Dzięki komu Islandczycy nawrócili się na chrześcijaństwo? Konwersja widziana oczami średniowiecznych autorów

Résumé

Who Inspired Icelanders to Convert to Christianity? Conversion Perceived by Mediaeval Authors

The article not so much reconstructs actual events associated with the conversion of Icelanders to Christianity in 1000, but deals with the way in which it was depicted in successive sources spanning from Íslendingabók by Ari the Learned (1122– 1133) and Historia de antiquitate regum Norwagiensium by Theodoricus monachus (about 1177–1188) to thirteenth-century Icelandic sagas. The prime question pertains to the role ascribed to particular participants of the events, with special emphasis on King Ólaf Tryggvason of Norway. Up to now researchers asked whether, and to what extent, a ruler who never set foot in Iceland could have influenced decisions made by Althing. In the light of comparative studies Tryggvason appears to have been the “lord of the mission” without whose participation the Christianisation of Iceland would have ended in a fiasco. At the same time, certain authors of the sources deprecated the king’s role by accusing him of cruelty.