Temple at Uppsala

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, now including recent 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.

Adam details that the temple is "made out of gold" and that the people there worship statues of three specific gods that sit on a triple throne.

Adam continues that "every nine years there is a communal festival of every province in Sweden held in Ubsola; and those already converted to Christianity have to buy themselves off from the ceremonies.

According to Adam, a custom exists where a man, alive, is thrown into the spring, and if he fails to return to the surface, "the wish of the people will be fulfilled.

These rights were however challenged by some political actors in the North, and a particularly strong resistance came from the kingdom of the Swedes where another Church, called Gallicana ecclesia by Pope Gregory VII, had the support of the Papacy.

It is not totally clear where the representatives of this "Gallican Church" came from, but one part of these influences can certainly be recognized in later Swedish saint lives remembering bishops from England, connected to the Cluniac reform movement, active in the Mälar-region in the 11th century - obviously in opposition to the Imperial Church of Hamburg-Bremen for which Adam of Bremen was trying to build up divine historical legitimacy.

An important part of the picture is the fact that in these years it became feasible to accuse opponents of paganism even if it was obvious that they were perfectly good Christians.

Previously these measures had mainly been directed against socially inferior groups – e.g. the Saxons against the Slavs and for that matter Scandinavians – but now this theological weapon was fired against the highest representatives of the Imperial Church.

Orchard points out that Adam's description of the temple has often been questioned "on several levels" and that Thietmar of Merseburg produced a considerably less detailed but similar account of sacrifices held in Lejre, Denmark earlier in the 11th century.

[5] In the Ynglinga saga compiled in Heimskringla, Snorri presents a euhemerized origin of the Norse gods and rulers descending from them.

Njörðr dwelt in Nóatún, Frey in Upsal, Heimdal in the Himinbergs, Thor in Thrudvang, Balder in Breidablik; to all of them he gave good estates.

According to the saga, Freyr "erected a great shrine at Uppsala and made his chief residence there, directing it to all tribute due to him, both lands and chattels.

Price and Alkarp (2005) have been among those who dispute the 1926 interpretation: Though still maintained today in school textbooks and elsewhere, this conclusion is clearly erroneous as the postholes can be shown stratigraphically to belong to several different phases of construction.Using ground penetrating radar and other geophysical methods, Price and Alkarp found the remains of what they interpreted as a wooden construction located directly under the northern transept of the medieval cathedral, and two other buildings, one of them a Bronze Age building, and the other possibly a Viking Age feasting hall.