This northern branch of Germanic paganism, steeped in ritual sacrifice and worship, dominated the Viking's homeland in Scandinavia and the surrounding region.
Yet Norse paganism was not the only religion that was practiced throughout areas where Vikings raided, roamed, or put down roots.
In the far north of what is now Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, the Samí had spiritual beliefs based upon shamanism and animism. Every intimate object – be it a deer or a rock – had an intimate soul.
In the Baltic region and Eastern Europe, where many Slav peoples lived, they also had their own form of paganism separate and different from Norse paganism.
Somewhat similar to the Christianization of Scandinavia, Christian missionaries set about proselytizing between the 7th to 12th centuries CE, with Kyiv becoming the center of Eastern Christianity in the Slavic world, second only to Byzantium further south.
It was, however, the Christian faith that was the dominant religion, in the Viking world, for much of the latter early medieval period. In fact, the start of the so-called "Viking Age" is usually signaled by a Viking raid on a Christian monastery on the English island of Lindisfarne in 793 CE.
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