Christian History Home > Issue 63 > Conversion of the Vikings: From the Editors - A Living Conversion Story
Conversion of the Vikings: From the Editors - A Living Conversion Story
Ted Olsen | posted 7/01/1999 12:00AM
Two years ago, I walked around Sweden's Gamla Uppsala, where old Swedish kings are buried beneath mounds of earth and where the holiest site in Scandinavian paganism was razed to build a Christian church. I was struck by the degree to which Scandinavia still feels its slow, sometimes painful conversion today.
Some Scandinavians, like those in Moster, Norway, participating in this year's reenactment of the lives of Olaf Trygvesson and Olaf Haraldsson, celebrate. Others, like the neopagans who torched 22 historic Scandinavian churches (including several 900-year-old stave churches) between 1992 and 1997, lament. Scandinavia's everpresent link between cross and crown, a legacy of its conversion process, is again a hot topic as the Church of Sweden readies to disestablish itself as the state church in January.
The conversion of the original Vikings is a painful, complicated story. The conversion of each Scandinavian region was due to a variety of factors: missions, politics, miracles, and the ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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