Cremation was another common burial practice for pagan Vikings. The Arab traveller Ibn Fadlan, who attended a ship-burning funeral on the Volga in 922, wrote that Vikings believed that burning a body released the dead person’s spirit faster than burying it could do. Hence, it was a kind act. The sagas describe tales in which the dead were cremated in treasure-filled ships pushed out to sea. There is as yet no archaeological evidence to confirm this practice. 7.5.4 The influence of Christianity Gradually, the Vikings were exposed to Christianity and began accepting the Christian God among their deities. Eventually, most Viking leaders adopted Christianity exclusively. Early records by Anglo-Saxon monks show that the Vikings attacked monasteries in England, Scotland and Ireland. They looted valuable items like silver plates, golden crucifixes, goblets and coins. These attacks brought the Vikings into contact with Christianity, and captured slaves likely spread their beliefs to new lands.
SOURCE7 An extract from Alcuin of York’s letter to the Bishop of Lindisfarne consoling him on the terrible Viking raid
The intimacy of your love used to rejoice me greatly when I was with you; but conversely, the calamity of your tribulation saddens me greatly every day, though I am absent; when the pagans desecrated the sanctuaries of God, and poured out the blood of saints around the altar, laid waste the house of our hope, trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the street.
The coming of Christianity to Scandinavia By the end of the Viking Age, most of the Scandinavian countries had adopted Christianity as their main religion. Evidence suggests the conversion to Christianity was a gradual process. There was a long period of overlap where old pagan and Christian practices mingled. 7.5.5 Christian leadership Kings and chieftains taking up the new Christian faith also did much to hasten the path to conversion. With many of the powerful leaders of Europe already converted to Christianity, it made political sense for Scandinavian rulers to convert to the religion of their allies. King Olaf Tryggvason imposed Christianity on Norway in 995 CE. The sagas tell of him destroying pagan temples. Such aggression suggests there was resistance to the spread of Christianity. By the time Tryggvason’s successor, St Olaf, had finished his work of converting Norway and Iceland to Christianity, the Christian faith had taken firm root in the Viking world.
SOURCE8 A Viking gravestone from Yorkshire in England. It combines both Christian and pagan symbols.
7.5 SkillBuilder activity COMMUNICATING Imagine you are one of the gods featured in this lesson. Create a short tale that describes one day in your life where you visit Scandinavia and meet some Viking warriors. Describe the social group and lives of the people that you meet, as well as where they come from and what they are doing on this day. What is their reaction to you?
170 Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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