Jochens, Jenny. Late and Peaceful.

• Author: Jochens, Jenny
• Title: Late and Peaceful: Iceland's Conversion Through Arbitration in 1000
• Published in: Speculum 74, 3
• Year: 1999
• Pages: 621-655
• E-text:
• Reference: Jochens, Jenny. "Late and Peaceful: Iceland's Conversion Through Arbitration in 1000." Speculum 74, 3 (1999): 621-655.

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Annotation

Published to coincide with the 1000th anniversary of the conversion of Iceland, this concise article presents a chronological survey of the Christianization of Iceland, from the transplantation of paganism from Norway to Iceland, through the period of colonization and the tenth century to the kristnitaka itself. The author highlights the importance of Celtic Christianity in this process, which she argues was brought to Iceland by Celtic slaves and, more particularly, transmitted to the children of pagan settlers by Celtic foster parents. She also suggests that the Icelandic skill for arbitration, demonstrated so effectively in the peaceful conversion, could have its roots in "the way in which Irish Christians had learned to live with the pagan culture in their homeland" (p. 653). In her final chapter on the events leading up to the conversion she relies on five sources - Íslendingabók, Kristni saga, Saga Óláfs Tryggvasonar af Oddr Snorrason Munk, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta, and Njáls saga. Jenny Jochens states that the account in the latter "is built on a lost Kristni þáttr" (p. 626), and on three occasions she makes a note of how it differs from the other sources: Njáls saga provides extra information on Halti Skeggjason's decision to return to Iceland, Síðu-Hallr's payment to Þorgeirr is said to be three marks silver (there are differing amounts in other sources), and the requirement of faith for the conversion is extented to "one god, father and son and holy spirit" (p. 650).

Lýsing

Texta vantar

References

Chapter 104: að hann hræddist þá: "Not having stayed away the requisite three years, Hjalti at first remained behind but eventually joined the Christian party... The last text gives as the reason for Hjalti's change of mind that he did not want to let heathen men think he feared them." (p. 648)

Chapter 105: trúa á einn guð, föður og son og anda helgan: "It is undoubtedly no coincidence that Ari and supposedly Þorgeirr talk only about baptism, the formal requirement of Christianity, without mentioning the accompanying faith in a single god. This would have entailed using the difficult concept goð (God), a neuter word in the pagan context, where it was most often used in the plural, but a masculine term for Christians, of necessity used only in the singular. [Footnote 130] "... Later texts add the requirement of believing in a single god (trúa á einn goð...). Njáls saga further elaborated the requirement as faith "in one god, father and son and holy spirit". (p. 650)

Links

• Written by: Harry Williams
• Icelandic/English translation: