HOW THE VIKINGS WERE WON TO CHRIST

The Scandinavians were the last great group of Teutonic people to abandon heathenism and embrace Christianity. The Viking marauders from the pagan north wrecked havoc throughout Northern and Western Europe. Throughout the 9 th and 10 th centuries Vikings raided, killed and plundered. They also established strong Viking settlements in Normandy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, throughout the Baltic and in Russia.

Ansgar –The Apostle of the North

When the Vikings were the terror of Europe God placed a great missionary burden on young Ansgar. With his own money Ansgar redeemed several Danish youths who were slaves. He educated them to be his co-workers in bringing the Gospel to their countrymen.

Denmark

Harold, King of Denmark, had been driven from his throne and had sought refuge at the court of Louis I, King of the Franks. While at Louis’s court King Harold heard the Gospel and turned to Christ, submitting himself to being baptised. On the king’s return to Denmark Ansgar, eagerly joined the king to preach the Gospel to the Danes. At Hedeby Ansgar built a small wooden church, but persecution forced him to flee the country.

Sweden

Ansgar responded to a request from King Bjorn of Sweden. This was early in the 9 th century when the Vikings were raiding, plundering and burning the coastal cities of Northern and Western Europe. Ansgar narrowly escaped with his life when Norsmen burned the churches and monasteries in Hamburg. With two co-workers Ansgar crossed the Baltic Sea to begin ministering in Sweden. On the way the vessel was plundered by pirates and they arrived destitute in Sweden. King Bjorn welcomed the Christians to Sweden and the first church was built in the country.

Stronger than Thor

At an assembly of the people a question was debated as to whether the missionaries should be allowed to continue to preach Christ and so invite the anger of the old Viking gods. At a critical part in the discussions an old Viking stood up and declared with great force that it was clear that the Christian God was stronger than Thor. This decided the matter and the missionaries received freedom to continue to preach the Gospel in Sweden.

God’s Judgment

More than any previous invasions and crises faced by the Christian church, the Viking raids wrought desolation throughout the western Crisendorn. The Vikings laid waste to monasteries’ and churches, shaking the churches to their foundations. A decline and decay in faith and morals had set in before the Viking invasions and many saw the fury of the Norsmen as a judgment of God upon a backslidden, and often apostate, church.

Resistance in Wessex

Churches and monasteries were destroyed, clergy and monks were slain, church buildings lay vacant, until in the south of England the West Saxons were rallied by King Alfred the Great to steadfastly resist, and ultimately defeat, the great Danish invasion.

Conversion of the Vikings

In 878, after King Alfred defeated the Danish army at Ashdown, he required its King Guthrum and 30 other of his leaders to be baptised as Christians. In 882 another Viking leader in the lower Rhine region abandoned heathenism and embraced Christianity receiving baptism in the Name of Lord Jesus Christ. Duke Rollo of the Vikings and some of his followers received baptism and created the Duchy of Normandy.

Impressed by Christ

The ethics of Christianity were so radically different to traditional Viking culture that it took literally centuries for the Scandinavian people to be thoroughly evangelised and discipled. One of the chief attractions was the conviction that Christ was a mighty Victor who had risen triumphant over death. The power of Christ impressed the hardened Viking warriors. In Norway the king commanded his people to be converted to Christ or be prepared to die. However, in Denmark and Sweden the Vikings were converted by persuasion not force. Pioneer missionaries Willibrord and Liudger attempted to take the Gospel to the Vikings, but with little visible success.

Ansgar – Missionary to the Vikings

It remained for Ansgar, born of Saxon parents in the North West of France in 801, to succeed where others had failed. Ansgar was described as a sensitive child who led a devout life. He experienced visions and dreams and possessed “a combination of humility, of self-forgetfulness, and of undaunted courage and energetic initiative.”

Winning Sweden to Christ

King Harold of Denmark was baptised in 826 in Mainz. Some of the first pagans in Sweden to request baptism included the leader of Birka, an Island in Lake Malar, not far from the present capital Stockholm. Despite serious reverses, violence and destruction of churches, Ansgar did not give up, he persevered and soon Danish missionaries were being sent to establish churches in Sweden. Ansgar’s faithful work was continued by his disciple, Rimbert, who ministered both amongst the Danes and the Swedes. Rimbert was succeeded by Adalgar.

Opposition and Persecution

Early in the 10 th century, King Gorm of Denmark, a determined enemy of Christianity, attempted to banish Christianity from his realm. Many ministers and missionaries were martyred, numerous churches burned to the ground.

Saxons Champion the Christian Cause

As the Saxons grew in strength they became champions of the Christian cause. When Henry became King of the Germans in 919 he sponsored numerous missionary outreaches to the Danes. After his victory over the Danes in 934, King Henry compelled their rulers to accept Christianity. Unni was encouraged by the king to renew the work of Ansgar. Gorm’s successor King Harold looked with favour upon Unni’s attempts to reassemble the scattered remnants of Christian communities on the Danish Isles and to bring in ministers to rebuild these congregations.

Reform and Revival

King Henry’s son, Otto the Great, became king in 936 and in 962 was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Under royal favour the churches experienced a wave of reform with a tremendous revival of devotion and enthusiasm. King Harold of Denmark extended his realm to become overlord of Norway. As he himself was baptised he encourage the spread of Christianity throughout his realms.

Growth Despite Opposition

Harold’s son, Sweyn, attempted to bring about a pagan rebellion against his father who died in the struggle (986). Sweyn severely persecuted Christians and repeatedly invaded England where he died in 1014. In Sweden a pagan King, Eric, arose, hostile to Christianity. Yet the church continued to grow. The missionary Poppo won many thousands to the Christian faith in Denmark. Odinkar was a missionary from Denmark who strengthened the Gospel work in Sweden.

King Canute Sponsors Missions in England and Denmark

Under King Canute the church was firmly established in Denmark. Canute later became king of all England. Under his support missionaries from Germany established more churches in Denmark. He commanded his subjects to learn The Lord’s Prayer and to be faithful in Communion with the Lord. The church in Denmark grew and deepened with strong ties to the Saxon churches in Germany and England.

Missions to Norway

The conversion of the Vikings in Norway was far more stormy than that of Denmark. Throughout the 10 th century Saxon missionaries from England laboured throughout Denmark establishing many mission stations and congregations. From the time of King Alfred the Great the revived churches in England evidenced a dynamic vitality in missions to the Vikings.

The Kingdom of Norway

The Norwegian kingdom was the creation of Harold Haarfager (fair hair) who died 933. By much combat he had established himself as the overruler of all Norway. His sons Eric Bloodaxe and Haakon the Good struggled over the succession. Haakon had been sent to England to study and there had been converted, baptised and discipled as a Christian. By 935 the young, tall, handsome and athletic Haakon had established his supremacy through combat and was accepted as king of all Norway.

Royal Mission to Win the Vikings

Haakon then attempted to win his people to the Christian faith. Most of his immediate court were soon baptised. Later he sent to England for missionaries and began to build churches in Norway. After he had been reigning 15 years, by the year 950, Haakon proposed to the assembly of landowners that they adopt Christianity. Most of the landowners responded with great hostility and vehemently refused to abandon the old pagan ways. They began to place great pressure on the king to compromise and participate in their pagan sacrifices. Facing open rebellion King Haakon, very reluctantly, ate some of the meat in their ceremonial feast organised by his landowners. Later, after been wounded in battle, on his death bed, in 961, Haakon declared his great remorse over that compromise and his desire to do penance for his sins.

A Rocky Road and Reverses

His nephew Harold Graafell succeeded to the throne of Norway. While not as enthusiastic a Christian as Haakon, Harold Graafell did pull down pagan temples wherever he went. However misrule and bad seasons led much of the people to resent the faith which he had violently championed. In 970 Harold Graafell was lured to Denmark and killed. King Harold Bluetooth of Denmark then made himself the overlord of Norway and encouraged the spread of Christianity there.

King Olaf

Olaf, a great grandson of Harold Haarfager, was born in 964. He was an adventurous youth captured by slave raiders when young, but rescued and raised in a Scandinavian colony in Russia. He made successful Viking raids on England and became famous for his courage and boldness. After a spiritual encounter Olaf was baptised as a Christian and in 995 sailed for Norway. Olaf was determined to claim both the crown and to bring his people firmly into the Christian Faith. The sturdy pagan Haakon de Jarl, who occupied the throne in the name of the king of Denmark, was quickly eliminated and Olaf was elected king of Norway.

War Against Paganism

In Viken Olaf met pagan opposition and resolutely defeated it with force, exiling, maiming or killing the rebels. In at least one occasion the local assembly assented to his argument for the adoption of Christianity without the need for force. On other occasions the king gave them the choice of battle or baptism.

Baptism or Battle

On one occasion Olaf threatened to sacrifice the most prominent of his opposition to the old gods and the company, seeing the futility of resistance, submitted to Christian baptism. Olaf resolutely destroyed pagan temples and boldly struck down idols of Thor. On numerous occasions he killed members of the pagan opposition in combat. Within four years, by 999, the conversion of the Vikings in Norway was completed. Olaf then sought to carry the Faith to Iceland and Greenland.

The Vikings Surrender to Christ

And so, by a combination of pioneer missionary work, royal favour and combat the ferocious Vikings were convinced to abandon heathenism, destroy their idols, abandon their aggression, cease their violent raids, submit to baptism and commit to following the Christian Faith.

Scandinavia for Christ

The prominence of the Cross in every Scandinavian flag serves as a dramatic testimony to the conversion of the Vikings.

Dr. Peter Hammond

The Reformation Society

P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725

Cape Town South Africa

Tel: 021-689-4480

Email: mission@frontline.org.za

Website: www.reformationSA.org

For further reading: A History of the Expansion of Christianity, by Kenneth Scott Latourette, 1938, Harper and Row.