Religion II

Christianity
In Iceland, the sagas provide a great deal of information about the early religious state. Before the official conversion by government decree, there was quite a few Christians living in the country, most of them immigrants from mainland Britain and Orkney.
In the late 10th century, Denmark peacefully became Christian, but Norway's conversion was quite another story. In 994, during the siege of London, the ruthless Viking prince Olaf Tryggvason, who aspired to the throne of Norway, accepted the new religion. Upon his return home, he usurped power and mercilessly threatened and tortured his subjects into wholesale conversion. He then turned to his next conversion project, Iceland, where several people who resisted were declared criminals and sentenced to execution. However, some Icelandic Christians successfully pleaded for another chance for their pagan countryfolk.
Traditionally, the date of the decree that officially converted Iceland to Christianity has been given as 1000, but research has determined that it probably occurred in 999 and was a political decision. In the Icelandic Alþhing (parliament) the Christians and pagans had been polarising into two radically opposite factions, threatening to divide the country politically if not geographically. In the session of 999, Þorgeir the Law-speaker appealed for moderation on both sides in the interest of national unity.
Today, as in mainland Schandinavia, Iceland officially belongs to the Protestant Lutheran Church.