Introduction: Peoples of Jämtland

The Christianization of the province of Jämtland (which together with the province of Härjedalen forms the present-day administrative area Jämtlands län in Mid Sweden), was a process which took about two centuries. During the tenth century only pagans of various kinds lived in the area. By the mid thirteenth century the province had been subdivided into parishes belonging to the Uppsala archdiocese. There were, however, still pagans living in the area: they were Saami (Zachrisson et al. 1997: 165–75, 185–8, 228–32). Christianization was part of a process that brought Jämtland into the Norwegian kingdom towards the end of the twelfth century. It was also a part of a process that formed the ethnicity of the Germanic and Saami peoples of the area. To become a Christian, or not to, was of political importance during the eleventh century.

I will discuss the process of Christianization with the stress on the archaeological monuments in Jämtland in the period AD 900–1200. My conclusions will differ from that of the Swedish national research project Sveriges kristnande (The Christianization of Sweden; Brinck 1996a; Nilsson 1996c, 1998), largely due to the use I have made of calibrated radiocarbon dates. I have also interpreted the stratigraphy of features underneath the altar of Frösö church in a less spectacular way (cf. Näsström 1996). The prime difference, however, is that I have tried to form a coherent overview of the full process of Christianization in a way that the research project did not, and perhaps did not intend to. The term ‘Christianization’ is itself problematic (cf. Kilbride 2000), and I use it here to denote the full process from the baptism of the first individuals in Jämtland to the final political and bureaucratic institution of the Christian church in the area.

Let's pull aside the curtain. The first act will show pagan society in the central agricultural part of Jämtland around Lake Storsjön during the Late Iron Age, where Saami and Germanic peoples lived together. The next shows the Germanic people responding to the Christian project, first locally and then as part of a broader, ultimately an international community. The last shows the Saami stressing their difference to their newly converted neighbours.

Germanic Chieftains and Hov-manors (AD 800–1000)

The islands of Frösön and Norderön in Lake Storsjön bear the names of the pagan gods Frö and Njärd, respectively.