I am an atheist and therefore writing religious people isn’t something that interests me deeply. Religion makes for boring fantasy characters most of the time. Besides, most religious people go on about their religion in a quiet way, and so do most of my fantasy characters, if they have some sort of belief. Like so many other things, I just don’t mention their religion explicitly, like I don’t list all the foods they like — only if they have a strong craving for something specific, if it’s a trait to set them apart.
Also I don’t want to promote clichés and stereotypes about Viking Age religion, because there is a lot of rampant nonsense on the Internet about it! Get yourself a good book, like the Dictionary of Northern Mythology by Rudolf Simek (2008, Boydell & Brewer) or 👉 Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology (2017, W. W. Norton & Company) and you’re all set to integrate any fantasy vikings into a religious group or a cult of your liking. That is, unless they are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or else don’t like religion at all! Like these ones:
Hallr goðlauss hét maðr, hann var son Helga goðlauss. Þeir feðgar vildu ekki blóta ok trúðu á mátt sinn.
(The Book of Settlement; Sturlubók — AM 107 fol. 4v. Normalized text. 👉 See scan of manuscript here, the the third and fourth lines from below)
A man was named Hallr the godless, he was the son of Helgi the godless. Father and son didn’t want to sacrifice and believed in their own power. (My translation.)
