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86 Orð og tunga
historical period under discussion is given. Its main aim is to supply
the subsequent discussion with the most important historical dates
and events concerning both the conversion of Scandinavia and Ice-
land. In section 3, the corpus (45 words) is presented, of which a se-
mantic classifi cation is given alongside a chronological (text-based)
reading. Section 4 is devoted to the discussion of a sample of ten words
which have been chosen for two reasons: in order to investigate the
importance of Old Saxon speakers in the early Christian period, both
in Scandinavia and in Iceland, and to revise some of the etymolo-
gies proposed by the three main Icelandic etymological dictionaries,
namely Jan de Vries’ Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (AeW),
Alexander Jóhannesson’s Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (IeW)
and Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon’s Íslensk orðsifjabók (ÍOb).
2 A brief account of the period 9th c.–1153 in
relation to the introduction of the Christian
lexicon
The Christian lexicon most probably became known initially in the
North no later than in the beginning of the 9th century, thanks to the
evangelical missions sent by the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen to
convert the pagans of that region and to the contacts the Scandinavi-
ans had had with the more southern European populations and with
those of the British Isles during the Viking Age (793–1066) (Schott -
mann 2002:403).
As regards the Christian terminology introduced into Old West
Norse, i.e. the variety of Old Norse from which Icelandic developed
(see Kjartan G. Ott ósson 2002), in the period 9th century–1153, two
phases can be distinguished: fi rstly, 9th c.–1000, when the Christian re-
ligion was introduced in Scandinavia and thence in Iceland, and sec-
ondly, the period in which the Church strengthened its institutional
power both in Scandinavia and in Iceland.
The fi rst phase is primarily characterised by two historical facts:
1) the Danish conquest, under the rule of Haraldr I Gormsson, of the
region around the Oslo fj ord known as ‘the Bay’ (Icel. Víkin), around
the middle of the 10th century (cf. below); 2) the important missionary
activity spearheaded by the Norwegian kings Hákon I Aðalsteins-
fóstri (934–961) and Óláfr I Tryggvason (995–1000). According to
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