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Chapter 6. The Sky 162
acceptance by Christian rulers abroad, which in turn required him to confirm
his own Christian faith.” 27
Kings who were determined to widen their influence of political power also depended
greatly on how many followers they could collect who were sympathetic to “the
cause,” and this seems to have been a primary rationale for the often bloody baptisms
that are recorded in many of the sagas of kings.
Always preaching the religious and spiritual aspects of Christianity, newly Christianized
kings marched through the north gaining converts and ever-widening their
cause. The “cause” of King Ólaf, for example, was to become the king of a united
Norway, and to this end, he brought the new religion to the ignorant farmers of the
interior of Norway, those who were most isolated from the influences of both politics
and new religious practices.
“He investigated how Christianity was being kept, and when he considered
that there was need of improvement, he taught them the right faith. And
he laid stress on it that if he found anyone who did not want to abandon
Heathendom, he drove him out of the land. Some he had maimed, having
their hands or feet lopped off or their eyes gouged out, others he had hanged
or beheaded, but left no one unchastised who refused to serve God. And thus
he proceeded in all that district (Uppland). Always he punished both the
mighty and the humble.” 28
Apparently, the benefits of accepting the new faith were not always obvious to
prospective converts and some demonstration of the power of God was necessary to
help convince those who were reluctant to completely change their worldview.
This new worldview offered mankind a different way to gain a sense of self
satisfaction through the Christian teaching of equality in the eyes of God, but
ego-centrism and narcissism have their costs. True, on the surface, the Asa-faith
appeared disorganized and non-temporal as far as the stories of the Gods were concerned,
but from that disorganization came a sense of belonging through well-defined
roles within a family and a community. Christianity offered a text, the Bible, and
a world view, which were very well-organized, but Christian philosophy left the
definition of man’s role up to individual interpretation. Certainly, the new religion
allowed for a sense of equality and humaneness in what seemed to be an otherwise
unfair, uncaring world, but conversely some of the bloodiest wars in the history of
mankind have been fought defending these individual interpretations.
“And here of course we have the great contradiction at the heart of Christianity,
a religion which in action denies the faith it confesses verbally: Jesus’
27 Page, R. I. Chronicles of the Vikings (Barnes & Noble; New York, NY) 1992, p. 222.
28 Sturluson Heimskringla, pp. 309-10.