He is depicted with armor and weapons, much as our people depict Mars. Frey governs peace and pleasure. His statue is fashioned with an immense phallus. The Swedes also worship their heroes from the past , whom they have endowed with immortality because of their great deeds. Every nine years a great ceremony is held at Uppsala.
People bring sacrifices from all the Swedish provinces.
The most distressing feature of this festival is that Christians too participate in the sacrifices, thus marking their return to heathenism. Animals and humans alike are sacrificed, and their bodies are hung in the trees of a sacred grove that is adjacent to the temple. The heathens believe that the grove has been made sacred through the death and the putrefaction of the many victims that have hung there. A seventy-two year old Christian reported to me that he had personally witnessed these sacrifices. The heathens chant many different prayers and incantations during these rituals, but they are so vile that I will say nothing further about them.