The coming of Christianity

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

CHRISTIANISATION AND THE

EMERGENCE OF THE EARLY

CHURCH IN SCANDINAVIA

Stefan Brink

S

candinavia was Christianised at more or less the same time as other polities on the
European fringe, that is, roughly in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The traditional
and political-historical dates for this religious change are: Bohemia c. 970 , Hungary
c. 1000 , Poland c. 1000 etc. There are interesting anomalies, for example Prussia, with a
conversion around 1300 , and even more so Lithuania, which continued to be a ‘pagan
state’ in nearly all of the Middle Ages, with an official conversion as late as c. 1400.
Another polity on the European fringe, Ireland, was on the other hand one of the earliest
to convert to the new religion: it was Christianised already in the fifth century. In
between the Anglo-Saxons (seventh century), the Frisians (eighth century) and, by
military force, the Saxons (c. 800 ) had become part of the quickly expanding Christian
world.
Already at the beginning of this chapter it has to be emphasised that all these dates
for ‘Christianisation’ and ‘conversion’ relate to certain mainly political events, which in
later historical writings were considered as important dates or decisive moments for the
religious change. Of course, Christianisation is more of a process, a slow cultural change
and an adoption of new ideas.
The new religion probably did not bring any immediate changes to people: the old
chieftains and aristocratic families continued to be the social elite, people continued, as
a collective, to participate in a communal ‘cult’, if not at the district’s old cult site, so in
a church, which was sometimes erected on the old cult site; life continued on the whole
as before, with cultivating the land, raising the stock, and probably still being aware of
and appeasing the invisible ‘small people’ living on the farm, the landvættir residing
on the farm’s land, the elves and vittror in the forest and other supernatural powers
living among the people. However, in the longer perspective the change to a new
religion was very profound, probably the biggest mental and social change Scandinavia
has seen in history, that is, concerning policy, society, economy, art, gender relations
etc. Gradually the Scandinavians exchanged an entire pre-Christian world system,
including constitutional beliefs on life and aftermath, to a new, Christian world-system.
Scandinavians went from an oral society in principle, which used runes on erected
stones in order to honour the deceased, to a literacy society, with books and written
documents. They transcended into a society based on documents and the written word,