Bibliography of Sources for the Viking Conversion to Christianity
Gentle Readers:
Although most people tend to think of the Vikings as heathen peoples, the Conversion to Christianity made an enormous impact on the Viking Age, especially as nations were forming. The bibliography below presents a variety of materials for learning more about the advent of Christianity in the North.
As a note, many of the items listed may not be be available in your local public library. There are a couple of ways to access these if you are not a student at a university or college:
The first is to visit a university or college library. Most allow non-students to use the library, although often you won't be able to check out books. However, it's simple to photocopy a journal article, and every university library I've ever visited had copy machines for public use.
The second method would be to go to your library and ask the reference librarian for information on obtaining materials through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Surprisingly small libraries have been able to get really obscure documents for me via ILL. Sometimes your local branch library can handle an ILL request, sometimes you have to go to the main branch of the library - just ask, the librarians will be happy to tell you how it's done in your library. Usually ILL involves a small fee to cover photocopying and shipping articles to you. You can also get books this way, and in the case of books they usually loan the book to your library, and you will then either check it out from your library or else you may have to use it while at the library, depending on the practices of the library which owns the work.
And, Gentle Readers, if you have suggestions for other books or articles which should be listed here, please contact me at gunnora@vikinganswerlady.com!
Bibliography
- Adalsteinson, Jon Hnefill. Under the Cloak: The Acceptance of Christianity
in Iceland with Particular Reference to the Religious Attitudes Prevailing at
the Time. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. 1978.
[Outstanding discussion of the famous decision by Thorgeirr Lawspeaker that Iceland should henceforth be Christian, recounted in full by Ari the Wise in Islendingabók, a decision which took place at the Thing of the year 1000.]
Buy this book today! - Browner, Jessica A. "'Viking' Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: fram! fram! cristmenn, crossmenn,
konungsmenn! (Oláfs saga helga, ch. 224.)" Essays in History 34.
University of Virgina. 1992. Accessed 19 December 2005.
- Christiansen, Eric. The Northern Crusades: the Baltic and the Catholic Frontier,
1100-1525. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1980.
Buy this book today! - Cormack, Margaret. The Saints in Iceland: their Veneration from the Conversion
to 1400. Bruxelles: Societe des Bollandistes. 1994.
- Ellis-Davidson, Hilda Roderick. Scandinavian Mythology. New York: Paul
Hamlyn. 1969.
[An excellent survey of Norse myth and religion, covering the Bronze Age predecessors of the Viking deities, the cult of Óðin, Thórr/Týr, the Vanir and Aesir, cosmology and the coming of Christianity.]
Buy this book today! - Finnestad, Ragnhild Bjerre. "The Study of Christianization of the Nordic Countries:
Some Reflections." Old Norse and Finnish Religions and Cultic
Place-Names. ed. Tore Ahlback. Scripta Instituti Donneriana Aboensis 13.
Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. 1990. pp. 256-272.
Buy this book today! - Foote, Peter. Observations in "Syncretism" in Early Icelandic
Christianity. Reykjavik 1975. (Arbok Visindafelags Islendinga 1974,
pp. 69-86).
- Fuglesang, Signe Horn. "Crucifixion Iconography in Viking Scandinavia."
Proceedings of the Eighth Viking Congress, Arhus, 24-31 August 1977.
Odense: Odense University Press. 1981.
- Gislason, Jonas. "Acceptance of Christianity in Iceland in the Year 1000 (999)."
Old Norse and Finnish Religions and Cultic Place-Names. Based on papers read
at the Symposium on Encounters between Religions in Old Nordic Times and on Cultic
Place-Names, held at Abo, Finland, on the 19th-21st of August 1987. ed. Tore
Ahlback. Abo: Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History.
1990. pp. 223-255.
Buy this book today! - Knox, E.L. Skip. The Destruction and Conversion of the Wends.
Masters Thesis. 1980.
- Lange, W. Studien zur Christlichen Dichtung der Nordgermanen 1000-1200.
Gottingen. 1958.
- Ljungberg, H. Den nordiska religionen och kristendomen. Stockholm 1938.
Nordiska texter och undersokningar 11.
- Olsen, Olaf. Horg, Hov Og Kirke. Historiske og Arkaeologiske Vikingetids
Studier. Copenhagen: Gad. 1966.
- Paasche, Fredrik. Motet mellom hedendom og kristendom i Norden. Utgitt
ved Dag Stromback. Stockholm. 1958.
[Throughout Northern Europe Christianity did not easily displace paganism. Missionaries were often well received, for all the peoples of Northern Europe held hospitality and a hosts' duty towards his guests in high honor. Later, however, when the missionaries proved to be poor guests by attempting to disrupt their way of life, the ordinary people clung stubbornly and violently to their ancestral faith.] - Sawyer, Birgit, and Peter Sawyer. Medieval Scandinavia from Conversion to
Reformation ca. 800-1500. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1993.
Buy this book today! - Sawyer, Birgit, Peter Sawyer and Ian Wood. The Christianization of Scandinavia.
Report of a Symposium held at Kungalv, Sweden, 4-9 August 1985. Alingsas,
Sweden: Viktoria Bokforlag. 1987.
Buy this book today! - Sawyer, Peter. "The Process of Christianization in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries."
The Christianization of Scandinavia. Report of a Symposium held at Kungalv,
Sweden, 4-9 August 1985. Alingsas, Sweden: Viktoria Bokforlag. 1987.
pp. 68-87.
Buy this book today! - Stromback, Dag. The Conversion of Iceland: A Survey. Translated and
annotated by Peter G. Foote. London. 1975.
Buy this book today! - Wood, Ian. 1987. "Christians and Pagans in Ninth-Century Scandinavia."
The Christianization of Scandinavia. Report of a Symposium held at Kungalv,
Sweden, 4-9 August 1985. Alingsas, Sweden: Viktoria Bokforlag. 1987.
pp. 36-67.
Buy this book today!
