Vikings Religion

Christianity due to both being stemmed from the Abrahamic religious roots. On the contrary, in Christianity, the importance is placed in Jesus Christ, and a monotheist God instead of polytheism.

The Vikings conversion to Christianity, was a pivotal factor for being key to the decline of the Viking’s influential reign over Europe in the mid 11th Century, owning to the fact that the introduction of Christianity, led to major cultural, political and socioeconomic changes among the Vikings. Consequently, the momentum of the Viking Age came to a gradual decline, because of the spread of Christianity across the Scandinavian region. Anders Winroth argues that because the Europeanization and Christianization of Scandinavia was not through conquest and colonization, rather, remarkably, Vikings were not necessarily forced to convert to Christianity, but had willingly done so due to the apparent, unprecedented advantages of the religion. Suggesting, that due to the Vikings freely accepting Christianity and the European culture, the Viking Age declined with less resistances, as there was mutuality between the

As seen in Fig.3, the Runestone of King Harald Bluetooth, demonstrates the infusion of European culture (that of Christianity and Church having sole authority) and the Nordic culture especially the Norse art which was commonly used by the Vikings. It is since, this infusion of Viking and European culture that was allowed to happened that it contributed greatly to the decline of the Viking Age in the mid 11th Century, as the Vikings began to assimilate more into the European culture and moral practices and values, through intermarriage and producing children therefore diluting the Viking culture and religion, leading to the end of the Viking Age as many