Greetings and welcome to the second instalment of Swedish history.
And thus far, we are still in the good old pagan times.
The reason I am here in Uppsala today is to talk about a few different things.
First and foremost, the religion of ancient or old Scandinavia, which of course is Nordic paganism, and Uppsala was a capital of sorts in regards to paganism.
So behind me we see three different hills or not hills, rather grave mounds where mighty chieftains are buried.
And before I talk more about them, I'd like to again talk a bit about the geography of Sweden or the geography of Scandinavia.
In the last episode, I explained the importance of the Siddhalanes, the coasts were what connected the different parts of Scandinavia.
So Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the coast of Finland, etc.
If we're looking upon what was to later become Sweden, we have two parts.
We have Svialand, where the main territory is Uppland, where we are right now.
So Uppsala in Uppland.
The other territory, Jötaland, was the perhaps more civilized and advanced part of Sweden.
And if we're gonna translate Svijar and Jörtar to English, it could be translated as Swedes from Svieland and Goths from Jätaland.
And of course, the Gothic people do not need any further introduction.
They left their mark and perhaps one could argue made Europe a more beautiful place, genetically speaking.
But either way, in terms of Svieland and Uppland, this was the center of this part of Sweden before the two places were connected.
As I said in the last video, the forests were deep, dark, and impregnable.
So Jataland and Svieland were separated by two great forests, Tsilvieden and Kolmorden.
So in this part of Sweden, Uppsala had a preeminent role as a religious and civic center.
Now, of course, we don't know all too much about this time because not all too much is being written down.
But we know that Uppsala served as a place of worship and as a center for the powers to be in Uppland.
So behind me, as I said, we have three glorious mounds, and they are known as the king's mounds here in Gamla Uppsala, means old Uppsala.
And some have speculated that they are raised for the three gods Odin, Thor and Frey, all primary deities in the pre-Christian religion of the north.
And I will talk more about the entry of Christianity into Scandinavia in the next episode.
But Uppsala had a great role for the pagan community around Svialand.
So people would gather here to perform bluts, sacrifices, and to partake in games, etc.
So, again, an important part for the social cohesion of this part of Sweden.
So, now we will head on to another earlier grave.
It might actually be a good idea to elaborate briefly upon the migration era where the Gothic peoples, along with other Germanic tribes, wandered down to claim kingdoms of their own.
So as most of you know, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes went to the British Isles to stake out kingdoms there.
The Franks went into today's France to well create France.
And the Gothic peoples went first into Eastern Europe where they stayed for a while.
But then as the Huns began to appear in the East, they started pushing west.
So the Visigoths, West Goths, conquered Iberia and the Ostrogoths, East Goths, conquered the Italian peninsula.
Now I am at Volsjade, just north of Gamla Uppsala, old Uppsala, at another grave field.
And these graves are dating back to the earliest of them, back to the 500s and 600s AD.
And there has been some graves, boat graves, and something very interesting here that proves how connected still this part of Sweden was with the rest of the world is that some of the chieftains have been buried and they Uppsala University made some archaeological excavations here about eight years ago and they found silk garments that were quite well preserved on these chieftains,
and the silk came from Sogdiana, an area east of the Caspian Sea, and also from China.
So it's quite cool to see even back then how far these luxury goods could travel.
So yes, Volsjade right here.
Epic place.
And now we'll go to Kungbjörns hög.
Now I am located on the other side of Uppsala and we are at Kungbjörns hög.
Kung means king.
Bjøn is a Swedish men's name which also means bear.
So King Bear, King Bjøns grave, also known as Horga Høgen.
So this is a grave mound dating to the Bronze Age actually.
So we're traveling further back in time than the Viking Age.
And this grave that you see behind me right here is the grave that is the richest in gold in all of Scandinavia from the Bronze Age.
So as I said in the last episode, all Norsemen, regardless of time era, have a certain affinity for gold and silver.
So yes, a lot of gold has been found here.
And gold did not only signify material wealth, it also had a spiritual aspect to it.
So gold, a noble metal, of course.
And as I said, in the next episode, we will talk a bit about the entry of Christianity into Scandinavia.
