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1 results

  • 7 - Scandinavia enters Christian Europe

  • from PART II - FROM VIKINGS TO KINGS
  • Edited by Knut Helle, Universitetet i Bergen, Norway
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Scandinavia
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    04 September 2003, pp 147-159

  • Summary

    It was not until the ninth century that significant numbers of Scandinavians were converted to Christianity, but some knowledge of Christian beliefs and rituals had reached Scandinavia much earlier. By the beginning of the ninth century the Franks had subjected and forcibly converted the Saxons south of the river Elbe. In 819, the Franks helped Harald to regain power in an uneasy partnership with Godfred's sons. This made it possible for Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims, to lead a mission to Harald's part of the kingdom. The first king to be baptised in Scandinavia was the Dane, Harald Gormsson, who proclaimed that he had made the Danes Christian on the huge runic monument he had erected at Jelling. By the end of the eleventh century Christianity had begun to affect all levels of Scandinavian society. Numerous churches had been built, many of them by landowners with clergy who were, in effect, their servants.