Tjodhilde ..... arctic beacon in a Norse world? |
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| In Qassiarsuk, South West Greenland - Erik the Red’s Brattahlid - a new phenomenon is seeing the light of the day: a maybe-pilgrimage centre dedicated to the memory of a stout Viking woman with a high profile in the sagas. In the summer of the year 1000, Vikings built the first Christian church in the New World. This took place in Brattahlid, shortly after the first Europeans set foot on the North American continent - almost five centuries before Christopher Columbus. In the 1960s, archaeologists located the site of this first church, and in l999 a reconstruction was built by a group of Icelandic specialists in Viking architecture. This church - a small chapel, we should really say - was consecrated in the summer of year 2000, exactly 1000 years after the first foundations were laid. It is called Tjodhilde's Church, after the Viking woman who is the first recorded convert to the Christian faith in the New World. According to Eric the Red’s Saga, it was she who had it built, much to the dismay of her husband who stood by Odin and Thor at any time and openly disapproved of the new religion. There is no doubt that Tjodhilde was a strong character. She couldn’t tolerate her short-tempered husband’s dictating her personal beliefs and preferences, and she stood her ground. But ... is that by itself enough, a thousand years later, to try and market her as a kind of lighthouse to our day and age as well? That remains to be seen. Pilgrimage centres mostly build on traditions attached to wonder-working or famous persons who are known to have had an extraordinary influence in their time and beyond. Not so here. The attempt to create a pilgrimage centre in Qassiarsuk has another rationale and background: the need to have, on Greenland soil, a window to the outside world through which people can glimpse the light of a multi-faceted world of spirituality from beyond Greenland’s icy mountains. We can be reasonably certain that this is the spot where the first recorded baptism in Greenland took place. Also, at the time when this little church was built, none of the divisions existed which we all know so well in contemporary Christendom. Thus, morally, Tjodhilde's Church belongs to all. Every Christian community has an equal right of access to this little chapel, which is modelled after the first church structure that was built by the very first baptized persons in North America. This has given rise to a millenium initiative by the then premier of Greenland, a Lutheran pastor himself, to create an international framework around this little chapel. In connection with the festivities in year 2000, he established the Tjodhilde Committee, which is ecumenical in its scope. Everyday business is conducted in collaboration between the Gardar Foundation secretariat and Destination South Greenland. The secretariat is also supported by the municipality of Narsaq. Where all this interest and commitment will bring us remains to be seen. Tjodhilde was a fine woman, no doubt about that, but nobody has ever called her a saint. Well, to the mind of most Nordics, less can do. She was a steadfast wife and mother who gave Erik three sons, of whom the sagas have nothing but fine words to say. As a wife, she was faithful, which is more than what can be said of Erik. His daughter out of wedlock is not spoken well of in the texts, to say the least. Tjodhilde belonged to that large group of Viking women who beyond any doubt must have been deadly tired of the Hells Angels’ type of behaviour of their often times so ill-mannered husbands. No sooner did her favorite son Leif bring a priest with him back home from Norway, did she say: yes, thanks! - and asked for baptism. Almost immediately. The tidings of a God and Master honoring the soft values, yet stronger than Thor, must have made an impression. One could say that this picture of a fine woman, sensing the right values and ready to stand on her own against the traditional culture, opening up new trails, surely ought to convey a message to the feminists of our day and age. Whether it suffices to bring pilgrim tourists to Qassiarsuk, that remains to be seen. Finn Lynge
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