ABSTRACT
This essay sheds shed light on a largely neglected aspect of popular piety in post-Reformation Sweden by closely examining one of the most well-documented, seventeenth-century examples of Swedish holy wells. Despite various attempts by clerical and secular authorities to undermine the cult of holy wells, traditional practices survived throughout the early modern period. Holy wells in a Scandinavian context have often been interpreted as “pagan survivals”—as a tradition that people of the middle ages and early modern eras engaged in as a parallel to, rather than as part of, their every-day Christian beliefs. In contrast, this article argues that the cult of holy wells in Sweden needs to be understood as a dynamic part of popular Christian piety, with intermingling elements from both official and unofficial Christian practices.
