ABSTRACT
SINCE almost the whole world was once deluded everywhere with innumerable superstitions at the instigation of devils, I have thought it fitting here to indicate plainly in what localities the Gothic (or Swedish) and northern people, led astray by pagan superstitions, submitted to their crazy idols, so that it may be understood that, just as there were many kinds of demons, so there were many places where the people offered worship that was quite unwarranted. A temple (which my dearest brother and predecessor, Johannes, Lord Archbishop of Uppsala, mentions in Bk I of his History), famous since the time of Ninus, stood by the River Sala, where today the seat of the primate and archbishop of the Swedes and Götar lies. 1 2 This they so revered, erected as it was in rich magnificence, that you could have seen no part of its inner walls, panelled ceilings, or pillars that did not glitter with gold. The whole roof, moreover, shone with gold, and it is recorded that a golden chain hung down from it to encircle the whole temple including the outer walls and tops of the building. Hence it came about that the temple, situated on a wide plain, with its shining splendour implanted in any persons approaching it an awesome sense of religious grandeur. At its doors stood a huge tree of unknown species, with wide-spreading branches, and leaves green in summer and winter alike. 2 Yet it was not among the kinds of tree which include bay, olive, palm, and myrtle, for these are seen to be green from a property all their own. Indeed, in the North no olive or bay tree has ever been observed to grow, except as a small shrub on display at Vadstena. 3 4 Close to the temple there was a spring that gushed out into the sacrificial area, of which I shall soon say more below. 4 Let this be enough to enable foreign nations to understand something of the falsity of such rites among the Goths.
A temple stood at Uppsala in the time of Ninus River Sala
Glittering with gold Golden chain
Religious grandeur Evergreen tree of unknown species
A spring
