When did people stop believing in the old gods like Greek and Norse? Did the Vikings just wake up one morning and think ”this is bullshit”?
In:
Religion in the early days was used as a unifying force, a way to bring related groups of people who lived separately, sometimes under separate rulers and sets of laws, under one national banner and provide some sort of national identity to those groups of people. Of course, it also gave that ruler a lot more power over more people and more land than he had before… And sometimes that national religion helped provide a sense of protection with other countries, too, though of course not always (look at how many wars there have been over the years).
Modern Scandinavian countries, which didn’t really exist in their modern forms back then, took several centuries (from about the 8th century to the 12th century) to really full adopt christianity. It was not an overnight thing. It took time to build church networks, educate people, get them used to the idea of celebrating *different* ideas for their holidays (since a lot of Christian holidays are based directly on older pagan holidays – it’s a lot easier to get someone to like something and accept something when the traditions look pretty similar…).
Latest Answers