Did early Vikings attack Christian churches to grab their wealth, or destroy the religion? An interesting perspective explaining how the multi-God beliefs of the Norse faith enabled their acceptance of Christianity as Norse Vikings both raided and settled across Europe.
Listen to “Norse Vikings: Accept or Attack the Christian religion?” on Spreaker.
QUOTES
“It’s hard to try and have that melting point of religions because some religions only want to state one God.”
“I don’t think that the Vikings really opposed the Christians because they believed in multi-Gods.”
“Yes they were attacking places of religion, but not because they believed they were places of religion, but because the Christian church was dripping with gold back then.’
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SHOW NOTES
A Midlife Traveler Podcast; Season 1 Scotland Speaks
EPISODE: Did Early Norse Vikings Accept or Attack Christianity?
Norse Religion of Vikings Believed in Multiple Gods
In the context of history and diverse religious beliefs it can be hard to try for a melting point of religions because some religions only want to state one God. It’s a likely scenario that the Vikings really opposed the Christians because they believed in multi-Gods. They would not say, “No, our God is correct”, but instead “No there are Gods”. Likely that was their argument. It wasn’t the argument saying you’re religion’s wrong or my religion’s wrong. The Norsemen would say, “We can accept because there are many Gods”.
But Viking Gods were Gods of war. So perhaps they thought, “We don’t really like him. He’s a bit weak. He wants all happiness and stuff. We like to fight.” But it wasn’t to deny him. They were interested, they were intrigued.
Vikings Wanted to Learn about the Christian God
The Vikings were interested in the Christian God and seriously they wanted to know. When they came to Briton and there were pictures of Saint Sebastian with arrows all sticking through his body and they were like, “who is this man and how did he survive?”
And the response was “Because our Lord, our God saved him.” And the Norse were so interested in a God so powerful that he could save a man filled with arrows! They were intrigued. They didn’t want to deny this new God, they wanted to learn.
About Norse Religion
As has been written, for many people of Norse belief or mythology, Odin, our father gave his eye for knowledge. He hung himself from a tree for twenty one days to seek knowledge. He would travel the world to seek knowledge. Odin didn’t deny the existence of other gods.
In the teachings of North mythology were about learning and about the existence of many Gods so the Norse people should have been very interested. By the time Norse Vikings started raiding into the newer areas, they were aware of the religions and quite often men would stop other men from going into areas that they believed to be religious sanctums. “No, you can’t rain that.” They would stop each other because “No, no. This will anger all of the Gods.”
Looking for the Wealth? Go to the Church
When Norse Vikings first started coming to the UK, yes they were attacking places of religion, but not because they believed they were places of religion, but because the Christian church was dripping with gold back then. Everything from the cups to … Why would Vikings go and raid someone’s home in a country in which the belief was the meek inherited the earth? They’re not gonna have anything in their homes… it was the churches who had the wealth. They had all the gold, they had all the silver. That’s what Norse Vikings were mainly interested in. Not destroying the faith or religion.
PLANNING A TRIP TO SCOTLAND? Check out Heart of Scotland Tours:
We were very happy with the tours we took from Heart of Scotland (2 day Highlands & 1 day Viking Coast) and would recommend them to travelers. Here are some of their 1 & 2 day tours departing from Edinburgh.