Uppsala öd, Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

: Uppsala auðr or Uppsala øðr (Uppsala domains or wealth of Uppsala) was the name given to the collection of estates which was the property of the Swedish Crown in medieval Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. Its purpose was to finance the Swedish king, originally the "king of Uppsala", and they supported the king and his retinue while he travelled through the country. There was one estate of this kind in most hundreds

Hundred (division)

A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...

 and it was usually called Husaby

Husby

Husby is the name of many Swedish farms and villages. Originally, they formed a network of royal estates, called Uppsala öd, that were the property of the Swedish king....

. It was the home of the king's tax collector, and it was at the local estate of Uppsala öd that the people of the hundred delivered the taxes in form of goods. The estates were most common in Svealand

Svealand

Svealand , Swealand or Sweden proper is the historical core region of Sweden. It is located in south central Sweden and is one of three lands of Sweden, bounded to the north by Norrland and to the south by Götaland. Deep forests, Tiveden, Tylöskog, Kolmården, separated Svealand from Götaland...

.

Its origins are prehistoric and unknown, but according to a tradition documented by the thirteenth century historian Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...

 it originated as a donation given by the god Freyr

Freyr

Freyr is one of the most important gods of Norse paganism. Freyr was highly associated with farming, weather and, as a phallic fertility god, Freyr "bestows peace and pleasure on mortals"...

 to the Temple at Uppsala

Temple at Uppsala

The Temple at Uppsala was a religious center in Norse paganism once located at what is now Gamla Uppsala , Sweden attested in Adam of Bremen's 11th century work Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum and in Heimskringla, written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century...

 which he founded.

Freyr reisti at Uppsölum hof Heathen hofs Heathen hofs or Germanic pagan temples were the temple buildings of Germanic paganism; there are also a few built for use in modern Germanic neopaganism...  mikit, ok setti þar höfuðstað sinn; lagði þar til allar skyldir sínar, lönd ok lausa aura; þá hófst Uppsala auðr, ok hefir haldist æ síðan.

Frey built a great temple at Upsal, made it his chief seat, and gave it all his taxes, his land, and goods. Then began the Upsal domains, which have remained ever since.

It was stated in the Swedish medieval laws that Uppsala öd was to follow the royal institution intact without any lost property. The full extent of Uppsala öd is unknown, but individual estates are enumerated in the Law of Hälsingland and in the younger Westrogothic law.

However, during the thirteenth century, the system became obsolete for the king and then many of the estates passed to the nobility and the church, in spite of the laws that forbade any diminution of the property. The reasons for this was that the king's subjects began to pay monetary taxes.

Uppsala öd was the first foundation of Swedish state property.

A selection of estates belonging to Uppsala öd

• Old Uppsala
• Husby at Vendel
  Vendel
  Vendel is a parish in the Swedish province of Uppland.The village overlooks a long inland stretch of water, Vendelsjön, near which the Vendel river has its confluence with the river Fyris. The church was established in 1310...
  
  
• Old Sigtuna
• Husaby
  Husaby
  Husaby, near Kinnekulle, is a village belonging to Götene municipality in the province of Västergötland, Sweden. It is most known for the old stone church Husaby Church...
  
  
• Ränninge on Fogdö
• Hovgården
  Hovgården
  Hovgården is an archaeological site on the Lake Mälaren island of Adelsö in Ekerö Municipality in central-eastern Sweden. During the Viking Age, the centre of the prospering Mälaren Valley was the settlement Birka, founded in the mid-8th century and abandoned in the late 10th century and located...
  
   on Adelsö
  Adelsö
  Adelsö is an island in the middle of Lake Mälaren in Sweden, near southern and northern Björkfjärden. The administrative center of the important Viking settlement Birka was situated at Hovgården on Adelsö.-Geography:...