The Temple at Uppsala was long held to be a religious centre in the Norse religion once located at what became Gamla Uppsala (Swedish "Old Uppsala"), Sweden attested in Adam of Bremen's 11th-century work Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum and in Heimskringla, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century. Uppsala has for long been exposed to fanciful theories about the implications of these descriptions of the temple and of the findings of archaeological excavations in the area, including findings of extensive wooden structures and log lines from the 5th century which allegedly played a supporting role to activities at the site, including ritual sacrifice. According to sources from the later Middle Ages the temple was destroyed by King Inge the Elder in the 1080s, but there are no contemporary sources to support that.
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👉 Temple at Uppsala in the context of Gamla Uppsala museum
Gamla Uppsala museum is a historical museum in Gamla Uppsala, in the northern part of Uppsala, Sweden.
The museum is oriented towards the Vendel era and Viking Age history of Gamla Uppsala. Gamla Uppsala was a major religious and cultural centre in Sweden during these eras as well as medieval Sweden between approximately the 5th and the 13th centuries, housing the famous pagan Temple at Uppsala and several large burial mounds. The museum building was designed by architect Carl Nyrén (1917– 2011). The museum opened in 2000 and is run by the Swedish National Heritage Board (Swedish:Riksantikvarieämbetet).
Temple at Uppsala in the context of Freyr
In Norse mythology, Freyr (Old Norse: "(the) Lord") is the god associated with kingship, fertility, peace, prosperity, fair weather, and good harvest. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was especially associated with Sweden and seen as an ancestor of the Swedish royal house. According to Adam of Bremen, Freyr was associated with peace and pleasure, and was represented with a phallic statue in the Temple at Uppsala. According to Snorri Sturluson, Freyr was "the most renowned of the æsir", and was venerated for good harvest and peace.
In the mythological stories in the Icelandic books the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, Freyr is presented as one of the Vanir, the son of the god Njörðr and his sister-wife, as well as the twin brother of the goddess Freyja. The gods gave him Álfheimr, the realm of the Elves, as a teething present. He rides the shining dwarf-made boar Gullinbursti, and possesses the ship Skíðblaðnir, which always has a favorable breeze and can be folded together and carried in a pouch when it is not being used. Freyr is also known to have been associated with the horse cult. He also kept sacred horses in his sanctuary at Trondheim in Norway. He has the servants Skírnir, Byggvir and Beyla.
Temple at Uppsala in the context of Fyrisvellir
Fyrisvellir, Fyris Wolds, or Fyrisvallarna, was the marshy plain (vellir) south of Gamla Uppsala where travellers had to leave the ships on the river Fyris (Fyrisån) and walk to the Temple at Uppsala and the hall of the Swedish king.
Temple at Uppsala in the context of Semi-legendary king of Sweden
The legendary kings of Sweden (Swedish: sagokonungar, sagokungar, lit. 'saga kings / fairy tale kings') according to legends were rulers of Sweden and the Swedes who preceded Eric the Victorious and Olof Skötkonung, the earliest reliably attested Swedish kings. The stories of some of these kings may be embellished tales of local rulers or chiefs that actually existed. For example, Hygelac (500 A.D.) is believed to have historical basis due to his name being attested in Frankish, English, Danish and Icelandic sources. But the historicity of most legendary kings remains impossible to verify due to a lack of sources. The modern Swedish monarchy considers Eric the Victorious to have been the first King of Sweden.
In medieval Swedish lists of kings, the figure generally represented as the first king of Sweden is Olof Skötkonung, the first Christian king of Sweden and the first Swedish king to mint coins. The earlier kings are for the most part only attested in Icelandic sagas, sometimes contradictory mixtures of myths and poetry, written in the 11th–13th centuries, several centuries after the events described in them. What is genuine history and what is myth and legend in the sagas is impossible to determine today, and everything contained in them must as such be regarded as legendary, if not fictional. The earliest legendary dynasty, the Ynglings, may be an entirely invented sequence of kings, serving to justify and legitimize the later dynasties and rulers in Scandinavia who claimed descent from them. Many of the legendary kings would have ruled during the Migration Period (c. 375–550) and subsequent Vendel Period (c. 550–790), but larger political structures in Scandinavia (i. e. the medieval kingdoms of Sweden, Norway and Denmark) are not believed to have formed and centralized until the Viking Age.