VIKING and Christian are two words that you don’t often find in the same sentence, unless it describes how the former terrorised and abused the latter.

In their insightful new book, The Vikings from Odin to Christ, Bradford on Avon father and daughter, Martyn and Hannah Whittock, explore the impact of the Vikings on Christianity from the British Isles to Russia, as well as the impact of Christianity on the Viking invaders.

Mr Whittock, 60, a retired history teacher who still puts in the odd day at Kingdown School in Warminster, says: “We’re all familiar with the traditional image of the fierce pagan warriors that burst out of Scandinavia during the 8th century, plundering, ravaging and shedding blood wherever they went.

“A lesser-known fact about these infamous pillagers is that the majority converted to Christianity in the centuries that followed. By 1150, many Viking communities in England had been Christian for nearly 300 years.

“Their homelands of Denmark, Sweden and Norway were the last to convert to Christianity but it seems that wherever they went, they converted to Christianity very quickly – quite possibly for strategic political and economic reasons.

“Children of the Vikings who had martyred the Christian king of East Anglia minted coins extolling his holiness. In Normandy, the pagans became loyal supporters of the Catholic Church.

“In the east, the former Viking raiders founded the first Russian state in Kiev and later converted to Orthodox Christianity.”

Their book explores the reasons why the Vikings underwent a rapid transformation and quickly integrated themselves into local society, cultures and the Christian religions they found rather than remaining bloodthirsty pagans.

Drawing on evidence from a wide variety of literary, archaeological and architectural sources, the Whittocks argue the Vikings had as much impact as converts as they did as deadly marauders.

Their interesting and informative book, which took about 18 months to write and is Martyn’s 47th, looks at what we know about Norse beliefs, most of which is from medieval manuscripts written by Christians.

They trace the Vikings’ presence in England and the surrounding countries, from the infamous sacking of the monastery on Lindisfarne in 793 onwards.

But, as the authors note, of 113 attacks carried out on Irish monasteries between 795 and 820, only 26 were carried out by Vikings with the rest being mostly by Christian Irish kings.

Some of the new Viking rulers were keen to fit into Christian expectations of how a king should behave, seeing it as a good way to bring their territories into the orbit of mainstream European civilisation.

The blending of Norse myths and Christian symbols can be seen in carvings, coins and monuments from the period. Carved stone slabs at York Minster, decorated with Scandinavian-derived artwork, appear to represent the graves of the first generation of Viking Christians.

The authors also look at the influence of some of the key figures of the Viking Age and their role in the spread of Christianity, including Erik Bloodaxe, Rollo, Harald Bluetooth and King Cnut.

The final chapters detail the role of the Vikings in the establishment of Christianity in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the East, the North Atlantic and elsewhere, completing a comprehensive account of how ‘the hammer of Thor succumbed to the victory of the cross of Christ’.

Mr Whittock, who is a lay reader in Trowbridge, said: “We have tried to condense the history and to write a broad and balanced book that is accessible for the general reader. It provides a one-stop shop on the Viking period and how they converted to Christianity.

“They were remarkable, dynamic people and our book looks at the way they interacted with other peoples and the way they assimilated themselves into local cultures. They were traders who settled down and became staunch supporters of Christianity.”

Mr Whittock is the author of 47 books, including When God Was King: Rebels and Radicals of the Civil War & Mayflower Generation (Lion Hudson, 2018) and Christ: The First Two Thousand Years (Lion Hudson, 2016), co-written with his younger daughter, Esther, 26.

His elder daughter Hannah, 29, has a first-class honours degree from Cambridge University in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, as well as a Masters degree. She has now co-written five books with her father.

The Vikings from Odin to Christ is published by Lion Hudson in paperback, priced at £9.99, and is available online and in bookshops.

JOHN BAKER