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9- LINE OF STENKIL AND THE ENGLISH BISHOPS. 81
9. THE HOUSE OF STEXKIL (1066 A.D. 1130 A.D.).
After Emund Gammal s death the old divinely descended
line of Swedish kings came to an end, and the West Goths
seem to have been able to carry an election in favour of
Stenkil, son of Ragnvald. His father has been identified,
perhaps without sufficient reason, with the old Jarl Ragn
vald Ulfsson, who has been already mentioned more than
once. Stenkil had previously shown kindness to the
Bremen bishop, Adalward I., and the latter hoped by this
means to carry out the destruction of the idols of Svithiod,
and to introduce a reform after the Norwegian model. In
this he was abetted by Bishop Egino of Skane. But
Stenkil knew the temper of the Sveas too well. He told
the bishops that if
they persisted they would lose their
lives, he would lose his kingdom, and the people would
relapse into paganism (Adam: ch. 238).
This prudent king did not, however, live long, and a
period of confusion and civil war followed, in which force
was used on both sides to promote the interests of Christen
dom and heathendom. Inge, son of Stenkil, abolished the
sacrifices in Svithiod, and enjoined that all folk should
be christened, and, in consequence, was pelted with stones,
and obliged to abdicate, for a time, as his father had pre
dicted (Appendix to Hervarar Saga-, cp. Geijer :
p. 41).
This use of force in matters of religion was alien from the
Swedish character, and stands very much alone in Swedish
history, although crusades to convert other peoples were
undertaken by Swedish kings later on. But the forcible
conversion of Smaland a little later was the work of a
Norwegian, not a Swedish, king, Sigurd, the Jerusalem-
farer (1121 A.D. 1130 A.D.). In Sweden, at this time, the
heathen Sven, Inge s brother-in-law, reigned for three
years, and received the name of Blot-Sven, or Sven the
Sacrificer. Inge then recovered his kingdom, but did not
destroy the Upsala Temple. It was left for one of the later
kings, Sverker I., in 1138 A.D. (as we are told) to lay the
foundation of old Upsala Cathedral and to work into it
the materials of the pagan temple of the three gods (E.
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