As with most heathen religions that of the Northmen was
full of terrors. Their lively imagination peopled the world with many strange
figures. Fiends and monsters inhabited the marshes, giants lived in the dark
forest, evil spirits haunted all solitary places, and ghosts stalked over the
land by night. The use of charms and spells to guard against such creatures
passed over into Christian times. Their memory also survives in folk tales,
which are full of allusions to giants, dwarfs, goblins, and other supernatural
beings.
CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE NORTHMEN
Christianity first gained a foothold in Denmark through
the work of Roman Catholic missionaries sent out by Charlemagne's son, Louis
the Pious. Two centuries elapsed before the Danes were completely
converted. From Denmark the new faith spread to Sweden. Norway owed its
conversion largely to the crusading work of King Olaf (1016-1029 A.D.), whose
zeal for Christianity won him the title of Olaf the Saint. The Norwegians
carried Christianity to Iceland, where it supplanted the old heathenism in the
year 1000 A.D. With the general adoption of the Christian religion in
Scandinavian lands, the Viking Age drew to an end.
