ABSTRACT
The traditional end of the Viking Age is marked by the failed Norwegian invasion of England in 1066, but a more nuanced view takes in the wider and more gradual transformation of the North. This chapter examines Scandinavian contacts with Christianity, the religion of the great European powers that by the tenth century would gain a firm foothold. New structures of monarchy were being created at the same time, with the gradual consolidation of the state underpinned by a newly unified, monotheistic faith. The politics of the eleventh century are explored, along with the debateable concept of a later Viking ‘empire’ of the North Sea, together with wider impacts of the conversion in the diaspora. Norse interactions with other faiths, such as Islam, are considered here, as a backdrop to the emergence of the new Scandinavian nations on the political stage of literate, Christian Europe.
