Viking Christians: The Day Valhalla Died
In the year of our Lord 793, a Viking sail cuts through the North Sea off the coast of what is now Scotland. Within hours, warriors leap into the surf. They tear inland, but this time their target is a house of worship. The monastery at Lindisfarne is ravaged. Monks are slaughtered, enslaved, or drowned in the sea. It is a shocking act of brutality in a Britain where Christianity is still new and the pagan clans of Norway are winning. And yet within a few generations, Norway would build churches of its own.
Not only would Norway become Christian, the same nation that once sent Viking ships to plunder the coasts of Britain would one day send missionaries to the ends of the earth.
By 793, the Viking clans of Norway had been pagan for as long as anyone could remember—worshippers of the Edda: Odin, Thor, Loki, Freya. No, not the Thor and Loki of Hollywood. The Norse gods were amoral and capricious, deities next to whom even the Viking war parties looked restrained. Driven by that worldview, the Vikings spread terror along the coasts of Britain and Europe for centuries, stamping out churches wherever they could find them.
Lindisfarne was just the beginning. Iona, Jarrow—the raids would continue unchecked well into the next century. To the Vikings, it looked like the gods were rewarding them with victory, with honor, with wealth. And yet those same spoils would crack the foundation of everything they believed.
The first Christians to reach Norway may well have been slaves, carried off from raids on the British Isles, Ireland, and Europe. Together with these slaves, the Vikings unwittingly carried home the symbols of their faith, often crosses minted on stolen coins. And though their names are lost to us, missionaries came too. Over time, the Vikings' knowledge of Christ changed. No longer was He their enemy's king. He was about to take the throne of their homeland.
200 years after the Vikings had sacked the monastery at Lindisfarne, their king Olaf Tryggvason returned from his war against England a baptized Christian. Over the next generation, the kings of Norway would make their nation Christian, whether the Norse liked it or not. These first Christian kings of Norway were warriors still, and they brought their new religion to the homeland with often brutal force, waging wars against chieftains who refused to convert.
True to God and king, the laws of the land require people to accept the Christian faith as the basis and beginning of all good things. All inhabitants belong to the Catholic community. Religion accompanies people from birth to death.
So this is an oil painting of Peter. You can see him holding the word, holding the keys. 1200s. So by that time, Christianity has already come here. Two statues here. We have Mary, mother of Jesus, and we have Olaf.
In his youth, Olaf ravaged Northern Europe as a Viking, but he was baptized in France and returned to Norway and ruled as king. Everyone had to believe in Christ.
In God's providence, it wasn't the sword that prospered Christianity in Norway. Behind me is Old Aker Church. It's the oldest building in Oslo. It was built around the year 1100, a generation after those Christian kings and the chieftains they dragged into the church—or left on the battlefield—were dead and buried.
Is the building open for us to visit? Is there only a little window in Oslo? There's no chance we can peek in? Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, wow. Oh, this is beautiful.
It was here in churches like this one where Norway truly became Christian. The news of salvation in Christ reached Norway in the same way it's reached every nation and every language since He gave us the Great Commission. Christianity came through the life and ministry of ordinary Christians. First they were slaves, and then they were new converts. Men, women, children were baptized, cleansed from pagan darkness that they'd been born in.
The Lord has been very kind in, like, all of our filming ventures. This is supposed to be closed until Thursday. We happen to show up during a choir practice, and they were kind enough to let us in.
They almost made us sing with them though.
They almost made — yeah, that would be — I'm musically challenged. Cullen is a great baritone. But yeah, that would be painful to hear me sing.
Week in and week out, missionaries and pastors preached through the Bible and led them in worship and prayer. They translated the Scripture and hymns. They ate together, worked together, and mourned together. It was quite simply the church being the church and making disciples.
The Vikings, the battles, the kings who defy tradition––that's the part of the story that gets told. But it isn't the part that lasted. What lasted was quieter. A slave's whispered prayer. A hymn translated by candlelight. A father teaching his son a name his own father had never heard.
This is how Norway became Christian. And it is how every nation becomes Christian. Not by the sword, but by the slow, faithful work of the Spirit through the means of grace in the lives of ordinary people. Valhalla could not hold against it. No darkness can. In time, the same nation whose longships once carried terror to Britain would carry the gospel to the ends of the earth. Norwegian missionaries crossed oceans; they reached as far as South Africa, even as far as China.
And yet, there are still nations, still languages, where His name has not yet been spoken in their own tongue. But it will be.