Where many vikings christian? That is a question some of these articles answer i have researched on the web.
The 700's saw the fierce raiding parties of the Vikings pillaging and plundering much of western Europe. It wasn't long, however, before Christian missionaries began arriving in Scandinavia. Within about 400 years, Christianity had become the dominant religion in Viking lands.
How was this possible? Through what means or patterns of evangelism were they transformed into Christians?
Three main factors form what might be called the strategy for the evangelization of the Viking peoples. This strategy (or perhaps more correctly, "pattern") is similar in some aspects to what happened in the earlier evangelization of the Germanic peoples. [ read more ]
1. The first aspect of the pattern is that in almost all of the Viking lands, "conversion was accomplished as a community affair by a kind of mass movement."1 Mass conversion that had been common in the Germanic or barbarian cultures happened here as well in part because of the tribal makeup of the Viking culture.
2. The second feature of the pattern in which the Vikings were won to Jesus Christ was that in almost all areas "the eventual triumph of Christianity through royal initiative."2 In these cases Christianity was not a grass-roots, popular movement which in the end captured the tribal leadership. Rather "people (were) brought to the faith en masse as the monarch's subjects rather than as individually responsible persons."3 Viking kings sought to ride the crest of the wave. For these rulers, accepting Christianity helped solidify their authority. Almost all of them got the church to create archbishoprics in their domain, bishoprics over which they had some control.
3. The third feature of efforts to evangelize the Vikings was that instruction, baptism, and discipleship training were carried on largely by missionaries from England. The Vikings' repeated invasions of England brought them into close contact with already Christianized people. "Since the English were a subject people, the Scandinavians had nothing to fear from them politically."4 Thus, English missionaries were allowed to move about fairly freely in Scandinavian countries without being looked on with suspicion. As had been true with the barbarians, the religion of the conquered became that of the conqueror. The victor was preached to and baptized by the vanquished.
This third feature of the Viking evangelism pattern is particularly interesting as one compares this period with the later Vasco de Gama period. During the Western colonial period it was usually the dominant colonial powers who furnished the Christian missionaries for subject peoples. The lack of suspicion which the early English missionaries encountered in Viking lands stands in contrast to the political opposition that Western missionaries have often encountered in third-and even second-world countries.
So I thought it would be interesting to add some christian history into the religeon forum concerning vikings.
actually th4ey were invited by converted Vikings who brought them back home after. Vikigs werent all about raiding and pillaging, many trips was strictly for trading
as for Norway many were chrisitians cause they converted after traveling to chrisitan dominated areas, in around 1015 AD King Olav Haraldson forced the chrisitianity uppon the poeple either you submited to the new faith by baptising or your head would roll. So neither of your mentioned factors applied to Norway, there chrisitianity was forced uppon the people
actually no, most of the kings in Norway choose to let the people themselves deceide what to believe, this due to a forced convertion might loose them support of mighty local chiefs.
It all went fine until Olav Haraldson deceided to enforce chrisitianity uppon Norway, the way he went forth made him many enemies and at 29 of June 1030 he was killed in the battle at Stikklestad, his enemies had raised a huge army that routed the kings men.
Olav Haraldson was a brutal and bloodthirsty ruler still due to these he was canonized by Rome and are now considered as ST Olav, (St Olaf in English since they fore some odd reason cant end his name by a v).
This was the first time the chrisitian religion forced its way uppon the Norwegian, the next time around we were under Danish rules and during the reformation period Norway was suddenly transformed into a Protestant country.
this created more trouble for the Norwegian kings than it did them good.
King Sverre refused to allow Rome to collect taxes in Norway and this led to that the Pope Innocens III to declear interdict on Norway, this interdict lasted until the resent pope lifted it when he visited Norway 1988
So were parts of Germany.
The custom of marying royals within royal family of European countries left Norway, Sweden, Denmark with a common heir to the thrones. They formed a union called the Kalmar union which all three countries were a part of, Sweden withdrew from this union on a later basis. The black plague hit Norway pretty hard and with no truly leader figure Norway accepted the to be under the Danish monarch. Parts of western Norway did what they always had done in the past, and that was to do it their own way. They put up what was to be called the Hansa trade (they traded more with the Germans than the danes)
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All I know about Vikings is that there were savages that torture their neighboring lands and were the first people that came to America before Christopher Columbus. But don't listen to me.....I'm just a Californian.
Vikings were wild but far from savages, they hit hard when they hit, but beside their no mercy form of battle they were great explorers and tradesmen. And they were probably the first Europeans to reach the American continent. America was already settled by the Native Americans with impressive culture and societies, dont know why people never including them when talking about America and its discovery
The Christian missionaries often found polytheists easier to convert... most polytheistic religions had plenty of room for new gods... and most "converts" carried on the worship of both Christianity and their old religions side by side... hence the prevalence of non-Christian festivals in the modern world masquerading as Christian...
for ****ing 30 years? Whats that all aboot, anyway I remember Beowulf talking to some danes. Do you norweigans like the danish? I know icelandic people don'T.
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Vikings are christians?Not is something I never heard before!Are you sure?I got to do some research on this.JM
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For those who are interested... the whole of England was ruled between 1013 and 1042 by a succession of Danish kings.. Swein Forkbeards was the first to claim the English throne, then came Knut (or Canute) who was one of the most enlightened rulers this country ever had... then came Harald 1 and Harthacanute... (Canute had other sons called Hardlicanute and Halfacanute, but he denied to the end that he was their Fathacanute....) For an even longer period, though, a large chunk of England, invluding most of Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia was under Danish sway, and was called Danelaw.... this was a very powerful region, containing the city of Jorvik (York) and the Five Burghs... Leicester, Derby, Stamford, Lincoln and Nottingham....
yeah... in the Danelaw the danes were more of a ruling aristocracy.... a great number of place names around here echo the fact that places were known by what the vikings called them, but population studies have shown that the people remained predominantly English... mainly Anglian in this area... in Scotland the Norwegians settled to a greater extent, and mingled with the local Scots.... there used to be a folk saying in England that if a baby was born with red hair, there had been a viking in your bed.... red hair is of course far more common in Scotland than in england.... some Midlanders and Yorkshiremen are of Danish descent, as are a lot of Cumbrians... independent Viking settlements in Cumbria lasted until several years after the Norman Conquest... Jarl Buthar's lot being the one s who stand out most, of course....
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many vikings became christian
Jan 9th, 2005 09:25 PM
