Uppsala öd (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

: ''Uppsala auðr'' or ''Uppsala øðr'', meaning ''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, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

.The article ''Uppsala öd'' 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 ...

'' (1996). Its purpose was to finance the Swedish king, originally the "king of Uppsala",The article ''Uppsala öd''
in ''

Nordisk familjebok (, 'Nordic Family Book') is a Swedish language, Swedish encyclopedia that was published in print from between 1876 and 1993, and that is now fully available in digital form via Project Runeberg at Linköping University. The public domain edit ...

'' (1920). and the income from these estates supported the king and his retinue while he travelled through the country.Hadenius, Stig; Nilsson, Torbjörn & Åselius, Gunnar. (1996). ''Sveriges historia''. Centraltryckeriet, Borås. p. 83-84. There was one estate of this kind in most hundreds and it was usually called '' Husaby''. 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 their taxes in form of goods. The estates were most common in

Svealand Svealand (), or Swealand, is the historical core region of Sweden. It is located in south-central Sweden and is one of the three historical lands of Sweden, bounded to the north by Norrland and to the south by Götaland. Deep forests, Tive ...

. The origins of Uppsala öd are prehistoric and unknown, but according to a tradition documented by the thirteenth-century historian

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

it originated as a donation given by the god

Freyr Freyr (Old Norse: 'Lord'), sometimes anglicized as Frey, is a widely attested Æsir, god in Norse mythology, associated with kingship, fertility, peace, prosperity, fair weather, and good harvest. Freyr, sometimes referred to as Yngvi-Freyr, was ...

to 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 ...

which he founded.

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''. During the thirteenth century, the system became obsolete for the king and many of the estates passed to the nobility and the church, in spite of the laws that forbade any diminution of the property. The reason for this was that the king's subjects began to pay monetary taxes. Uppsala öd contained the first documented pieces of what would become Swedish State property.

A selection of estates belonging to Uppsala öd

Gamla Uppsala Gamla Uppsala (, ''Old Uppsala'') is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 17,973 inhabitants in 2016. As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political c ...

*Husby at Vendel * Fornsigtuna * Husaby *Ränninge on Fogdö * Hovgården on Adelsö

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uppsala od Monarchy of Sweden History of Uppsala Freyr