Christianization of Scandinavia

During the Early Middle Ages the papacy had not yet manifested itself as the central Roman Catholic authority, thus making it possible for regional variants of Christianity to develop.

[13] In the same year there was a pagan uprising in Birka that resulted in the martyrdom of Nithard and forced the resident missionary Bishop Gautbert to flee.

A syncretized variant of the story of Harald, that has him battling Ragnar Lodbrok to establish Christianity in Denmark, appears in Book Nine of Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum.

As the chiefs and kings of Denmark became involved in the politics of Normandy, England, Ireland, France, and Germany, they adopted a kinder attitude toward their Christian subjects.

In some cases the conversion of the chief or king appears to be purely political to assure an alliance or prevent powerful Christian neighbours from attacking.

In a few instances conversion was brought about by trial by ordeal miracles wrought by saintly Christians in the presence of the king or other great men of the time.

Families who lived close to the earth did not want to offend the local spirits (Danish: landvætter), so offerings were left just as they had been in pre-Christian times.

The double barrow of Gorm and Thyra at Jelling contained a mixture of pagan and Christian iconography, including a decorated silver cup.

[17] Gorm and Queen Thyra's son, King Harald Bluetooth, boasted on one of the stones at Jelling that he had "made the Danes Christian".

The first Danish king to convert to Christianity was Harald Klak, who had himself baptised during his exile in order to receive the support of Louis the Pious.

Around 960, Bluetooth converted to Christianity,[18] reportedly when the Frisian monk Poppo held a fire-heated lump of iron in his hand without injury.

One consequence of his conversion is that Danish kings abandoned the old royal enclosure at Jelling and moved their residence to Roskilde on the island of Zealand.

Sweyn rebelled against his father, who spent an inordinate amount of time and money raising a great stone at Jelling to commemorate his accomplishments.

Sweyn Forkbeard tried to wrest control of the church in Denmark away from the Holy Roman Empire and as a result was slandered by German historians of his day.

His army destroyed Christian churches in England as part of his invasion following the St. Brice's Day massacre of Danes organized by Aethelred.

Both the institutions and the tax were considered foreign influences, and Canute's refusal to use the regional assemblies as was customary to establish new laws, resulted in his death and that of his brother, Prince Benedict, and seventeen other housecarls.

Although he was not the first Dane to be made a saint, it was the first time for a king, the symbol of a more or less united Denmark, was recognized as an example worthy of veneration by the faithful.

The first recorded attempts at spreading Christianity in Norway were made by King Haakon the Good in the tenth century, who was raised in England.

[21] Expanding his efforts to the Norse settlements in the west the kings' sagas credit him with Christianizing the Faroes, Orkney, Shetland, Iceland, and Greenland.

[24] The supporters of the cult at Uppsala drew a mutual agreement of toleration[25] with Olof Skötkonung, the first Christian king of Sweden, who ascended to the throne in the 990s.

[28] This might have been because of Uppsala's importance as an old royal residence and thing site, but it may also have been inspired by a desire to show that the resistance to Christianity in Uppland had been defeated.

[30] According to M. G. Larsson, the reason why the Swedish core provinces had coexistence between paganism and Christianity throughout the 11th century was because there was a general support for the transition towards the new religion.

Archaeological excavations of burial sites on the island of Lovön near modern-day Stockholm have shown that the actual Christianization of the people was very slow and took at least 150 to 200 years.

Initially Sigmundur sought to convert the islanders by reading the decree to the Alting in Tórshavn but was nearly killed by the resulting angry mob.

He reached land in Sigmundargjógv in Sandvík, but a farmer in the village killed the exhausted Sigmundur and stole his precious golden arm ring.

Violent clashes were avoided by the decision of the Althing in 1000 AD to put the arbitration between them to Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði, the leader of the pagan faction.

In the case of King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark, for example, he only partially converted to the new faith (at least at first) to preserve his independence from the Germans, who posed an even greater threat at the time than the Franks had been prior to this.

Many converted and sought to help the Catholic missionaries; in doing so they often used traditional means that were often associated with their religious past, leading to the integration of Christian and pagan cultural symbols throughout the years of conversion.

[39] A 2009 research article by Phil Zuckerman showed that Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Sweden were among the least religious nations in the world; nevertheless, "many Danes and Swedes, for instance, will profess belief in 'something,' although not necessarily the God of the Bible."

According to Zuckerman, historical developments of culture and religion in Denmark and Sweden were crucially informing factors in explaining the state of irreligiosity.