there should be three exemptions: you should still be allowed to eat horsemeat, you
could continue to leave unwelcome newborn children in the outback, and you could
continue to sacrifice to the old, pagan gods as long as you did it in secrecy. This has been
taken as an example of the pragmatic stance regarding the transfer from the old to the
new religion.
How ‘true’ this tradition and story are is a question of debate. Today we know that it
cannot be the whole truth. We know that many settlers who came to Iceland came from
Orkney, Shetland, England, Scotland and Ireland, and several of them were probably
already Christians. Furthermore we know today that not only Norwegians settled on
Iceland, but also many Irish and Scottish, especially Celtic women (recent DNA analyses
suggest). In other words both religions probably already lived side by side from
the beginning in Iceland. The tradition we can read in the Icelandic sagas is – again –
a biased and embellished story, produced by later, Christian authors.
THE EVIDENCE ON THE RUNESTONESDuring the eleventh century more than 1 , 000 runestones were carved and erected in
eastern Sweden. This has been seen in conjunction with strife between Christians and
pagans, where the runestones should be seen as Christian propaganda. This may be the
case. But it is remarkable that there is nothing in the actual runic inscriptions that
supports such a ‘religious war’. Perhaps the transformation was peaceful, and therefore
the erection of runestones has quite another background. Maybe they are to be looked
upon as a kind of regional fashion in eastern Sweden, on which people have manifested
their new Christian faith.
Apart from Christian crosses of various kinds, many runestones have pious Christian
prayers for deceased relatives: ‘He died in Denmark in white baptismal clothes,’ ‘God
help his soul,’ ‘God and God’s mother help his soul and spirit, give him light and
paradise.’
Three runestones are of special interest. On a runestone at Jelling on Jutland in
Denmark, dated to c. 970 , one reads: ‘King Harald made these memorials after Gorm,
his father, and after Tyra, his mother, the Harald who won Denmark and the whole of
Norway, and made the Danes Christians.’ This remarkable inscription has been dis-
cussed intensively: is it a lie, bragging, a political ‘statement’ or has it some historical
bearing? One thing is for sure, Harald cannot have converted the Danes. Perhaps his
words are to be seen in a socio-political context, alluding to some political event, when
Denmark ‘officially’ changed religion, in the same way as on Iceland.
On the Frösö runestone, the northernmost in Sweden, one can read: ‘Austman
Gudfast’s son had this stone erected and this bridge built, and he Christianised
Jämtland. Åsbjörn made the bridge. Tryn [Trjónn] and Sten carved these runes.’
Also in this case this statement may be looked upon as a political one, saying that
the Jämtar, perhaps on their thing site, Jamtamot, ‘officially’ had accepted the Christian
religion.
The Kuli runestone stood beside an ancient road in Edøy, Nordmøre in Norway. The
stone has the text: ‘... twelve winters had Christendom been in Norway’. The runestone
has obviously been a so-called ‘bridge stone’, and the ‘bridge’ can be dated to 1034.
Therefore it seems plausible to connect the statement to the event when King Óláfr
Haraldsson together with his bishop, Grímkell, declared the first Christian law
–– chapter 45 : Christianisation and the early Church––