Saint Olaf
Saint Olaf, also called Olaf the Holy, Olaf II, Olaf Haraldsson, and Olaf the Stout or "Large", was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised at Nidaros by Bishop Grimketel, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. His remains were enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral, built over his burial site. His sainthood encouraged the widespread adoption of Christianity by Scandinavia's Vikings/Norsemen.
Pope Alexander III confirmed Olaf's local canonisation in 1164, making him a recognised saint of the Catholic Church, and Olaf started to be known as Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae – eternal king of Norway. Following the Reformation, he was a commemorated historical figure among some members of the Lutheran and Anglican Communions.
The saga of Olav Haraldsson and the legend of Olaf the Saint became central to a national identity. Especially during the period of romantic nationalism, Olaf was a symbol of Norwegian independence and pride. Saint Olaf is symbolised by the axe in Norway's coat of arms and Olsok is still his day of celebration. Many Christian institutions with Scandinavian links as well as Norway's Order of St. Olav are named after him.
Name
Olaf's Old Norse name is Óláfr Haraldsson . Olav is the modern equivalent in Norwegian, formerly often spelt Olaf. His name in Icelandic is Óláfr Haraldsson Ólafur, in Faroese Ólavur, in Danish Olav, in Swedish Olof, and in Finnish Olavi. Olave was the traditional spelling in England, preserved in the name of medieval churches dedicated to him. Other names, such as Óláfr hinn helgi, Olavus rex, and Olaf are used interchangeably. He is sometimes called Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae, a designation which goes back to the 13th century.During his lifetime he was known as Olaf "the stout" or simply as Olaf "the big". In modern Norway he is commonly called Olav den hellige or Heilag-Olav in recognition of his sainthood.
Background
Olaf Haraldsson is attested having been born in Ringerike, yet Ringerike must not be conflated with the modern notion of the district named after the legendary Ringerike of Ivar Vidfamne and Sigurd Hring, which may be regarded as the confederation of five petty kingdoms conferring with the five kings that established Olaf Haraldson as their High King at Hringsakri according to Saint Olafs Saga, King Hrœrekr, King Guðrøðr, King Hring and two others of less certain identity. Olaf Haraldsson did not become King of Norway until the Battle of Nesjar.Olaf Haraldsson was the son of Åsta Gudbrandsdatter and Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold. According to later Icelandic sagas, Harald Grenske was the son of Gudrød Bjørnsson, son of King Bjørn Farmann in Vestfold, who was in turn son of King Harald I Fairhair Halvdansson. The latter had unified Norway as one Kingdom, establishing a feudalist structure with the kingship far less dependent on local rulers. Thus, according to the sagas, Olaf was a great-great-grandson in the male line of the founder of the Norwegian kingdom. Harald Grenske died when Åsta Gudbrandsdatter was pregnant with Olaf. Åsta later married Sigurd Syr, with whom she had other children, including Harald Hardrada, who later reigned as king of Norway.
The petty kings of Ringerike seem to have had some claims to the High Kingship of the Commonwealth of Uppsala posing a possible threat to the royal House of Munsö under King Olof Skötkonung. The Earls of Hlaðir and the petty kings of Hringerike, had been in conflict since at least King Harald Fairhair assumed power of all of Norway.
Saga sources for Olaf Haraldsson
Many texts have information about Olaf Haraldsson. The oldest is the Glælognskviða or "Sea-Calm Poem", composed by Þórarinn loftunga, an Icelander. It praises Olaf and mentions some of the famous miracles attributed to him. The Norwegian synoptic histories also mention Olaf. These include the Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum, the Historia Norwegiae and a Latin text, Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium by Theodoric the Monk.Icelanders also wrote extensively about Olaf and there are several Icelandic sagas about him, including Fagrskinna and Morkinskinna. Heimskringla, by Snorri Sturluson, largely bases its account of Olaf on the earlier Fagrskinna. The sources seem to say that he had been raised in the Norse pagan religion, but converted to Christ early in his adulthood. The Oldest Saga of St. Olaf is important to scholars for its constant use of skaldic verses, many of which are attributed to Olaf himself.
Finally, many hagiographic sources describe St. Olaf, but these focus mostly on miracles attributed to him and cannot be used to accurately recreate his life. A notable one is The Passion and the Miracles of the Blessed Olafr.
Reign
A widely used account of Olaf's life is found in Heimskringla from. Although its facts are dubious, the saga recounts Olaf's deeds as follows:In 1008, Olaf landed on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. The Osilians, taken by surprise, had at first agreed to Olaf's demands, but then gathered an army during the negotiations and attacked the Norwegians. Olaf nevertheless won the battle.
It is said that Olaf participated alongside fellow Viking Thorkell the Tall in the siege of Canterbury in 1011.
Olaf sailed to the southern coast of Finland sometime in 1008. The journey resulted in the Battle at Herdaler, where Olaf and his men were ambushed by the Finns in the woods. Olaf lost many men but made it back to his boats. He ordered his ships to depart despite a rising storm. The Finns pursued them and made the same progress on land as Olaf and his men made on water. Despite these events they survived. The exact location of the battle is uncertain and the Finnish equivalent of Herdaler is unknown, but it has been suggested that it could be in Uusimaa, probably near present-day Ingå.
As a teenager Olaf went to the Baltic, then to Denmark and later to England. Skaldic poetry suggests he led a successful seaborne attack that took down London Bridge, though Anglo-Saxon sources do not confirm this. This may have been in 1014, restoring London and the English throne to Æthelred the Unready and removing Cnut. According to Snorri's Heimskringla, the attack happened soon after the death of Sweyn Forkbeard with the city being held by Danish forces. Snorri's account claims that Olaf assisted Æthelred in driving the Danes out of England. Olaf is also said by Snorri to have aided the sons of Æthelred after his death. Olaf is said to have won battles but been unable to assist Æthelred's sons in driving Cnut out. After this, he set his sights on Norway.
Olaf saw it as his calling to unite Norway into one kingdom, as Harald Fairhair had largely succeeded in doing. On the way home he wintered with Duke Richard II of Normandy. Marauding Vikings had conquered this region in 881. Richard was himself an ardent Christian, and the Normans had also previously converted to Christianity. Before leaving, Olaf was baptised in Rouen in the pre-Romanesque Notre-Dame Cathedral by Richard's brother Robert the Dane, archbishop of Normandy.
Olaf returned to Norway in 1015 and declared himself king, obtaining the support of the five petty kings of the Norwegian Uplands. In 1016 at the Battle of Nesjar he defeated Earl Sweyn, one of the earls of Lade and hitherto the de facto ruler of Norway. He founded the town of Borg, later known as Sarpsborg, by the waterfall Sarpsfossen in Østfold county. Within a few years he had won more power than any of his predecessors on the throne had enjoyed.
Olaf annihilated the petty kings of the south, subdued the aristocracy, asserted his suzerainty in the Orkney Islands, and conducted a successful raid on Denmark. He made peace with King Olof Skötkonung of Sweden through Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker, and was for some time engaged to Olof's daughter, Ingegerd, though without Olof's approval. In 1019 Olaf married Astrid Olofsdotter, King Olof's illegitimate daughter and the half-sister of his former fiancée. The union produced a daughter, Wulfhild, who married Ordulf, Duke of Saxony in 1042.
In 1026 he participated in the Battle of the Helgeå. In 1029 the Norwegian nobles, seething with discontent, supported the invasion of King Cnut the Great of Denmark. Olaf was driven into exile in Kievan Rus. He stayed for some time in the Swedish province of Nerike, where, according to local legend, he baptised many locals. In 1029, King Cnut's Norwegian regent, Jarl Håkon Eiriksson, was lost at sea and Olaf seized the opportunity to win back the kingdom. Given military and logistical support by the Swedish king Anund Jacob he tried to bypass the formidable "Øresundfleet" of the Danish king by traveling across the Jämtland-mountains to take Nidaros, the Norwegian capital at the time, in 1030. However, Olaf was killed in Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030, where some of his own subjects from central and northern Norway took arms against him. The exact position of Saint Olaf's grave in Nidaros has been unknown since 1568, due to the effects of the Lutheran iconoclasm in 1536–37.
King Cnut, though distracted by the task of governing England, ruled Norway for five years after Stiklestad, with his son Svein and Svein's mother Ælfgifu as regents. But their regency was unpopular, and when Olaf's illegitimate son Magnus laid claim to the Norwegian throne, Svein and Ælfgifu were forced to flee.
Christianising
Olaf has traditionally been seen as leading the Christianisation of Norway, but most scholars of the period now believe that Olaf had little to do with the process. Olaf brought with him Grimketel, who is usually credited with helping him create episcopal sees and further organising the Norwegian church, but Grimketel was only a member of Olaf's household and no permanent sees were created until c. 1100. Also, Olaf and Grimketel most likely did not introduce new ecclesiastical laws to Norway; these were ascribed to Olaf at a later date. Olaf most likely did try to bring Christianity to the interior of Norway, where it was less prevalent.Questions have also been raised about the nature of Olaf's Christianity. Modern historians generally agree that Olaf was inclined to violence and brutality, and note that earlier scholars often neglected this side of his character. It seems that, like many Scandinavian kings, Olaf used his Christianity to gain more power for the monarchy and centralise control in Norway. The skaldic verses attributed to Olaf do not speak of Christianity at all, but use pagan references to describe romantic relationships.
In his book The Conversion of Scandinavia, Anders Winroth argues that there was a "long process of assimilation, in which the Scandinavians adopted, one by one and over time, individual Christian practices." Winroth does not claim that Olaf was not Christian, but argues that we cannot think of any Scandinavians as fully converting as portrayed in the later hagiographies or sagas. Olaf himself is portrayed in later sources as a saintly miracle-working figure to help support this quick view of conversion for Norway, but the historical Olaf did not act this way, as seen especially in the skaldic verses attributed to him.