In culture the later viking age was emphatically one of transition. The movement that transformed Northern into European civilisation culminated in the reign of Canute and was no doubt given great impetus by the fact of his imperial authority in the Christian West. The seeds of the new culture had been gathered long before and in many lands: the German, the Frank, the Celt, and the Saxon had all contributed to the new fruit-age. But in the North as elsewhere in the middle ages, the mightiest of all the transforming forces was the mediæval Church. In one sense the poetic activities of the tenth century had made the transition to Christian worship easier than in other lands: the author of the Sibyl's Prophecy had, unintentionally, no doubt, bridged the gap between the contending faiths. The intelligent Northmen found in the teachings of Christianity conceptions very similar to those in the great poem, only in a different historical setting. In the outward symbolism, too, the Northman found similarities that made the step easier: he had already learned to pour water over the new-born infant; in the cross of Christ he may have seen a modification of Thor's hammer; the Christian tree of life reminded him of the ash Yggdrasil that symbolised the unity of the worlds; the Yule festival of midwinter tide was readily identified with the Christian celebration of the Nativity on December 25th. Too much importance must not be assigned to these considerations, but they doubtless had their effect.
But even the Church was not able to make its conquest of the North complete. The Scandinavian peoples never entirely severed their connection with the historic past. The bridge that was built by the Sibyl's Prophecy was never demolished. The poet purged the old mythology of much that was revolting and absurd and thus made the old divinities and the old cosmic ideas attractive and more easily acceptable. Even when the new cult became compulsory and even fashionable, it was hard for the Northman to desert his gods. Hallfred Troublousscald, who flourished in the years of Canute's childhood, gives expression to this feeling in one of his poems:
'Tis heavy to cherish hatred
For Frigg's divine husband
Now that Christ has our worship,
For the scald delighted in Woden.
But Olaf Trygvesson has commanded that the old faith be renounced and men have obeyed, though unwillingly:
Cast to the winds all men have
The kindred of mighty Woden;
Forced to renounce Njord's children
I kneel to Christ in worship.
After several verses of regretful and half-hearted renunciation the scald continues:
I will call upon Christ with love words
(I can bear the Son's wrath no longer;
He rules the earth in glory)
And God the Father in prayer.[441]
