The conversion of Iceland
Since I’m studying Iceland I thought maybe I should actually write a post about it. At the moment I’m deep in a study of the conversion of Iceland to Christianity.
The sources, specifically Ari Throgilsson write that the conversion of Iceland from heathenism to Christianity took place in the law court. The Althing in Iceland, established c.930 was the centre of Icelandic social life and really the only hint of institutionalized government that existed in Iceland in that period.
The story goes that Gizurr Teitsson and Hjalti Skeggjason returned from Norway to Iceland with the intent of converting the island after making promises to king Olaf Tryggvason of Norway to do so. At the Althing the heathen and Christian camps (some men in Iceland were at the time Christian after the efforts of bishop Thangbrand) were on the verge of battling. Cooler heads prevailed however and the lawspeaker Thorgeirr was approached to make a judgment on which law the country should have: heathen or Christian.
The clever man retires to his hut, lays down for a day and a night covered over with a cloak before emerging to proclaim his judgment. He tells everyone that Iceland must exist under one law. The often quoted (in scholarly circles) “if we tear law asunder, we tear asunder peace” were words he spoke, to which all assented before he proclaimed Christianity was to be the one religion of the land.
What’s fascinating is the legalistic nature of it all. Christianity came to Iceland through law, not marriage alliances or economic methods or conquest. Perhaps the most interesting facet of it all was that the lawspeaker Thorgeirr was himself a heathen. Various later sources claim he was paid off to make the judgment but then why wasn’t that included in Ari’s chronicle and it would seem to make his under-cloak contemplation for 24 hours a bit unnecessary. Whatever the case, it was the law that saw Iceland become Christian. Thorgeirr’s status and legal genius saw to it that the matter was resolved peacefully and so it was. The legal mentality was so strong in the Icelanders that they did not fight the decision, physically or otherwise. Once the lawspeaker spoke there wasn’t much that could be done. His words literally were law until the codes were written down in c.1117. (Wiki entry for Lawspeaker. Be careful using Wiki, it’s not the most reliable source.).
The conversion of Iceland is a remarkable story and one which is sometimes difficult to comprehend. How could law dictate something so deeply rooted as religion? Today that may be easy to do when most people do not have a religion of their own but Iceland had a well established heathen faith already entrenched with temples (and temple taxes), rites, and even priests yet it was swept away by a legal decree. To be sure it did not happen overnight and such notions don’t hold water. But the fact remains many men were baptized that day in Iceland and henceforth Iceland was Christian.