Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen ( la, Adamus Bremensis; german: Adam von Bremen) (before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. Adam is most famous for his chronicle ''Gest ...
, were two contenders for the kingship of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
around 1066–67, after the death of King
Stenkil
Stenkil (Old Norse: ''Steinkell'') was a King of Sweden who ruled c. 1060 until 1066. He succeeded Emund the Old and became the first king from the House of Stenkil. He is praised as a devout Christian, but with an accommodating stance towards ...
. They waged war on each other, with disastrous consequences: " this war all the Swedish magnates are said to have fallen. The two kings also perished then. When the entire royal clan was thus entirely extinct, conditions in the kingdom were changed and Christianity was disturbed to a high degree. The bishops that the
Archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...
f_Bremen.html" ;"title="Bremen.html" ;"title="f Bremen">f Bremen">Bremen.html" ;"title="f Bremen">f Bremenhad anointed for this land stayed back home due to fear of persecutions. Only the bishop in Scania took care of the churches of the Geats, and the Swedish Swedish jarls, Jarl Gnif strengthened his people in the Christian faith."
Nothing more is known about the two Erics, though some modern historians speculated that one of them was a Christian son of Stenkil, and the other a pagan; accordingly, they are sometimes assigned the invented names of ''Eric Stenkilsson'' and ''Eric the Heathen''. No basis for those names can be substantiated from their own times and they are as such not considered historical. Despite only being mentioned by Adam of Bremen, and omitted in other sources on the period, it is likely that Eric and Eric themselves were historical figures as Adam of Bremen is unlikely to have invented figures so close to his own time of writing (the 1070s).
After Eric and Eric were dead,