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Every human has a haltija, usually called haltijasielu (haltija soul) or luontohaltija (nature haltija), which is one of the three parts of a person's soul. The tradition blends with the Swedish tomte: the Finnish tonttu was a being analogous to haltija, but which lives in a building, like a home (kotitonttu) or a sauna (saunatonttu).
The compound Ingui-Frea (OE) and Yngvi-Freyr (ON) likely refer to the connection between the god and the Germanic kings' role as priests during the sacrifices in the pagan period, as Frea and Freyr are titles meaning 'Lord'. The Swedish royal dynasty was known as the Ynglings from their descent from Yngvi-Freyr.
Swedish culture is an offshoot of the Norse culture which dominated southern Scandinavia in prehistory.Sweden was the last of the Scandinavian countries to be Christianised, with pagan resistance apparently strongest in Svealand, where Uppsala was an old and important ritual site as evidenced by the tales of Uppsala temple.
The god Freyr was the most important fertility god of the Viking Age. [234] He is sometimes known as Yngvi-Freyr, which would associate him with the god or hero * Ingwaz , the presumed progenitor of the Inguaeones found in Tacitus's Germania , [ 235 ] whose name is attested in the Old English rune poem (8th or 9th century CE) as Ing. [ 236 ]
Adam provides information about the characteristics of the three gods, including that Fricco is depicted with an immense erect penis, Wodan in armor ("as our people depict Mars," Adam notes) and that Thor has a mace, a detail which Adam compares to that of the Roman god Jupiter. Adam adds that, in addition, "they also worship gods who were once ...
This might have been because of Uppsala's importance as an old royal residence and thing site, but it may also have been inspired by a desire to show that the resistance to Christianity in Uppland had been defeated. [28] By papal initiative an archdiocese for Sweden was established at Uppsala in 1164. [28] [29]
Sweden was the last Scandinavian country to officially convert; [75] although little is known about the process of Christianisation, it is known that the Swedish kings had converted by the early 11th century and that the country was fully Christian by the early 12th. [87] Olaf Tryggvason sent a Saxon missionary, Þangbrandr, to Iceland.
Sweden further received Western Pomerania (henceforth Swedish Pomerania), Wismar, the Archbishopric of Bremen, and the Bishopric of Verden as hereditary fiefs, thus gaining a seat and vote in the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire and in the respective diets of three Imperial Circles: the Upper Saxon Circle, Lower Saxon Circle, and Lower Rhenish ...