Yggdrasil · Humankind

Hergeir of Birka: A Local Supporter of a New Religion

A Birka official who, in Rimbert’s life of Ansgar, took baptism and built a church on his own land.

Myth and literature · Quotation

In Robinson’s translation

It was thus made clear that everything was as their messengers had declared to the emperor, and some of them desired earnestly to receive the grace of baptism. These included the prefect of this town named Herigar, who was a counsellor of the king and much beloved by him. He received the gift of holy baptism and was strengthened in the Catholic faith. A little later he built a church on his own ancestral property and served God with the utmost devotion.

Rimbert, Life of Anskar, chapter XI.

Myth and literature

The story

Later historical account: Hergeir, called Herigar in Robinson’s translation, appears in Rimbert’s Life of Anskar, a saint’s life by a follower, so we see him through a writer who wished to praise Ansgar’s work.

Hergeir was the prefect, or local official, of Birka and a counsellor much loved by the king. When Ansgar and his companion were allowed to preach there, he accepted baptism and, a little later, built a church on his own inherited land. Rimbert returns to him in a later chapter: after about seven years without a priest, Ansgar sent a hermit to join Hergeir, and with Hergeir’s suggestion and the king’s permission the services were again held in public. Rimbert says Hergeir endured jeers from unbelievers and tells of his refusing to sacrifice to the gods when he was ill.

Myth and literature · Context

What we know, and what we do not

What is recorded: that Hergeir was an official at Birka, that he was baptised, and that he built a church on his own land, according to Rimbert alone. Wikipedia and the Fordham notes agree he was a leading member of the first Christian group there.

What is not recorded: where the church stood or what it looked like. The medieval.eu article reports a radar survey near Korshamn that found a large hall and proposes it as Hergeir’s manor, and it suggests a fenced area beside it might have been a cult building; the same article does not confirm a church. These are proposals by the authors, not established facts, and no precise place is given here. Whether Birka’s Christian objects, such as cross pendants, belonged to Hergeir’s circle is not known.

Historical evidence

The evidence

The only written source is Rimbert’s Vita Anskarii, in Charles H. Robinson’s 1921 translation, which is in the public domain. Chapter XI gives his baptism and the church; chapter XIX returns to him and calls him Ansgar’s spiritual son. Robinson’s notes, which are the translator’s voice and not Rimbert’s, add that Adam of Bremen later wrote that Herigar alone kept Christianity alive at Birka. Wikipedia’s article on Ansgar names Hergeir among the first members of Ansgar’s small congregation at Birka. The medieval.eu article describes later radar survey work near Korshamn on Björkö, discussed below.