Westernized history lessons are the most biased. If you want to find out real information check out books from various souces, especially from Europe.

It’s just like the news, in US (western culture) we have news channels that are bias and from one station to the next the same story is told from opposite ends, the same happens in the history books, but we don’t get the other side. the BBC gives you the news and doesn’t tell what to think about it because the people are supposed to think for themselves.

Also I saw many spelling violations a lot worse than capitalization, I might even have a few, it’s an interwebs post… FYI: people that think for themselves don’t really care about your opinion though they will read it and consider it if you make a good point. Yes, what I said applies to my post too, and that makes this a waste of time. I got nothin’ better to do.

first, I`d like to state, that the Norse people were not vikings per say, a viking is someone who pillage land from the sea, while the Norse people mainly were traders and explorers, do keep in mind that I`m not stating that some of them weren`t “vikings” as one can only imagine it as a rather common “occupation/lifestyle” when one look at sources such as Snorre Sturlavsson`s writings (Kings saga).

And then regarding the whole conversion from the old beliefs to the new ones (in Norway)
the norse people picked up sevral things from their travels, trade, war etc; and they were quite “friendly” in regards to cultural differences (to my knowledge. When Christianity grew in Norway, the news of it did of course reach the ears of the Nordic people, and some even let themself be baptised yet kept their old beliefs, simply to have the oppertunity to continue trading (this was demanded by some christians) this resulted in the reigion more or less getting pushed little by little upon the people. Eventually however Norway gained kings that were Christian and tried to force this religion further upon their entire people, such as Olav Trygvasson, this was mostly done in a quite brutal manner, Trygvasson did not manage to succesfully make his people Christian, and had to give up this idea.
It wasn`t until Olav Haraldsson got the throne at about 1015 that Christianity truely got a hold in the Norwegian Kingdom, Olav forced his people into accepting the faith by giving them an option; Either you worship the “true” god or be executed / lose your body parts and be exiled from the kingdom; Olav also destroyed sevral pagan art works, places of worship and such, however this was not enough for his people to convert fully, and many parts of the old ways would survive, even to these modern days, for example “Christmas” which in Norwegian is called Jul, decending from Yule (a norse holliday). Later the people rebelled against Olav, and he lost his throne at about 1028, then his life at 1030 during the battle of Stikklestad against the “rebels”; upon Olav`s death things happened with his corpse, such as his blood supposedly restoring a blinde man`s vision, his hair and nails growing, and his body not decomposing, and alot of other “miracles” at 1031 Olav was declared a “Saint” and people would pray to him for help and guidance and recieve the aid they hoped for.

To sum it all up; The norse people had little choice but convert to christianity, as it was that or be dishonoured. Also one can speculate that the Christian faith seemed stronger to the Norwegian people due to the acomplishments and “miracles” regarding Olav Haraldsson.

However I would like to state once more; that Olav did not succeed entirely, as many traiditions and such lived onwards, and sevral of the norse customs remained the same, and simply changed in name and purpose.

I do hope this have explained the whole thing decently to you all, and that you actually bothered to read what I wrote, furthermore I apologize for any typoes I might have had.

Thank you for your time
Kire.

Your history lesson there is flawed and filled with holes. It’s a shame that while you’re on the right track, you are spouting off inaccuracies. This is criminal because people come here looking to read into something, hoping to gain insight, and will be mislead by your half-truths and inaccuracies.

At best, you simply don’t know what you’re talking about and could use another history lesson (perhaps an unbiased, Westernized one) — and at worst, you’re intentionally ignorant.

All religions aren’t the same, which is why Europeans ditched praying to trees and became Christians.