Humanities and social sciences

"Let Us All Have the Same Law and the Same Religion"
The Conversion of Iceland

Christianity was made law in Iceland through arbitration at the national assembly, the Alþingi, in the summer of 999 (or more traditionally 1000). By so doing, the country not only managed to avert a civil strife, but stimulated a cultural flowering that produced the saga literature and preserved a considerable part of Norse mythology. For the better understanding of this extraordinary chapter in the Christianization of Europe, the paper discusses the events leading up to the assembly's decision, the unique society and the pre-Christian and Christian religious notions at the time, and compares the missionary endeavours in Iceland with those carried out in continental Scandinavian countries. It highlights some of the causes and prerequisites of the kristnitaka (""the taking of Christianity"), and gives a detailed account of the politico-religious actions of late tenth-century Iceland.

In memory of Alina Margolis-Edelman ABSTRACT The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) is the symbol of the heroism of the Jews during the Holocaust. For decades after the war it has been central for commemorating the Jewish victims. The symbolic meaning of the Uprising has led in the past sixty years to a wide and lively discussion about the meaning of the symbol, for it has often been used to support or justify different political or moral arguments. This article argues against the transformation of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising into a heroic epic, and offers an alternative approach to its interpretation.

The nineteenth century saw the invention of the national hero. His main function was to serve as an ideal for the nation. Latvia, however, is an exception to this general rule: after it regained independence in 1990, the national hero simply disappeared and no heroic image emerged. On the contrary, it was now the victim that became the
emblem of Latvia’s regained independence. The country, of course, did not lack “heroes,” for there were in fact many candidates for the creation of a national hero, yet the hero as such no longer seemed to fit the new state. While the path Latvia had chosen of rejecting or refusing national heroes had an impact on its integration into Europe, it also contributed to ongoing frictions among its own ethnic communities

... Source: National Library, Stockholm. page iv 1a–c Hillforts at Lielauce, Latvia, Otepää, Estonia, and Daubariai, Lithuania. Sources: a–b, photos by Guntis Zemı¯tis; c, Algirdas. 15 2 Stained-glass window in Riga's Dome Cathedral, depicting Bishop Albert. ...