Greetings!
>I don't actually think that the pre-Christian Norse were particularly used
>to having 'religious figures' as such involved in their rituals, apart from
>the chieftain/king conducting certain rituals on behalf of society. But
>what I think of as private rituals seem to have been conducted by the head
>of the family or the most suitable member of the family (cf. the story of
>Volsi). It seems to me that this would have given the family a great deal
>of control over important ritual functions, which is why I am curious as to
>why the Church did not initially try to stamp out such practices.
I suspect they didn't try both because they lacked the strength of numbers
and influence to do so and also because those private practices are often
those which seem most ingrained in society and resist change the best.
My ignorance about Norwegian paganism is showing, although it seems similar
enough in many ways to the Germanic paganism I'm familiar with, where the
king or chieftain also acts as high priest; this is usually thought to be
the reason that the Christian missionaries targeted kings for their first
conversions, and why you can have mass conversions like those described in
Gregory of Tours. It was probably easier to simply absorb private religious
practices, gradually injecting Christian theology over the years, than to
try to change them.
Again, I'll cite the example I'm more familiar with. Early Christianity
amongst the Franks seemed to be primarily an outward transformation--Clovis,
for example, converts after God grants him a victory (parallels with
Constantine), not after some inner revelation. Acceptance of Christianity
does not usually equate with a change in behaviour as a result, a few holy
men and women aside. Gradually, the people start to learn about the new
faith, which can take quite a long time. The inner transformation came
centuries later, once the outward practices had become Christianized, which
is something that is perhaps alien to us--if someone in Western society
converts to a new religion today, it's usually because of a shift in inner
beliefs, and even those who convert because of marriage are expected to
truly convert, not just to go through the motions.
The Church did eventually make an effort to stamp out heterodox practices
and folk superstitions (have a look at Burchard of Woms), but how successful
they were remains to be seen, since their primary tool at least at that time
was moral suasion.
Susan Carroll-Clark
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