When Christianity came north: Haakon the Good and the horse liver

Readers of the Shieldmaiden series sometimes ask where Thorvald’s troubles really come from. The answer reaches back to his time serving under King Haakon, and to one of the central conflicts of Haakon’s reign — a conflict deeply rooted in real history: the clash between the old gods and the new.

A Christian king in a pagan land

When Haakon the Good returned to Norway from England in the 10th century, he brought more than a royal claim. He carried the influence of a new god. Raised at the English court under the guardianship of King Aethelstan, Haakon had embraced Christianity, and with it the cultural expectations of kingship from a more centralised realm.

But Norway — fragmented and fiercely independent — was not ready for unity, and especially not under the sign of the cross.

The chieftains of Trøndelag

At the heart of the resistance stood the powerful chieftains of Trøndelag, the rich and politically dominant region around Lade, near modern-day Trondheim. These men were the guardians of the old ways, with their gods, temples, and rites woven deep into the fabric of local society. Their authority was not only political but religious: they were keepers of tradition, and their legitimacy in the eyes of the people rested partly on their devotion to the Norse gods.

Haakon knew how fragile his claim was, and he needed these men. That left him in a precarious position. On one hand, he saw Christianity as a unifying force that could help consolidate his rule, just as it had in England and Francia. On the other, an open campaign against the old gods could shatter the alliances he depended on.

The horse liver

The saga accounts — especially Heimskringla — portray Haakon as a pragmatic and intelligent ruler who tried a gradual approach. He built churches and brought priests from England, converting through persuasion rather than force.

Then came the Jól feast at Lade.

According to the sagas, the chieftains demanded that Haakon take part in the blót — the public sacrifice to the old gods — if he wished to keep their loyalty. A Christian king, at a pagan sacrifice, in front of the men whose support held his kingdom together.

Haakon, torn between faith and politics, made a reluctant compromise. He ended up eating horse liver as part of the rite — horse meat being closely tied to the pagan sacrifice, and about as far from a Christian act as the chieftains could push him. It satisfied no one entirely, and it was one of several moments that nearly threw Norway into civil war.

As always with the sagas, we can’t know exactly how that scene played out; it was written down centuries later. But the underlying conflict was real, and it would keep burning long after Haakon was gone. The tension between Norse paganism and Christianity caused constant friction — not just for kings and chieftains, but for ordinary people caught between two worldviews.

Back to the books

We tell the full story of this conflict in Haakon the Good, including the blót at Lade — it’s one of the scenes we most enjoyed writing, precisely because the history hands you an impossible situation and asks what a decent man does with it.

And as part of this wider conflict, Haakon gives Thorvald a difficult mission — an event that becomes central to the plot of the Shieldmaiden series. That part is fictional, of course. But it’s meant to capture how precarious the situation truly was.