The Dolmen in Alvastra

One April day in 1916, three large stone blocks were blown up in a field on the south slope of Mount Omberg. The blast exposed a large number of human bones. The event called to mind a folk tradition about the murder in the twelfth century of King Sverker the Elder, who was then residing in Alvastra. The king was killed by his stable boy on the way to Christmas matins in 1156, and the assassin is said to have been executed at this very spot in the field. The archaeologist Otto Frödin, who invest ...