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The temple at Uppsala in Sweden was described in the 1070s by Adam of Bremen as a temple of gold with statues of Thor, Odin and Freyr, and a great sacrifice every nine years.
What was the temple at Uppsala?
In the 1070s the German chronicler Adam of Bremen described the great heathen sanctuary at Uppsala in Sweden. He wrote of a temple adorned with gold, in which the people worshipped statues of three gods: Thor, the mightiest, seated in the middle, with Wodan, that is Odin, and Fricco, that is Freyr, on either side.
The nine-yearly sacrifice
Every nine years, he wrote, a great festival was held there that all the provinces of Sweden had to attend, and nine males of every kind of living creature, men among them, were sacrificed and hung in the sacred grove beside the temple. Near it stood a huge evergreen tree and a spring, where offerings were made and the future was read.
What we know
Adam never saw it himself and wrote as a Christian enemy of the old faith, so scholars treat his account with care. But the site at Gamla Uppsala, with its great royal burial mounds and the remains of a large hall, shows that it truly was a centre of power and worship. Tradition holds that the temple was destroyed around 1080.
Its gods were Thor, Odin and Freyr.
Questions
Which gods were worshipped at Uppsala?
Thor, Odin and Freyr.
Is Adam of Bremen's account reliable?
He never saw it and wrote as a Christian enemy of the old faith, so scholars treat it with care.