Orthodox Scandinavia?

How possible would it have been for the Scandinavian kingdoms to take up Orthodox Christianity? The idea was inspired by Crusader Kings 2, to be sure, but disregarding the game, I think there are some compelling reasons why it would have been possible. There was, after all, some possibility of cultural exchange due to Norsemen travelling to Byzantium to join the Varangians, as well as eventually the adoption of Orthodox Christianity by the Kievan Rus'. Could the Norse have converted to Orthodoxy, and what changes would be required for this? What would be the consequences?

(Denmark, Sweden and Norway all seem to have converted to Catholicism between the late 900s and early 1000s, as far as I can tell. The Rus' took up Orthodoxy in the 980s. Was there any attempt to introduce the Orthodox variant of Christianity to Scandinavia before the 980s? Or would we have to delay the Christianization of these kingdoms to stand a chance of introducing Orthodoxy? Denmark probably has every reason to go Catholic due to its proximity to the Holy Roman Empire, but Sweden and Norway, perhaps, have a better chance of going Orthodox? I wonder how that'd change their foreign policy... I imagine the Swedes would seek to push into Finland earlier to link up with their Orthodox brethren in Russia, and would perhaps also be on friendlier terms with Novgorod or its equivalent later on? And the Catholic-Orthodox divide could potentially be a lot more violent if there is another front for this conflict at Scania...)
 
Well, Finland was historically an Orthodox country until Sweden conquered it, so you've got some precedent to be sure.
 
Well, Finland was historically an Orthodox country until Sweden conquered it, so you've got some precedent to be sure.

Was it? I mean, aside from the territories that were directly conquered by Novgorod? I mean, I've been reading some Wiki articles and other random Google finds, but the timeline is still a bit unclear to me. Aside from the Swedish and the Russians exporting their own brands of Christianity by the sword to those they conquered, the only mention of Finns taking up Christianity I found was the Tavastian tribes adopting it for a while before returning to their folk religion, and that seems to have been caused by a Catholic mission.
 
Well, Finland was historically an Orthodox country until Sweden conquered it, so you've got some precedent to be sure.

Most of Finland (within the current or the 1920 Finnish borders) wasn't really Christian at all until well into the era of Swedish rule. There was a Novgorodian missionary effort in the Karelian areas since the 11th century, and the Valamo/Valaam monastery was founded for this end between the 10th and 14th centuries (sources disagree), but the Orthodox faith would not truly take root among the locals before the 14th century. The general picture was Catholicism and the Orthodox faith slowly spreading to the Finnish areas in between the 11th and 16th centuries, from the southwest and the southeast, respectively, and even at the end of that period there were significant holdouts in the area, for example a lot of Sami people who used to live a lot more south than in the most recent centuries.
 
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Western Scandinavia was essentially missioned by Angles and Saxons, who were Catholic, so you'll need to weaken their efforts.
 
The Scandinavian country most likely to be in contact with Eastern Orthodoxy is Sweden. I don't think you have much of a chance of getting modern Norway and Denmark to convert, at least straight away. England and western Europe was simply to ideal compared to eastern ventures.

So Sweden though. The problem is that the Rus converted to eastern Orthodoxy about the same time as Christianization of Scandinavia was already occurring. So you either need the Rus to convert earlier, or you need to bypass them.

So I'd actually say some viking conquests in the Rus would be necessary. Vikings did indeed trade through Kievan' Rus to the Byzantines and Arabs along the Caspian Sea. However despite legends of Norse leaders coming to rule areas in the region, there really wasn't anything permanent or definitive. If a Norse leader decides to properly invade or a raid achieves startling success, actually forging a Norse Novgorod/Holmgard. If major success was achieved, you might see successive waves of viking invasions/raiders further south towards Kiev. Greater Norse control over the trade routes to Constantinople could mean an earlier Varangian Guard and interaction with eastern Orthodoxy.

So sort of a Slav screw, with Norse settlers to Kievan Rus returning to Sweden with all this interaction with eastern Orthodoxy sort of how Anglo-Danish returning from Danelaw helped Christianize Denmark and Norway.

Now this wouldn't likely affect Norway or Denmark. They're simply too predisposed to look to the west. However if a Swedish Cnut the Great figure could unite Sweden with Holgard or any other Swedish conquests to the east, he could potentially start conquering to the west. If he took Norway and/or Denmark, especially if this was either pre-Christianity or early when the church wasn't quite organized, you could see some forced conversion to eastern Orthodoxy.
 
You need Denmark to go Orthodox, Denmark was at the time the centre of Scandinavia, and home to the majority if the population. If it convert to Orthodoxy the rest will follow, while in case of Svealand/Roslagen going Orthodox will not push a conversion of the rest.
 
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