(Redirected from Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði)'Þorgeirr Þorkelsson Ljósvetningagoði' (born ca.
940) was an
Icelandic
lawspeaker in Iceland's
Althing from
985 to
1001.
In the year
999 or
1000, Iceland's legislative assembly was debating which
religion they should practise:
Norse paganism, or
Christianity. Þorgeirr, himself a pagan priest and chieftain (a ''
goði''), decided in favour of Christianity after a day and a night of silent meditation under a fur blanket. Pagans could still practise their religion in private. After his decision, Þorgeirr himself became a Christian and threw the
idols of his gods in a waterfall, for which that waterfall is now known in Icelandic as ''
Goðafoss'', the "waterfall of the gods."
Þorgeirr's story is preserved in
Ari Þorgilsson's ''
Íslendingabók''.
External link
★
Christianity, from a site on the Icelandic parliament.