History of Christianity in Denmark

[2] Thor, Odin and the other deities were also mentioned in Icelandic sagas and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda which preserved much information of their cults and myths.

[1] Reports by Adam of Bremen, Saxo Grammaticus and other medieval Christian authors of the pagan Danes' religion are to be treated with caution, because they tended to attribute obscene and cruel rituals to non-Christians.

[4] Scandinavian individuals came into contact with Christianity already before the fall of the Roman Empire,[5] but historian Ian N. Wood writes that the "Christianisation of Scandinavia took the Church into relatively unknown areas".

[6] According to Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon monk, Willibrord, who had proselytized among the Frisians, tried to convert Ongendus, King of the Danes, in the early 8th century, but failed.

[13] Although both kings remained pagans, Horik II allowed Ansgar to erect a church at Ribe and sent gifts to Pope Nicholas I in 864.

[15] Three German priests were ordained bishops to three Danish episcopal sees in Germany in 948: Liafdag to Schleswig, Hored to Ribe, and Reginbrand to Aarhus.

[17] According to the contemporaneous Widukind of Corvey, a priest named Poppo convinced him to accept that "there is only one true God" and the pagan deities were "in truth demons" by carrying a large piece of glowing hot iron in his hand without damaging it in about 965.

[20][21] Adam of Bremen describes Sven's rebellion against his father as "a conspiracy to renounce Christianity", but no other source proves that paganism was restored in Denmark after Harald's fall.

[21] Adam of Bremen claimed that missionary bishops from the Archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen also worked in Denmark during this period, but he named only Odinkar the Elder who was a kinsman of the king.