Video Vikings and Christian Conversion

The conversion of the Vikings at home is dealt with (after a fashion) in the sequel series, Netflix’s Vikings: Valhalla(2022–24). Beginning with the St. Brice’s Day Massacre in England (1002) and fast-forwarding through the next several decades, it focuses on the story of King Harald Sigurdsson (Hardrada) and his “friend” Leif Eriksson (who was actually about 40 years older and probably never met him) in Norway, Russia, and Constantinople.

In the interval since the end of the first series (about AD 878), Christianity has spread widely in Norway—we’re not informed exactly how. Tolerance for the old ways persists only in “Kattegat” (the name of a Danish strait that the writers bestow, for some reason, on the fictional Norwegian hometown of Ragnar, who was actually Danish, and his descendants). There, heathens and Christians live in harmony. But the Christians under “Jarl” (Earl) Olaf Haraldsson (Saint Olaf) are determined to stamp out all heathenism, and so declare war on Kattegat.

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