SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

II6 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
I consider it certain that the fear of Doomsday about
the year IOOO had a great effect on Olafr Tryggvason and
his mission. Certainly there is no other example of this
effect which is so obvious.
Olafr Tryggvason came to Norway in 995. He was no
home-bred himself - he had been for many years in the
lands west of the North Sea, had become a Christian and
had married a Christian wife, while in his train were both
British and Continental clergy. The belief in the
impending Doomsday could not, therefore, pass him by.
And it acted like oil on the new-kindled fire of this Viking's
faith.
Olafr's actions are so astonishing that they need especial
explanation. He converts five countries to Christianity
in five years - the five years immediately before A.D. IOOO.
He is in such a hurry that he does not even take the trouble
to secure his throne, like Hakon the Good, before he begins
his mission. He forces people to Christianity by methods
which he and his clergy undoubtedly felt were not entirely
desirable. The mission to Norway is clearly different
from the missions elsewhere in the North. But if Olafr
believed that this was the last chance to save his people
from heathendom and Hell, it is no small excuse and
makes the man more understandable and acceptable."
Admittedly, we are not directly told that Olafr and his
clergy used this prophecy in their mission. Neither those
who had preached it nor those who had believed it were
willing to parade this fact later. But besides the main
factor that 6lafr must have known this prophecy, and
therefore have used it, various other pointers can be
mentioned. After his fall the people relapsed almost
entirely into heathendom. This could suggest that the
force had gone out of Christianity, as from an over-bent
bow, when the prophecy was not fulfilled. There are, too,
traces which indicate that Olafr and his clerics did not
78 [But d. a review byAmi Palsson, Skirnir (1924), 215 - Translators' note.]