The Viking Age was a period of considerable religious change in Scandinavia. Part of the popular image of the Vikings is that they were all pagans, with a hatred of the Christian Church, but this view is very misleading.It is true that almost the entire population of Scandinavia was pagan at the beginning of the Viking Age, but the Vikings had many gods, and it was no problem for them to accept the Christian god alongside their own. Most scholars today believe that Viking attacks on Christian churches had nothing to do with religion, but more to do with the fact that monasteries were typically both wealthy and poorly defended, making them an easy target for plunder.The Vikings came into contact with Christianity through their raids, and when they settled in lands with a Christian population, they adopted Christianity quite quickly. This was true in Normandy, Ireland, and throughout the British Isles. Although contemporary accounts say little about this, we can see it in the archaeological evidence. Pagans buried their dead with grave goods, but Christians normally didn't, and this makes it relatively easy to spot the change in religion.

As well as conversion abroad, the Viking Age also saw a gradual conversion in Scandinavia itself, as Anglo-Saxon and German missionaries arrived to convert the pagans. By the mid-11th century, Christianity was well established in Denmark and most of Norway. Although there was a temporary conversion in Sweden in the early 11th century, it wasn't until the mid-12th century that Christianity became established there. As part of the process of conversion the Christians took over traditional pagan sites. A good example of this can be seen at Gamle Uppsala in Sweden, where the remains of an early church stand alongside a series of huge pagan burial mounds.

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This is true. About 1 km from my place there are these mounds right next to the local curch. We have lots of evidence that the vikings lived with christians not against them.

Ps. I am Danish.

What was forgotten is that there was also Lithuanian, Estonian, Wendish and Prussian vikings. They were also attacking monasterys in response to the Baltic crusades. Not all monks and priests were pacifists. Many carried weapons and fought with knights in the various crusades. So not all monasteries were defenseless..

lapi'che ni'tis

And just for the record to christians and people who think druids are satanists.
WE DON'T EAT BABIES!

What really upsets me about this article is the idea being put forth that the Vikings were ok with being "converted". That they did it without being forced. There is historical evidence that includes picture graphs of Anglo-saxon villages being forced/tortured into believing in one God. That included boiling water down the throat among other things. All these things were documented. And what better way to convert the "pagans" than to build your temples next to theirs and take on their holidays. If you have never heard "History is written by the winners" then you have been far too sheltered.

You have documented proof that Jesus was not born in December and was not brought back to life in April. Both of these bits of truth were discovered by the Catholic church.

However, Yule (12 days) was a Viking holiday celebrated starting 12 days before the longest night of winter and ending on the longest night and the beginning of spring (New Years Day) and the Vikings celebrated this holiday, far before the "One true God" came into their world by decorating evergreens in the forest with treats and candles as offerings.

April was a celebration of a Spring focusing on Ostara (easter) and her symbols where the rabbit and the egg. Two signs of fertality and yet children still find eggs on Easter thinking the magical rabbit will come hide them while the parents wonder what the hell this has to do with the rebirth of Jesus.

The article above is misleading and putting off a message that the Viking excepted the idea of one true God while the article still mentions that they worshipped many Gods. Since when has the Catholic or Christian religion just said "oh.. you worship many Gods but as long as you worship ours too.. it is ok". No.. they have a commandment that says "you must worship no God but me".

I disagree with this article so much based on my religion (that of the Viking which is now called Asatru AND my knowledge of history and religion) that it makes me grind my teeth!

Hi.



Actually, isn't it "You shall worship no other gods before me"?

Logically, that pretty much says it's ok to worship other gods, just that the "God" person must be considered the greatest one. Like Oden or Zeus, a king of the gods.

That said, I think the gods are constructs that, at least in the beginning were meant to be like wrappers for the forces/laws of nature, personified for easy access. Maybe later when all the different frameworks for thought and behavior evolved the whole spirituality thing came into place.

Just my HO; I haven't been studying history or religion since I was about 16 and I haven't read an entire sacred book (no bible, koran, torah, etc... I have read Ainulindalë, though it was some time ago) so, don't take what I said too seriously.

Slightly off topic, I know. Sorry.

My first post here btw. Hi.

I was summarizing the statement. I should have been more specific but since it is not my religion, I have not bothered to memorize the rules of it.

I see what you are saying, but, at that time in history the meaning of that statement was based on old superstition and personal gain. I'm sure there were those of the Christian Church who were open minded and willing to deal fairly with the Vikings but there were many who were not. Many used their own commandments to force their will on the people, royalty and armies of the world.

"the damage caused by the Vikings may well have been exaggerated by the main historians of the period. These historians were usually priests who looked upon the pagan Vikings with particular horror. In addition, the Church, as a wealthy and relatively defenseless target, may have suffered more heavily than many other sectors of European society."

"The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle recorded their arrival: “In this year [793] the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God’s church on Lindisfarne [Holy Island, off the northeast coast of England], with plunder and slaughter.”

Now. If you think about it. Why would the vikings, who traded peacefully with other nations all the way down to Russia suddenly decide to attack the Christian churchs for no reason? If you study the religion and way of life of the Vikings, you will find they were peaceful people. They believed strongly, however, that if someone harms you or your hearth, you harm them back. Knowing that, and the type of oppression that the Christian Church used against other nations in the future (Ireland and Scotland having their native religion outlawed due to it being a "heathen religion"), it seems logical that the previously strong yet peaceful traders didn't like being told what to believe by force.

There was no seperation of church and state then. The rulers were also ruled by the church which is clear in the time of Queen Elizabeth when the church declared Elizabeth could not be the Queen because she was not Christian and didn't follow the Roman Church.

Also slightly off topic but still along the same lines. You must compare the actions of both sides by the actions they had in the past and future (though with the vikings, that is limited since they had no written language).

Btw... welcome to the site!!

I'm just nit-picking.

Besides, I agree; the christians were an awful lot. But just as there were bad eggs on the side of the christian church, there were lots of pirates among those who followed the old ways. The Vikings weren't a universally peaceful kind. There's no such thing, AFAIK.


"(though with the vikings, that is limited since they had no written language)."

Yeah, the rune stones don't give much of an overview.

You might find english translations of the Eddas on sacred-texts, if you wish. I haven't read them myself yet.


"Btw... welcome to the site!!"

Thanks! Actually I've been lurking on-and-off for a year or so. Mostly I just check out the news posts.

The original hebrew phrase literally translates to: "You shall worship no other gods instead of me", not "before". The Christian translators accidently confused "LePhannay" with "Al-Panay", which although derived from the same root in Hebrew, the two have totaly different meanings... "LePhannay" means "before me", while "Al-Panay" means "instead of me".
The Hebrew OT I hold here has "Al-Panay" written in it's Ten Commandents .

Good point! It takes two to tango.



The runes give more of an insight into their way of life but not into historical events. The sagas and eddas do tell some stories of their history but keep in mind that the Church removed huge chunks of them and so they are lost.

Thanks for this info Erikl!

Interesting!

However, my point still stands: As long as they worship the one god, they can have other gods as well.

Of course, there are about as many interpretations as there are attempts to interpret.

Thanks alot for the information!

I didn't know that they were so heavily censored. But I can't say I'm surprised.

I agree with you if you are speaking of present day ideas of what that Commandment means. But you have to seperate yourself from that. At that point in history and through much of history up until pretty recently, that was not how the church viewed that Commandment. If it was, they wouldn't have outlawed other religions and attempted to convert every civilization they came across into dropping their "heathen practices" to be saved by their one God.

If you look at any version of the sagas and eddas you will see points where there are ************ with breaks or other kinds of symbols to show there is a gap in the information.

Keep in mind that the stories that had been passed down through generations among the Scandinavians would have been lost if they had not been written down by Icelandic monks who felt that it was significant information for history.

I'm just saying that's what the sentence seems to imply.


Yeah, I'm glad they were preserved at all. Would've been nice if they hadn't been censored, though. Oh well, maybe some day they will discover the un-edited copy that the monks hid under a floor tile in the basement.

It would be nice. Though if any copy of the originals exist, it would be at the vatican if rumors of secret chambers holding hidden objects are true. More than likely, the originals were sent to the church for approval and that is the one they edited.

Yeah you're probably right. Too bad xerox machines weren't around in those days.

Wrong.
The Jewish principle for one god means that the Jews have to follow this one god and this god alone, and no other gods instead of him.
However, Judaism says nothing about other nations having to keep the Jewish law - as a matter of fact, the Bible says they don't. This is also why inorder to become Jewish, one must go through alot of tests and study - it's more like getting a citizenship in a nation than stating belief.

Thus, the way Jews see and saw it - the Vikings (if the ancient Israelites would have ever came across some) could worship their own gods and the jews should have nothing to say about it .

This is getting into a much deeper conversation. The truth is that the Catholic and Christian religions are not native to those with white skin though they like to think Jesus was a dusty blonde haired, white skinned and blue eyed individual.

This is going way off topic of the article though.

The truth is that this article is correct though honeyed down. The truth is that the Vikings were willing to excepted other religions. And if you read the entire article that this one came from (the link is provided) you will find that the vikings were forced to become christian in order to do trade with the christians since the christians were ordered to do no trade with anyone who was not a christian. The vikings lived entirely on trade at the time (before any recorded raid though I could be wrong and there could have been raids for years and years before the church bothered to recognize anyone but themselves being raided). You can imagine what this effect would have on a group of people who depended on trade when a major land mass close to them would not trade with them unless they excepted their God. What is one more God added to a list of hundreds?

The reason this article bothers me is that it makes light of a situation as though the Vikings walked away from their Gods by the hundreds who they felt had looked after them and kept them alive and safe for as long as they were concerned. This article makes it sound as though they did this willingingly!

Christianity results from Hellenized Judaism. That means, it's the result of European religions mixing with Judaism. Thus, it's as much as European as it is Middle-Eastern.
Keep in mind also that until 400 years ago, parts of the Middle-East, especially places like Lebanon and Israel, were considered parts of Europe.

I also disagree that polytheist religions such as the one the vikings held are naturally tolerant to other religions - one of Judaism's most central holiday, Hannukah, is all about how Jews managed to reject polytheist persecution and conversion by the Greeks... that was 2,200 years ago, 2 centuries before Jesus was even born.

Wrong.
The Jewish principle for one god means that the Jews have to follow this one god and this god alone, and no other gods instead of him.

Well I guess you're right about that, from a Jewish perspective; I was aiming more for what the actual author meant by writing it down. My belief, if it can be called that, is that the original author was in fact a guy with a whole bunch of really good ideas. These things happen, y'know. Then, later maybe someone felt that, "oh cheesecake, I could do that!" and wrote some of what we now call fan fiction, and it went from there. At least that's how the grail came to be so popular.

Granted, much of the evidence that we do have from the biblical times point to their society being one almost saturated with ritual. But, as rayce also mentioned, history is written by the winners, and not everyone were men-o-the-cloth. Not even the majority of people. The human species hasn't changed a bit since even before the last ice-age (besides getting used to sitting planted on the sofa, staring on a computer screen most of the time instead of being out hunting or gathering other edibles, you see what I mean); folks just abided, smoked their buds in the back yard where the mean ol' chaplain hopefully would't catch them in the act.

However, Judaism says nothing about other nations having to keep the Jewish law - as a matter of fact, the Bible says they don't. This is also why inorder to become Jewish, one must go through alot of tests and study - it's more like getting a citizenship in a nation than stating belief.
..
Thus, the way Jews see and saw it - the Vikings (if the ancient Israelites would have ever came across some) could worship their own gods and the jews should have nothing to say about it .

Cool. It's the best way. As close to freedom of choice as folks will ever get within a religious nation.

In fact, all except the 'nation' part, which I feel some aggravation towards; I mean, the word Nation nowadays is a bit larger than it may have been at the time these religious groups began competing for the privilege of herding the sheep (so to speak, of course). Where I live we call folks that have similar opinions and/or beliefs, friends. If we can't stand them we don't call them anything, even if they do share those beliefs.

I realise I went off on a tangent right now but hey, sorry. Religion just is soo blown out of proportion it just gets to me sometimes. Arr. No offense intended.

(if the ancient Israelites would have ever came across some)
Well IIRC they went all the way down to... um, where Turkey is today so it's not impossible

Please disregard the above paragraph.

I agree with rayce, the Vikings were forced to convert. People like Olaf the Holy forced people to submit to the Christian God, or forefit their lives. Mosaic religions have never, nor will ever be tolerant of other views on life.

Oh and it's Åsatru, handy with a Norwegian keyboard heh....
(Å=aa), Aasatru.

man this has just been soo much blah blah blah blah blah... that i forgot what the original story was about....

all i know is that i was going to say, that there has been evidence to say that vikings were culturally tolerant, and did take up chirstianity by their own accord.

i ask this question, how do you know that all that you hold to know about god is true. i know you'll probably say well our scriptures ( eg the bible, qur'an etc) tell us that it is the truth.
kinda makes it hard who to believe.

judaism, christianity and islam are just branches off the same tree in the end.