Reykjavik - Day Two - The Hallgrimskirkj

This is the Lutheran Parish church of Reykjavik. It was finished in 1986 and took 41 years to build. It is the tallest church in Iceland and one of the tallest buildings standing at 244 feet tall. It was built in the expressionist style fashioned after the Grundtvig’s Church in Denmark and the Kirche am Hohenzollernplatz in Berlin. The original design was not quite as high but church fathers wanted it to outshine Landakotskirkja, the Catholic Cathedral of Iceland. There’s some sort of envy going on here, just not sure which kind. The organ inside the church has 102 ranks, 72 stops and 5275 pipes.

It reminds me a little of the Discovery space rocket.

The church is named after the poet Halligrimur Petursson the author of ‘The Passions’.

A little about the religious journey of Icelanders:

From the first settlement until 1000, the religious political organization was defined as pagan and anti-monarchist. The Icelanders followed Scandinavian norms and built temples enshrining images of the gods like Thor and Odin. The religion was named Godard or Asatru (Truth of the gods). Icelanders worshipped local spirits, but Thor was the primary deity.

Starting in 995, Catholics attempted to convert Icelanders to Christianity, however they would not go easy. Attempts in 995 and 997 failed. During this time those attempting to convert the country by destroying temples and shrines (in many cases violently) drove the Althing (Icelandic parliament) to outlaw Christianity in Iceland. Iceland was under Norway’s rule and King Olaf Tryggvason (a Catholic monarch) suspended Iceland’s trade with Norway, their biggest trading partner and threatened to kill all Icelanders in Norway (what a guy).

Well I guess that is one philosophy, if at first you don’t succeed try, try again, and if that doesn’t work, just kill ‘em. I guess they should be grateful they were spared that whole Crusade thing.

In Iceland, civil war was about to break out so the Althing began mediation appointing Thorgeir Thokelsson, trusted by both the pagan and Christian factions, to decide the fate of religion in Iceland. He contemplated for one day and one night, and decided that in order to keep the peace, the country had to be united under on religion and that would be Christianity. However, pagans were allowed to practice sacrifice to the old gods as long as no one saw them…..a few years later this practice was abolished all together. In 1550, under Danish rule, the state religion was officially changed from Catholic to Lutheranism.

Just a note: 80 Percent of all Icelanders still believe in Elves (Huldufolk - hidden people) so maybe that Nordic paganism isn’t entirely gone yet.

There are 13 different types of Elves. They are territorial so don’t mess with them. Elves are just like us; they have homes, raise live stock, pick berries, etc. Elves live primarily in the rocks and environmentalists fight projects they believe will disturb or displace Elves. There is so much concern about Elves that the Iceland Road and Coastal Admin had to create a five page standard reply for inquires regarding disturbing Elven environments. It’s customary to leave food for Elves on Christmas Eve.Read more