„Ugyanaz legyen mindnyájunk törvénye és vallása”
“Let Us All Have the Same Law and the Same Religion”

The Conversion of Iceland

Summary/Abstract: Christianity was made law in Iceland through arbitration at the national assembly, the alþingi, in the summer of 999 (or more traditionally 1000). By so doing, the country not only managed to avert civil strife, but stimulated a cultural flowering that produced the saga literature and preserved a considerable part of Norse mythology. For the better understanding of this extraordinary chapter in the Christianization of Europe, the paper discusses the events leading up to the assembly’s decision, the unique society and the pre-Christian and Christian religious notions at the time, and compares the missionary endeavours in Iceland with those carried out in continental Scandinavian countries. It highlights some of the causes and prerequisites of the kristnitaka (“the taking of Christianity”), and gives a detailed account of the politico-religious actions of late tenthcentury Iceland.

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