The Viking Age began in the 700s AD when Viking ship technology advanced to the point that the Norsemen could successfully raid their European neighbors in the Balkans, Western Europe, and the British Isles, and colonize new lands in the North Atlantic, including Iceland and Greenland.
The Viking Age ended when the Pagan warrior clans, well-suited to raiding, transformed into Christian states under strong kings who developed political relationships with their powerful Christian neighbors and the influential Church.
But when, why, and how did the Vikings convert to Christianity?
Viking Hagiography
Hagiography is the literary tradition of writing about saints and other important Christian figures. If these sources are to be believed, great men, missionary monks, and Christian Viking kings were largely responsible for the conversion of the Viking world. The leaders and their allies converted first, and there was a trickle-down effect to the rest of the Norse community.
According to this hagiography, missionaries were already active in the Viking homelands in the 8th and 9th centuries AD, but had limited influence. True conversion happened in the 10th and 11th centuries, mostly when the kings converted.
In these stories, Christianity is a political tool, with Christian king succeeded by Pagan king, succeeded by Christian king, each converting the population over which they ruled.
Denmark – Harald Bluetooth
In Denmark, Harald Bluetooth is the key figure. He was the son of the Pagan king Gorm the Old, but his mother, Queen Thyra, was Christian. Both Pagan and Christian imagery are seen in their double burial mound at Jelling.
Harald is said to have nominally converted to Christianity in the 930s to form alliances with his powerful German neighbors, who were Christians. He converted sincerely in the 960s when a missionary monk named Poppo held a burning hot iron in his hand without injuring himself (a scene re-imagined in season three of the History Channel’s TV show Vikings). Bluetooth moved his capital from the Pagan center at Jelling to Roskilde on the island of Zealand.
D 965, was erected by Harald and honors both his parents and his achievement in conquering Denmark and Norway. This second stone is also sometimes called “Denmark’s birth certificate”, as it is the first time that Denmark is described as a unified political entity.
Harald erected a runestone at Jelling around AD 965 to honor his now-deceased parents. The inscription also notes the official conversion of Denmark to Christianity in the early 960s and has the oldest known image of Jesus Chris from the Scandinavian world.
Harald’s son Sweyn Forkbeard, who had been baptized, rebelled against his father and tried to set himself up as an opposing Pagan ruler in Jelling. He may principally have leveraged Paganism as a way to differentiate himself from his father and justify his actions.
It is often mentioned that Sweyn Forkbeard destroyed many churches in England. But this was part of his response to the St Brice’s Day Massacre in 1002, which saw the English slaughter thousands of Danes living in England. Once Sweyn Forkbeard had reasserted control in England, he was tolerant of Christianity there.
Meanwhile, Christianity was still making inroads in Denmark. King Canute IV was ousted from power in 1086 because he was not using traditional Thing gatherings, which were intimately linked with Pagan rituals, to pass new laws. Instead, he was passing them on his own authority. There were also complaints about tithes collected for new monasteries and other Christian cult centers.
While the Danish of the late 11th century complained about these actions, they did not seem to have a problem with Christianity specifically. Canute was canonized in 1188, by which time Denmark was thoroughly Christianized.
Norway – Haakon the Good and Olaf Tryggvason
In Norway, the story of conversion is linked with Haakon the Good in the 10th century. He grew up as a hostage at the court in England and so would have been raised a Christian. When he succeeded to the Norwegian throne, he brought his religion with him, but seems to have been happy to let Christianity and Paganism exist side-by-side.
While his successors variously razed and built Pagan temples, the next important figure is Olaf Tryggvason, who became king in 995. According to his hagiography, he converted to Christianity after encountering a Christian Seer on the Isles of Scilly. When he became king of Norway, he actively converted by all means at his disposal.
It was his zeal that led to the official conversion of Iceland and Greenland, which were principally colonized by Norwegian Vikings.
Iceland – The Commonwealth of Godar
Iceland seems to already have had Christians among its settlers when they began to arrive in the 9th century. For example, in the 13th century, the author Snorri Sturluson could trace his family back to both pagan and Christian settlers. Religious freedom may have been one of the motives for settlers who struck out for the new land. Nevertheless, Olaf sent missionaries to forcibly convert the Icelanders, which caused great divides in the community.
According to the surviving hagiography, the Icelandic leaders decided that Iceland needed to unite if it was to remain independent from Norway, and this meant that it needed religious unity. They decided that everyone should be baptized but that private Pagan practices would be tolerated. Nevertheless, laws would later be passed outlawing certain Pagan activities.
Greenland – Leif Erikson
In Greenland, Leif Erikson, the son of the colony’s founder and leader Erik the Red, after traveling to the New World, spent time in Norway with King Olaf as his guest and converted to Christianity. It would have been relatively easy for Leif to begin the process of conversion in Greenland, especially when he became leader following the death of his Pagan father. He was a highly influential leader in a very small community. His mother reportedly built the first church in Greenland.
Sweden – King Olof Skotkung
In Sweden, King Olof Skotkung converted to Christianity and in around 990 drew up an agreement of mutual religious tolerance with the powerful Pagan religious leaders at Uppsala. He built his Christian religious seat at Skara in Vastergotland. Around 1140 the seat was moved to Gamla Uppsala, suggesting that the Pagan community had largely accepted Christianity by this time.
In Sweden, there are fewer clear stories about converting kings. But we do hear about a conflict between the Christian king Inge the Elder and the Pagan king Blot-Sweyn in the 1080s. The former was exiled for trying to end Pagan traditions and then returned and burned down the home of Blot-Sweyn and killed him before retaking power.
Why Did the Viking Kings Convert?
In the 10th and 11th centuries, the Viking leadership would have had very good reasons to convert. Getting baptized, whether for faith or just for show, was essential to forming alliances with powerful neighbors in Germany, France, and England, who could only form alliances with other Christian leaders.
Viking leaders, who were consolidating relatively small chieftainships into large kingdoms, would also have seen the power conferred by kingship by “divine right” exercised in the Christian world and the support of the wealthy and powerful church in maintaining power. This offered advantages over rulership via the Thing, which required gathering powerful nobles and ruling by common consent.
Furthermore, the system of administration and writing used within the church was vital for running large states, and by converting, the kings gained access to these resources.
There is also no denying that the Church was extremely wealthy, something that the Vikings would have been very aware of since they raided the Lindisfarne monastery in the 8th century. They would have recognized that Christianity offered access to that wealth.
When Viking kings demanded that their people convert to Christianity, being baptized probably represented a way of accepting the new structure of kingship and showing allegiance to the newly established centralized leadership.
Most kings probably cared little about the individual religious practices of Viking farmers inside their own homes. However, in time, the Church may have put pressure on the Viking kings to actively suppress Paganism. They would at least have wanted to appear to do this to maintain the support of their new allies.
Many other Vikings would have converted for similar political reasons. Nobles would have converted to gain favor with the king. Similarly, traders may have, at least outwardly, converted to Christianity since most Christian traders were only permitted to do business with other Christians.
It is interesting that populations with less political interest in the area, for example the Finnish Sami, did not convert until much later. The Sami do not appear to have converted until the 18th century, despite missionary work from the neighbors.
Why did Regular Vikings Convert?
But the move from Paganism to Christianity had to be more than just a political movement to really take root in Viking culture. So why did other Vikings, with fewer political interests, move from worshiping the Old Norse gods to Christianity.
The Vikings would have been aware of Christianity for centuries, since most of their neighbors were Christian. There is good evidence that many Vikings believed that the Christian god was indeed a divinity, but just one of the many that existed. Initially, they had no particular reason to start worshiping this foreign deity in place of the local gods that had always served them well.
The Vikings that moved to other parts of Europe, such as England and France, seem to have converted quite quickly. This may be linked to the idea that gods have physical or geographic domains. In new territories, the local gods of that territory are powerful. It would have been sensible to participate in local religions practices and within a few generations of intermarriage adopt them.
This doesn’t mean that traditional religion was completely forgotten. The 10th century Gosforth Cross from a Viking community in England is clearly a Christian monument, but shows imagery from Norse mythology.
It was incorporating these new religious ideas into practices “back home” that would have been challenging.
But contact with Christian ideals in the Viking homeland would have been increasing from the 8th century onwards as Christian slaves and Christian wives were brought over and as there was contact with Christian Viking colonies in places like England. But the penetration of these new ideas would have been slow.
There is good evidence to suggest that when kings demanded that their people converted, the locals might agree to be baptized, often enticed by wealthy gifts that accompanied the ritual, but continued Pagan worship within their own homes and local communities. Archaeological evidence suggests that conversion was a gradual process that took almost 200 years over the 10th and 11th centuries.
Compelling evidence that Christianity and Paganism managed to find a way to coexist relatively peacefully during this period in Scandinavia are soapstone molds used by blacksmiths. There are examples from Denmark and Sweden that show Christian cross symbols and Thor’s hammer symbols in the same mold.
The fact that Christianity came out “on top” probably has less to do with it being a more compelling religion for ordinary people and more to do with the Europeanization of the Vikings. As they had more contact with their European neighbors, and increasingly peaceful contact, cultural exchange was inevitable. It included everything from fashion, to literature, to farming techniques. Christianity was very much a part of what it meant to be European at the time, so it also came along when other cultural ideas were adopted.
That is not to say that the influence did not work both ways. We have already discussed on this blog the immense influence that the Viking religious festival of Jol had on the development of Christmas, and this is just one of many examples.
Mjolnir Pendants in the VKNG Collection
During the period of conversion, many Norsemen who aligned with the Old religion wore Thor’s Hammer Mjolnir pendants as a symbol of their commitment to the gods. If you connect with the Viking way of life, it is still one of the most important pieces to wear.
FAQs
How and when did the Viking Age begin and end?
The Viking Age began in the 700s AD as advancements in ship technology enabled Norsemen to raid across Europe and colonize North Atlantic lands like Iceland and Greenland. It ended when Pagan warrior clans transformed into unified Christian states under powerful kings who built alliances with European neighbors and the Church.
What role did Christian hagiography play in recorded Viking history?
Hagiography is the literary tradition of writing about Christian saints and notable figures, which framed Viking conversion as a trickle-down effect led by great kings and missionary monks. These historical stories portray Christianity as a key political tool used by rulers in the 10th and 11th centuries to influence and convert their populations.
How did Harald Bluetooth convert Denmark to Christianity?
Harald Bluetooth nominally converted in the 930s to secure German political alliances before making a sincere conversion in the 960s after witnessing a missionary monk perform a miracle. He commemorated Denmark’s official conversion and political unification around AD 965 by erecting the famous Jelling Runestone, which contains Scandinavia’s oldest known image of Jesus Christ.
How was Christianity introduced to Norway, Iceland, and Greenland?
In Norway, Christian kings like Haakon the Good and Olaf Tryggvason actively spread the faith, with Olaf using aggressive tactics to enforce conversion. Olaf’s religious zeal eventually led to the official adoption of Christianity in Iceland for political unity, as well as in Greenland through influential leaders like Leif Erikson.
Why did Viking kings and rulers decide to convert to Christianity?
Converting allowed Viking leaders to form vital political and trade alliances with powerful Christian neighbors in Europe. It also granted kings access to the administrative literacy and immense wealth of the Church, reinforcing their central authority through the concept of “divine right.”
Why did ordinary Viking citizens eventually adopt Christianity?
Regular Vikings often integrated Christianity gradually through intermarriage, trade benefits, and exposure to Christian culture across Europe. Over a nearly 200-year transition, many treated the Christian God as just another deity before local pagan tradition eventually merged into broader European culture.
