Anund from Russia () was

King of Sweden The monarchy of Sweden is centred on the monarchical head of state of Sweden,See the #IOG, Instrument of Government, Chapter 1, Article 5. by law a constitutional monarchy, constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system.Parl ...

around 1070 according to Adam of Bremen's ''

Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (Medieval Latin for "Deeds of the Bishops of Hamburg") is a historical treatise written between 1073 and 1076 by Adam of Bremen, who made additions (''scholia'') to the text until his death (possibly 1081; before 1085). It is one of the most ...

''.The article ''Anund'' in ''

Nationalencyklopedin (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia with several hundred thousand articles. It is available both online and via a printed version. History The project was ...

''. According to this source, Anund came from

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavs, East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical At ...

, presumably from Aldeigjuborg. ''Gårdske'' means that he came from '' Gardariki'' which was one of the Scandinavian names for Kievan Rus'. As a Christian he refused to carry out the public sacrifice to the

Norse gods Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a Medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nors ...

, presumably at the

Temple at Uppsala A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, and was consequently deposed. He "left the Thing in joy, for having been found worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

". This happened shortly before the completion of Adam of Bremen's chronicle in the mid-1070s.Adam av Bremen (1984), ''Historien om Hamburgstiftet och dess biskopar''. Stockholm: Proprius, p. 252 (Book IV, Scholion 140). A hypothesis suggests that Anund and

Inge the Elder Inge the Elder ( Swedish: ''Inge Stenkilsson''; Old Norse: ''Ingi Steinkelsson''; died c. 1105–1110) was a king of Sweden. In English literature he has also been called ''Ingold''. While scant sources do not allow a full picture of his term of ...

were the same person, as several sources mention Inge as a fervent Christian, and the '' Hervarar saga'' describes how Inge also was rejected for refusing to administer the

blót (Old Norse and Old English) or (Old English) are religious ceremonies in Germanic paganism that centred on the killing and offering of an animal to a particular being, typically followed by the communal cooking and eating of its meat. Old Nors ...

s and that he was exiled in

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

.The article ''Inge'' in ''Nordisk familjebok'' (1910).
/ref>

Notes and references

11th-century Swedish monarchs Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Christian monarchs {{Sweden-royal-stub