disappeared. In the Northern part, however, the old faith still continued to live on, partly because
it was difficult for the missionaries to penetrate into those wild and forbidding regions, partly
because there existed a difference of tribe between the Northern and Southern Swedes, which again
gave rise to political differences.
The Christianization of Sweden was not completed until the middle of the twelfth century.
§ 31. The Christianization of Norway and Iceland.
Snorre Sturleson (d. 1241): Heimskringla (i.e. Circle of Home, written first in Icelandic), seu
Historia Regum Septentrionalium, etc. Stockholm, 1697, 2 vols. The same in Icelandic, Danish,
and Latin. Havn., 1777–1826; in German by Mohnike, 1835; in English, transl. by Sam. Laing.
London, 1844, 3 vols. This history of the Norwegian kings reaches from the mythological age
to a.d. 1177.
N. P. Sibbern: Bibliotheca Historica Dano-Norvegica. Hamburg, 1716. Fornmanna-Sögur seu
Scripta Hist. Islandorum. Hafniae, 1828.
K. Maurer: Bekehrung des Norwegischen Stammes zum Christenthum. München, 1855–56, 2 vols.
Thomas Carlyle: Early Kings of Norway. London and N. York, 1875.
G. F. Maclear: The Conversion of the Northmen. London, 1879.
Christianity was introduced in Norway almost exclusively by the exertions of the kings, and
the means employed were chiefly violence and tricks. The people accepted Christianity not because
they had become acquainted with it and felt a craving for it, but because they were compelled to
accept it, and the result was that heathen customs and heathen ideas lived on in Christian Norway
for centuries after they had disappeared from the rest of Scandinavia.
The first attempt to introduce Christianity in the country was made in the middle of the
tenth century by Hakon the Good. Norway was gathered into one state in the latter part of the ninth
century by Harald Haarfagr, but internal wars broke out again under Harald’s son and successor,
Eric. These troubles induced Hakon, an illegitimate son of Harald Haarfagr and educated in England
at the court of king Athelstan, to return to Norway and lay claim to the crown. He succeeded in
gaining a party in his favor, expelled Eric and conquered all Norway, where he soon became
exceedingly popular, partly on account of his valor and military ability, partly also on account of
the refinement and suavity of his manners. Hakon was a Christian, and the Christianization of
Norway seems to have been his highest goal from the very first days of his reign. But he was
prudent. Without attracting any great attention to the matter, he won over to Christianity a number
of those who stood nearest to him, called Christian priests from England, and built a church at
Drontheim. Meanwhile he began to think that the time had come for a more public and more decisive
step, and at the great Frostething, where all the most prominent men of the country were assembled,
he addressed the people on the matter and exhorted them to become Christians. The answer he
received was very characteristic. They had no objection to Christianity itself, for they did not know
what it meant, but they suspected the king’s proposition, as if it were a political stratagem by means
of which he intended to defraud them of their political rights and liberties. Thus they not only
refused to become Christians themselves, but even compelled the king to partake in their heathen
festivals and offer sacrifices to their heathen gods. The king was very indignant and determined to