Lacko Castle, Lake Vanern

Lacko Castle, Kallandsoe, Lake Vanern

Lacko Castle, Sweden. Lake Vanern.

Lacko Castle looks modest in size from the main entrance, but extends to the side and back to show areas without windows, clearly for defense in times past.

Lacko Castle, Lake Vanern, Sweden

Lacko Castle as a fortification site dates from 1298, see http://historyofwarfare.blogspot.com/2008/08/military-history-and-warfare-castles.html.  This building, however, was built in the 17th Century.  See http://www.nationalmuseum.se/sv/english-startpage/Visit-the-museum/NM-runt-om-i-Sverige/Lacko-slott/

One Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie had to vacate in 1681 when King Karl XI expropriated many nobles' estates.  Magnue Gabriel, Count de la Gardie, had been a chief administrator, but his foreign policy did not produce good results, and the King was displeased.   Magnus Gabriel died impoverished.  See http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/153656/Magnus-Gabriel-count-de-la-Gardie.  Now it has been refurnished with 17th Century furnishings, tapestries, an armoury with military as well as hunting collections, paintings.  Exhibits are held -- a museum. We arrived too late for that, but had full access to the outside grounds.

This bridge looks old but is probably refurbished as well.

Post and beam bridge, Lacko Castle, Sweden

Find your way here after Kinnekulle, out a long peninsula at Kallandsoe.  Then aim for Goteborg.

Lacko Slott, Sweden, lake view, Lake Vanern

The architecture modified through the years, from narrow arrow-slit windows for defense, to more an open look when defense was not the priority.  It became more a residence than a fort.  The area now is park-like, with a big parking lot suggesting many tour buses, and families on holiday or the day.

The best way to get the scope of the castle is to back up. Back, back, back.

Lacko Castle, Sweden, tour ferry access

It would be faster to take the tour boat, but we like the flexibility of a car: stay long or short, change mind.

Lacko as a surname is rooted in Eastern and Central Europe.  See http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Lacko-family-history.ashx. Lacko is identified at that site as Hungarian, a pet name or nickname for the more formal Laszlo (think of Laszlo in Ingrid Berman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca).  Slovak, Czech, Slovenian, Croatian, says the site. But Lacko is also a local form of Vladislav, and that may make more sense geographically.

Entry, Lacko Slott, Lake Vanern, Sweden

Dan Widing and companion, Lacko Castle, Sweden

Lake View, Lake Vanern, from Lacko Slott, Sweden

Kinne-Vedum Church, Kinne-Vedum Kyrka, 12th C., Gotene, Sweden

Kinne-Vedum

This church dates from 1150-1200, see www.svenskakyrkan.se/default.aspx?di=720269;
in an area not far from the plateau settlement (and now nature preserve) called Kinnekulle.  We are trying to find what the "kinne" means. The K is pronounced like tsch -- Tschinnekulle, not Kin-nekulle.

1.  Its Time

This time frame places this church and area at the very beginning of Christian conversion in Sweden, by Saint Sigfrid, King Olof was converted in nearby Husaby in about 1000 AD, Google Timeline, Sweden's Christian History.

Kinne Vedum Kyrka, Kinne Vedum Church, Vastergotland, Sweden, exterior

2.  If You Visit

The best way to keep the churches identified is to snap the road signs. This area has many churches.

Kinne Vedum Church road sign

Parish bulletin, Kinne-Vedum Kyrka

This is an active parish. 

3.   Start church visits outside.

Kinne-Vedum:  12th Century beginnings. Old stones lean against walls.

3.1  Vast green areas

For old sites, these probably contain submerged graves and stones.  Our understanding is that if no-one is left to tend the grave, it will be courteously left to sink.  Very practical. That also is in accord with old Norse belief in Yggdrasil, the Tree of the Lives, in that the buried bodies allowed to blend underground, feed the great giant ash.  Our DK guide book is useless here: only noting that some lily stones are at this church, but explaining nothing. 

3.2  Old stones.

Pay attention.  These are not indoors, preserved.

Lily stone? for Resurrection? Kinne Vedum Church, Gotene, Sweden. No - now we think Yggdrasil, the old Viking Tree of Life symbol

• Lily Stones?

 Some of the oldest-looking stones appear to show no writing, but intertwined vine symbols, even different from the runes, with their angular, stick-like forms, that are not uncommon.  Are these the "lily" stones? Those are related to teaching the Resurrection, for Christians.  We think of heart-shapes as stemming from Sweden, Scandinavia, but why?  Are these the kinds of heart shapes that started the tradition?

• Yggdrasil - older tradition,

Now we think this is instead the old Viking Tree of Life, with the trunk starting below, and branching out, the tree named Yggdrasil.  For an image of such a Tree of Life, from the Forshem Museum nearby, see this jewelry design site, http://www.luckyfishart.com/vitrofli.html.   

• Where is the research?

Look for tattoos.

Looking further at that authoritative site, that contains also a tattoo selection, see a tattoo you can buy at http://www.luckyfish.com/pages/port/unique.htm,

The blurb indeed says the stone with this pattern, in the Forshem museum not far, is so named because the intertwined foliage represents Yggdrasil, there described as the "World Tree."  Why is it that tattoos and jewelry offer more of interest than a guide book? Or the internet, so far. This should be a fine topic for all kinds of tourists.

Lily Stone a/k/a Viking Tree of Life, Yggdrasil. Patterned intertwinings, stones, Kinne Vedum Church, Sweden

Search for Forshem museum and there it is:  go to http://www.panoramio.com/photo/52132558.  But it took a tattoo parlor to get there. This is ridiculous. We also were at Forshem, so continue there. 

Meanwhile, get a preview at http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/default.aspx?id=703701

3.3  Evidence of Traditions and cultures:

The history of Sweden and its people is complex, with some accounts tracing some to tribes in Biblical times, the Tribe of Dan, for example, migrating up the Caucasus, see http://www.cai.org/bible-studies/swedish-christian-history  This fits other accounts of Sigge Fridulfsson, see http://swedenroadways.blogspot.com/2010/12/swedish-history-its-own-entity.html  That may contribute to the variety and evolution of design, but these stones must be researched somewhere.  Looking.  Even a Pentecostal site (looking back for it) traces the Swedish people back to ancient Israelites, but offers no authority.  Where are the DNA tests?  Should be easy enough. We give up.  You take over, start at http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2006/10/jewish-vikings-dna-mystery.html

Kinne Vedum, church view from wall, Gotene, Sweden

Note the additions through the years.

• Yggdrasil. 

 The giant ash.  See http://library.thinkquest.org/25326/Viking/tree.html.  Still researching.  This looks more like balanced design than tree branches.  And the design does not fit Norse symbols, as shown at http://symboldictionary.net/?page_id=703.

The ash links all the worlds. Look these up:  information from http://www.pantheon.org/articles/y/yggdrasil.htmlBeneath are three realms, Asgard, Aflheim and Niflheim.  There are three wells at the base of the trunk: Wells of Wisdom, Fate, and the Roaring Kettle, the source of mighty rivers. There are four deer that represent the four winds, and run across branches and eat buds.  The gossip squirrel lives there also, and the tree snake, and the golden cock on the top.  Serpents gnaw on the roots. When Ragnarok (like day of judgment?) arrives, Surt (the fire giant) will set the tree afire.  The Tree is also known as Odin's Horse (have to look it up); Hoddmimir's Wood; and Laerad.

Churchyard view, Kinne Vedum Church, Vastergotland, SE

4.  Discuss

If we think pre-Christian peoples were lacking in explanations that well meet the needs of life, we are mistaken.  Are ours any more reliable than theirs?  

Put yourselves in the leather boots of a potential convert.  Why believe in a Resurrection? 

In many ways the Tree of the Lives surpasses.  Resurrection, rising not from an altered state, but from actual "death.'  That was Paul's idea, for doctrine and institutional purposes, not related necessarily to the facts at the ground, see http://kngdv.blogspot.com/2011/04/roused-not-resurrected-difference-there.html

5.  Old church burial grounds are not jammed.

The burial ground is vast, but not crowded.  Wise.  Let the oldest ones fall back into the earth.  

Propped stones, Kinne Vedum Churchyard, Sweden

There is a person, lower right, side view, holding something diagonally to the right.  Will try

Churchyard, Kinne Vedum, SE.

Is this more like Yggdrasil, the giant Norse ash of mythology.  Did the Christians put an Easter-type overlay (intertwined lilies) over the Norse idea to make the old Norse feel at home?  Need a site for the Norse Christian Symbols Appropriations Committee.  

These green areas probably contain submerged gravesites.  Need to check.

Original exterior, Kinne Vedum Church, Sweden

Side entry addition, Kinne-Vedum Church, Sweden

We tried Kinne Vedum in an online translator, and could not find it.  Heritage of carpentry:  how were these roofs constructed, and how did so many survive -- see http://www.conservation.gu.se/digitalAssets/1091/1091837_Thelin___Linscott_Structural_definition_and_comparison_of_early_medieval_roof_structures.pdf

Mariestad - the Graffiti Mariestad Project - on Lake Vanern

 Mariestad
The Graffiti Mariestad Project

Orientation.  Think two big lakes:  Vattern, not far from Boxholm; go around the northern tip, head south toward Toreboda and Fredsberg, then head easily west to the shore of Lake Vanern, and Mariestad.  South of Mariestad is Kinnekulla, but stop for lunch and a nice walk in Mariestad first. Duke Karl became King Karl IX, and he named this lovely spot for his wife, Duchess Maria av Pfalz, see http://www.terella.no/2007/07/19/wandering-through-time-in-old-mariestad/

The old town is not that old because of a fire in 1895, so we enjoyed the waterfront. Very flat land. Stroll, stroll....

Mariestad, Sweden, Lake Vanern

Stroll, stroll, what?  

Graffiti on a silo?  

Yes! On a clutch of silos!  Mariestads Tidningen?  Is that what it says at the top? Go to an online translator.  Tidningen means "magazine."

Graffiti project, silos, Mariestad, Sweden

This is a formal enterprise, with cherrypickers hoisting up the artists.  See an account of people working on it, and how they got there. See  http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://graffitimariestad.se/blogg/&ei=VSfVTdDHDar50gHv1cWiDA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCEQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dgraffiti%2BMariestad%2BSweden%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D925%26bih%3D554%26gbv%3D2%26prmd%3Divns

.  

Only at the bottom arm-height or low-ladder height is there the usual mish-mash of one person spraying over another's creativity, like on our subway cars.

Center Fish! Graffiti project, Mariestad, Sweden

See and hear the graffiti lifestyle, not necessarily this one, but at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECYY_ZycELs

Graffiti, Mariestad.  Or government-sanctioned mural?

What is the difference.  Must graffiti be outlaw in order to be graffiti? Is this instead a fine but authority-approved mural.

Poster, Mariestad: One of the Largest Graffiti Works of Art in the World

Visit the website at http://www.graffitimariestad.se/  Meet Carolina Falkholts, on the video there. The project was just ending when we were there.

Mariestad, Graffiti Project SE

Quiet Mariestad, otherwise. Marina, Lake Vanern, Sweden

Fredsberg Kyrka, Churchyard, Family Tree: Kyrketorp, Toreboda, Sweden

Fredsberg Kyrka

Records, Graves Search 1742 beginning

 FREDSBERG KYRKA

Family Ties Untied, Perhaps

What was Everyday Life in the 19th Century: Fredsberg.
Diary, from a coastal area, Rora Parish.

Fredsberg Kyrka, Kajsa Johannesdotter, maternal grandmother side, Toreboda area, Sweden

1.  From Fredsberg to Husaby.

I am searching for my husband's paternal grandmother and side ancestors. Her name was Kajsa Johannsdotter. Johannesdotter appears around Fredsberg.  Is that the same Johannsdotter of other records?

• E's come and go in the records, as do other spellings. Download Swedish geneology at  ://www.genline.com/gff/ and cross-reference on or own

2.  Fredsberg Kyrka.  That is not far from Kyrketorp Church Cottage mentioned often.

Is this Fredsberg? Family photo from 1920's, 1930's.  But the steeple has a taller "up" section, not as squat. Must be Ekeby, paternal grandparent side near Boxholm. 

Ekeby Kyrka, near Boxholm, Sweden

3.  Fredsberg Kyrka Bell - Is it from 1498?

4.  A look at daily life, perhaps. Peasant and nobility, 19th Century - a diary, rural Sweden, Rora Parish

Family ties.  See FN 1 - Chronology, Kajsa Johannesdotter family tree at Fredsberg, Kyrketorp; before, we think, the move of her mother to Kinnekulle. We do not know how the family got to Kinnekulle.

Husaby Kyrka, maternal grandmother side, family photo 1920's, 1930's

That is a mystery: need Kinnekulle info.

.................................................................................................................

Fredsberg.

1.  Our interest was in finding the church most often mentioned in accounts of graves or other records of the parents/family of Kajsa Johannesdotter, my husband's great-grandmother.That is Fredsberg Kyrke, Kyrketorp for Church Cottage, and parishes in that small area. Kajsa Johannesdotter's parents -- Kajsa, if this is the same (Johannsdotter? Johannesdotter?) is the daughter of

• Johannes Persson who was born November 3, 1798 in Kyrketorp, and 
• Stina Ericsdotter, Skaraborgs County, Fredsberg parish. She was from Nolasen in Fredsberg Parish.
• Kyrketorp means Church Cottage.  Past some roadside memorials ...  here we go.

Found:

The places, but not the graves. With more time, go back to Vaxjo and the central records for immigrants or stay the night until someone came who could tell where old church records are.  The old stones are barely legible in the churchyards. Other people on geneology sites provide more details than we could find. 

 ..............................................................

1.1.  The search

Aim for back country roads if you are looking for old family graves. They are in excellent condition.  Find there so many old churches, servicing local people in days of horse and buggy and walking.  See the Toreboda area at //www.kyrkokartan.se/  But you will see few marker signs.

Someday perhaps Sweden will install the series of Information offices as seen in many other countries even in small towns, with the cheery "i" and all sorts of pamphlets and maps and helpful people.  Or put up tourist site logos on the roads. Swedish people are friendly and helpful, but some of us like to stop less often for directions and see more.

Rural Sweden, roadside memorials, Toreboda

1.2  Kyrketorp.

Kyrketorp Kapell, or Kyrketorp Chapel, is between two lakes, north of Toreboda. As we understand it, Fredsberg is included in the larger area where Kyrketorp with the Kapell is the main place.  Like a sub-parish, or branch.  If people were going by horse and buggy, or walking, they would need local parishes. Is that so? We are figuring this out as we go.

Kyrketorp, or Church Cottage, near Toreboda, Sweden

Found! That's a Kyrketorp! Quick! Turn!

1.3  Johannes Persson was born in Kyrketorp, November 3, 1798.  Is this it? See tree at FN 1

There must be many Kyrketorps, as a word meaning Church Cottage, but only this one had the sign as a special Church Cottage.

But it is not very near the Fredsberg Church, or Kyrketorp Kapell. Fredsberg is nine 9 km from Kyrketorp Kapell, say 6 miles -- a long way in those days. We think of the parson's manse as next door to the church, but in those days, surely the pastor would have a place to live that also would be self-supporting.

Kyrketorp. Is this the one? Toreboda, Sweden

Look again at all the churches listed and shown on this map near Kyrketorp Kapell, at http://www.kyrkokartan.se/T%C3%B6reboda/Kyrketorps_kapell/

2.  Fredsberg Kyrka, Fredsberg Church, Fredsberg Parish.

When you are looking for a church with medieval roots, as Fredsberg, expect many changes through time. At Fredsberg, luckily many old artifacts and stones are preserved. Then there is Kyrketorp Kapell, a chapel affiliated with the larger church.

Pulpit, Fredsberg Church, Sweden

The Church of Sweden is Evangelical Lutheran, from the Reformation era, but with a history in the early Christian Church extending back to earlier medieval times, with missionaries moving north from Germany. See present organization of the church at http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/default.aspx?di=657804 -- main administration for the 13 dioceses, through the Bishop, is at Uppsala.

FREDSBERG.

Records indicate a Fred Burg Parish; parish identification number 166 302, and that places it right here.  Some English translations call it "Fred's Church" -- not exactly a magnetic draw.  Parish identifications: See http://home.swipnet.se/~w-13626parishyes1.htm#F.  See FN 1 for the family chronology we think is accurate, so far:

3.  Fredsberg Kyrke Bell.

This bell is set inside the church. Inscriptions, markings unknown.

Fredsberg Kyrke, de-steepled bell, Sweden

We found an account later about a "pilgrimage badge" of Saint Helena being soldered onto the Fredsberg Church bell.  This is the bell, but we see no badge.  See http://hem.passagen.se/anesa/data/eng/saint_helena_2r.htm, at 167.  The date is given at that site as 1498.  Is that the date of the bell?

Bells and the community:  Living near the church meant hearing the bell toll. At least one diarist, a Jakob Jonsson from the 19th Century, in another area of Sweden, near Goteborg, used the bell tolling to keep a record of the deaths, the weddings.  See http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol43/gustavsson.pdf.  Read the entire diary of events in the parish there, for a flavor of life here as well.  Both were farming communities.

4.  Peasant and nobility, 19th Century -- from the Gustavvson folklore site

Funeral customs:

Since we list what we know of births and deaths, here is an example of customs in the 19th Century.

Read at the folklore site an account of peasant customs on the crofts and small farms of the day. For example only the mighty had funeral services inside the church, services for others were held at the graveside.  For them, a "forest" of cut spruces in the example were arranged around the coffin, 4 or 5 at each side, 2-3 at head and foot, outside on the porch. The corpse would be inside, on a platform, near the altar, for a ceremonial sprinkling of earth.  See folklore site.  Where to find the old rites reflected in that? Anything pre-Christian? Why not?  Corpses were carried on a bier from house to church, and only in the late 1800's did horse-drawn carriages appear. Fish and schnappes were considered essential for part of the funeral "repast" at the home afterwards. All was cleaned and ready in the house the day before the funeral.

Causes of death:

Records of contagious diseases interest us because of the story that Kajsa Johannesdotter's parents and siblings all died in a season with an epidemic.  That would be Fredsberg area over to Kinnekulle area somewhere, we think, perhaps a farm lower in Skane.

The folklore site lists these among many other causes (do see the photos there, and descriptions of the diseases, Rora Parish, coast and island area, Goteborg to the south?

Diarist Jakob Jonsson, editor Anders Gustavsson)

• 1850-1900 -- over half the Swedish illness deaths were from scarlet fever. A particular epidemic was in 1870.  We are interested here because of the family story of a catastrophic epidemic that killed all (we thought) family members in the owners of the farm, parents and children, except for young Kajsa, who married what we thought was a farmhand who nursed her back to health. In this story, a daughter similarly survives, and marries the "half-owner" - not a mere farmhand, and the name Olausson appears.  Do we have a wild match here or are we just enjoying the historical hunt -- see Kajse Johannsdotter's Story, Epidemic
• Typhoid, called a "nerve fever", a kind of salmonella
• Fewer numbers but significant: Epilepsy, called "falling sickness"; and smallpox; childbirth, accidents, drowning, etc.

King Carl, commemorative 1809, Fredsberg Kyrke

Find a list of noble burials, including at Fredsberg, at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~corpusnobiliorum/bonde.html

.............................................................................................

FN 1 

Recap: Kajsa Johannesdotter, Carl Jon Widing's Great Grandmother, died in Philadelphia, where she had been residing with her daughter Anna Osterlund (his Grandmother) and her husband, William Widing,  Kajsa Johannesdotter: born 1829;  see Family Tree Maker, at http://www.familytreemaker.geneology.com/users//a/l/m/Brian-L-Almquist-OR/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0638.html

Fredsberg seems central to this family. See how many times everybody is born and married and dies, if known, here. More births than deaths can be documented, however. Is this the area of the great epidemic that took Kajsa's family? Is Stina who died in Nebraska really a surviving sister, not part of our lore before? Spellings vary. The parents of Kajsa Johannesdotter were Johannes Persson and Stina Ericsdotter, married here on February 25, 1824. See geneology site above.

CHRONOLOGY OF BIRTHS, 
FOCUS ON FREDSBERG KYRKE AND FREDSBERG PARISH 

ALSO KYRKETORP NOT FAR

1742  Petter Pehrsson (I) born Svenningstorp, Fredsberg, married Greta Jonsdotter

1744  Greta Jonsdotter born Svenningstorp, Fredsberg, married Petter Pehrsson (I)

• Had son Petter Pehrsson (II)
  

1751  Petter Larsson born Kyrketorp married Maria Bengtsdotter

1753  Maria Bengtsdotter born Kyrketorp married Petter Larsson

• Had daughter Maria Pehrsdotter [spelling from Petter to Pehr?]
  

1767  Petter Pehrsson (II) born Goranstorp, Fredsberg, married Maria Pehrsdotter

1773  Maria Pehrssdotter born Kyrketorp married Petter Pehrsson (II)

• Had son Johannes Persson [note the H dropped from earlier Pehrsson - is that ok?]
  

______  Johannes Persson, son of Petter Pehrsson (II) and Maria Pehrsdotter, married Stina Ericsdotter 1824 at Fredsberg

______  Stina Ericsdotter, daughter of ________________, married Johannes Pehrsson 1824 at Fredsberg.




Stina is found as

Photo: Gustaf and Anna Pettersson
Category: Headstone
Attached To: Anna Stina Johansdotter (1820-1891)

See ancestry.com (use the cite, will need to subscribe or go to library to view>)

Anna Kajsa Johannsdotter is at the same ancestry site, as
Anna Kajsa Johannesdotter
Birth: date - city, Älvsborg (Västra Götaland), Sverige (Sweden)  Additional information requires a payment.

There is also an Anna Caisa Johannesdotter at that site, 

Birth record Document Copy of Swedish parish record. Skaraborg; Björsäter; Volume: C:6; Födde (Births); 1805 - 1837; Roll/Fiche:... Anna Caisa Johannesdotter (1823-1827)

And
Name Anna
Mother: Anna Brita Österlund  (there is a current living Osterlund relative named Brita - connected?)
Birth:  2 aug 1886 - MO, Västernorrland

Kajsa Johannsdotter -- see Ancestry for long list of emigrating persons of that name, including a Britta Kajsa, Anna Kajsa, where to start.
................................................................................................
 This is getting like a researcher's laundry list.

• Start now with Johannes Persson and Stina Ericsdotter.

Their children were, and here is a mystery.  We had believed all had died in an epidemic.  Stina's death date is given as unknown; and Johannes Persson's death date is also given as unknown, as is the death dates of their children except for one, Stina.

We know that one of the missing dates is for Kajsa Johannesdotter, died in Philadelphia early 1900's, where she lived with her daughter Anna Osterlund and family, so the absence of death dates otherwise for children and parents in Sweden might support a large catastrophe -- all the children except for one also named Stina, and our Kajsa Johannesdotter, my husband's great grandmother, surviving.

The other children of Johannes Persson and Stina Ericsdotter are listed as Johanna, Lotta, Erik, Anna Lisa, see - go directly - and see if we have it right - at http://www.familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/a/l/m/Brian-L-Almquist-OR/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0635.html

This geneology list shows a daughter Stina that we had not known, with a known death date, dying in Nebraska in 1910. If this is the same family. Kajsa Johannesdotter is a common name. Should we go to Johannsdotter.

Move over to ancestry dot com and find Petter Pehrsson (the SENIOR) in Skane, born 1742, so looks like the same pehrsson, see all the work these Andersons have done here --

Petter Pehrsson - Anderson Family Tree

Greta Jonsdotter - Anderson Family Tree

That site lists Skane as place of origin -- large generic geographic delineation, not as precise as the parish. Skane is a broad flat area, south-south:  about 121 km northwest of Ystad.  Same people? Are we sure?  Is the link with Kajsa Johannesdotter a solid one?  Andersons, speak up. 

There must have been many Pehr's for Pehr's son to have married Pehr's daughter in Fredsberg Kyrke in November 17, 1793.  Petter Pehrsson picked a peck of no don't. That spelling may be the answer:  Maria Pehrsdotter's father was Petter, not a Pehr. Not a peach but a pear. Died date unknown.

Orebro - Castle in the River. Stolid Fortress.

Orebro, in the south-central part of Sweden, on the Svarta River, placed its castle wisely:  where future tourists would love it on its own island.  The town was a commercial and political center, coming to prominence in the 14th Century.  Later remodelings and renovations of its castle buttressed its function from defense, to commercial display of power, with windows for looking out; no arrow slots.  The crenellated roofline embellishes one end.  The bulbous towers are echoed in other structures nationally, from monasteries, see http://www.satie-archives.com/web/arkitekt.html
and other castles.  Very stolid. Solid. Heavy. Protectionist, not imaginative, is that so?  This is a land with few natural defenses, such as mountains, and coastal areas are flat, and inlands have lovely lakes and farmland, so this architecture makes sense:  once invaders landed, the Swedes fared best with musclebound fortresses.

Orebro, Sweden, castle on island

The town is known for Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson, hero in a rebellion against Denmark, 1390's-1434 or so; and Church Reformers Olaus and Laurentius Petri.  No connection to the petri dish?  Denmark, Sweden and Norway had been united under King Erik of Pomerania (Germany).

Old Uppsala: Gamla Uppsala. Royal Burial Mounds, Christian Church, Runes

Old Uppsala

Gamla Uppsala

The Church; and the Old Deist Burial Mounds

Gamla Uppsala was a renowned ceremonial site for multi-deist Sweden, a place of religious rites, royal burials and palaces, and a spiritual center in the 11th Century, when a Christian Cathedral was constructed there.

1.  The Church

The form of the church remaining is about half the original size, see http://www.raa.se/cms/en/places_to_visit/gamla_uppsala/history_of_gamla_uppsala.html/.  It was built over the earlier multi-deist structures there. See http://www.sacred-destinations.com/sweden/gamla-uppsala.htm/ 

Cathedral, built over pagan site, Gamla Uppsala, Sweden

Religions spread over each other like kudzu.

It was in the ordinary course pf business for Christianity to usurp the spirituality of the conquered, and make its own inroads, like a piggyback where possible; or force itself and then call the resulting brainwashed citizens "converted" -- but it is a sadness and loss to history all the same. The might of the conqueror is not always an indication that they are in any way "divinely promoted."  The old ways may well have suited the culture and topography better.

Multi-deism remains part of Christian culture as well.  Just call the Trinity One. Common sense applies theological sleight-of-hand. Add "evil" and demons, see that even God couldn't control the borders of Eden, and we are not far from the old ways.

Church at Gammla Uppsala.

The church is traditional in layout, see its plan at http://photonorge.com/panoramas/uppsala/   See there the older church yard, its original size. 

Then:  inside.  The old trees are gone from the area, that used to be forested, but see the uses of them, and their size.

Cathedral interior, tree trunk cask for valuables, Old Uppsala, Sweden

Adam of Bremen 

Adam of Bremen, in Germany-land, never came here, although he wrote of the ceremonial site.  

Female participation

In the old church, many of the religious figures are women.  Few are men. There was a time early on when women dominated the contemplative and saintly life, more women saints coming along then men.  That alarmed the church "fathers" so much that they began to take over the convents and their endowments from women's estates, and turn them in to monasteries;  and put the convents under the "supervision" of the monasteries  -- and built large religious male-dominated centers  instead with the women's estates.  

Old Cathedral, Gamla Uppsala.  Women saints, tryptych, Sweden

Doctrine evolved from the ether that conformed the new religion to the existing culture and said, regardless of the Founder's fraternizing with women, that men were supposed to be in charge, so watch in the new Uppsala Cathedral -- the statues and the saints are men.  

Women had been in power positions until about the 7th Century, when, in the Carolingian era, the wealthy and influential convents (too wealthy, too influential) were put under monastic supervision.  See http://www.monasticmatrix.org/commentaria/article.php?textId=66

2.  The grounds

Old Uppsala

Old Uppsala is near Stockholm, the city on the archipelago at the deep fjord.  Go to Old Uppsala and be reminded of the greatness of ancient Sweden, see http://www.theancientweb.com/explore/content.aspx?content_id=32/

1.  Founder perhaps

Read at that site that Odin decreed, in the Norse god's wisdom, that the dead shall be burned in a great crematory fire.  The Odin there, however, is probably one Sigge Fridulfson, the great and very human leader of a migration north from the Caucasus a millenium ago, who took the name Odin for himself to pave his own way, see Bogomilia: Sigge Fridulfson. Wise, and it worked.

We found no tribute to the brilliant ruler, Sigge  Frudulfson or Fridulfsson.

It was only after we returned that we found his name connected to one of the earliest migrations north from the Caucasus, and who took the name of Odin so that his and Odin's became one in reverence.  His sons were placed on the thrones in Scandinavia, and he was a fierce but wise ruler.  See Sigge Fridulson, Sigge Frieulfsson, Origin of the Swedes

2.  The site mounds.

Overall, the site is a long wandering line of huge mounds, some excavated.  There were no large treasure troves found, but sites of cremations and some artifacts showing the prominence of those resting there.  Swedish people are not inclined to make Disney out of their traditionally meaningful sites, so there is little fanfare at Gamla Uppsala.  It is largely left to age naturally.  Excellent. No hype.

Gamla Uppsala, Sweden;  Burial mound view.

Leave time to do a long walk around.  There had been a large settlement here in about the 6th Century, and in the Iron Age before that. Adam of Bremen, in Germany, wrote of a Hall of Gold, and the remains of a banquet hall were indeed found. Not the gold.

Old Uppsala, Sweden.  Road past the line of burial mounds, pedestrian only.

Tales tell of a large tree at the site, and a deep well, and rituals for centuries there.

Gamla Uppsala; pole fences keep people off the mounds. Sweden.

There are no display stands, or marker tablets directing your view.  That to us was refreshing.  There is time to let it all sink in, and then look details up later, or in time at the small museum there.

Mounds, mound after mound at Gamla Uppsala, Sweden.

Flat plain at Gamla Uppsala, Sweden. Burial mounds are prominent.

View of the new Uppsala, from Old Uppsala (Christians moved the town away from the pagan site in the 1270's, kept the name)

We had thought Sweden to be more mountainous.  Not so near the southern coast, and to Stockholm at least.  Vast flat areas. Some mounds that we saw in driving around are apparently not burial sites necessarily, but glacial moraines. These can protrude up in farmland.  Which are mounds?  Noone looks, because traditionally there are no gold hordes there.

Old Uppsala.  Take time for the walk past the mounds, Sweden.

Royal burial mounds, Gamla Uppsala, Sweden

3.  Runes

Memory of Runes

Odin hung from a tree for nine days, in order to gain the secrets of the Runes. See http://www.rune-scripts.arollo.com/legend-odin.htm  This imagery, already familiar, made it easy for Christian missionaries to make inroads with their figure also hung on a tree.  There was less resistance where the gods could be seen as just reappearing in this new one, one in three, what?  three gods?  Just another route to multi-deism? Semantics? sounds fine. Come to church.

This may not be an authentic rune stone -- some are reproductions, and often the tracings are darkened to make reading them easier.  Checking. 

Rune stone, Gamla Uppsala, Sweden, near museum.  Is this authentic? Many original rune stones are left out in the open. 

Runes. Entwined, serpentine, musical, lyre-like, evocative.

Runes, highlighted, stone, Gamla Uppsala Sweden