Christianization of Iceland

Stefnir violently destroyed sanctuaries and images of the heathen gods – this made him so unpopular that he was eventually declared an outlaw.

[5] Thangbrand returned to Norway in 999 and reported his failure to King Olaf, who immediately adopted a more aggressive stance towards the Icelanders.

Their presence has been explained in terms of the service of King Harald Hardrada of Norway (c.1047–1066) as a Varangian in Constantinople, where he had met Armenians serving in the Byzantine Imperial Army.

This state of affairs reached a high point the next summer during the meeting of the Althing (Alþingi), the Commonwealth's governing assembly.

The law speaker of the Althing, Thorgeir Thorkelsson, the gothi of Ljósavatn, was acceptable to both sides as mediator, being known as a moderate and reasonable man.

The following day he announced that Iceland was to become Christian, with the condition that old laws concerning the exposure of infants and the eating of horseflesh would remain, and that private pagan worship be permitted.

Likewise, infanticide used to be widespread around the world, and the practice of exposing "surplus" children was an established part of old Icelandic culture.

Iceland's peaceful adoption is in many ways remarkable, given the decades of civil strife before Norway became fully Christian.

A likely explanation is that the major gothi chieftains of Iceland preferred to comply with the king of Norway's pressures (and money)[8] and avoid civil strife.

Once the Church was firmly in control in Iceland, horse meat, infanticide, and pagan rituals practiced in private were banned.