Kristnivæðing Íslendinga á landnáms- og söguöld í ljósi niðurstaðna frá fornleifauppgrefti á Þórarinsstöðum í Seyðisfirði

Abstract

The Conversion to Christianity in Iceland, occurring in AD 999/1000, has for long been a matter of research. This article aims, on the contrary, to examine the becoming of Christianity in Icelandic society as a religious undertaking emerging from the extensive and long-lasting expansion of the Christian faith across Europe during early Medieval times. The concept is not meant to define some sort of assimilation of two clearly delineated faiths — pre-Christian and Christian — or the resistance of one against the other, but to clarify the negotiation of the tensions arising between traditional and post-traditional habits due to cultural encounters. As such, the process of becoming describes not only how material culture reflects cross-cultural changes but also how people organised everyday life interactively in accordance with the new worldview. The 11th century church site at Þórarinsstaðir in Seyðisfjörður, East Iceland, presented here, exemplifies quite well how Icelanders became Christian through symbols and commodities originating from various regions in early Christian Europe. At the same time, the site displays the emergence of a new worldview shaped by the tension between the old and the new.