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Compare Norse Mythology and Christianity

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Compare Norse Mythology and Christianity

The Norse are the people of Scandinavia, and before their conversion to Christianity, they

practiced a religion called the Norse religion. The Norse religion was mainly practiced during

the Viking ages. Arguably, the Norse religion is a folk religion which was not formalized as one

of the subsets of Germanic paganism not until the outsiders came in contact with it1. The

knowledge about the religion is largely dependent on the archeological work, early written

materials and etymology. The Norse people inter-marriage, traded and sometimes worked as

henchmen on the Roman farms. There are a lot in common between the Norse mythology and

Christianity and the former hugely impacted Christianity during the middle ages.

When the Norse were being converted into Christian, they did not abandon their old ways

of the Norse religion. They continued with their pagan gods and Norse adventures. The Norse

religion had some celebrations which were parallel to the Christian celebrations, and when they

got converted, they carried these celebrations into Christianity. Psychologically, the marriage

between Christian and the Norse religion only eased their transition into Christian. Instead of

religious leaders and the church fighting their primitive old ways and paganism, they only

changed the meaning of some of their feast and re-oriented them into Christianity. The most

obvious example of this religious transmogrification is the celebration of the winter solstice

which was replaced with the Christmas celebration. Their goddess such as Landissir was

converted into a saint and Hamingja who was responsible for protecting families become the

1
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths. Pantheon, 2012.
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guardian angel. Undoubtedly, the Norse religion prepared the way for Christianity among the

Scandinavian.

The believers of the Norse religion believed in the death and resurrection of Balder who

was their religious leader, the same way Christian believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus

Christ. When Christian entered the region, the death of Balder was immediately replaced with

the death of Jesus Christ. They started to celebrate the death of Christ and Balder on Friday and

the coming back to life on Monday; the holidays were name Good Friday and Easter Monday

respectively. Surprisingly, Easter holiday was named after a Germanic goddess known as

Ostara. Also, scholars have argued that the Christian Easter holiday substituted the springtime

celebration of the Germanic festival. History has shown that as early as the 9th Century, the

native Germans knew the month of April as Osarmanoth which was named after Ostara2. Ostara

was the German goddess of fertility.

Surprisingly, some aspect of Odin were intentionally transferred to Christ. Just like the

Christians’ Jesus, Odin hung on a tree while being pierced by a spear. The intention of

sacrificing himself was to gain mystic knowledge. But unlike Odin, the reason why Christ died

on the cross was to save humanity from sin. Also, there is a strikingly commonality in that both

Christ and Odin were spiritual beings. To rightfully fit the psychology of the Norsemen, the

Christian Jesus was portrayed to them as a warrior. For instance, images of Thor and vidar

(Horse religion gods) defeating the Midgard serpent and the Fenris Wolf respectively were put

2
Nygaard, Simon. "Sacral rulers in pre-Christian Scandinavia: The possibilities of typological

comparisons within the paradigm of cultural evolution." Temenos 52, no. 1 (2016): 9-35.
 4

beside the images of crucifixion. The intention of doing this was to convince the Horsemen that

the Christian Jesus fights sin the way the old gods fought the enemy. Some of their literature

referred to Jesus as a warrior who willingly mounted the cross as a self-sacrifice and a heroic

move to fight against the evil. Odin is a central figure in the Norse mythology3. Odin led his

people out of their dwelling place into a city called Asgard and eventually into their new home in

Western Europe; it resembles the Israelites migration from Egypt into Canaan. The city of

Asgard when translated into English it means the city of God’s people. Unmistakable evidence

proves that the name Odin has a Babylonian Origin.

There are some notable differences between the Norse religion and Christianity. For

instance, the Norse religion had to centralized authority and official doctrine. Their faith was

mainly centered on personal experience, and an individual had the freedom to make a choice on

the deity the person wants to relate with it4. When the Norsemen were presented with the

Christian God as a jealous God, and they found it hard to learn and accept it. Also, the pagan

temples were primarily owned and maintained by individual families and the rulers. The local

kings were responsible for overseeing the activities of the temples and in a family setting, family

3
Olsson, Stefan. "Book review: More than Mythology: Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional

Distribution in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions, written by Catharina Raudvere and Jens

Peter Schjødt." Numen 61, no. 2-3 (2014): 320-324.

4
Olsen, Carl. "More than Mythology: Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in

Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions by Ed. Catharina Raudvere and Jens Peter Schjødt

(review)." Scandinavian Studies 86, no. 1 (2014): 105-109.

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heads build shrines that were maintained by members of the lineage5. When they were eventual

converted into Christianity, the priest took the ownership of the temples and shrine from the local

kings and the family kings. Also, after their conversion into Christian, they scrapped the role of

the female goddess who served them under the Norse religion.

In conclusion, there are a lot of commonality between the Norse Mythology and

Christianity, and it is no surprise the religion paved the way for the adoption of Christianity in

the Middle Ages. Some of their practices were easily incorporated into Christianity, and it was

very easy for them to be converted because they were familiar with most of the Christian

practices. Perhaps were it not for these commonalities, Christian missionaries could have found

it rough.

5
Tolley, Clive. Shamanism in Norse myth and magic. No. 296. Academia Scientiarum Fennica,

2009.
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Bibliography

Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Norse Myths. Pantheon, 2012.

Nygaard, Simon. "Sacral rulers in pre-Christian Scandinavia: The possibilities of typological

comparisons within the paradigm of cultural evolution." Temenos 52, no. 1 (2016): 9-35.

Olsson, Stefan. "Book review: More than Mythology: Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional

Distribution in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions, written by Catharina Raudvere and

Jens Peter Schjødt." Numen 61, no. 2-3 (2014): 320-324.

Olsen, Carl. "More than Mythology: Narratives, Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in Pre-

Christian Scandinavian Religions by Ed. Catharina Raudvere and Jens Peter Schjødt

(review)." Scandinavian Studies 86, no. 1 (2014): 105-109.

Tolley, Clive. Shamanism in Norse myth and magic. No. 296. Academia Scientiarum Fennica,

2009.