ABSTRACT
It has sometimes been suggested that one element—perhaps even a major element—in the complex concept of ‘witchcraft’ was a hostile view of pagan cults held by Christians, whereby pagan gods were degraded into devils, and their worshippers came to be regarded as malevolent sorcerers. Such hostility would presumably be at its strongest during the period of acute political and cultural conflict accompanying conversion of a heathen country, and would be reflected in traditions relating to that period known to later Christian writers. As Scandinavia was the last area of Western Europe to be Christianised, and as its conversion was a frequent topic of interest to Icelandic saga-writers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, I propose to examine some Icelandic accounts of King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, to see how far his enemies are there identified with heathenism, magic and powers of darkness. 1
