In an earlier diary,I briefly outlined some of the history and geography of Iceland. One event in Icelandic history was the decision in 1000 to convert to Christianity en masse. In this diary, I would like to explore some of the political reasons for this decision.
The Vikings were a notoriously pagan lot, an image magnified among Christians by the fact that the Vikings often raided Christian monasteries. The pagan Viking pantheon was described by 13th century Christian writer Snorri Sturluson, a wealthy Icelandic politician who committed many of the oral traditions to paper: Odin is the leader of the gods and his wife is Frigg; Thor is the god of Thunder; Frey and Freya are the twin gods of fertility; Heimdall is the Watchman; Aegir is the ruler of the sea; Njord is another god of the sea; Bragi is the god of poetry; Loki is the god of fire; Hel, the daughter of Loki, is the queen of the underworld; Tyr is the god of war; Ull is the god of archery.
When the crops failed or when the winters were too long, Frey required additional encouragement, particularly animal sacrifice. The horse was particularly sacred to Frey.
Iceland had been a somewhat Christian island when the Viking settlers began to arrive in the late 800s: Iceland contained at this time a few Irish monks who had sought out places of solitude. According to the oral traditions, when the Vikings arrived, these Christian monks left their monasteries and hermitages so rapidly that they scattered their belongings behind them.
Not all of those who settled Iceland were, however, Vikings: many were Irish. Of the original 400 settlers, 40 had Irish names. In addition, many brought with them Irish wives and slaves. According to one story, recounted in The Saga of the People of Laxardal, one haughty slave-girl by the name of Melkaroka has no appreciation of her duties. Faced with feuding women and clearly unable to control his Irish mistress, her owner installs her in a homestead of her own.
Aud the Deepminded, one of the famous Norse matriarchs, brought with her many Irish slaves from Dublin where her late husband, Olaf the White, had been king. She freed many of her slaves and set them up on their own.
Outside of Iceland, Harald Greycloak, the son of Erik Bloodaxe, became the nominal king of western Norway in 961. He was determined to force Christianity on the Norwegians. Under Greycloak, sacrifices were interrupted and places sacred to the Vikings gods were despoiled. By the 990s, there was a new Viking power emerging in the form of Olaf Tryggvason, known as Crowbone for his hobby of reading the omens. As Crowbone swept north toward Norway, he forced mass conversion to Christianity on the local people by threats of death and destruction unless they submitted to the love of Christ. The Christian priests and missionaries who travelled with Crowbone had few reservations about his rather bluntly barbaric methods of conversion.
The Irish may have brought with them the seeds of Christianity to Iceland. By the year 1000, however, it was clear that Iceland was on the brink of a religious war. The Icelandic Christians were preparing to fight over their religion. At the summer assembly, the lawspeaker Thorgeir Thorkelsson realized that if he made no attempt to settle this dispute that the 1000 assembly would be the last time that the Icelanders could claim to be self-governing. If the matter was not resolved, by the following year there would be two assemblies and the potential for a bloody civil war.
Thorgeir Thorkelsson, a pagan, brought both sides into negotiation. He demanded assurances from both sides that they would abide by his decision. Both sides agreed. Even though he was a pagan, he had the respect of the Christians. He heard arguments from both sides and then took more than a day to reach a decision.
Thorgeir Thorkelsson reached a compromise that pleased all. Iceland, as a nation, would accept baptism en masse. This would assure the outside forces, namely Crowbone of Norway, that the Icelanders were now Christian and prevent an invasion. Meanwhile, the Icelanders would remain free to practice the old ways. He specifically assured the pagans that the exposure of children and the eating of horseflesh were still permitted: this is a reference to sacrificial practices that formed part of the worship of Frey, Thor, or Odin. Pagan religious ceremonies were to be declared illegal, but only if the accusers were able to produce witnesses to verify that such ceremonies had actually taken place.
At the 1001 assembly, Thorgeir Thorkelsson was replaced as lawspeaker, which may be an indication that he had to call in every single available favor in order to bring about the compromise. Within a few years, the larger Christian majority was able to officially criminalize all of the old ways.