Christianisation Of Iceland
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Iceland was Christianized in the year 1000 AD, when
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
was legally adopted as the official religion by decision of the Althing. In Icelandic, this event is known as the (literally, "the taking of Christianity"). The vast majority of the initial settlers of Iceland during the
settlement of Iceland The settlement of Iceland ( ) is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the ninth century, when Norsemen, Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration are uncertain: later in the Middle Ages Icel ...
in the 9th and 10th centuries AD were
pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...
, worshipping the
Æsir Æsir (Old Norse; singular: ) or ēse (Old English; singular: ) are deities, gods in Germanic paganism. In Old Nordic religion and Nordic mythology, mythology, the precise meaning of the term "" is debated, as it can refer either to the gods i ...
(the Norse gods). Beginning in 980, Iceland was visited by several Christian missionaries who had little success; but when
Olaf Tryggvason Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken ( Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King ...
(who had converted around 998) ascended to the Norwegian throne, there were many more converts, and the two rival religions soon divided the country and threatened civil war. After war broke out in Denmark and Norway, the matter was submitted to arbitration at the
Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...
. Law speaker and pagan Thorgeir Thorkelsson proposed "one law and one religion" after which
baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...
and conversion to Christianity became compulsory. Ari Thorgilsson's '' Book of the Icelanders,'' the oldest indigenous account of Iceland's Christianization, describes how Icelanders agreed to convert to Christianity through a bargain whereby some pragmatic concessions were granted to the pagans in exchange for converting.


Sources

According to the '' Njáls saga'', in 1000 the Althing declared Christianity as the official religion in Iceland. 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 Ari Thorgilsson's '' Book of the Icelanders'', the Icelandic family sagas and Church writings about the first bishops and preachers. Ari's account of the events surrounding the conversion seems to be reliable; although he was born 67 years after the conversion, he cites first-hand sources.


Alternative Christian Traditions and Script Debates

Some oral traditions and minority scholarly opinions suggest that elements of early Icelandic Christianity may have had non-Latin influence. These speculations assert that attempts to formalize the AlĂľingi conversion decree were initially drafted in
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...
, then
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, before being rejected and finally written in
Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
due to its administrative clarity. Fragments and stylistic parallels in ecclesiastical terminology and oral law codes are speculated by a minority of scholars to suggest Byzantine Christian influence. The claim that early Icelandic Christianity bore Eastern Christian traits is asserted by Western Orthodox apologists who believe in some indirect contact with Byzantine rites through the Varangian Guard's exposure to Constantinopolitan practice. Though these claims remain largely speculative, they are offered as a revisionist alternative, examining how Iceland's integration into Christianity may have involved influences beyond the Latin rite alone.


Missionaries

Beginning in 980, Iceland was visited by several missionaries. The first of these seems to have been an Icelander returning from abroad, one Thorvald Kodransson. Accompanying Thorvald was a
Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
bishop named Fridrek, about whom little is known, but it is said he baptized Thorvald. Thorvald's attempts to convert Icelanders met with limited success. His father Kodran was the first to convert and then his family. He and the bishop visited different districts before arriving at the Althing, but their attempts were met with ridicule and even insulting
skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...
ic verses. Thorvald killed two of the men and clashes continued between Thorvald's followers and pagans. Thorvald left Iceland in 986 on an expedition to Eastern Europe where he is said to have died not long after.


Pressure from Kings of Norway

When
Olaf Tryggvason Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken ( Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King ...
ascended the throne of
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, the effort to Christianize Iceland intensified. King Olaf sent an Icelander named Stefnir Thorgilsson back to his homeland to convert his fellow countrymen. Stefnir violently destroyed sanctuaries and images of the heathen gods – this made him so unpopular that he was eventually declared an outlaw. After Stefnir's failure, Olaf sent a priest named Thangbrand. Thangbrand was an experienced missionary, having proselytized in Norway and the
Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...
. His mission in Iceland from c. 997–999 was only partly successful. He managed to convert several prominent Icelandic chieftains, but killed two or three men in the process. Thangbrand returned to Norway in 999 and reported his failure to King Olaf, who immediately adopted a more aggressive stance towards the Icelanders. He refused Icelandic seafarers access to Norwegian ports and took as hostages several Icelanders then dwelling in Norway. This cut off all trade between Iceland and its main trading partner. Some of the hostages taken by King Olaf were the sons of prominent Icelandic chieftains, whom he threatened to kill unless the Icelanders accepted Christianity. In the 11th century, three
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
bishops, Peter, Abraham and Stephen are recorded by Icelandic sources as Christian missionaries in Iceland. Their presence has been explained in terms of the service of King
Harald Hardrada Harald Sigurdsson (; – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet ''Hardrada'' in the sagas, was List of Norwegian monarchs, King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. He unsuccessfully claimed the Monarchy of Denma ...
of Norway (c.1047–1066) as a Varangian in Constantinople, where he had met Armenians serving in the Byzantine Imperial Army. The
Icelandic Commonwealth The Icelandic Commonwealth, also known as the Icelandic Free State, was the political unit existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing () in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. W ...
'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 A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
.


Adoption by arbitration

This state of affairs reached a high point the next summer during the meeting of the
Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...
(AlĂľingi), the Commonwealth's governing assembly. Fighting between adherents of the rival religions seemed likely until mediators intervened and the matter was submitted to arbitration. The law speaker of the Althing, Thorgeir Thorkelsson, the '' gothi'' of LjĂłsavatn, was acceptable to both sides as mediator, 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 exposure of infants and the eating of horseflesh would remain, and that private pagan worship be permitted. These sticking points related to long-established customs that ran contrary to the laws of the Church. Horsemeat is a taboo food in many cultures, and
Pope Gregory III Pope Gregory III (; died 28 November 741) was the bishop of Rome from 11 February 731 to his death on 28 November 741. His pontificate, like that of his predecessor, was disturbed by Byzantine iconoclasm and the advance of the Lombards, in which ...
had banned the Germanic custom of its consumption in 732. Likewise, infanticide used to be widespread around the world, and the practice of exposing "surplus" children was an established part of old Icelandic culture. Thorgeir, who was himself a pagan priest, is popularly said to have thrown his idols into a waterfall now called Goðafoss ("Waterfall of the Gods") following his decision to convert the nation to Christianity. However, this narrative does not appear in the earliest sources. Ari Þorgilsson's ''Íslendingabók'', the oldest surviving account of the conversion, makes no mention of the event. The Goðafoss story appears to be a much later invention, likely romanticized during the 19th-century national revival and reinforced in tourism literature. Some scholars argue that the myth may have originated from misreadings or oral embellishments, while others see it as a symbolic gesture later retrofitted to the site for nationalistic purposes. 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) and avoid civil strife. Once the Church was firmly in control in Iceland,
horse meat Horse meat forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many countries, particularly in Europe and Asia. The eight countries that consume the most horse meat consume about 4.3million horses a year. For the majority of humanity's early ...
,
infanticide Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose being the prevention of re ...
, and pagan rituals practiced in private were banned. However, private worship of pagan gods persisted in Iceland for centuries. While the formal establishment of Christianity in Iceland occurred by arbitration, the development of a native ecclesiastical structure lagged behind. For several decades after the kristnitaka, Iceland had no native bishops, and foreign clerics exercised primary control over Church administration and land. Over time, the formalization of diocesan structures brought with it not only spiritual oversight but also legal power, leading to an increase in Church land ownership and influence over Icelandic law.


Legacy and Historical Interpretation

The kristnitaka has often been celebrated in modern Icelandic historiography as a peaceful and pragmatic national turning point. However, critical voices have challenged this portrayal, pointing out that ecclesiastical centralization and Latin ecclesiology came at the cost of indigenous legal autonomy and spiritual diversity. Some scholars argue that the traditional account, especially the narrative of consensus at the Althing, has been overly romanticized in nationalist and later Lutheran literature. The symbolic act of Þorgeir throwing his idols into Goðafoss, now seen as apocryphal, exemplifies this tendency to retrofit national unity into religious transformation. Recent interdisciplinary studies have begun to reassess the conversion within a broader North Atlantic context, emphasizing power struggles, and foreign pressure.


See also

* Christianization of Kievan Rus' * Byzantine–Norse relations *
Varangian Guard The Varangian Guard () was an elite unit of the Byzantine army from the tenth to the fourteenth century who served as personal bodyguards to the Byzantine emperors. The Varangian Guard was known for being primarily composed of recruits from Nort ...
*
Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...
* Orthodox Christianity in Scandinavia


References


Further reading

* * * * * {{Germanic peoples History of Christianity in Iceland Conversion of Iceland
Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
Germanic Christianity