Preaching to the Northern Nations: The Christianization of the Norse Lands

The Christianization of Scandinavia did not happen quickly.  This was a process rather than a quick event.  And during this process, the old traditional Norse religion and new faith interacted in ways that blurred the many differences between them.  “Pure Christianity” had a hard time spreading in this environment, and the Christians took a number of actions to help their faith grow.  These actions included legislation and putting Christian beliefs into a Norse context.  In addition to looking at these conversion methods, we will also talk about how Christianity appeared in the Norse sagas after conversion.

The thumbnail image shows a soapstone mould that could help create both cross and Thor's Hammer pendants. From Wikipedia page.  Credit: Ktp72.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Deliberate Thought" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)