Christianity Vs Vikings

Luis Prada

Christianity vs Vikings The three main political powers at the time of the Vikings were the Byzantines, the Muslims, and the Germanic Tribes, and of all three powers the Germanic Tribe would be the most profoundly involved with Vikings. One of Anglo-Saxon England’s greatest Leaders was King Alfred, who was a strong Catholic and tried to convert many people including the Vikings. The Vikings had invaded monasteries all over Europe and spread terror into European citizens. All Europe could do was try to convert the Vikings to Christianity so they would stop their pagan actions. King Alfred was a king who would do just that. King Alfred was one of the main catalysts for the spread of Christianity among the Vikings in England and Denmark.

There followed the Treaty of Wedmore in the same year and the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum in 886. These treaties formalized the boundaries of the English kingdoms and the Viking Danelaw territory, with provisions for peaceful relations between the English and the English Vikings.” (Wikipedia- Viking Expansion) Guthrum wasn’t killed during battle but was still pagan and because of this Alfred did not give up on converting Guthrum to Christianity even if he had to force it. Since Alfred had won, a provision of the treaty was that the Vikings had to convert to Christianity. At the end, Alfred’s determination had paid off and the cultural transformation from paganism into Christianity from East Anglia was a success only because of the treaty. “Three weeks later Guthrum and 29 of his chief men were baptized at Alfred's court at Aller, near Athelney, with Alfred receiving Guthrum as his spiritual son.” ( Wikipedia- Alfred the Great) Guthrum and his men knew they had to convert because they lost the battle of Edington, so most of them tried to change their beliefs even though it was a huge change. All Guthrum’s men were forced to convert but not all of them actually did convert they just made it seemed like they converted. The Vikings raided monasteries and saw nothing wrong with it because they were pagans and that was normal for their religion. That is why it was hard for the Vikings to comprehend that Christianity represented a higher form of culture than paganism because Christianity had better moral beliefs and that all together was better than Paganism which had lower moral beliefs. It was hard for the Vikings to change from paganism to Christianity because Christianity had very different beliefs such as loving and merciful God and the Bible. The religious transformation was from weekly sacrifices and desecrating monasteries for gold into having no animal sacrifices, but spiritual