Why Vikings Adopted Christianity

“Everywhere the Christians were the victims of massacres, burnings, plunderings: the Vikings conquer all in their path, and no one resists them” (Doc. C). This shows that when people saw the Vikings, they didn’t even bother trying to defend themselves, and instead immediately surrendered. That is how well known they were. The Vikings have also been described as devils or warriors. “The monks. . . described it often as if the devils from hell are being unleashed on them” (Doc. D). The Vikings were very similar to the Mongols, in the sense that they both were warriors who raided Central Europe, and survived off of fear, intimidation, and terrorism. The Carolingians were so scared of the Vikings raiding, that they began to pay them protection money. “And these payments were so enormous that there were years when the empire had no currency anymore” (Doc. F). Because of this, people living in Central or Western Europe had to barter for what they

The Vikings spent most of their time raiding villages and killing people. They sailed very far distances in their longships to find land to raid. The Vikings mostly raided western and eastern parts of Europe. They also raided places like Greenland and Canada. While raiding the Vikings would basically kill anyone that got in their way and they would destroy villages completely. If you survived a Viking raid, you were extremely lucky. When the Vikings raided they would steal anything they could, including money, food, cattle and loot from churches. The Vikings would usually not leave places alone. Once they had raided them one time, they would do it again and keep stealing and killing. One famous raid that the Vikings did was in Northumbria, North-east England. Here the Vikings arrived in their longships and burned down buildings, murdered monks, stole things and frightened everyone. Apparently some of the Christian church leaders said

When one sees the word Viking, the mind firstly shifts to men who are uncivilized and unprincipled. Using evidence of achievements and victories will not only show how much they impacted Europe, but how sophisticated Vikings actually were. As Charlemagne’s empire ended, the people of Europe showed extraordinary resilience toward the new movements of the era. From 800 to 1200 CE, Vikings ruled medieval Europe. These Vikings, along with thick soil, are credited with shifting Europe from endemic violence toward cooperation and legal order. An attack on the Lindisfarne monastery off the coast of Northumberland in northeastern England marked the beginning of the Viking Age. Vikings began to appear in Europe due to Scandinavian raiders repeatedly visiting the Christian countries of Europe. At first they were content with just raiding lands, but soon they began to seize land and proclaim rule. They sought riches, not land. With this established rule, Vikings promised safety and began to reform the lands they had acquired. The people agreed due to starvation and possible attacks from eneimes. The new lands had a need for settled agriculture, defensive warfare and commerce. As the Vikings began to fulfill these needs they saw an expansion in cooperation and rule of law among the villagers.

The Norse religion believed in the close presence of the spirits of the land, one's ancestors, and the primacy of the Norse gods. Christianity was very different from this. Christian faith emphasized one God, in the heavens, who had sent his son Jesus Christ to redeem the world. Many of the new Goth Christian-converts were victims of brutal persecutions. Cause of this is that the “new” Christian faith was seen as a Roman religion, this was not always nicely accepted. This caused families to turn against each other. It is also believed that the conversion and persecution of Goths had a significant role in the Gothic Civil War. But this did not cease the Goth missionaries and believers of Christianity. They admired the Roman culture and

The Althing in Iceland accepted Christianity in 1000 A.D. (Roesdahl 269). Before that, I majority of Icelanders practiced the old faith, worshiping multiple gods. Many elements of Christianity were introduced though Viking exploration and cooperation with Christian nations, however. This is exemplified in The Saga of Gisli Sursson. Gisli died around twenty years before the particular Althing, but many aspects of his life indicate he was influenced by Christianity. The saga never mentions the faith by name, but references to the religion are there. Through the events portrayed in The Saga of Gisli Sursson, support is given for Christianity.

Their so called religion was built and constructed around their experience of life. The Vikings believed that after a warrior was killed at the battlefield they would be reincarnated and brought to heaven that was called Valhalla. Dying in battle was seen as the most respected

Religion was a key practice for the Vikings as they believed that religion fueled every action. Their

There was a misleading image of the Vikings that made them be known as pagans with a hatred of the Christian Church. What some people failed to realize was that the Vikings had many gods and found it to be no problem accepting Christian god alongside their own. The Vikings encountered with Christianity through their raids, and as they began to settle in lands with a Christian population, they also could adapt to Christianity much quicker. The Vikings had 14 major Gods. Their appreciation is the cosmos is divided into three main levels which are, Asgard, Aesir, which is also the upper level where the major gods such as Odin, along with the fertility gods, and the light levels lived. Midgard was known to be the middle level where dwarves, giants, men, and even the dark elves lived. Niflheim was known to be the lower level, and well known as the underworld. They called Niflheim the world of the evil dead because this was where the evil dead died the second death in the fortress city of Hel. Yggdrasil was known to be above

This age lasted from the late eighth century to the late eleventh century. When thinking about Vikings, the word ruthless and fierce may come to mind, but this isn't necessarily true.They were farmers and just wanted to make a living. Outside of raiding other towns and countries, the Vikings lived in an organized society. In their culture, the women had a strong say in everything and had a very big image. They were the main help on the farm and around the house, they were not forced into marriages, and if they were in a marriage they didn't like, they had the right to leave; which was very different from other cultures back then.

The most common consensus was that though the time period of 800 AD to the 11th century (1066 AD), the Vikings did not last long enough, but within that time period, they had some major impacts on the European civilizations.

The era of history known as the Viking age lasted from the late eight century to the late eleventh century A.D. The society to which we refer to as Vikings represented different groups of merchants, warriors and explorers, including the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes, who were often divided into smaller kingdoms. Vikings were people who spent most of their time on the ships, and thus the history usually describes them as the masters of the sea. They are considered as the ruthless and fierce pirates, pagans, ravagers and despoilers who inhabited Scandinavian territory during the medieval times. However, it is important to say that the view of Vikings is sometimes usually misunderstood and misinterpreted. Although they were ruthless raiders,

The title "Viking" includes a wide description of Nordic people; Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, who lived during a period of

Coming from Scandinavian countries, predominantly Denmark and Norway, the Vikings began raiding the British Isles in the late 700s (James). The Vikings primarily targeted monasteries, because that is where most of the wealth was concentrated (Loughrey). These raids were very violent, people were killed, and the survivors were sold into slavery (Loughrey). These violent raids earned the Vikings the reputation of barbarians, much like the Mongols a few centuries later in Asia. After some time, once the Vikings exhausted most of the wealth in the monasteries, they turned their interest into settling the British Isles (James). By the late 9th century the Vikings had conquered most of England (James). However, even though these Viking kingdoms did not last very long, the Scandinavians who resided there stayed. These Scandinavians would go on to change the British Isles in many ways. Despite the violent and negative impacts of Viking raids on the British Isles, once the Vikings settled down, they had a significant and positive peaceful impact on the British Isles culturally, politically, and economically.

The Vikings were a group of Scandinavian raiders that were around from about the 8th century to the 11th. They mainly attacked the British Islands , the Frankish empire, England, but they also plundered places such as the Iberian peninsula and northern Africa. Vikings did not always settle into the places that they found, for instance after exploring North America they left the place never to return again. Even so, after landing on Greenland they colonized themselves there, and ancestors of the Vikings still live there today. So now that you know a little about the history of the Vikings lets go into detail about the specifics of the Viking age. (Peter Sawyer, Oxford Ill. History of the Vikings p. 1-19)

The word Viking in the Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language says that the word Viking means the following. “Vi•king 1. any of the Scandinavian pirates who plunder the coasts of Europe from the 8th to 10th centuries. 2. a sea-roving bandit: pirate. 3. a Scandinavian. 4. U.S. Aerospace. One of a series of space probes that obtained scientific information about Mars.” (1)