Editing Birka (section)

====Bridgehead of Christian missionaries====
This is how it all started in 829:

<blockquote>Meanwhile it happened that Swedish ambassadors had come to the Emperor [[Louis the Pious]], and, amongst other matters which they had been ordered to bring to the attention of the emperor, they informed him that there were many belonging to their nation who desired to embrace the Christian religion, and that their king so far favoured this suggestion that he would permit God's priests to reside there, provided that they might be deemed worthy of such a favour and that the emperor would send them suitable preachers. (Chapter IX)</blockquote>

<blockquote>[[Ansgar]] then undertook the mission committed to him by the emperor, who desired that he should go to the Swedes and discover whether this people was prepared to accept the faith as their messengers had declared. (Chapter X)</blockquote>

Ansgar was already experienced in the missionary work in [[Denmark]], and set forth to Sweden. Rimbert describes the trip very generally:

<blockquote>It may suffice for me to say that while they were in the midst of their journey they fell into the hands of pirates. The merchants with whom they were travelling, defended themselves vigorously and for a time successfully, but eventually they were conquered and overcome by the pirates, who took from them their ships and all that they possessed, whilst they themselves barely escaped on. foot to land. —With great difficulty they accomplished their long journey on foot, traversing also the intervening seas (maria), where it was possible, by ship, and eventually arrived at the Swedish port called Birka. (Chapters X and XI)</blockquote>

Rimbert does not say where Ansgar sailed off or where he landed. Noteworthy is just his note about several "seas" that they had to cross to get to Birka from the place they had landed to. Since Rimbert mentions them to have crossed the seas by ship "where it was possible" they clearly had the alternative of going around them as well, meaning that the seas were probably the numerous lakes in southern Sweden. When Ansgar again travelled to Birka from Germany about 852, it went easier:

<blockquote>Ansgar accomplished the journey on which he had set out, and after spending nearly twenty days in a ship, he arrived at Birka (Chapter XXVI)</blockquote>

This might mean that he sailed off from [[Hamburg]] or [[Bremen (city)|Bremen]] instead of some port in Baltic Sea, since the later account by Adam of Bremen gives the distance of [[Scania]] and Birka to be only five days at sea.