Introduction
In the tenth and eleventh centuries, Norway’s Christian kings had close ties to Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire, to Novgorod and Kiev, the chief cities of Rus’, and above all to England. The authorities in Rome chafed at it, wanting Norway to look to Germany and France instead; but for over two hundred years the bond with England was too strong to break.
NORWAY received its Christianity and its Christian Church from England. The terminology and the peculiar institutions of the Norwegian Church were borrowed from the Anglo-Saxon. The church in Norway was established by kings educated in England, and by Anglo-Saxon bishops.
King Haakon the Good (reigned 935-961) was educated in England at Athelstan’s court.* After he became king he sent to England for a bishop and other teachers and made several ineffectual attempts to convert Norway from heathendom. The work was left for Olaf Tryggvason (995-1000), and he accomplished it with the aid of the sword.* He was converted in England,* and had with him in Norway, Sigurd, an English bishop. Iceland, too, was Christianised from England in Olaf’s reign, largely through Thangbrand, a missionary from England.* Olaf Haraldsson (c. 1016-1030), afterwards St Olaf, also received his Christian education in England. He continued Tryggvason’s labours and organized the church in Norway.
* See Athelstan and the Prince of Norway.
* See The Conversion of Rogaland.
* According to the Norse sagas, Olaf was converted by a hermit in the Isles of Scilly, and later presented to King Ethelred at Andover, England, by Alfheah (pronounced ‘alf-high’) or Alphege, Bishop of Winchester. See The Baptism of Olaf Tryggvason and The Oath of Olaf Tryggvason.
Thangbrand came with Olaf to Norway from England, though Snorro Sturluson describes him as a Saxon priest, “a passionate, ungovernable man, and a great manslayer; but he was a good scholar, and a clever man.” Olaf took him into his service, and in 995, after winning the crown of Norway, appointed him to a church on Moster in Hordaland. Complaints that Thangbrand’s pastoral care consisted of ‘apostolic blows and knocks’ prompted Olaf to send him to Iceland to redeem himself. His buccaneering adventures there are told in Njáls Saga. He returned, having killed three more men, complaining that Icelanders were just too stubborn; but two of his converts, Gizurr the White and Hjalti Skeggiason, persuaded King Olaf otherwise and in 1000 the island’s governing council, the Althing, embraced Christianity and threw their idols over a waterfall. Thangbrand inspired a censorious narrative poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Précis
The first churches in Norway were established in the tenth century by Norwegian rulers who had been educated in England, and who brought English clergy over to Trondheim to advise them. Haakon the Good, Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf Haraldsson all played their part, though progress was slow and their methods sometimes left much to be desired. (56 / 60 words)
The first churches in Norway were established in the tenth century by Norwegian rulers who had been educated in England, and who brought English clergy over to Trondheim to advise them. Haakon the Good, Olaf Tryggvason and Olaf Haraldsson all played their part, though progress was slow and their methods sometimes left much to be desired.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, besides, despite, just, not, ought, unless, whereas.
Word Games
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