Sweden was the last of the Scandinavian kingdoms to emerge as a unified state and, compared to Norway and Denmark, relatively little is known about its early development. Swedes did not participate in any great numbers in the settlement of Iceland, so their history was of peripheral interest to medieval Icelandic historians and saga writers who had so much to say about the kings of Norway. Nor do the Swedes feature much in contemporary annals from Western Europe because their main field of activity was in the east.
The earliest Swedish king we know much about was Erik the Victorious (r. c. 970 – 95). Erik’s own ancestry is difficult to trace because the sources are confused and contradictory. There is no evidence that either he or his immediate successors claimed to be members of the Yngling dynasty and the semi-legendary saga traditions hold him to be a descendent of Sigurd Ring, the victor of Bråvalla, who founded a new dynasty at Uppsala around the middle of the eighth century. Erik earned fame for his victory over his nephew Styrbjorn Starki and his Danish allies at the Battle of Fyrisvellir, a marshy plain near Uppsala, some time in the 980s. No truly reliable account of the battle exists but it is described in several Icelandic sagas and in the Danish history of Saxo Grammaticus. In addition, two late tenth-century runestones in Skåne (now in Sweden but then in Denmark) commemorating men ‘who did not flee at Uppsala’ probably refer to this battle, as may a contemporary runestone on the island of Öland, commemorating a Danish chief who was buried there, perhaps after dying on his way home from wounds suffered in the battle. Even more convincing is a runestone at Högby in Östergötland that commemorates Asmund, ‘who fell at Fœri’ (i.e. Fyris), perhaps on Erik’s side.
The exact boundaries of Erik’s kingdom are still hazy. In the Viking Age, Sweden ‘proper’ consisted roughly of the modern Swedish province of Svealand, with its heartland around Uppsala and Lake Mälaren, and the far southern part of Norrland (roughly the modern provinces of Gästrikland and Hälsingland). The area to the north, extending up beyond the Arctic Circle was populated mainly by Sami reindeer hunters and only became incorporated into Sweden later in the Middle Ages. The Swedes traded with the Sami and also raided them to collect tribute in furs. Between Sweden and the Danish provinces of Skåne and Blekinge was Götaland, the homeland of the Götar (the Geats of ‘Beowulf’). Despite inhabiting a large area and being an apparently numerous people, virtually nothing is known about the Götar in the Viking Age. There is no archaeological evidence of political centralisation to compare with the royal centres at Jelling or Uppsala, so they were probably divided into many local chiefdoms or petty kingdoms. The Götar do not feature prominently in saga traditions, are not mentioned in contemporary literary sources as taking part in any Viking raids, and even those who actually visited the Baltic, such as Rimbert (the biographer of St Ansgar) and the merchant Wulfstan, had almost nothing to say about them. This may simply be a result of confusion over identities – the Götar were not culturally or linguistically distinct from the Swedes – or, more likely, that they were under the political domination of the Swedes. Legendary traditions, like those preserved in ‘Beowulf’, certainly refer to wars between the Swedes and the Götar; and some kings of the Götar, such as Alrik, who, according to the Sparlösa runestone, ruled in Västergötland c. 800, were members of Swedish royal dynasties. Also in a loose association with Sweden was the large Baltic island of Gotland, whose inhabitants were independent but paid tribute to the Swedish kings in return for rights of free travel and free trade. Gotland would not be fully incorporated into Sweden until the thirteenth century, by which time the Viking Age was over.
Viking Age Sweden benefited from its proximity to the important trade routes across the Baltic to Russia and beyond to the Islamic world and the Byzantine Empire. While Uppsala was the kingdom’s main political and religious centre, its main trading centre was Birka on the island of Björkö near the mouth of Lake Mälaren about 20 miles west of Stockholm. Birka developed around 800, replacing the earlier Vendel period trading place at Helgö, about 5 miles to the south-east. Birka covered around 17 acres (7 hectares) and probably had a permanent population of between 700 and 1,000 people. In the tenth century, Birka was protected by a rampart and a small hillfort, and a row of wooden stakes restricted access to the main harbour. Further barriers of wooden stakes and rocks were used to obstruct access channels to prevent pirate fleets making quick attacks on the town. Such defences were necessary as the many islands and inlets along the approaches to Birka were notorious hiding places for pirates. Among their victims was the missionary St Ansgar, who was robbed of all his belongings while sailing to Birka in 829.
The organically-rich occupation deposits at Birka, known as Svarta Jorden (‘Black Earth’), are up to 6 feet thick and have produced abundant information about the buildings and daily life of the town. It was divided into plots of land, delineated by passageways flanked by ditches. Each plot contained one or two houses and several outbuildings used as workshops and stores. The buildings were timber-framed with walls of wattle-and-daub and roofs of thatch, wood and, occasionally, turf. Many of the inhabitants were merchants but there were also craftsmen in metals, jewellery, bone and antler, and furs, and even some warriors, perhaps a small permanent garrison to protect the town and keep order. Considerable quantities of Arab coins confirm that Birka’s most important trade links were with the east, especially after c. 900, but there was also Rhineland pottery and glass and scraps of Frisian woollen cloth. Birka is surrounded by cemeteries containing over 3,000 graves, of which about 1,100 have been excavated. The graves indicate that Birka had a mixed population of Scandinavians and foreigners. Native graves, the majority, were cremations under small mounds or in stone settings shaped like ships or triangles. The rich grave goods found in these burials are unparalleled for quality and include large quantities of imported glass, weapons, jewellery and pottery. The foreign graves were inhumations in coffins or stone chambers without grave goods. These were on the outer edges of the cemeteries and are thought to have belonged to Christian and Muslim merchants and craftsmen and their families. Adam of Bremen said that Danish, Norwegian, Wendish and ‘Scythian’ (probably Rus) ships sailed to Birka annually for commerce. Some of the inhumations might also belong to native converts to Christianity, of whom there were a few at Birka.