Posted on 03/09/2007 11:37:30 AM PST by blam
GGG Ping?
Denmark-Ahead of it's time.
I'm sorry, I must have dropped it there...
Another possible explanation is trade goods. There were well established trade routes between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe quite early on. Even without direct trade, goods passed from hand to hand to hand and wound up in odd corners.
It makes just as much sense for a well-born woman to receive a play-pretty from the traders as it does that she was a believer . . .
I thought I could get the connection... but I use verizon and its disabled.
Giggling hysterically....
Me thinks its great, but a little over excited combination of apples and oranges.
One is a set of historical events which marked the growth and advance of Christianity in Denmark, which, in myths, might give Harold Bluetooth more credit that he deserves. But I think the history would credit the era of Harold as marking the beginning of that large-scale religious conversion process, with or without the myths related to it.
While the artifact represents a single individual, who lived among an unknown group of individuals, of an unknown number and with unknown actual religious sentiments. I don't think that one artifact can alter the history of the general introduction of Christianity to Denmark.
Those Vikings, they got around:
Buddha statue from 6th c found in Viking hoard in Helgo, Sweden
Biblical Archaeology Review | March/April 2005 | "Worldwide" editor
Posted on 04/26/2005 11:26:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1391864/posts
cool thanks
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
I can't find anything about crystal amulets in the the gospels of the new testament, I must be missing some pages....
The Swedes are Buddhists? I never knew that.
This could be a viking traders wife. She could have come from the Mediterranean, Britian, someplace like that.
No problem.
One of many benefits of spending most of my junior high/high school years in Israel.
I thought it was Hardrada - Hard Counsel. But maybe that's my Anglo-Saxon talking.
That was basically my reaction to it as well. While the possibility of Christians arriving early in Denmark is interesting and possibly of historic significance, that doesn't automatically displace the significance of later events, at least not without additional information to demonstrate historical continuity between this find and later Danish Christianity. There were cases of Christianity appearing early in a region but not really taking root among the general populace until later. I think maybe the author of the article exaggerated the implications of the find for the sake of making the lead sound more exciting, which seems to happen a lot with archaeology articles: everyone wants to announce the discovery of the "first" something or other.
Why would this be a stretch to believe? Christianity was moving along with the Romans as they expanded their empire. St. Patrick was a Roman who had been taken in slavery by Irish raiders, then later became a priest to go back and convert the Irish. If Catholicism was in the British Isles by the 4th century, who's to say it hadn't made it's way to Denmark also? Perhaps a Catholic priest had been taken to Denmark as a prisoner by the 'Vikings' of the era, and began spreading the Faith. It's not far-fetched to consider it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.