An Old Norse Song (Read Description)

Vocals: Demetra Basourakos

Lyrics:
My mother told me
Someday I would buy
Galleys with good oars
Sails to distant shores
Stand up on the prow
Noble barque I steer
Steady course to the haven
Hew many foe-men
Hew many foe-men

We are all familiar with the fierce pagan warriors that burst out of Scandinavia during the eighth century, the fierce pagan warriors, worshippers of northern gods such as Odin and Thor, burners of coastal settlements, taking men and women as slaves, trashing Christian monasteries, and sacrificing victims in the terrible rite of the ‘Blood Eagle’. However, lesser-known fact about these infamous pillagers is that the majority converted to Christianity in the centuries that followed.

The raids of these pagan warriors spread terror from Ireland to Russia, from France to North Africa, in the ninth and tenth centuries. They were the first Europeans to settle, albeit unsuccessfully, in North America. In most of these places their northern beliefs were noted by those who suffered their attacks. Christian contemporaries of the Viking raids in the British Isles often simply referred to them as “the pagans” and “the heathens”. Islamic writers, who recorded their attacks on Muslim Spain, described them as “fire-worshippers and pagans” and stated, “may Allah curse them”. So, the image of Vikings as marauding pagans was well established – then as now.

So we examine their settlements in Britain, Ireland, Normandy, Russia, the Northern and Western Isles, Iceland, Greenland and even North America. In most of these places, conversion to Christianity occurred within one generation. In England, the children of Vikings who had martyred King Edmund of East Anglia minted coins celebrating Saint Edmund; in Ireland, Christian Scandinavians fought on both sides at the battle of Clontarf in 1014; in the East, they rapidly converted to Orthodox Christianity and founded the first Russian state, based in Kiev; in Normandy, they became enthusiastic supporters of the heretical Frankish 'Papist' Church. It took longer to happen in Iceland, but even there it had occurred by the year 1000.

In conclusion, Before the Vikings left the world stage, they had a great influence on Orthodox Christianity. The first prince of what would become the Russian civilization, was Saint Vladimir of Kievan-Rus. At the center of Christendom, the Imperial, God-protected City of Constantinople-New Rome, the elite Varangian Guard (the personal security of the Roman Emperor) was always composed of Vikings. The most famous captain of the Varangian Guard was King Harold Hardrada who died in 1066 in England.