Sweyn was a
SwedishSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
king c. 1080, who replaced his Christian brother-in-law
IngeInge Stenkilsson was a king of Sweden. He was the son of the former king Stenkil and died c. 1100.He shared the rule of the kingdom with his probably elder brother Halsten Stenkilsson, but little is known with certainty of Inge's reign...
as King of Sweden, when Inge had refused to administer the
blótThe blót refers to Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and Elves. The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast...
s (pagan sacrifices) at the
Temple at UppsalaThe Temple at Uppsala was a religious center in Norse paganism once located at what is now Gamla 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...
. There is no mention of Sweyn in the regnal list of the
Westrogothic law, which suggests that his rule did not reach
Västergötland' is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated in the southwest of Sweden. In older English literature one may also encounter the Latinized version Westrogothia....
. According to Swedish historian Adolf Schück he was probably the same person as Håkan the Red and was called the
Blood Swain (a
swain who was willing to perform the blood rites) as an epithet rather than a personal name.
The earliest source that deals with Blot-Sweyn's coming to power is the
IcelandicThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
legendary sagaA Legendary saga or Fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which takes place in the 11th century...
Hervarar sagaHervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...
:
However, Inge did not permit the people to follow the old ways, unlike his father Stenkil.
Sweyn was a
SwedishSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
king c. 1080, who replaced his Christian brother-in-law
IngeInge Stenkilsson was a king of Sweden. He was the son of the former king Stenkil and died c. 1100.He shared the rule of the kingdom with his probably elder brother Halsten Stenkilsson, but little is known with certainty of Inge's reign...
as King of Sweden, when Inge had refused to administer the
blótThe blót refers to Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and Elves. The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast...
s (pagan sacrifices) at the
Temple at UppsalaThe Temple at Uppsala was a religious center in Norse paganism once located at what is now Gamla 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...
. There is no mention of Sweyn in the regnal list of the
Westrogothic law, which suggests that his rule did not reach
Västergötland' is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated in the southwest of Sweden. In older English literature one may also encounter the Latinized version Westrogothia....
. According to Swedish historian Adolf Schück he was probably the same person as Håkan the Red and was called the
Blood Swain (a
swain who was willing to perform the blood rites) as an epithet rather than a personal name.
Becoming king
The earliest source that deals with Blot-Sweyn's coming to power is the
IcelandicThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
legendary sagaA Legendary saga or Fornaldarsaga is a Norse saga that, unlike the Icelanders' sagas, takes place before the colonization of Iceland. There are some exceptions, such as Yngvars saga víðförla, which takes place in the 11th century...
Hervarar sagaHervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...
:
However, Inge did not permit the people to follow the old ways, unlike his father Stenkil. The Swedes reacted strongly and asked Inge to either comply with the old traditions or abdicate. When Inge proclaimed that he would not abandon the true faith, the people pelted him with stones and chased him away. This was the opportunity for Sweyn to assume power, and the account provided by
Hervarar saga concerning his inauguration contains a rare description of the ancient
Indo-European ritualThe existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European religion and mythology. Reconstruction is based on the comparative method...
of
horse sacrificeMany Indo-European branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a Proto-Indo-European ritual.-Context:In most instances, the horses are sacrificed in a funerary context, and interred with the deceased...
:
Legend of Saint Eskil
The later
Legend of Saint EskilSaint Eskil was an Anglo-Saxon monk particularly venerated during the end of the 11th century in the Province of Södermanland, Sweden. He was the founder of the first Diocese of the lands surrounding Lake Mälaren, today the Diocese of Strängnäs...
tells that Inge was chased away from the kingdom. They then elected an idolator for king by the name Sweyn, an unworthy man and with reason called
Blood-Sweyn. He had this name because he made the people drink blood from bulls that had been sacrificed to the gods, and he ate the sacrificial meat. The infidels assembled around their king in
SträngnäsSträngnäs is a locality and the seat of Strängnäs Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 12,296 inhabitants in 2005. It is located by Lake Mälaren and is the episcopal see of the Diocese of Strängnäs, a former Roman Catholic and present Lutheran Diocese, with the Strängnäs Cathedral, built...
, where they butchered oxen and sheep, and gave offerings to their gods. They had a great banquet in honour of the king and their gods. The English bishop Eskil then appeared and tried to convert the pagans to Christianity. They would not listen, however. Eskil prayed, and God sent thunder, hail, snow and rain destroying the sacrificial altar and beasts of sacrifice. Not a single drop fell on the bishop. The pagans were not impressed and furiously, they attacked Eskil. A diviner named Spåbodde hit him on the head with a stone, while another man crushed his head with an axe. Some chieftains dragged the dying martyr to the king saying that Eskil had used magic arts to control the weather. As soon as the unrightful king had sentenced Eskil to death, he was taken to the valley where the monastery later was founded, and he was stoned to death
This legend is, however, considered to be a later invention by the Church as more reliable sources date Eskil's death to c. 1016, several generations before Blot-Sweyn.
How Sweyn was killed
According to
Hervarar saga, Sweyn's rule was not to last. Before long, the Christian Inge decided to kill the Pagan Sweyn in a less than honourable way:
A similar account also appears in the
Orkneyinga sagaThe Orkneyinga saga is a unique historical narrative of the history of the Orkney Islands, Scotland, from their capture by the Norwegian king in the ninth century onwards until about 1200....
, but in this account, Sweyn stays indoors and is burnt to death:
Succession
It is possible that Ingi was not immediately accepted by the stubbornly pagan Swedes of
UpplandUppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...
. The 13th century historian Snorri Sturlusson wrote in the
HeimskringlaHeimskringla is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorri Sturluson ca. 1230...
that Blót-Sweyn had a pagan successor who continued the sacrifices (Eirik Arsale):
Blot-Sweyn is believed to have been the father of Eric of Good Harvests (Eirik Arsale). This Eric is mentioned by a plausible source as the father of Sverker the Elder, and so Blot-Sweyn could be the progenitor of the
House of SverkerAfter the extinction of the House of Stenkil and the ascension of Sverker I of Sweden in 1130, a civil war commenced. In the beginning, there were several pretenders, of whom Sverker I emerged as victorious, for a time...
.