Religious Conversion and Political Legitimacy in Viking-Age Denmark

Download or read book Religious Conversion and Political Legitimacy in Viking-Age Denmark written by Benjamin Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Old Norse paganism provided Scandinavians with a religion, societal structure, and set of values. Beginning with the legendary kings of Denmark, Scandinavian rulers used religious belief for their own agenda. The process of conversion to Christianity was remembered in sagas and histories describing the Viking Age, the period of Scandinavian expansion from the ninth to twelfth centuries. As the Vikings converted to Christianity, the process was recorded in several sagas and histories. Conversion to Christianity took more than a century, depending on the region and élites, but echoes of non-Christian belief continued for centuries in both historical and literary texts.