The Christianization of Sweden

Faith, Power, and the Fall of the Old Gods

von Adrian E. Markham

266 Seiten, Taschenbuch

Kurzbeschreibung des Verlags

The Christianization of Sweden: Faith, Power, and the Fall of the Old Gods by Adrian E. Markham explores the centuries-long transformation that carried Sweden from the world of the Norse gods into medieval Christendom. From the sacred landscape of Gamla Uppsala and the trading settlement of Birka to the first churches and Christian communities, the book traces a conversion that unfolded gradually through missionary encounters, royal ambition, political conflict, and changing ideas about faith and authority.

Markham follows the missions of Ansgar, the baptism of Olof Skötkonung, the resistance of pagan communities, and the struggle between Christian kings and defenders of ancestral tradition. Runestones, burial customs, sacred sites, and medieval accounts reveal a society in which old and new beliefs existed side by side, while monasteries, bishops, churches, and written law slowly established Christianity within the Swedish kingdom.

Drawing on archaeology, runic inscriptions, medieval law codes, and sources such as Rimbert's Vita Anskarii and Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, The Christianization of Sweden reveals a transformation that reshaped religion, kingship, law, literacy, and cultural identity. It offers a vivid and grounded portrait of a society negotiating profound change while preserving elements of an older Scandinavian world beneath the emerging Christian landscape.

• Reihe: Independently published
• ISBN: 9798175644419
• Sprache: Englisch
• Erscheinungsdatum: 24.09.2026
• Größe: 216 x 140 mm
• Verlag: Independently published