Review: The Vikings - From Odin to Christ by Martyn and Hannah Whittock

Synopsis: The popular image of the Vikings is of tall red-headed men, raping and pillaging their way around the coast of Europe, stopping only to ransack monasteries and burn longships. But the violent Vikings of the 8th century became the pious Christians of the 11th century, who gave gold crosses to Christian churches and in whose areas of rule pagan idols were destroyed and churches were built.

So how did this radical transformation happen, and why? What difference did it make to the Vikings, and to those around them, and what is their legacy today? This book takes a "global" look at this key period in Viking history, exploring all the major areas of Viking settlement. Written to be an accessible and engaging overview for the general reader.

For me, this was a highly informative journey into the transformation of the "pagan" Viking into the acceptable "christian" that is well annotated and referenced, and makes use of the voices of the Vikings themselves, through their sagas, to provide context. The authors explore the conversion of the Viking peoples and how and why this religious transformation took place.  What is interesting is the differing views on what constituted conversion, where the roots of conversion eminated from, and the how each conversion event was unique. 

The authors make clever use of their chapters to sort out and compartmentalise the history of the conversion of each group or nation, making it more accessible to the reader.  We take a look at who were the Vikings of the pre-christian world, and compare that with our modern perception of them. We look at how different forms of Christianity were the driving forces behind the conversions - German, Irish, British and Greek missionaries each had their sphere of influence and success.

First up is the raids on Anglo Saxon England, Ireland, Frisia and the Frankish Empire.  Were these raids a serious threat to the already established Christian religions - for following these attacks was a serious collapse in pastoral care throughout into which the pagan religions filled the vacuum.

To the subject at hand - we now get down to the chapters that are the most interesting, and I will give a brief summary of each, starting with Chapter 4 -"The Cross and the Hammer" - the Vikings in northern England, the dominance of pagan rule, and of co-existance and assimilation.

Chapter 5 find us in 8th Century Ireland, with the inability of local leaders to unite and form a cohesive front against the Viking attacks and the establishment of permanent bases - at least not until the Battle of Clontarf.  The foundation of Normandy is covered in Chapter 6, with the transition of conversion taking a mere century, and the development of Church reform under these newly christianised leaders gained prominance.

Now we get to the main Viking nations: Chapter 7 covers the conversion process in 10th Century Denmark under the leadership of of Harold Bluetooth, despite earlier missions two centuries prior; and also clarifies some of the misnomers of the reign of both Svein Forkbeard and Cnut.  Chapter 8 takes us to Norway, whose missionary kings - the Olafs - lead the fight against pagan resistance.  The use of burials as an indicator of the level of the reaches of conversion, and the connection between conversion and the expansion of royal power is also discussed. 

Sweden and the arrival of the German missionaries in the 9th Century is covered in Chapter 9.  This conversion took much longer as this area was not so politically unified as its neighbours.  Unity and royal power increased at the same rate as the conversion, and was more or less complete with the incorporation of Finland by 13th Century.

Chapter 10 deals with the spread of the Vikings in the east, namely through the Byzantine Empire, the Baltic, the establishment of the kingdom of Rus, the reach of trade as far as Baghdad, and of course, the hero Harald Hardrada.  The colonisation and conversion of the North Atlantic Viking outposts of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands in Chapter 11 quite naturally leads into the the voyages of the Greenlanders to Vinland in the 11th Century, and the first American Christians.

Back we head to Anglo Saxon England, and the reign of the first Viking Kings, Svein of Denmark and his son Cnut the Great, under who, as a loyal son the the Chruch, actively suppressed paganism.  The obliteration of Pictish culture under the Vikings in the islands to the north and the west (Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetland, et el), and the missions from Germany and Ireland, forms one of our final chapters.  It is assimilation, expansion, trade, spread of ideas, and the unity of political power in the mid 12th century that finally ended the "Viking Age".

This is truly a remarkable journey of the Christianisation of the Scandinavian world that really kicked off in the late 9th century and lasted for a period of three hundred years.