Bjorn (Birka)

Björn's Hill in Håga near Uppsala

Björn på Håga was a Swedish king from the legendary Viking family of the Munsö, whose progenitor is the possibly completely fictional Björn Järnsida .

Lineage and Dominance

Björn Järnsida's sons were Erik and Refil Björnsson. According to the Hervarar saga , Erik is said to have followed his father as King of the Svear in southern Sweden. After a short reign he was followed by his nephew Erik Refilsson, whose sons Björn på Håga and Anund Uppsale ruled together as kings. Anund Uppsale is said to have had his residence at the cult center Alt-Uppsala , which earned him his nickname. Björn's nickname på Håga (= from the burial mound) came from his residence at the burial mound ( Hågahögen , on the island of Adelsön ) near Birka , from where he was able to monitor this important trading town. Snorri Sturluson quotes in his works some of the poems of the skald Brage Boddason, who is said to have stayed at Björn's court and is also mentioned in the Hervarar saga.

The Swedish kings in the Viking Age, according to Birger Nerman.

Christian mission

According to Rimbert , the biographer of the Swedish missionary Ansgar von Bremen , Björn asked the Frankish Emperor Ludwig the Pious to send Christian missionaries to Birka, whereupon Ansgar traveled to Sweden in 829. Björn received him on his farm and allowed him to do missionary work and to build the first Christian church in Scandinavia . Ansgar was recalled by Emperor Ludwig in 831 to promote further missionary undertakings in the north as bishop (and from 832 as archbishop) from Hammaburg . Thereupon Gauzbert , a nephew of Archbishop Ebo of Reims , was ordained a mission bishop by Ansgar and Ebo and sent by Ebo to Sweden to continue Ansgar's work. Gauzbert began evangelizing in Sweden in 836. He was well received by King Björn, but was forcibly driven out by a popular uprising in 845.

Succession

Björn's brother Anund had been expelled from Sweden earlier, according to Rimbert, but returned in the 840s with eleven of their own and 21 Danish ships. He had promised his Danish allies rich booty for their participation in the campaign, but when they arrived in Birka Björn was absent. Anund demanded a hundred silver marks from the residents so as not to plunder the city. Although the Danes felt cheated by this, Anund succeeded in persuading them to undertake a raid against Slavic settlements, in which they kept themselves harmless. Anund stayed in Sweden. According to the Hervarar saga, his son Erik Anundsson succeeded him and his brother Björn as King of the Svear. Both Rimbert and Adam von Bremen , on the other hand, report that Björn's son Olof became the new king of the Svear.

literature

• Birger Nermann: Sveriges första storhedstid . Stockholm 1942.