adam of Bremen wrote that the Swedes had a famous temple named Ubsola near which there was a large tree with wide branches. It was always green, and no one knew what species it was[1].
The later Icelandic source Hervarar saga contains a description of how the tree was used in the pagan rites, concerning an event taking place only a few years after Adam of Bremen's report:
| Svein, the King's brother-in-law, remained behind in the assembly, and offered the Swedes to do sacrifices on their behalf if they would give him the Kingdom. They all agreed to accept Svein's offer, and he was then recognized as King over all Sweden. A horse was then brought to the assembly and hewn in pieces and cut up for eating, and the sacred tree was smeared with blood. Then all the Swedes abandoned Christianity, and sacrifices started again. They drove King Ingi away; and he went into Vestergötland.[2] |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Adam, von Bremen. "History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen." Francis J. Tschan (tr. & ed.) New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. OCLC 700044
- ^ The Saga of Hervör and Heithrek (c. 1325), in translation by Nora Kershaw.
