structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:voice_change
Viking Age expansion

During the Viking Age, Norse people left Scandinavia and settled elsewhere throughout Northwestern Europe. Some of these areas, such as Iceland, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and the Faroe Islands, were hardly populated, whereas other areas, such as England, Southwest Wales, Scotland, the Western Isles, Isle of Man, and Ireland, were already heavily populated.

In the 870s, Norwegian settlers left their homeland and colonized Iceland, bringing their belief system with them. Place-name evidence suggests that Thor was the most popular god on the island, although there are also saga accounts of devotés of Freyr in Iceland, including a "priest of Freyr" in the later Hrafnkels saga. There are no place-names connected to Odin on the island. Unlike other Nordic societies, Iceland lacked a monarchy and thus a centralising authority which could enforce religious adherence; there were both Old Norse and Christian communities from the time of its first settlement.

Scandinavian settlers brought Old Norse religion to Britain in the latter decades of the ninth century. Several British place-names indicate possible religious sites; for instance, Roseberry Topping in North Yorkshire was known as Othensberg in the twelfth century, a name deriving from the Old Norse Óðinsberg ("Hill of Óðin"). Several place-names also contain Old Norse references to religious entities, such as alfr, skratii, and troll. The English church found itself in need of conducting a new conversion process to Christianise this incoming population.