So I’m preparing to upload a gallery from my trip earlier this year to Sweden. Although we only went for a long weekend based in Stockholm I still managed to squeeze in day trips to Norrköping and Uppsala. Uppsala was the biggie for me, having been a long time fan of Viking history (probably sparked from finding out many years ago that my name originates from Denmark), and with the recent upsurge in Viking related historical tv programs and books over the past few years coinciding with the popular TV show of the same name.
Belfry of the church dating back to the 17th century, and probably on the site of the original temple predating the 10th Century.
Gamla (old) Uppsala is thought to be of massive importance for norse religion during the viking age - there is evidence of a large temple that correlates with the very scarce written accounts of the period, renowned for ritual humab sacrifice and more interestingly for me there are also stories of a sacred tree, oft referred to as Yggdrasil, as in the tree from the Norse mythology. It is supposed that the people of the time had conciously created a copy there. Along side this mythical history there are three prominent burial mounds at Uppsala - Kungshögarna (royal mounds) dated to around the 5th and 6th centuries, again mythology and folklore said they were the burial sites of Odin, Freyr and Thor. Later history supposed they were the burial sites of kings from the ‘semi-legendary’ house of Yngling and the mounds were renamed after Aun, Adil and Egil. These days they are named after their locations - Eastern, Middle and Western mounds.
Yggdrasil or not? at Gamla Uppsala
So with all this history, and like many well worn paths, my challenge was how to approach the subject matter of the mounds and surrounding site. Having researched I was aware of what the site looked like at various points in the year, the chances of snow were slim. So in the end I opted to take some vintage technology in the form of a borrowed polaroid SX70. I’ve shared two with you here, and I ended up with six that I was super happy with and exhibited (enlarged) for Oxfordshire Artweeks in May. I hope to have these up in the gallery very soon.