Olaf's Bones

The definition of an old building depends on whom you are asking.
Being from the West Cost of the United States, I tend to define an old building as one built before 1920. Even that seems ancient compared to the circa-1964 architecture of Fairbanks. All of it starkly contrasts with my surroundings on the island of Frösön.
From my bed room window, I can see a hill on top of which are ruins of a fort so old no one remembers what it is called. The entire island is dotted with Viking and early Christian ruins.
If you were to ask some one in the nearby town of Ostersund what is an example of an old building they would point to the old church on Frösön. Services are still held in the church that was built in 1305; in fact it is one of the most popular places to get married in Sweden.
On Sunday, I walked up to the old church. It occupies one of the highest points on the island. The sign at the top says that on a clear day it is possible to see all the way to Trondhime, Norway. However, I couldn’t tell where the soft snow-covered hills of Sweden ended and the frosty mountains of Norway began.
When the church was built Jamtland was a semi-autonomous part of Norway. It didn’t surprise me to discover that the land supporting the church has a history all its own. The church rests upon an Iron Age burial ground. My research turned up a most interesting fact:
“In the place where the earliest high altar is likely to have been located, the charred remains of a wooden stump together with large amounts
Of animal bones, mostly bear were found. These finds have been carbon dated to the Viking Age and this site has thus been seen as ‘incontestable evidence for cult site continuity’ from pre-Christian to Christian times.” (http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/publications/digital/sanmark/Sanmark2004_OPIA34.pdf)
Archeological artifacts are to be expected in light of the island’s history as the trading center of Jamtalnd. What I find more surprising was the willingness of the early Christians to build a church on a top of a highly sacred place. Realizing this, I began to draw connections between the landscape recycling here and other holy places around the world. For example, in the city of Jerusalem, there are places where churches were built by the Crusaders on top of Jewish temples. In turn these churches were replaced by mosques.
The Frösön churchyard is covered with closely set graves. Head stones barely poke though the snow. Older Viking graves in and around the churchyard are visible in the summer. Dominating the church yard is a freestanding belfry. This was erected relatively recently, I’m told, sometime in the 1700s. The elaborate shingle work on the belfry contrasts with the simplicity of the old church.
The church itself is an unimpressive structure. It was built for function more then beauty, perhaps that is why it has withstood the test of time. The walls are made of thick stone white-washed 150 years ago in the wake of a fire. Inside the woodwork is painted Jamtish blue, a color characteristic of this area of Sweden.
Hidden near the altar is a little alcove in the wall that contains a chest. The contents of which is supposedly the holy relics of St Olaf. Namely parts of his hands and feet. I looked him up in Wikipedia (by all accounts a highly unrelable source, so take this next bit of information with a grain of salt). St. Olaf had a turbulent rule that lasted from 1015 to 1030. He is given credit for uniting inland and costal Norway, along with Christianizing its people. St. Olaf had a reputation for being a rash and brutal ruler. (Doesn’t that make his sainthood slightly ironic?) According to a local tour guide, the saint’s body was exhumed from his grave in Norway in the 1950s. When they examined it he still had all of his fingers and toes. If his fingers and toes are still attached, then what is in that chest?