Eruption turned Vikings to Christianity

A MASSIVE volcanic eruption helped convert Iceland’s Vikings to Christianity more than a thousand years ago, according to new research.

Memories of the largest lava flood in the country’s history, recorded in a medieval poem, were used to drive the island’s conversion to Christianity.

Now, using information contained within ice cores and tree rings, a team of scientists and historians, led by Cambridge University researchers, has discovered that the eruption of the Eldgjá began around the spring of AD 939 and continued at least until the autumn of AD940.

The study’s lead author, Dr Clive Oppenheimer, of Cambridge’s department of geography, said: “This places the eruption squarely within the experience of the first two or three generations of Iceland’s settlers. Some of the first wave of migrants to Iceland, brought over as children, may well have witnessed the eruption.”.

Having dated the eruption, the researchers found that Iceland’s most celebrated medieval poem, which describes the end of the pagan gods and the coming of a new, singular god, describes the eruption and uses memories of it to stimulate the Christianisation of Iceland.