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

Anundshog Viking Burial Mound at Vasteras

 I. Anundshog, Viking Burial Mound

I.  Anundshog:

Anund and his brother Heden.  Heden died.  Their father, Folkvid, prominent in Badelunde, erected the stones and mound for Heden.  Vred carved the runes.  Folkvid must have been a formidable figure. This Viking burial mound, dating between 600-1000 AD, erected in Heden's honor (then why is it called Anundshog?), consists of five different sets of standing stones in the outline shapes of Viking ships (no real ships are here) is huge.  It is the largest in Sweden. See http://www.werbeka.com/vasteras/anunde.htm/  In some other places, an entire ship was buried with the person inside, but not here, apparently. These are still called "stone ships."  The area has been inhabited since about 500 BC.

Anundshog Viking Burial area, stone ships, Vasteras, Sweden

Get here early in the morning, before the gift shop opens and the buses arrive. No entry fee. Get the shadows long from the standing stones, no other people in your pictures.

Anundshog, Vasteras, Sweden. Stone ship gravesite pattern, at base of Viking burial mound (reconstructed, some had fallen).

Some runes are barely visible now.  For runes, see these letter-word shapes (different cultures had different forms, from the  Saxon, to various Norse, to Anglo-Saxon) at http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/runestones.html/  They apparently started as wood, used for divination - foretelling - and healing - and moved to use including stone commemorations, telling stories, putting one's stamp on life.

Your name may even be runic -- capable of an interpretation through runes,  See runes for W-i-d-ing at an earlier post here, in runes. All is speculative, of course, but we found an old family tale represented in the runes themselves, using a set of runes. Story stone marks.

Dan Widing reading runes, Anundshog burial site, Vasteras, Sweden

 We are not here. We looked.

Heden's Viking Burial Mound, Anundshog, Vasteras, Sweden

Still, why is this called Anundshog if nothing is for Anund? Need to research. 

The mound is 36-45 feet high. Go ahead. Scramble up. 

Tumulus, a secondary one, Anundshog, Vasteras, Sweden

The fjord used to be extend all the way to the burial mound area, with room for a broad road between. Prominent location.  The road was used for each new king to travel on their rounds receiving tribute.

View from Anundshog, Vasteras. A fjord extended here.

We forget information, so take a photo of explanations:  fair use of bits and pieces -- here is information on burial procedures. Cremation, then a cairn, then the "tumulus."

Burial procedures, Anundshog, Vasteras Viking mound, Sweden

Cremate the person on a clay base, then build a stone cairn over top, and cover that with soil and turf. There is the tumulus. 

Here is the Folkvid stone:

The Folkvid Stone, runes by Vred, named as the Rune-carver. Anundshog Viking Burial area, Vasteras, Sweden

The Folkvid Stone is part of a line of stones in a cluster marking the road, not a stone ship.

The forms are filled in with color to make them more legible.  Pictograms, and letter-word forms. "Folkvid raised all these stones for his son Heden, brother of Anund.  Vred carved the runes."   Naming the craftsman who carved the runes: did Vred add that himself? To tout himself for well deserved accolades for good work, or did Folkvid himself direct that Vred be paid tribute in this way.

Folkvid, father of Heden, raised these stones for Heden, and Heden was the brother of Anund. 

Does that make Folkvid the father of Anund? Or were Anund and Heden half-brothers?

Standing stones, Anundshog, Vasteras burial mound, Sweden

Stone ship, Anundshog, Vasteras, Sweden; from the top of the burial mound.

Remember.  Early morning.   Best shadows.  No entry gate.  Just park and walk. Just have dry socks around.

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

II.  Vasteras, the city.

Location location.  Vasteras was founded  as Vastra Aros on the River Svartan some thousand years ago; it was the second largest town in the 1100's, and became a religious center in the 12th Century, and a cathedral started. Most of us are not familiar with the wars among the Northern people, but in the 14th Century, the city became a stronghold, but in 1520 was captured by the Danes nonetheless -- and liberated back again by the Swedes the next year.

The river -- what became of that?  Shifted over time and became Lake Malaren, or is the River still separate?  Quick, find a map.

Yes.  It looks like rivers and fjords shifted, and there is a large lake-fjordish system going on.  That makes sense, because we were told that the Viking burial mound here, at Anundshog, used to be on the fjord, with waterway access all the way to Stockholm.

1527:  a very big year.  The Reformation here. Catholicism was banned. And, over the next centuries, mining and other industries grew.



For the Green among us, the city buses (so it says here at http://www.vasteras.se/languages/english/Sidor/englishwelcometovasteras.aspx) are fueled by their own bio-gas. 

Linkoping. Swedish Air Force Museum. Flygvapenmuseum Malmen. Neutrality With Arms

Flygvapenmuseum

Swedish Air Force Museum.  Flygvapen. Western outskirts of Linkoping. A flier-admirer's heaven. The best part of autonomous travel is going anywhere anytime, getting out anywhere anytime, and a fast morph from medieval history to modern. And finding that languages can be navigated. You can figure a lot of it out.
 
First, Linguistics. Just listen to flygvapen.

Hear it in your mind. Flygvapen. Now act it. Flap your arms and say it.  Flygvapen. There you have it. Onomatopoeia.  Words that sound their meaning. See ://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/onomatopoeia.html/  Languages are windows, and concerts for the ear.

Second, Content.

This is a fine military museum, with 130 planes overhead and in huge hangars and set up outside; and a cultural museum, laying out the context in which they flew.  Absorb times gone by -- exhibits like theater sets, staged scenes showing the periods when events here happened, artifacts, uniforms, documents, planes hung up there everywhere, climb up the mobile metal staircases and look right in. Wander, peer, imagine. Air defense. New. Need for defense. Old. Attack capability. Part of defense.

Air Force Museum, Linkoping, Exhibit: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin at Potsdam, the sorting hat for World War II

And ongoing need? Must we always.

Then ask, is there any human-being difference between

a) these three little piggies (Winston, Franklin and Josef), their religious and other counterparts; and their influence over their times; and motivations; and political this and that, hyped-up citizens, persuaded that they are right, attacking each other and others, with invasions and atrocities; and

b) the three little piggies of medieval and reformation times -- popes, luthers, rulers, hyped-up citizens, persuaded that they are right, attacking each other and others, and secular and religious invasions and atrocities.

Old living room radio, with Winston. Swedish Air Museum, Linkoping

Probably not.  

Here, the emphasis is on Swedish-Soviet relations, as is natural when countries are physically so close and one is so huge with tentacles, and the other is just across the water. Sweden is a strong nation, strong military history of its own, but its proximity to Germany and Russia both, spurs some nerves. They are nearly family:  it was the Swedish adventurers who went gliding in their longboats down the Eastern European rivers, raiding, settling, establishing cities, all the way to Baghdad. The Swedish vikings, the Rus, did they kickstart Russia? No wonder the interest.  See Vikings in Russia at ://www.dur.ac.uk/a.k.harrington/variagi.html/ 

Ruud Leeuw has fine photos of the complex, showing the changes from 1910 onwards-- see ://www.ruudleeuw.com/linkoping-airmuseum10.htmSee://www.thelocal.se/museums/95/flygvapenmuseum-linkoeping

Interested in specific kinds of planes? A military maven?

Meet Bjorn.  And his site. See the J35 Dragon, a fighter, and the Saab J29, join Bjorn at ://www.bjorns-story.se/private/Airforce_museum_swedenhtm/flygvapen_eng.htm/  Saab - come back! We like our Saab car, and the dashboard does look like a cockpit, in ways -- airplane roots. That's what Saab did, until cars joined in. How about the Saab J28 Vampire! Even a pacifist gets adrenalin going at these babies. Sleek. Just the design, not the purpose. A35 Lance. JAS 37 Viggen. See Bjorn's site.

The reality of wreckage.

Fused glass, wreckage, Swedish Air Force Museum, Linkoping

Need to double check the fused glass.  This was a floor-level and below-floor exhibit.

The neutrality puzzle:  how does neutrality work. 

Is it neutral, why choose it if issues of atrocity to others seem so clear (what obligation do any of us have to others), and does neutrality "enable" ongoing abuse, see ://www.adl.org/braun/dim_14_1_neutrality_europe.aspor was it the best choice for the constituents of that country; nor no choice.  International law provides for different kinds of neutrality.  Neutral nations in WWII: 

• The Vatican (its own entity) supposedly, it just stood by; 
• Sweden, 
• Portugal, 
• Spain, emerging after its own civil war; and 
• Switzerland as a conditional neutral in WWI, supposedly using economic sanctions (except for giving out keys to the gnomes' caves under Zurich); and an "integral" neutral, completely neutral supposedly, in WWII -- still more keys to the gnomes' caves, however, still being unearthed. See Co-Opting Nazi Germany at ://www.adl.org/braun/dim_14_1_neutrality_europe.asp/  That article articulates the self-interest concept.  Self-interested neutrality. Scholarly snippet:  read  Phases in Swedish Neutrality, by Joachim Joesten from Foreign Affairs vol 23, at least the little bit that JSTOR will let you see for free at http://www.jstor.org/pss/20029898

 Neutrality -- did it mean survival after all. Neutrality did not mean isolation:  the bodies washed up, see graves of WWI Battle of Jutland navy personnel at Goteborg, and other places where the pilots tumbled from the sky, the intrigues lurked. History.  See book, The Social Construction of Swedish Neutrality, by Christine Agius 2006 at ://us.macmillan.com/thesocialconstructionofswedishneutrality

Linkoping - Vreta Kloster's Cloister

Vreta Cloister (Kloster) near Linkoping, at Berg

And the Church at the Monastery (Nunnery?)

Kings Inside

Vreta Cloister, outside Church, Berg, Linkoping, Sweden

The old arbors and orchards still bear blossoms, and fruit.

Cloister and Garden area, Vreta Kloster, Linkoping, Berg, Sweden

Apple tree, Vreta Kloster Garden, Linkoping, Berg, Sweden

Vreta is one of the oldest monasteries in Sweden, founded by King Inge I and Queen Helena in about 1100.  See ://christianization.hist.cam.ac.uk/regions/sweden/sweden-eccl-org.html

Raised garden walls, ancient tree, Vreta Kloster, Linkoping, Berg, Sweden

Oldest fruit tree, Vreta Kloster

That is the church guide getting a nice sour apple from one of the trees believed to be from Reformation time, would you believe, centuries old and still bearing. One stalwart branch out there. Tasty, but pucker sour.

Model, Vreta Kloster before the Reformation, farm, church, community 

The Church at Vreta Kloster was obviously remodeled at some point.  See the difference in the square steeple on the model, and the newer steeple at top.

Contemplative and herb garden, Vreta Kloster

Medieval sub-ground baptismal area pool, Vreta Kloster (protected by glass enclosure)

This below-ground level areas is a Baptisterium.  Many carvings in Scandinavia and Northern Germanyshow persons being baptized in the nude. Perhaps the low level of the pool offered some privacy, although the representatons are not of persons descending steps. Germany Road Ways, Altarpiece, Church at Enger, Baptism

Baptisterium, Stone steps descending, baptismal pool, Medieval Vreta Kloster

Medieval Baptisterium

Preserved submersion pool, Baptisterium, Vreta Kloster (Baptismal).  Medieval

Medieval baptism pools, below ground, are often undiscovered.

Graveyard, countryside view, Vreta Kloster

Graffiti has also been found on/in buildings at Vreta, now in museums, see ://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2007/05/medieval_monastic_graffitti_1.php

Linkoping. Berg: Burials at Vreta Kloster, Vreta Abbey

Accounts of rulers before the area was converted to Christianity vary. One geneological recreation from the 16th Century put Swedish kings back to Magog son of Jephtha in Old Testament times, see ://wapedia.mobi/en/Monarch_of_Sweden/.  Records improve after the Church arrived, but remain in the dark about pre-Christian rulers, House of Yngling, or House of Munso, or House of Uppsala.  Most that are documented begin with the Kalmar Union 1397-1523.  Rulers are not collected in one place for burial. Two for the older ones seem to be most prominent:  Varnhem Abbey (a ruin of the first structure; and a later cloister) that we did not see; and, here, Vreta Abbey, Vreta Kloster.

Varnhem Klosterkyrch, Cloister Church:  Kings Eric (two of them) and Canute are buried there.

Vreta Kloster Kyrch, Burials of Medieval Royalty, Sweden

Vreta Klosterkyrch, Cloister Church.  Kings Inge the Elder and Inge the Younger are our interest, with speculative surname roots including the -ing floating about (none demonstrable, but all entertaining).

Inge the Elder founded Vreta Abbey sometime between 1099 when the Pope who ordered it began his reign,  and 1105 when King Inge the Elder died.  He and his Queen Helena, and their sons Princes Ragnvald and Sune; and Inge the Younger and his Queen Uhlvild are buried there, so we were told, so we went. Then we found that Inge the Elder is supposed to be at Varnhem, see ://wapedia.mobi/en/Monarch_of_Sweden. Dark inside, hard to tell and we didn't know the issue. This, then, must be Inge the Younger. Have to find our notes.

Burial, King Inge the Younger (sadly, in the dark), Vreta Kloster, Sweden

This is an attempt in the dark to get the inscription.  See the full image by someone else at ://wapedia.mobi/en/File:IngiYoungerSwedenGrave.jpg/  We tracked the cracks and words and compared.  Match! Discount!

Any country's accounts of successions of rulers when based largely on oral tradition or conflicting agendas:  what is legend, what is truth.  Read about King Inge the Elder and King Inge the Younger, and find that one may be the nephew of the other, see The History of Sweden by Anders Fryxell, from 1844 (!) at page 179 before and after, at ://books.google.com/books?id=6B4CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA179&lpg=PA179&dq=King+Inge+the+Younger+history+sweden&source=bl&ots=t64vHslLvP&sig=199mBuRmbUUdxXLJ5_0hQy6uCfI&hl=en&ei=6dkUTerYNsP48AbRyJipDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Burial, King Inge the Younger, closeup, light shed, Vreta Kloster, Berg, Sweden

Other notables royal and not are there also: Philip of Sweden and Magnus the Younger.  Famous nuns and abbesses: Helena of Sweden, widow of King Canute V (Denmark). And stories of young girls being abducted from there, as power families came and went. Is Helena of Sweden buried with Canute at Varnhem?

Click to enlarge. 

Burial, King Magnus Nilsson, Vreta Kloster Kyrch, Berg (Linkoping) Sweden

Swedish Monarch Lineage, House of Stenkill (Kings Inge Elder and Younger, King Magnus notably)

King Magnus Nilsson, burial description, site at Vreta Cloister Church, Sweden

Burial, Prince Sune, son of King Inge the Elder

Inscription detail, Prince Sune, sone of King Inge the Elder, or other relation? Accounts are inconsistent

Burial, Prince Regnvald, son of King Inge the Elder, Vreta Kloster, Sweden

Prince Regnvald, son of King Inge the Elder, coat of arms closeup, Vreta Kloster, Sweden

Click to enlarge and enjoy the sprightly figures dancing at the top.  Is this a list of notables from the Family Munchenberg?  Munchenberg sounds German. Munchkins?

aa

Unknown burial, Vreta Kloster, Sweden.  Note the skull and crossbones

Burial, Arvid Borenius, Vicar,  and wife, Vreta Kloswster, Sweden