Blot-Sweyn

[3] 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 ritual of horse sacrifice: Svein, the King's brother-in-law, remained behind in the assembly, and offered the Swedes to do sacrifices on their behalf if they would give him the Kingdom.

A horse was then brought to the assembly and hewn in pieces and cut up for eating, and the sacred tree was smeared with blood.

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.

Eskil prayed, and God sent thunder, hail, snow and rain destroying the sacrificial altar and beasts of sacrifice.

An account by Aelnoth of Canterbury (c. 1122) relates that an Eskillinus was killed by pagan Swedes and Geats at an unspecified time.

Before long, the Christian Inge decided to kill the pagan Sweyn: Svein the Sacrificer was King of Sweden for three years.

[3]A similar account appears in the Orkneyinga saga, but in this text, Sweyn remains inside and is burnt to death: Christianity was then young in Sweden; there were then many men who went about with witchcraft, and thought by that to become wise and knowing of many things which had not yet come to pass.

So it came about that the freemen chose them another king, Sweyn, the brother of the queen, who still held to his sacrifices to idols, and was called Sacrifice-Sweyn.

The 13th-century historian Snorri Sturlusson wrote in the Heimskringla that Blót-Sweyn had a pagan successor who continued the sacrifices: At that time there were many people all around in the Swedish dominions who were heathens, and many were bad Christians; for there were some of the kings who renounced Christianity, and continued heathen sacrifices, as Blotsvein, and afterwards Eirik Arsale, had done.

[8]This "Eirik Arsale" (Erik Årsäll) is mentioned in other sources as being the son of Blot-Sweyn,[9] but today is not considered a historical person by most historians.

The Norsta Runestone (U 861) on the drive of Wik Castle outside Uppsala was probably made by Sweyn and his family, as it mentions two people called Sweyn and Mær (mentioned in the accusative form Møy ). It is the only existing mention of a woman named Mær ("maiden") besides the mention of Sweyn's sister Mær in Hervarar saga , and it is contemporary with Sweyn. [ 1 ]