The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300

In Europe, the cross went north and east as the centuries unrolled: from the Dingle Peninsula to Estonia, and from the Alps to Lapland, ranging in time from Roman Britain and Gaul in the third and fourth centuries to the conversion of peoples in the Baltic area a thousand years later. These episodes of conversion form the basic narrative here. History encourages the belief that the adoption of Christianity was somehow irresistible, but specialists show the underside of the process by turning the spotlight from the missionaries, who recorded their triumphs, to the converted, exploring their local situations and motives. What were the reactions of the northern peoples to the Christian message? Why would they wish to adopt it for the sake of its alliances? In what way did they adapt the Christian ethos and infrastructure to suit their own community? How did conversion affect the status of farmers, of smiths, of princes and of women? Was society wholly changed, or only in marginal matters of devotion and superstition? These are the issues discussed here by thirty-eight experts from across northern Europe; some answers come from astute re-readings of the texts alone, but most are owed to a combination of history, art history and archaeology working together. MARTIN CARVER is Professor of Archaeology, University of York.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Northern Europeans negotiate their future - and The Politics of Conversion in North Central Europe - Przemyslaw Urbanczyk 'How do you pray to God?' Fragmentation and Variety in early Medieval Christianity [with Philippa Patrick] - 'How do you pray to God?' Fragmentation and Variety in early Medieval Christianity [with Aleks Pluskowski] - Philippa Patrick Processes of Conversion in north-west Roman Gaul - Susan Pearce Where are the Christians? Late Roman Cemeteries in Britain - Christopher Sparey-Green Votive Hoards in Late Roman Britain: Pagan or Christian? - David Petts Basilicas and Barrows: Christian origins in Wales and Western Britain - Jeremy Knight Archaeology and early church organisation on Iveragh and Dingle, Ireland - Tomas O'Carragain Romanitas and Realpolitik in Cogitosus' description of the Church of St Brigit, Kildare - Carol Neuman de Vegvar Making a Christian Landscape: Early Medieval Cornwall - Sam Turner Early medieval Parish formation in Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland) - Chris Crowe Christian and Pagan Practice during the Conversion of Viking Age Orkney and Shetland - James Barrett Pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxon attitudes to the dead - Audrey Meaney The acceptance of Christianity at the Anglo-Saxon Royal courts - Barbara Yorke The control of Burial Practice in Ango-Saxon England - Helen Geake The straight and narrow way: Fenland causeways and the conversion of the landscape in the Witham Valley, Lincolnshire [with Paul Everson]Everson] - David Stocker The straight and narrow way: Fenland causeways and the conversion of the landscape in the Witham Valley, Lincolnshire [with David Stocker]Stocker] - Paul Everson Three Ages of Conversion at Kirkdale, Yorkshire [with Lorna Watts] - Philip Rahtz Three Ages of Conversion at Kirkdale, Yorkshire [with Philip Rahtz] - Lorna Watts Streanaeshalch, Strensall and Whitby: locating a pivotal council [with L A S Butler and C J Dunn] - Paul S Barnwell Streanaeshalch, Strensall and Whitby: locating a pivotal council [with P S Barnwell and C J Dunn] - Lawrence Butler Design and Meaning in Early Medieval Inscriptions in Britain and Ireland - John Higgitt Spaces between words: word separation in Anglo-Saxon inscriptions - Elisabeth Okasha Sacraments in Stone: the mysteries of Christ in Anglo-Saxon Sculpture - Jane Hawkes Alcuin's Narratives of Evangelism: the life of St Willibrord and the Northumbrian hagiographical tradition - Kate Rambridge Pagans and Christians at a frontier: Viking burial in the Danelaw - Julian Richards The body of St Aethelthryth: desire, conversion and reform in Anglo-Saxon England - Catherine E. Karkov From a late Roman Cemetery to the basilica sanctorum Cassii et Florentii in Bonn, Germany - Christoph Keller The Cross goes north: from Late Antiquity to Merovingian times south and north of the Alps - Volker Bierbrauer The Cross goes North: Carolingian times between Rhine and Elbe - Michael Muller-Wille The Cross goes North: Christian symbols and Scandinavian women - Jorn Staecker The role of Scandinavian women in Christianisation - the neglected evidence - Anne-Sofie Graslund Runestones and the Conversion of Sweden - Linn Lager Christianity as Power, economy and ethnicity in early Medieval Jamtland, mid Sweden - Stig Welinder The Scandinavian Animal Styles in Response to Mediterranean and Christian Narrative Art - Nancy L. Wicker The role of secular rulers in the conversion of Sweden - Alexandra Sanmark Byzantine influence in the Baltic Region? - Per Beskow St Botulph in Scandinavia - John Toy Christianisation of Estonia: a process of double-faith and synchretism - Heiki Valk

About the Author :
CATHERINE E. KARKOV is Professor Emeritus of Art History, University of Leeds. JANE HAWKES is Professor of Art History at the University of York.

Review :
A valuable, handsomely bound and superbly illustrated collection. One welcomes this broad, well-formed perspective on early medieval European conversion. A galaxy of learned papers. An important contribution...that will still be cited for years to come. A valuable compilation.