Christianization of Iceland
History of Iceland |
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Iceland was Christianized in the year 1000 AD, when Christianity became the religion by law. In Icelandic, this event is known as the kristnitaka (literally, "the taking of Christianity").
The vast majority of the initial settlers of Iceland during the
After war broke out in Denmark and Norway, the matter was submitted to arbitration at the
Sources
According to Njáls saga the Althing in 1000 declared Christianity as the official religion.[1]
Iceland's adoption of Christianity is traditionally ascribed to the year 1000 (although some historians would place it in the year 999).
The major sources for the events preceding the adoption of Christianity are
Missionaries
Beginning in 980, Iceland was visited by several missionaries. The first of these seems to have been an Icelander returning from abroad, one
Pressure from Kings of Norway
When
The Icelandic Commonwealth's limited foreign policy consisted almost entirely of maintaining good relations with Norway. The Christians in Iceland used the King's pressure to step up efforts at conversion. The two rival religions soon divided the country and threatened civil war.
Adoption by arbitration
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This state of affairs reached a high point the next summer during the meeting of the
, being known as a moderate and reasonable man. Thorgeir accepted responsibility for deciding whether Iceland should become Christian, with the condition that both parties abide by his decision. When this was agreed, he spent a day and a night resting under a fur blanket, contemplating.The following day he announced that Iceland was to become Christian, with the condition that old laws concerning the
Thorgeir, who was himself a pagan priest, according to a false myth took his pagan idols and threw them into a large waterfall, which is now known as Waterfall of the Gods (Icelandic: Goðafoss), contrary to popular myth. The story of Þorgeir's role in the adoption of Christianity in Iceland is preserved in Ari Þorgilsson's Íslendingabók, however no mention is made of Þorgeir throwing his idols into Goðafoss. The legend appears to be a nineteenth-century fabrication. The problem of changing religions was thus solved, as people abided by Thorgeir's decision and were baptized. Civil war was averted via arbitration. 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.[9] However, private worship of pagan gods persisted in Iceland for centuries.[citation needed]
Further reading
- Byock, Jesse Viking Age Iceland, Penguin 2001
- Orri Vésteinsson, Árný Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Hildur Gestsdóttir, Jan Heinemeier, Adolf Friðriksson. 2019. "Dating religious change: Pagan and Christian in Viking Age Iceland." Journal of Social Archaeology
References
- ^ ISBN 9781584771807. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- ^ Jochens, Jenny (1998). Women in Old Norse Society. Cornell University Press. p. 18.
- ISBN 978-1-4008-5010-5.
- ISBN 9781610695664. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
- Vetrlidi Sumarlidason, and probably also Vetrlidi's son.
- ^ A.E. Redgate, The Armenians, Blackwell Publishers, 1998, 2000, pp. 233–234.
- ^ Cormack, Margaret, Irish and Armenian ecclesiastics in medieval Iceland chapter from West over Sea, The Northern World-Brill, 2007, pp. 227-234
- ^ Jónas Gíslason, Acceptance of Christianity in Iceland in the Year 1000 (999), in, Old Norse and Finnish Religions and Cultic Practice-Names, vol. 13, 1990, pp. 224-255.
- ^ Gwyn Jones, The North Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland, and North America, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 149–51.