Vikings: Religion

"We like to think of the Vikings as pagan plunderers. But, as Gareth Williams explains, they were quick to adopt Christianity at home and in the lands they conquered ... "

"Vikings are often seen as heathen marauders mercilessly targeting Christian churches and killing defenceless monks. But this is only part of their story. The Vikings played a key role in spreading Christianity, too ... "

"The Vikings’ belief in the Norse gods was of significance to almost all activities – in everyday life or for warriors in battle. They therefore sacrificed to the gods to obtain their goodwill. In recent decades dramatic finds have shown that large religious sacrifices in honour of the gods were held at magnates’ residences ... "

"From the Viking Age we have several horrifying accounts of human sacrifice. The German Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg tells how the Vikings met every nine years in camps on Zealand in the month of January "... and sacrifices to their gods 99 men, and as many horses, dogs, and cocks or hawks, that these should serve them in the kingdom of death and atone for their misdeeds." ... "

Scroll down the page to Believers ... "During the Viking Age, practitioners of Scandinavia’s Old Norse religion worshipped many gods—both male and female. Although no contemporary sources survive that describe Viking rituals, later medieval written sources record Old Norse beliefs including descriptions of the Viking gods and the story of how the world was formed ... "

"The chronology of Norse mythology has a clear beginning in the creation myth, and a clear ending in the tale of Ragnarok. But most of what happens in between those two bookends doesn’t occur in any particular order, and certainly doesn’t follow a strictly linear trajectory ... "