5. Norway's Conversion to Christianity

Hannah Fulton

Altar in Gildeskål Church

When I was visiting the medieval churches and viking sites during our trips I often wondered about how church officials were able to convert a very established pagan tradition to Christianity. In the Viking times, the stories of Norse gods and goddesses were well known and even in modern times are still present in our culture. Sacrifice was a common ritual and the act of seeking revenge for one’s fallen brother or comrade was seen as honorable.

It becomes clear, however, that some church officials were actually kind of sneaky when it came to conversion. Rather than forcing their way in to the lives of the locals (although this was surely done as well), some officials tried to subtly integrate pagan traditions into Christian customs. For example, the pagan sacrifices commonly held “three times a year, in spring, in autumn and in mid-winter, around the time when the sun turns” were all “turned into Christian feasts celebrated in the same way with eating and drinking, but now with toasts to God and the saints” (Bagge 2010, 146). Additionally, while Christian conversion introduced the idea of sin and began to discourage acts like killing or gluttony, it also grew upon the existing Viking values of virtue and loyalty. Christianity also introduced the idea of the “elite” due to the fact that only learned men could read Latin, “the language of the Church” (Bagge 151). This increased priests' influence over their parishes and gave them high regard in their communities.

View from Gildeskål Church

In reflection, Norway’s conversion to Christianity probably helped it eventually become a sovereign nation. As our professor Petter suggested, it was the establishment of strong communities with ties to the church that contributed to the development of Norway as a country. With the church as the center of society, people were able to work together and form loyalties to their particular parishes. The old churches still standing today serve as proof of the lasting influence Norway’s conversion to Christianity had on Norwegian heritage.