Keywords

7.1 Introduction

A physical ‘lived’ body is both a screen and a medium through which social processes manifest themselves. Although neither uniform nor static across different societies, through experience and activities our bodies reveal our identities and personhood (e.g. Mascia-Lees, 2011; Turner, 1995). Upon death, possession of the body is lost and the cadaver is at the mercy of the actions of the living. Nevertheless, under certain circumstances a dead body may exert agency—agency herein defined as the capacity of social agents such as dead bodies and things to act with respect to the living (e.g. Arnold, 2014, p. 524; Gell, 1998, pp. 16–19; Harper, 2010; Tung, 2014, pp. 438–442).

This study illustrates how several shifts in the “cultural paradigm” (Arditi, 1994, pp. 602–604) that took place between the twelfth and the twenty-first centuries AD affected the perception and handling of a dead body that belonged to both a medieval king and a saint—Saint Erik of Sweden . These paradigm shifts can be related to the introduction of new social and religious ideals that lead to the renouncement of old religious and political systems. This contribution centers on the changing narratives and the fate of the physical remains of Saint Erik . His political role as a historical character in medieval Sweden, his postmortem reputation, and his reliquaries, though dealt with in detail in a multitude of other studies (e.g. Ågren, 2012; Bengtsson & Lovén, 2012; Oertel, 2016), will also briefly be discussed.

7.1.1 King Erik: History and Legend

From a historical point of view very little is known about King Erik’s life because there are no records from his own lifetime. Born as Erik Jedvardsson he was a Swedish king from c. 1155 to 1160. No reliable information is available about his origins. All we know is that he was married to Kristina, who seems to have been of royal descent, and that he was the father of King Knut Eriksson (Canute I) of Sweden (Ågren, 2012, p. 70; Lovén, 2014, p. 80; SDHK, no. 268).

The oldest detailed account of Erik’s life is a legend that is part of the Registrum Upsalense of 1344, a collection of various ecclesiastical documents at Uppsala Cathedral. This legend is most likely based on an earlier text by Israel Erlandsson, a canon at Uppsala in the late thirteenth century and later ordained Bishop of Västerås (Ågren, 2012, p. 69; Bengtsson & Lovén, 2012, p. 24–25). Saint Erik’s hagiography paints a picture of a just king and a devout Christian who, together with Bishop Henry of Uppsala, went on a crusade to Finland to baptize the Finns. On 18 May 1160Footnote 1 after mass in Östra Aros (the present Uppsala) he was slain and beheaded by Danish prince Magnus Henriksson who succeeded him on the throne (Lovén, 2014, p. 86). Two miracles are said to have taken place at once: a spring appeared at the spot where his blood had been shed and a blind woman regained her sight after coming in contact with the blood from his wounds (Bengtsson & Lovén, 2012, p. 24; Oertel, 2016, pp. 117 and 207). Following his violent death, Erik was interred in a grave in the church of Gamla Uppsala (Old Uppsala) where his body seems to have remained until 1257 (Lovén, 2014, p. 96).

7.2 Becoming a Saint in the Middle Ages

Saint Erik belongs in a specific category of royal saints labeled martyrs because they had suffered a bloody death due to a political conflict (Bartlett, 2013, p. 215). Processes by which these murdered kings and princes were being promoted as saints had been underway in Scandinavia since the eleventh century, suggesting a strategy by royal families to consolidate supremacy and legitimize royal dynasties through their sacred ancestors . These royal dead bodies became a kind of ‘currency’ that could help legitimize claims to the throne and, once kingship was established, were conceived as providing protection for the ruling family as well as the entire kingdom. Among these martyred kings we find King Olaf II of Norway who was killed in battle in 1030 and beatified by Bishop Grimkell in 1031, and King Canute IV of Denmark who died in 1086 and was officially canonized by Pope Paschal II in 1101 (Bartlett, 2013, p. 55; Sands, 2008, p. 207; Tunberg, 1950, p. 132).

Erik’s cult was utilized by various groups within medieval Swedish society to further their political goals. The exact circumstances and the date of the spread of his cult, however, are still a matter of debate. The original burial in the church of Gamla Uppsala underlines Erik’s royal status, but there are no indications implying the existence of any plans for a future translation.Footnote 2 According to the majority of scholars, the establishment of Saint Erik’s veneration as martyr and ancestral royal saint was initiated by his son, Knut Eriksson, who reigned in Sweden from 1167 to 1196. During that time the House of Erik was entangled in a power struggle with the House of Sverker and the Erik cult may have benefitted the former (Bengtsson & Lovén, 2012, p. 38; Lundén, 1972, p. 56; Sands, 2008, pp. 207 and 209). Christian Oertel, however, considers Saint Erik as originally a parochial saint who lacked support from his royal successors. He assigns the promotion and breakthrough of the Erik cult to a time after the middle of the thirteenth century (Oertel, 2016, pp. 75–81).

Early references to Erik’s postmortem sanctity appear in the Calendarium Vallentunense (Vallentuna Calendar) from 1198 which notes his feast day, and in the Norwegian Sverris Saga (Björkvall, 1998; Ellis Nilsson, 2015, p. 173 and fig. 13; Lovén, 2012, p. 75; Oertel, 2016, pp. 72–74). The saga states that

King Sverre married and received Margret, daughter of the Swedish King Erik Jedvardsson , the saint. Erik rests in a casket in Sweden at Uppsala.Footnote 3 (Sverris saga, 1834, pp. 244–245)

Written proof that the Holy See authorized Erik’s veneration as a local martyr derives from several papal letters. Indulgences to those who visited the church with the saintly remains were granted by Alexander IV and Clemens IV in 1256, 1266, and 1268 (Line, 2007, p. 374; SDHK, nos. 740, 866, and 882).Footnote 4 Although Erik was never officially canonized,Footnote 5 the papal references to Erik as beatus (blessed), martir, and sanctus confirm his saintly status (Tunberg, 1950, p. 134).

While some researchers have argued that a first translatio of Erik’s remains most likely took place in the second half of the twelfth century at Gamla Uppsala (Ågren, 2012, p. 75; Carlsson, 1944, pp. 87–92; see also Sands, 2008, p. 207), others have suggested that even though the cult may have started earlier, the first translatio only occurred in 1257 and was triggered by the papal letter of 1256 (Bengtsson & Lovén, 2012, p. 26–27; Lovén, 2014, p. 95–96). Either way, in 1273 the relics of Saint Erik were moved from Gamla UppsalaFootnote 6 to the new cathedral in Östra Aros . An essential document for this event is King Valdemar’s letter of 28 July 1273 which confirms a generous donation to Uppsala Cathedral “on the translation of the relics of blessed Erik , king and martyr” (“in translacione reliquiarum beati erici regis & martiris”) (SDHK, no. 932). Östra Aros also became the new seat for the archbishopric and was renamed Uppsala (Oertel, 2016, p. 105–106). Moving the relics back to the site of Erik’s murder must have appeared like the triumphant return of a victimized ruler.

7.2.1 Body Politic and Body Economic

A further step in the development of the status of the saint king was the elevation to rex perpetuus , an eternal ruler of the kingdom. Alongside the sacral legitimation of kingship, the notion of rex perpetuus promoted the transpersonalization of the royal office thereby consolidating the institution of kingship (Oertel, 2016, p. 63). The differentiation between an actual and an eternal king is similar to the concept of the king’s two bodies. According to Ernst Kantorowicz, over the course of the Middle Ages the high-medieval idea of a gemina persona , where the king is human by nature but divine by grace, transformed into the idea that the king had two bodies: the mortal body, the body natural, and the body politic which was immortal (Kantorowicz, 1997, pp. 7–23 and 42–86; Nordberg, 2007, p. 15). Kantorowicz points out that the body politic was of greater importance than the body natural because

there dwell in the former certain truly mysterious forces which reduce, or even remove, the imperfections of the fragile human nature. (Kantorowicz, 1997, p. 9)

While Norway’s Saint Olaf has been worshiped as a sacred ancestor up to the first half of the twelfth century, and as rex perpetuus by the second half (Oertel, 2016, p. 103), Saint Erik probably achieved the latter status at a much later point in time, either around the middle of the thirteenth century (Lönnroth, 1959, pp. 278–279) or in the years leading up to the deposition of Erik of PomeraniaFootnote 7 in 1439, who was perceived as a foreign ruler and an unjust king (Oertel, 2016, pp. 196–197; Schück, 1984, p. 67). Saint Erik retained his role as rex perpetuus until the Reformation, which was mainly due to the fact that Sweden was ruled by administrators for long periods and thus had no real king.

Ecclesiastical material interests may also have been at stake when promoting the cult of Saint Erik (Sands, 2008, p. 209). While Erik’s vita functioned both as a political tool and as a guideline for other kings, his physical body provided religious institutions not only with political but also with economic power. The relics of a popular saint can be looked upon, in a more functional sense, as a body economic that had the capacity to draw large crowds of pilgrims and lead to economic wealth. Owning Saint Erik’s relics, Uppsala Cathedral was able to compete with other important Scandinavian Christian centers such as the nearby dioceses of Strängnäs and Skara and, in Norway, the important archdiocese of Trondheim (Niðaróss)—all of which had their own martyrs and saints. Hence, the relics not only contributed to the interests of the church but also to the wealth of the lay community that benefitted from the influx of pilgrims.

Although Saint Erik’s relics were distributed from Uppsala to other countries in northern Europe, the saint never received great international recognition. This is reflected in the number of requests for relics , which was lower than for the canonized Saint Birgitta (Bridget) (Kjellström, 2017, p. 167, 2019). As a matter of fact, the body of Saint Erik was something more than that of a martyr; it was also that of a king with a firm connection to the local area. This was likely one of the most important factors for his becoming the patron saint of Uppsala Cathedral—at the latest in 1268 (Oertel, 2016, p. 106). The double role of Saint Erik—that is, the relationship with his region and his patron status—demonstrates the importance he had for the local community.

7.3 Saint Erik’s Physical Remains in the Middle Ages

The corporeality of medieval saints was of a complex nature; like other human dead bodies they were subject to decay but as relics they often displayed durability and resistance to decomposition. Although saints’ bodies rested in graves or reliquaries, at the same time they were believed to be in heaven. If translated or divided, each part of the body and anything that touched it encapsulated the person in its entirety (Bynum, 1995, p. 23–24; Walsham, 2010, p. 11).

The historic records demonstrate the strict control of any relics maintained by the church which cared for and administered their dissemination. Each request for relics needed to be considered and managed according to the prevailing protocol. Requests for relics usually came from other Christian institutions, but also from lay individuals, most of whom belonged to the aristocracy. Like pre- and perimortem events, translations and divisions left visible evidence on the skeletal remains.

7.3.1 The Condition of the Bones

In connection with an exhibition in 2014 for which the saint’s crown was to be removed from the reliquary, an anthropological investigation of the osteological material was carried out under the direction of Sabine Sten of Uppsala University (Sten et al., 2016). This was the third of three anthropological investigations within 100 years. According to the 2014 and previous investigations (Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954, pp. 233–236), the human remains at Uppsala Cathedral are far from complete. They comprise 24 bone elements that, with the exception of one element, appear to belong to one adult male individual: one cranium (without teeth) (Fig. 7.1); one incomplete cervical vertebra; two lumbar vertebrae; one sacrum; eight costae (five left, three right); one right humerus; one left ulna; two innominate bones; two femora; two tibiae; two calcanei; and one tibia from a second individual (Sten et al., 2016, p. 29) . The bones display healed (antemortem) lesions and perimortem sharp force trauma. Among the later lesions is a horizontal blade wound that cut through the corpus of the only remaining cervical vertebra supporting the notion that this individual suffered a violent death (Sten et al., 2016, p. 37; see also Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954; Kjellström, 2017, pp. 160–161).

Fig. 7.1
figure 1

The cranium from the shrine of Saint Erik at Uppsala Cathedral. (Photo: A. Kjellström)

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Nothing is known about the treatment of Erik’s dead body immediately after death but scratch marks on several of the bone elements indicate that they were not completely free from soft tissue and had to be cleaned, probably when exhumed for the first time (Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954, p. 239; Sten et al., 2016, pp. 37–38). Since the rate of decomposition depends on the temperature and factors associated with the contextual environment, the scratch marks do not allow any specification of how long the body was left untouched in its original grave. As the inception of local veneration and first translation took place before the move to Östra Aros, it is likely that some smaller bones had already been removed and distributed before the skeleton was transferred to the new cathedral.

Notably, at some point in time Saint Erik’s bones had been covered with albumen tempera, which created a film and functioned as a varnish, presumably for the purpose of preservation (Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954, p. 246) and from at least the fourteenth century, the bones were wrapped in linen cloth (Geijer, 1954). This treatment stands in stark contrast to most relics from beneath ordinary altar slabs, which are usually small and barely identifiable fragments, often found in lead containers (Kjellström, 2017, p. 156). It is difficult, however, to make comparisons with the relic collections of other prominent saints, because it is not clear whether today’s condition is representative of earlier periods.

With the exception of one extra tibia, the remains of Saint Erik seem to have been kept apart from other relics. Usually, in larger shrines remains of several named and unnamed saints could be kept together, as for example in the shrine of Saint Birgitta at Vadstena (Bygdén et al., 1954, p. 30; Kjellström, 2017, p. 159). That no other named saints were placed in Saint Erik’s sanctuary implies that the shrine was probably looked upon as more of a proper tomb. Erik’s body seems therefore to have received special treatment, most likely due to his royal status and the fact that his cult was of a more national character.

Erik’s skeleton lacks the type of postmortem damage, such as artificial breakage or surfaces polished by the touch of devotees, that have been noted on relics from other saints such as on the ones in the Saint Birgitta shrine (Bygdén et al., 1954, pp. 14–30; Kjellström, 2017, p. 159). Overall, Saint Erik’s bone elements today are surprisingly complete although it is also evident that the teeth, the mandible, several long bones, as well as the majority of the smaller bones (especially those belonging to the hands and feet) are missing, probably due to the translatio and several shrine openings.

7.3.2 Inspections, Divisions, Processions, and Coronation Ceremonies

Throughout the Middle Ages Saint Erik’s bones were checked during regular visual inspections , each time offering an opportunity to remove bone fragments. One such opening took place in 1303, when the shrine was inspected by Archbishop Nils of Uppsala at the request of Duke Erik Magnusson of Sweden. A document (SDHK, no. 2021) notes that the archbishop, before removing some of the bone elements, confirmed the presence of the “head with the other members of the body” (“caput cum ceteris corporis membris”) that “were tied together in six bundles or clumps” (“connexa fuerant in sex ligaturis siue massis”) (see also Bygdén, 1954, p. 322; Lahti, 2019, p. 87).

When the reliquary was inspected on 17 July 1359 on the occasion of a planned procession from Uppsala to Gamla Uppsala on Saint Magdalene’s feast day, it was found unfit for procession and therefore instantly restored by a carpenter and a goldsmith. During the temporary removal of Erik’s “head” (“capud”) “with the other members of his body” (“cum ceteris sui corporis membris”) from the shrine, the lack of some “tiny particles” (“minutis particulus”) was noted and interpreted as a result of the custom of relic distribution (SDHK, no. 7564; see also Bygdén, 1954, pp. 323–324; Lahti, 2019, p. 87).

In a letter dating to 1367, Archbishop Birger Gregersson asks for relics that had been cut off by the canons from Saint Erik’s “arm” (“de brachio”) on the occasion of its placement into a silver ‘hand’ reliquary which was probably shaped like an arm with a hand (SDHK, no. 9037; see also Lahti, 2019, pp. 203–204). Since no such marks could be identified on the bones of the upper limb (or other elements) in the course of the 2014 investigation, it must be assumed that the bone fragments had been cut from a now missing element that was provided for the long-lost arm reliquary . This might have been a usual practice as evidenced by the postmortem cuts and breaks observed on a male humerus from the silver arm reliquary of Saint Birgitta which is part of the ‘Linköping Treasure’ at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm (SHM 6) (Kjellström, 2017, pp. 161–163 and fig. 2; Lahti, 2019, p. 231).

Apart from being carried around during regular processions on Erik’s feast days—18 May, the alleged day of his death, and 24 January, the day of his translation—his relics were taken out of the church for public processions in response to epidemics or to secure good harvests (Lundén, 1972, p. 66). The above-mentioned planned procession in July 1359 was a direct response to a plague that had ravaged the country (Bygdén, 1954, pp. 323–324; SDHK, no. 7564). As attested by miracle stories and historic documents, Erik’s relics were carried back and forth in processions from Gamla Uppsala to Östra Aros before 1373 and from Uppsala to Gamla Uppsala after that date (Lovén, 2014, p. 96). Several miracle stories allude to the healing of the sick during these events. During the Rogation Days, when a procession moved from Old Uppsala to Östra Aros, a sick friar allegedly was healed after praying to Saint Erik. On another occasion a blind woman instantly regained her sight when standing in front of the shrine (Vita et Miracula, 1828, pp. 278 and 301). These miracle stories and ceremonies demonstrate the bones’ strong agency. Just to visually experience or to be close to the sacred body could lead to miracles—the work of a divine agency.

The records also show that the bones themselves were used in royal ceremonies. Around the mid-fourteenth century, King Magnus Eriksson (Magnus IV) gave the order to prepare a new law for the country (landslag). In the section in which the election of the king is regulated, it states that a newly crowned king should swear his coronation oath to God, Virgin Mary, and Saint Erik holding relics in his hands (Konung Magnus Erikssons Landslag 5.8: Schlyter & Collin, 1862). Here it is suggested that it was Saint Erik’s relics that were used, which also is implied by other scholars (Lundén, 1972, p. 67; Oertel, 2016, p. 272). According to the earlier so-called valstadgan these bones could derive from unspecified saints (Oertel, 2016, pp. 157–158 and 272).

To summarize, during the Middle Ages Erik’s physical remains exerted strong agency and were of such importance that many ecclesiastical and political events revolved around them. As attested by various letters (e.g. SDHK, nos. 1303, 2021, 9037, and 22,327) and other documents, it was as relics that the bones served their imperative function during this era. The strong agency of Saint Erik’s body is further underlined by the fact that the original tomb at Gamla Uppsala, rediscovered by Archbishop Nils in 1302 and henceforth a pilgrimage destination (Lovén, 2014, pp. 97–98), was considered sacred through its contact with Erik’s body, long after the removal of the skeletal remains.

7.4 From the Reformation to the Age of Enlightenment

Between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries the attitude towards Saint Erik gradually changed. Due to the cultural paradigm shift that took place during the Protestant Reformation, society drastically changed within a few generations. The break with the Roman Catholic Church led to a successive expulsion of the objects associated with Catholicism from all churches. Relics, which belonged in this category, were thrown out or even burned as they, according to the Protestant belief, should be regarded as idolatrous. Surprisingly, throughout this period the remains of Saint Erik (last carried in a procession in 1521) remained untouched at Uppsala Cathedral. It was only in 1573, by order of King Johan III, that the medieval shrine was melted down. The king was indebted to Denmark and had to finance the war with Russia (Lahti, 2019, p. 378). Shortly after, Johan III, probably inspired by his Catholic wife Catherine Jagiellon of Poland, commissioned a new house-shaped silver reliquary with engraved plates and relief figures. It was made between 1574 and 1579 (Fig. 7.2) (Bygdén, 1954, p. 360). After King Johan III’s death the clergy made the decision in 1593 to hide the shrine from view in order to prevent its continued veneration. However, the plan never materialized, and the shrine remained in the cathedral (Bygdén, 1954, p. 370; Zachrisson, 2017, p. 139).

Fig. 7.2
figure 2

Saint Erik’s late sixteenth-century silver reliquary at Uppsala Cathedral depicted in a 1697 engraving made by Truls Arwidsson. (Detail from Peringskiöld, 1719, pp. 48–49; Creative Commons CC0, Public domain)

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Saint Erik’s relics probably survived the Reformation because Erik was more than just a Catholic saint. As Erik’s status as saint started to fade, his royal prominence was reaffirmed by contemporary historians. Even battleships were named after him (Glete, 2010, p. 357). Entirely dismissing Erik would have questioned the full legitimacy of the Swedish monarchy (Ågren, 2012, p. 244).

As several written sources dating between the mid-seventeenth and the end of the nineteenth centuries indicate, visitors to Saint Erik’s shrine at Uppsala Cathedral were driven both by devotion and curiosity. Not only were they allowed to look at the relics but also to touch them without supervision from church officials (Bygdén, 1954, pp. 381–382; Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954, pp. 236–237).

The Age of Enlightenment seems to have had a greater effect on Saint Erik’s reputation than the Reformation and post-Reformation forces (Ågren, 2012, p. 261). When people began to question long-held traditions and became critical of written sources, the identity of the individual in the reliquary was also doubted. The severed cervical vertebra, which had been one of the most valuable relics in the shrine, was now regarded as a prank by the sacristan. A brief inventory list from 1791 reflects this change of stance because it states that the bone elements were “held under the name King Erik the IX or the holy ” (“förvaras under namn af konung Eric den IX:s eller heliges”) (Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954, p. 262).

Within just two centuries the human remains had transformed from sacred bones to objects of curiosity. The shrine was no longer believed to hold a saint but rather elements from an individual that was once called a saint. This shift from saint and eternal king with mythical qualities to ordinary man can also be related to the ongoing general marginalization of Saint Erik among contemporary historians who favored later kings as symbols for the Swedish nation (Ågren, 2012, p. 247).

7.5 From the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries

During the period of Romanticism Saint Erik was rediscovered as a national symbol (Oertel, 2019, p. 142) and the authenticity of his physical remains was assessed less critically than in the previous period. The nineteenth-century nationalist discourse, which eventually culminated in scientific racism and eugenics, fueled the scientific investigation of living beings and the skulls of the dead. Similar to Sven Nilsson’s distinction between ‘Gothic’ and Sámi prehistoric skull types (Nilsson, 1838–1843, ch. 2, pp. 2–5), Anders Retzius divided prehistoric crania into longheads (dolichocephalics) and shortheads (brachycephalics). The division was based on the so-called cephalic index (the ratio between greatest length and the greatest breadth of the cranium) (Retzius, 1843, p. 5), a method which became an important tool in craniology for decades to come and remained in use until the mid-twentieth century.

Throughout the nineteenth century Swedish anthropologists grappled with the questions of who the original inhabitants of Sweden had been, whether there existed a ‘pure’ Swedish race, and, if so, what physical characteristics defined it. The foundation of the Swedish Anthropological Society (Antropologiska sällskapet) in 1873—refounded as Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi) in 1877—aided this line of investigation. In 1896, the society’s board entrusted Gustaf Retzius, Anders Retzius’ son, and Vilhelm Hultkrantz with the task of bringing about a “comprehensive statistical-anthropological investigation” (Ramström, 1921, p. 42) of the current Swedish population. From 1897 to 1898 the researchers, assisted by a team of younger colleagues, measured cephalic index , shape of the face, body height (standing and sitting), and maximum stretch of the arms of about 45,000 Swedish conscripts who were 21 years of age, and collected information regarding hair and eye color and place of birth for each individual and his parents. The results were published in 1902 in Anthropologia Suecica by Gustaf Retzius and renown physician Carl Magnus Fürst, who also participated in the study. It was concluded that 87% of all Swedish conscripts were dolichocephalic (further divided into 30% ‘true’ dolichocephalic and 57% mesocephalic) and 13% brachycephalic (Retzius & Fürst, 1902, p. 290). However, the combination of ‘true’ dolichocephalics with body height ≥170 cm, light eyes, and fair hair (i.e. the Germanic race) only made up c. 11%. The fact that this combination was more frequent in central Sweden was seen as evidence for it being the location of the older and purer race (Retzius, 1909, pp. 303–305; Retzius & Fürst, 1902, pp. 190–191 and map XIII).

The results of the survey more or less confirmed what Gustaf Retzius had already stated in his previous work Crania Suecica antiqua . This study was based on the measurements of Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age skulls and concluded that the Swedish population had been overwhelmingly dolichocephalic in the Neolithic but over time experienced admixture with brachycephalic immigrants (Retzius, 1899). In concurrence with the views of Swedish archaeologist Oscar Montelius, Scandinavia was regarded the ancestral home of the Nordic, Teutonic (Germanic) race branch and as a point of departure for Germanic migrations into Europe (Montelius, 1921, p. 10; Retzius, 1909, p. 306). Both Crania Suecica antiqua and Anthropologia Suecica were praised by German anthropologist Julius Kollmann for fully setting out the anthropological characteristics of the modern Swedish population by: (1) providing a picture of the old Germanic people; (2) confirming the existence of multiple races, and; (3) showing their unchanging constancy to type (Kollmann, 1904, p. 379; Ramström, 1921, p. 43).

Since most anthropological investigations in the nineteenth century had been geared towards prehistoric and modern individuals, medieval human remains also began to arouse interest. A study of remains from Helgeandsholmen (thirteenth to fifteenth centuries AD) was published by Edvard Clason who observed the numeric dominance of mesocephalic crania over dolichocephalic types (Clason, 1896–1897). Clason published some of the bone material from the 1905 excavation of victims of the Battle of Visby which was fought on Gotland in 1361 (Clason, 1925), adding

yet another link in the chain of evidence that the same Germanic tribe, which now inhabits this country had during the Middle Ages as well as in earlier times, its dwelling place here. (Ramström, 1921, p. 44)

7.5.1 Anthropological Analysis of 1915: The Eugenics Movement

In 1915, Hultkrantz, who had measured some of the long bones from the Battle of Visby in 1909 in order to determine body height in comparison to series from other time periods (Retzius, 1909, pp. 308–309), and his colleague Martin Ramström, were given the opportunity to examine the contents of Saint Erik’s reliquary. Since the two researchers did not find time to publish their data, they turned some over to Fürst who incorporated the results into his 1920 book När de döda vittna (“When the dead bear witness”) (Fürst, 1920). The objective of the analysis of Saint Erik’s remains is never clearly stated but the correspondence between Ramström, Hultkrantz, and Fürst, still preserved in the library archives of Lund University, reveals some of their underlying agenda such as the interest in medieval crania (e.g. letter from Ramström to Fürst from 2 April 1920).

Hultkrantz, Ramström, and Fürst belonged to the same social network of scientists whose goal was to institutionalize scientific racism and eugenics in Sweden. Although Fürst, like Gustaf Retzius, had initially been skeptical of the eugenics movement and did not participate in the foundation of the Swedish Society for Racial Hygiene (Svenska sällskapet för rashygien) in 1909 of which Hultkrantz and Ramström were members, he had a change of mind in later years. Fürst was one of the most prominent scientists to support the 1920 parliamentary motion for a eugenic reform to counter the threat of ‘degeneration’ within the Swedish population. This led to the opening of the State Institute for Race Biology (Statens institut för rasbiologi) in 1922, the first of its kind worldwide and well ahead of Nazi Germany (Björkman & Widmalm, 2010, p. 386; Kjellman, 2013, 2014). It is in this context that the investigation and interpretation of the remains from the reliquary at Uppsala Cathedral must be understood.

Naturally the focus was on the skull which was measured and classified in line with the theory and practice of craniometrics, race biology , and eugenics. It seems that the remains from Saint Erik’s shrine were initially treated as specimens stripped of identity because the 1915 protocol, which was included in a letter sent from Hultkrantz and Ramström to Fürst on 23 September 1920 (Fig. 7.3), displays a neutral attitude. In another letter to Fürst from 1 April 1918, Ramström implies that the remains did belong to King Erik . In Fürst’s 1920 book, Erik’s skull is described as conforming to the regular Swedish, i.e. dolichocephalic length-breadth index with a facial profile which “cannot be said to be beautiful, but powerful” (“kan ej sägas vara vacker, men kraftig”) (Fürst, 1920, p. 78). It might be added that in the same book Fürst also assigns the alleged cranium of Saint Birgitta to the ‘Nordic type’(Fürst, 1920, p. 131).

Fig. 7.3
figure 3

The first page of the handwritten summary of the protocol from the examination in 1915 sent to Carl Magnus Fürst by Vilhelm Hultkrantz and Martin Ramström in 1920. (Manuscripts and Archives, Lund University Library; photo: A. Kjellström)

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During an era when race attributions were considered indicators of intellectual superiority and the Nordic (Germanic) race “the most important constituent in the Swedish nation” (Lundborg, 1921, p. 27), the idea of a strong, Nordic, longheaded, and possibly fair-skinned and blond Saint Erik conformed to the Swedish race ideal . Only after Swedish anthropologists started to dismiss race ideology, a process that began in the mid-1930s, did this image became obsolete and new research questions came to the fore.

7.5.2 Anthropological Analysis of 1946: Forensic Approach

In 1946 a second anthropological study of Saint Erik’s remains took place. The results were published in 1954 in a comprehensive volume which, besides the legend and the history of the cult of Saint Erik, includes detailed descriptions of the textiles, the crown, and the reliquary (Thordeman, 1954). Bo Eric Ingelmark, who performed the anthropological investigation, also X-rayed all bone elements for the first time. Although providing an exhaustive documentation of measurements and indices, he avoids any discussion of ethnicity. Ingelmark especially focused on the perimortem injuries. Being previously involved in the analyses of excavated skeletons from the Battle of Visby , he was familiar with the traces of sharp force trauma in osteological materials (Ingelmark, 1939). Although he shies away from speculating about the historic implications of the severed cervical vertebra, he does make assumptions about the mechanism and force behind the damage. Based on a consideration of the compiled data and following a lengthy discussion, he cautiously concludes that the remains probably belonged to the man known as Saint Erik (Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954, p. 261).

Although the publication is scientific in its structure, the tone in some of the text passages is somewhat solemn, with a touch of nationalism, e.g. when it says that several Danish churches house relics of “our sacred king” (“vår helgonkung”) (Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954, p. 234). The strong focus on the perimortem injuries also lends it a clinical character, evident in phrases such “[the bone surface] adheres slightly to the palpating finger” (“[…] fäster något vid det palperande fingret”) (Ingelmark & Bygdén, 1954, p. 239). In summary, the entire study is reminiscent of a forensic report of a crime victim.

7.5.3 Anthropological Analysis of 2014: Multidisciplinary Approach

The 2014 analysis of the bones from Saint Erik’s reliquary (Sten et al., 2016) included state of the art techniques in medicine and archaeology such as computed tomography (CT) (Fig. 7.4), dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT), radiocarbon dating, and stable isotope and DNA analyses. This time the question of the individual’s identity was yet again of interest, but attempts were also made to situate the skeleton in its wider historical, political, and economic contexts in order to contribute to research questions on a population level. Osteological analyses of known historical figures are rare in Sweden. Finding out whether the bones actually come from a medieval king was therefore also motivated by the fact that these data could allow comparisons with other high-status individuals and groups. In times of big data, it is from structured comparisons that information about larger population patterns can be extracted. Additionally, the remains also represent ‘a medieval individual’ whose physical measurements are of interest in comparison to modern clinical data. In this way, the bones (or body) are representative of both a specific social stratum and a collective. Both approaches go beyond the individual who was ‘depersonalized’ for the greater good.

Fig. 7.4
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CT-scanning Saint Erik’s skeleton in 2014. (Photo: A. Kjellström)

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The measurements derived from the CT and DXA scans show that the skeletal elements were robust compared to men today and had a high bone density (Sten et al., 2016, p. 30–31). After it was established that the individual had lived in the 1100s with a probability of 95% (Sten et al., 2016, p. 29), the isotopic results were compared to archaeological reference populations from the same time period. It was concluded that the man had probably spent some time of his life in south-central Sweden and that his diet followed medieval religious rules of fasting (Sten et al., 2016, pp. 31–33). The genomic data have not yet been published but are expected to provide a rough estimate of the individual’s ancestry and possibly his affiliation with historically better-known Swedish kings.

7.5.4 The Public Interest in the 2014 Investigation

The 2014 research reflects the fascination of people of the twenty-first century with dead bodies in general and perhaps with relics in particular. Before the opening of the shrine a press release went out with an invitation to attend the opening of the shrine. The response was massive. In an interview, provost Annica Anderbrandt proposed:

Perhaps the great media interest is due to our need for more history in an increasingly globalized world […].Footnote 8 (Sveriges Radio, 2014)

The church officials were in general very positive about the event. Gunilla Leffer, communicator at Uppsala Cathedral, stated that the survey increased people’s interest in both the church and science.Footnote 9

Journalists from some of Sweden’s largest newspapers, national radio, and TV were present at Uppsala Cathedral on 23 April 2014, when a brief description of Saint Erik’s life was presented, but there was also a moment of prayer and hymn singing, followed by the opening of the shrine (Fig. 7.5). Afterwards, the cranium and the royal funerary crown were lifted and reverently displayed to the assembly. The fact that human remains in a church enjoy respect and are treated with dignity follows Christian doctrines, although the attention to Saint Erik’s bones may be seen as exceptional.

Fig. 7.5
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The opening of the shrine to the media before the 2014 investigation. (Photo: A. Kjellström)

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It is interesting, however, to relate the analysis and the interest in the bones from Saint Erik’s shrine to another investigation that took place in April of the same year only a few hundred meters away from the cathedral, in a churchyard next to Holy Trinity Church (Fagerlund, 2018). At least thirty-six late medieval skeletons were discovered. Because the skeletons were located outside the seventeenth-century wall of the churchyard, the discovery of the graves was somewhat surprising. The investigation deadline was extended, but there was no budget for an extensive osteological analysis (Fagerlund, 2018; Fagerlund, personal communication). The skeletons were carefully documented in the field, collected, and then placed in paper bags. The procedure is by no means unusual and was done according to standard Swedish archaeological practice. Still, in comparison with the attention given to Saint Erik’s remains, the importance of narratives becomes evident. The persons, now skeletons but once bodies, found at the churchyard of the Holy Trinity Church, may have been almost contemporaneous with Saint Erik and were probably also once Catholic, but lacking a royal background or having been saints, their life stories remain unknown. In this context it was not necessarily due to their low social status that these individuals were treated differently, but their anonymity. Few or no tales can be connected to their bodies, which led to the remains being stored in comparatively simple boxes, while the medieval king’s bones are wrapped in linen placed on velvet. This is a further example of how the differences in the handling of dead bodies are determined by the symbolic value those dead bodies represent for the living (Arnold, 2014).

7.6 Summary: Faith and Science

This chapter has strived to demonstrate how different groups have assigned different meanings and values to the bones in Uppsala Cathedral during the individual’s posthumous life. The interaction with relics during medieval times was, in general, intense as they were expected to provide a direct connection to God, perform miracles, heal diseases, and provide comfort. Like living people, the bones of saints may be considered primary agents (Gell, 1998, p. 20) since they were believed to have the capacity to act. The translation of the bones from the old to the new cathedral in 1273 were a part of a political strategy through which a royal dynasty capitalized on its kinship with Saint Erik but there was also another incentive. The bones were treated as a treasure that provided the Uppsala Cathedral with prestige and, not the least, an economic advantage. So even within the medieval ecclesiastical ambiance the remains served different purposes.

By the time of the Reformation, the bones had lost their (Catholic) religious appeal, and with the Enlightenment, the remains also lost a bit of their royal mythical aura. However, even though the response from society changed and the agency of the remains was fading, they clearly kept their strong symbolic powers. The formal shift to Protestantism did not have a great impact on the practical handling and storage of Saint Erik’s bones; instead the physical interaction with the reliquary seems to have gradually ebbed away. The remains had embodied a saint and a king for a long time, but only when the authenticity and identity of the individual were questioned in the eighteenth century were the bones once again considered a human person.

In the early twentieth century the reutilization of the bone elements for racial and nationalistic purposes assigned the individual a place in a specific race branch—once again superior and backed by so-called ‘scientific’ discourse. The ethnic interpretations of ancient crania (among these the cranium of Saint Erik) became a tool to strengthen political ideas about the risk of racial degeneration. The 1915 survey can in this respect be seen as a part of the European eugenics movement. Similar ethnocentric attitudes and the use of archaeological data for propaganda purposes were also a characteristic of later Nazi Germany (e.g. Arnold, 1990, 1992).

The forensic approach applied during analysis in the mid-twentieth century represents a shift from taking measurements and calculating indices for societal agenda to a more neutral scientific stance. Now the dead body was primarily treated as an object, and in combination with the more standardized terminology, instrumental analysis reduced the agency of the individual. This change is interesting because there exist some parallels with the bioarchaeology-oriented analysis of 2014 though from a different angle. In the latest investigation the bones were examined down to a molecular level, which runs the risk of depersonalizing an individual into a collection of measurements that can only be understood in relation to large archaeological data sets. On the other hand, the contextualization of the results also made it possible for the individual to regain its complexity and once again become something more than just bones in a reliquary. Whereas today the ‘authenticity’ of relics is a matter of belief, the fact that the bone elements in the shrine belong to a documented historical person of importance has made them an object of interest for a wide spectrum of people, including Catholics, Protestants, and atheists. Having been kept separate, worshiped, and handled by thousands of people for a period of 800 years lends them an extra mythic quality.

Throughout the centuries, the agency and physical treatment of Saint Erik’s relics changed with each new cultural paradigm and at each opening of the reliquary—regardless of the purpose—the actors involved were equally convinced that this time they had revealed the actual truth behind the bones.