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How did the Vikings converted to Christianity

The Viking Age is the period of history when Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas
and rivers for trade, raids, colonization, and conquest. Between the ninth and eleventh centuries,
Viking travelers and colonists were seen at many points in history as brutal raiders and invaders.
However, they settled a great variety of places and initiated the process of consolidation that
resulted in the formation of the present day Scandinavian countries. In spite of all their
achievements, we can see that at the end of the Viking Age all the Nordic contries have been
converted to Christianity and have abandoned their pagan gods. How did the Vikings convert to
Christianity?

The ninth century has generally been regarded as the nadir in the fortunes of those committed to
the advance of Christianity. The century began with an increase in scale and violence of raids by
the Scandinavian Vikings. Missionary successes were few and far-between, in contrast to the
impressive advance of European Christianity both before and after, most noticeably in the late
10th century, when the peoples of North, Central and East Europe seemed to be joining the
Christian oecumene at an exhilarating rate.

The progress of Christianity in Europe were carried by state-sponsored missions, at least in their
initial stages, such as the mission of Ansgar to Scandinavia, narrated in the Vita Anskarii. Ansgar
was born into the Carolingian Frankish Empire and became, in his lifetime, the Archbishop of
Hamburg-Bremen and a saint. Through the eight century, the Carolingians had been expanding
aggressively into Western and Central Europe aiming to crush paganism and advance Christianity.
Thus, Saxony was conquered and many bishoprics were founded in the region, now reaching the
lands of the Slavs and the North Germans.

The extension of the Carolingians seems to have curbed Frisian sea-power, probably causing the
first Viking raids in Western Europe at the end of the eight century. Also, the Danes had been
having a period of expansion in that century, but the Danes felt threatened by the Carolingians
and that caused sour diplomatic relations between the two. Nonetheless, during the reign of Louis
the Pious, many missions had been arranged to the North. The mission of Archbishop Ebbo of
Rheims connected with a plea for help from the Danish king Harald Klak in his struggles for
political supremacy among the Danes. Although Harald was expelled, the mission was a success
and he converted to Christianity, receiving lands in Frisia from the emperor.

In 829, Swedish emissaries came to the court of the emperor and asked to allow priests to come to
Sweden to cultivate the Christian religion. Ansgar was selected for this mission and in the same
year went to Birka where he was received by King Bjorn of the Swedes. The mission was a success
and on the following year Louis founded an Archbishopric in Hamburg and made Ansgar its
Archbishop. It is said that both Ebbo and Ansgar managed to convert many Danes and Swedes to
Christianity, although they failed to convert their rulers.

Following the fragmentation of the Carolingian Empire in 843, Viking raids intensified and king
Horik I even managed to sack Hamburg, forcing Ansgar to move his seat to Bremen. However,
Horik and Ansgar cultivated a friendly relationship and the king of the Danes allowed Ansgar to
build a Church in Hedeby and to travel back to Birka to meet with King Olaf of the Swedes in
search of protection for the missionaries. Relationships with the Danes improved over the years
and the new king of the Danes, Horik II, gave land in Ribe to build a church.

Although the veracity of the tale of Ansgar is discussed, the strife between Louis and his sons in
the following decade caused a crisis that diminished the effectiveness of the Northern mission
soon upon its establishment. Nonetheless, the mission succeeded in advancing Christianity in
Hedeby, Ribe and Birka, three of the most important Scandinavian trading towns.

It wasn’t, however, until the tenth century that Christianity started to gain a strong hold in
Scandinavia. King Harald Bluetooth baptized around the year 960 trying to avoid a conflict with the
Franks. He was the second ruler of a unified Danish Kingdom, succeeding his father, Gorm the Old,
around 958. According to the Chronicle of Widukind, Harald ordered the Danes to reject their old
gods and honor the Christian priests. In the Jelling Stone he erected for himself, he proclaimed to
have “made the Danes Christian”.

In Denmark, the aristocracy appears to have agreed to accept Christianity at the meetings of the
things. The rune stone at Jelling may however reflect a decision taken at a major thing meeting
between King Harald Bluetooth and the aristocracy. Harald may also have travelled around at the
different things in order to introduce Christianity as the official religion of the whole kingdom. The
majority of the aristocracy was presumably as positive to Christianity as their king. It is otherwise
unlikely that Harald would have been able to retain the throne after his baptism.

The aristocracy also aided the spread of Christianity through the erection of churches. At first, they
built wooden churches and later on churches of stone. Estrid, the sister of Knut the Great, began
to build the cathedral of Roskilde around 1027. The members of the Christian aristocracy are also
the most likely to have buried their dead in churchyards in the early stages of the conversion.

It is clear then that the baptism of Harald Bluetooth was the catalyst for a wider spread of
Christianity within Denmark. His son and heir, Sweyn Forkbeard, also converted along with his
father, but that didn’t stop him from leading a pagan uprising against Harald. Nonetheless, this
seems to be a political uprising more than a religious one, as Sweyn promoted the spread of
Christianity during his reign. From the end of the tenth century the Viking expeditions to England
gained renewed energy. Under Knut the Great, the whole of England was under Danish rule and
many English bishops were transported to Denmark. Many Danes also emigrated to England and
Normandy and saw themselves converted to Christianity. As time went on and conversions
increased, opposition to Christianity lowered among Viking clans. At the eleventh century,
Denmark was already a Christian country under the reign of Knut IV.

Danish kings also appear to have involved themselves in the conversion of Sweden. At the battle
of Helgeå around 1026 Knut the Great defeated the Swedish king Anund Jakob and as a result
gained the overlordship over Götaland, and possibly also Svealand. It is possible that Knut used his
experience from the ecclesiastical organization in England to spread and organize Christianity in
Sweden. However, no foreign ruler was able, or willing, to convert Sweden by military force, in the
way that the Carolingians had done in Frisia and Saxony.

There has been varying degrees of external influences present in the introduction of Christianity in
Sweden. This influence seems to have been almost exclusively limited to political pressure,
without the use of military force. Christianity did not gain a significant foothold until kings in
Sweden had been baptized and actively began to promote the religion. The first of this kings was
Olof Skötkonung. After his baptism, at the start of the eleventh century, bishoprics began to be
established and missionary bishops were sent to more distant parts of Sweden, and the town of
Sigtuma adopted the role of a missionary center for the Swedish Christian monarchs.

It has been argued that Olof Skötkonung distributed the plots in Sigtuna as he pleased to secure
the loyalty of powerful local magnates. The gift of a piece of land in this prestigious town may well
have strengthened the magnates’ loyalty to their king, which he used to strengthen Christianity in
the realm. Around the time of his baptism, Olof employed Anglo-Saxon moneyers to issue coins at
Sigtuna, wishing to be seen as a Christian monarch. These were the first coins minted in Sweden
and were decorated with Christian crosses together with the picture of Olof.

In the Viking Age, Sweden was a rather loose federation of provinces. Royal power was exercised
through thing meetings within the provinces. The rural aristocracy were often very influential, and
could thus be of decisive importance for the acceptance or rejection of Christianity. It seems clear,
however, that in areas where Christian royal power was strong, the members of the things were
more likely to follow the wishes of their king. This can be clearly seen in the provinces of
Västergötland and Östergötland, where Christian royal power was well established from the
eleventh century onwards. It was in these areas that Christianity first took root, and it was also
here that the earliest ecclesiastical structures emerged.
In Uppland, Christianity did not gain a firm foothold until slightly later. It is said that Olof
Skötkonung planned to destroy the temple at Gamla Uppsala, but the Swedish population did not
agree on this matter. They came to an agreement where Olof would be free to exercise his plans
only on the regions that he personally controlled, as the ruling elite in Uppland did not wish to
accept Christianity as their religion and Olof Skötkonung was presumably not in a powerful enough
position to violently enforce the observance of Christianity in this area. Thus, resistance to
Christianity was expressed by essentially non-violent means.

In Sweden, missionaries working with Christian kings appear to have enjoyed their protection in
the areas that were firmly controlled by the king, receiving economic support from their secular
rulers to bring gifts for the people they wished to convert. Christian kings in Sweden have been
seen as very important for church building. This argument is based on the large number of early
churches that were erected in connection with royal farms and hamlets.

Also in Norway, native kings were instrumental in the conversion. The kings’ inspiration to receive
baptism came from abroad, but there are no indications that external military force played any
part in these events. The first king to be baptized was Haakon the Good. He had been brought up
and baptized in England, and after his return to Norway he tried to spread Christianity by peaceful
means. He managed to do so along the coastal parts of western Norway, but his powers were
limited by a civil war against his brother Erik Bloodaxe and his sons, preventing a general
conversion of the realm.

This process did not begin until the reigns of Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldsson. These kings
had also been baptized abroad, and employed foreign clergymen to their aid. According to the
sagas, Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldsson used extremely violent means to spread Christianity,
and had to fight against considerable opposition among the powerful families. The two Olavs seem
to have been inspired to introduce Christianity by the same motive: to unite the realm under their
power. The kings’ efforts to make Norway Christian may, at least partly, also have been caused by
a stronger orientation among the aristocracy towards Christianity.

In Norway, opposition to Christianity seems to have been rather more violent than in the rest of
Scandinavia, where non-Christians fought against the introduction of Christianity by extremely
violent means. Also in Norway, the thing meetings played an important part in the spread of
Christianity. During the forceful conversions of Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldsson, these
meetings were presumably more of a formality than in Sweden and Denmark. It seems that for
those parts of the aristocracy who were opposed to the kings, the possibilities to influence these
meetings were very small. The kings instead used the thing meetings to introduce Christian
legislation.
In the early eleventh century Olav Haraldsson officially introduced the observance of Christianity
at the thing of Moster. At this meeting, the ecclesiastical regulations of the Older Gulathing Law
were issued, imposing harsh penalties on those who did not observe the required Christian
practices. The punishments varied between fines and outlawry. Outlawry was the harshest penalty
in the Norwegian laws, and was as close as it is possible to come to the death penalty.

Christianity seems to have gained a rather firm footing in Norway around the time of Olav
Haraldsson’s death at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030. Shortly after his death Olav was reassessed
and he came to be venerated as a saint. His cult spread rapidly in Norway and also to the rest of
Scandinavia. The spread of Christianity was then hastened by the emergence of a local saint’s cult.

In Iceland, the acceptance of Christianity was discussed by the Althing, the general assembly of
Iceland, which was a meeting of powerful leaders to decide on the matters of legislation and
justice. When the members were unable to reach a decision, the lawman Þorgeirr was asked to
settle the matter. Þorgeirr then decided in favor of Christianity. If so, the decision to accept
Christianity seems to have been collective, and taken more or less voluntarily.
In conclusion, we can then say that in Scandinavia the religion seems to have spread from the
secular ruler to the aristocracy and then further down in society. The rulers promoted Christianity
via the bonds of loyalty in society, and do not seem to have employed military force. Baptized
rulers tried to implement widespread acceptance of Christianity, giving social and material
rewards to Christians and issuing legislation in support of Christianity. They also provided
missionaries with protection and material aid. In this manner, we can see that Christianity was not
forced upon Scandinavia, unlike the case of the Saxons and Frisians under the rule of
Charlemagne.

Also, it is more than possible that chieftains in Scandinavia were influential regarding the
introduction of Christianity in at least two respects. They could use their legal power in order to
influence the local thing to accept Christianity. Moreover, once the leaders had been baptized,
their religious authority may have caused the wider population to feel inspired or even obliged to
accept Christianity. Local magnates were also influential in the erection of rune stones, which
brought the Christian message to the population in rural areas, and in the erection of private
churches.
The role of the missionary as an individual were detrimental in the conversion of Scandinavia. The
actions, behavior, and skills of individual missionaries had an effect on the popular reception of
Christianity. More concrete examples of missionary skills concern language proficiency,
educational aptitude, and ability to form personal relationships. Capability to simplify and adapt
the Christian teachings in accordance with local traditions must moreover have been significant for
widespread acceptance and understanding of Christianity. Also this strategy is evidenced in the
Scandinavian source material. It is clear that clerics introduced only the most basic concepts of
Christianity, such as sin, paradise, and hell. The population was encouraged to perform pious
deeds in order to protect themselves and dead relatives. Missionaries seem to have avoided more
complex issues, such as the trinity of God. God and Christ were instead presented as one.

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