Written by Thanks to popular fiction like the Netflix show Vikings, many associate Vikings as a people of a single heathen religion. In fact, Christianity was part of Scandinavia’s many religions from the earliest generations of the Viking Age. King Horik I of Denmark sanctioned Ribe Cathedral in 860 CE. So it should not be a surprise that the Vikings who settled Greenland built at least one church.
Archeologists have discovered one such church near the Brattahlíð settlement. Brattahlíð was was established by Eric the Red’s expedition towards the end of the 10th century. A Christian Viking burial was discovered in what is now Qinngua, near Narsarsuaq. Previously, the site was suspected of being a church and cemetery, but remains had not been unearthed. The discovery of a grave consistent with Christian practices of the time is further confirmation of previous speculation.
“Now there is no doubt that this is a church.” – Christian Edelfelt Koch Madsen, senior researcher at the National Museum of Denmark
The excavation was a group effort involving the National Museum of Denmark, Greenland National Museum and Archives, the University Museum of Bergen and UNESCO Kujataa. Other early churches had previously been discovered in Greenland, but none previous were associated with the earliest of Viking settlers. Each organization much more credentialed in these matters than Netflix.
To discover these churches, researchers scoured medieval Icelandic manuscripts for clues. One in particular aided this discovery. The Book of Flatley is available as a pdf in the Sexy Viking library.
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