Series of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions in Iceland during the Middle Ages spurred Icelanders to turn away from their pagan gods and convert to Christianity

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A series of Earth-shattering volcanic eruptions in Iceland during the Middle Ages may have spurred the people living there to turn away from their pagan gods and convert to Christianity. But why would volcanic eruptions turn people toward monotheism? The answer has to do with the “Vǫluspá,” a prominent medieval poem that predicted a fiery eruption would help lead to the downfall of the pagan gods, the researchers said.

iceland eruption christianity pagan gods, The Codex Regius, an Icelandic collection of poems about pagan gods, contains a version of the Vǫluspá, a very apocalyptic poem, which describes how an eruption and meteorological events would mark the end of the pagan gods, who would be replaced by one, singular god, volcanic eruption christianity iceland
The Codex Regius, an Icelandic collection of poems about pagan gods, contains a version of the Vǫluspá, a very apocalyptic poem, which describes how an eruption and meteorological events would mark the end of the pagan gods, who would be replaced by one, singular god. Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty

Historians have long known that the Vikings and Celts settled Iceland in about A.D. 874, but they were less certain about the date of the Eldgjá lava flood, the largest eruption to hit Iceland in the past few millennia. Knowing this date is crucial, because it can tell scientists whether the eruption — a colossal event that unleashed about 4.8 cubic miles (20 cubic kilometers) of lava onto Greenland — impacted the settlement there.

The results

To investigate, the researchers examined ice core records. Their results showed that the eruption took place less than 100 years after people settled the island. The volcano began gushing lava in the spring of A.D. 939 and lasted, at least episodically, until the autumn of 940.

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.

The finding matches medieval chronicles from Ireland, Germany and Italy that noted the spread of a haze in 939. Moreover, the tree-ring data revealed that in A.D. 940, the Northern Hemisphere had one of its coldest summers in the previous 1,500 years — a cold shift consistent with the release of large amounts of volcanic sulfur into the atmosphere. In 940, summer cooling was indeed most pronounced in Central Europe, Scandinavia, the Canadian Rockies, Alaska and Central Asia, with summer average temperatures 2 degrees Celsius [3.6 degrees Fahrenheit] lower

Suffering followed, with hard winters and drought in the spring and summer. Locusts invaded, and livestock died. Famine did not set in everywhere, but in the early 940s, we read of starvation and vast mortality in parts of Germany, Iraq and China.

iceland eruption christianity pagan gods, The Codex Regius, an Icelandic collection of poems about pagan gods, contains a version of the Vǫluspá, a very apocalyptic poem, which describes how an eruption and meteorological events would mark the end of the pagan gods, who would be replaced by one, singular god, volcanic eruption christianity iceland
The nearly 25-mile-long (40 kilometers) Eldgjá fissure formed during a giant eruption from a volcano in southern Iceland. Photo by Clive Oppenheimer

However, no texts from that period survive from Iceland, the volcano’s homeland.

A mere two generations after the Eldgjá eruption, in about A.D. 1000, the people of Iceland formally converted to Christianity. And it likely had to do with the “Vǫluspá”.

The “Vǫluspá”: An apocalyptic poem

The “Vǫluspá” was written after the eruptions, in about A.D. 961. It describes how an eruption and meteorological events would mark the end of the pagan gods, who would be replaced by one, singular god.

Part of the poem explains how “the sun starts to turn black, land sinks into sea; the bright stars scatter from the sky … flame flies high against heaven itself.

Considering Eldgjá’s eruptions date to before the poem was written, Icelanders who experienced the fiery spectacle likely looked back at the events and wrote the poem, “with the purpose of stimulating Iceland’s Christianization over the latter half of the 10th century,.”

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Climate Change, Cambridge University, Live Science

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