How Sweyn Was Killed
According to Hervarar saga, Sweyn's rule was not to last. Before long, the Christian Inge decided to kill the Pagan Sweyn in a less than honourable way:
| “ | Svein the Sacrificer was King of Sweden for three years. King Ingi set off with his retinue and some of his followers, though it was but as small force. He then rode eastwards by Småland and into Östergötland and then into Sweden. He rode both day and night, and came upon Svein suddenly in the early morning. They caught him in his house and set it on fire and burned the band of men who were within. There was a baron called Thjof who was burnt inside. He had been previously in the retinue of Svein the Sacrificer. Svein himself left the house, but was slain immediately. | ” |
A similar account also appears in the Orkneyinga saga, but in this account, Sweyn stays indoors and is burnt to death:
| “ | Christianity was then young in Sweden; there were then many men who went about with witchcraft, and thought by that to become wise and knowing of many things which had not yet come to pass. King Ingi was a thorough Christian man, and all wizards were loathsome to him. He took great pains to root out those evil ways which had long gone hand in hand with heathendom, but the rulers of the land and the great freeholders took it ill that their bad customs were found fault with. So it came about that the freemen chose them another king, Sweyn, the queen’s brother, who still held to his sacrifices to idols, and was called Sacrifice-Sweyn. Before him king Ingi was forced to fly the land into West-Gothland; but the end of their dealings was, that king Ingi took the house over Sweyn’s head and burnt him inside it. After that he took all the land under him. Then he still went on rooting out many bad ways. | ” |
Read more about this topic: Blot-Sweyn
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