The Sanctuaries in Uppsala and Lejre and their Literary Antecedents

ABSTRACT: Much weight has been attached to the description of a pagan cult at Uppsala written about in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae pontificum, although this description was already anachronistic by the time he wrote in the 1070s. Many scholars have tried to salvage some hard hist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religionsvidenskabeligt tidsskrift
Main Author: Simek, Rudolf 1954- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Univ. 2022
In: Religionsvidenskabeligt tidsskrift
Further subjects:B Adam of Bremen
B clerical sources for pre-Christian religion
B Uppsala
B Lejre
B Thietmar of Merseburg
B Pre-Christian cult sites
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Summary:ABSTRACT: Much weight has been attached to the description of a pagan cult at Uppsala written about in Adam of Bremen’s Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae pontificum, although this description was already anachronistic by the time he wrote in the 1070s. Many scholars have tried to salvage some hard historical information both from Adam’s imaginative text and the even more fanciful information contained in the scholia to the text which were added later. Little attention, however, has been paid to the literary sources used by this well-read scholar who had a substantial library at his disposal, let alone oral sources. This paper tries to highlight the use Adam has made of a description about a cult at Lejre on Zealand in the Chronicon written by Thietmar of Merseburg three quarters of a century earlier. It also asks for the motivations behind those two descriptions.
RESUME: Stor vægt er blevet tillagt beskrivelsen af en hedensk kult i Uppsala, der beskrives i Adam af Bremens Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae pontificum, selvom denne beskrivelse allerede var anakronistisk, da han skrev i 1070'erne. Mange forskere har forsøgt at redde nogle hårde historiske oplysninger ud af både Adams fantasifulde tekst og den endnu mere fantasifulde information indeholdt i scholia til teksten, som blev tilføjet senere. Der har dog været ringe opmærksomhed omkring de litterære kilder, der blev brugt af denne lærde mand, som havde et betydeligt bibliotek til rådighed samt mundtlige kilder. Denne artikel forsøger at fremhæve den brug, Adam har gjort af en beskrivelse af en kult ved Lejre på Sjælland i Chronicon skrevet af Thietmar fra Merseburg trekvart århundrede tidligere. Også motivationerne bag disse to beskrivelser undersøges.
ISSN:1904-8181
Contains:Enthalten in: Religionsvidenskabeligt tidsskrift
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.7146/rt.v74i.132104