Scandinavian Aggression

When one mentions Aska, the first thing that probably comes to mind for most people is: “That’s not how ‘ask’ is spelled. And you capitalized it, which is dumb. You’re so sloppy.”

But what should come to mind are visions of a certain mythological world tree and its mortal brethren belonging to the genus of Fraxinus, which are more commonly known as ash trees in English and ask trees in Swedish.¹

And that brings us to the main point of this post: that Aska is a place in Sweden named after this most mythologically immortal of tree species. And yes, it lies in Östergötland which I am fond of calling Eastern Geatland. It’s a tiny, little hamlet surrounded by farmland within the municipal boundary of Vadstena just east of Lake Vättern. All in all, a pretty unassuming, easy to overlook sort of place.

But it was in Aska that the famous pendant of Freyja was found. Everyone with a serious interest in vikings will know which pendant I’m referring to. But just for good measure, I’ve included an image of it here.

This pendant was found in the 1920s by accident when a farmer decided he needed to flatten an annoying and overgrown bump of land in the middle of his farm. Well, it turned out that this bump was actually the grave of a völva, or staff-bearing sorceress. Her staff and some other impressive items were also discovered and shipped off to Historiska in Stockholm, where they still reside today.

That wasn’t the only grave found in the area, though. Many graves from the Viking Age and earlier have been found at Aska. Most have been plowed over, but no one knows what lies hidden in the ground directly beneath the cluster of houses at the base of Aska’s big mound. In fact, for a very long time the big mound itself was assumed to be another massive Vendel Period grave, similar to those of Gamla Uppsala. But Martin Rundkvist and Andreas Viberg determined not-so-long-ago that the mound is actually the earthen foundation of a large meadhall.

There’s not a whole lot to see at Aska if you ever choose to visit, but it’s a pleasant little place. The meadhall foundation is open to the public, and anyone who visits can walk up to its top rather easily and take in the view of the sprawling farmland to the southeast. Also, in the past few years Monica Aste Thorén has begun conducting walking tours of it (in Swedish only). I came upon her purely by chance (or perhaps it was fate) one day last year when bicycling from central Vadstena to Aska. Her tours are relatively rare and she happened to be conducting one on that particular day, so of course I joined in. It was a fun experience and she served everyone coffee and cake afterwards. And while I didn’t get a chance to try it myself, there’s also now a seasonal pizza joint in the vicinity using imagery inspired by the guldgubbar unearthed during the meadhall foundation’s excavations.

Anyway, the whole point of this rambling online affair with Aska is to share some basic information about it, including some visuals of the place as it currently is. It’s referenced regularly in history and archaeology books in relation to the Freyja pendant, but its word-glory usually comes to a full stop there. Photos of a place can can make it seem a little more real from afar.

And lastly, if you’d like additional information about Aska, how the pendant was found, the various archaeological excavations at the site, and völvor in general, then please check out my latest article, “Freyja’s Final Resting Place,” in Medieval World: Culture and Conflict, issue number 17.

1. And, just like “ash” in English, the word “ask” in Swedish also refers to the charred, powdery material that remains after something has been set on fire. It’s fitting that the völva buried at Aska was cremated. ↩︎
2. No, the tree is not an ash, alas. That would be too perfect. A horse chestnut instead, I believe. ↩︎