Conversion of Scandinavia

Vikings, Merchants, and Missionaries in the Remaking of Northern Europe

Winroth Anders

In this book a MacArthur Award-winning scholar argues for a radically new interpretation of the conversion of Scandinavia from paganism to Christianity in the early Middle Ages. Overturning the received narrative of Europe's military and religious conquest and colonization of the region, Anders Winroth contends that rather than acting as passive recipients, Scandinavians converted to Christianity because it was in individual chieftains' political, economic, and cultural interests to do so. Through a painstaking analysis and historical reconstruction of both archaeological and literary sources, and drawing on scholarly work that has been unavailable in English, Winroth opens up new avenues for studying European ascendency and the expansion of Christianity in the medieval period.

About the Author

Anders Winroth, professor of history at Yale, is the author of "The Making of Gratian's Decretum", for which he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2003.

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