Twilight of the Gods. On the Disintegration and Demise of Old Norse Religion

It is a common opinion in research that the Scandinavians officially changed religion during the second half of the Viking Age (c. 900-1050/1100 AD). During this period the Old Norse religion was replaced by Christianity.

When describing this religious change in historiographic accounts the concept “Christianization” is often applied, an expression indicating the success and victory of the winning part of this meeting.

In most of these treatments focus is placed on the outcome of the conversion, i.e. a description of the early medieval Christianity, while processes in the demising religion are less observed.

The intention of this project is to concentrate on the Old Norse religion during the transition and describe the processes behind its disappearance. First of all a critical assessment of previous research will be conducted. Focus will be placed on how these treatments explain the decline of the Old Norse religion.

Then the questions how and especially why it disintegrated will be discussed.

A focal point will be placed on the rulers in this process and their role in the winding up of the native tradition that previously formed their lives.

Finally, the resistance and revolts against Christianity will be investigated, where the various expressions appearing in the sources will be compared. The intention here is to explain these variations from a contextual point of view. There is currently a research gap related to these questions.