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Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken (Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of Norway. He is numbered as Olaf I.
Olaf was important in the conversion of the Norsemen to Christianity, but he did so forcibly within his own kingdom. Heimskringla, King Olaf Trygvason's Saga, section 52 He is said to have built the first Christian church in Norway in 995, and to have founded the city of Trondheim in 997. A statue dedicated to him is located in the city's central plaza.
Historical information on Olaf is sparse. He is mentioned in some contemporary English sources,E. g. Diplomatarium Norvegicum XIX, nr. 1 and some poems. The oldest narrative source mentioning him briefly is Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum of circa 1070.
In the 1190s, two Latin versions of "Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar" were written in Iceland, by Oddr Snorrason and Gunnlaugr Leifsson – these are now lost, but are thought to form the basis of later Norse versions. Snorri Sturluson gives an extensive account of Olaf in the Heimskringla saga of circa 1230, using Oddr Snorrason's saga as his primary source. Modern historians do not assume that these late sources are accurate, and their credibility is debated.Sverre Bagge, Helgen, helt og statsbygger – Olav Tryggvason i norsk historieskrivning gjennom 700 år, in Steinar Supphellen (ed.), Kongsmenn og Krossmenn – Festskrift til Grethe Authén Blom (Trondheim, 1992) The most detailed account is named Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta ("Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason") and is recorded in the Flateyjarbók, and in the early 15th-century Bergsbók.
The version in Heimskringla is the most elaborate, but also the latest, and introduces elements to the story that are not found in earlier sources. It states that Olaf was born shortly after the murder of his father in 963, while other sources suggest a date between 964 and 969. The later dates cast doubt over Olaf's claim to be of Harald Fairhair's kin, and the legitimacy of his claim to the throne. Snorri Sturluson claims in Olaf Tryggvson's saga that Olaf was born on an islet in Fjærlandsvatnet, where his mother Astrid Eiriksdottir, daughter of Eirik Bjodaskalle, was hiding from her husband's killers, led by Harald Greycloak, the son of Eirik Bloodaxe. Greycloak and his brothers had seized the throne from Haakon the Good. Astrid fled to her father's home in Oppland, then went on to Sweden where she thought she and Olaf would be safe. Greycloak sent emissaries to the king of Sweden, and asked for permission to take the boy back to Norway, where he would be raised by Greycloak's mother Gunhild. The Swedish king gave them men to help them claim the young boy, but to no avail. After a short scuffle Astrid (with her son) fled again. This time their destination was Gardarike (Kiev), where Astrid's brother Sigurd was in the service of Vladimir the Great. Olaf was three years old when they set sail on a merchant ship for Novgorod. The journey was not successful: in the Baltic Sea they were captured by Estonian vikings, and the people aboard were either killed or taken as slaves. Olaf became the possession of a man named Klerkon, together with his foster father Thorolf and his son Thorgils. Klerkon considered Thorolf too old to be useful as a slave and killed him, and then sold the two boys to a man named Klerk for a ram. Olaf was then sold to a man called Reas for a fine cloak. Heimskringla saga. Six years later, Sigurd Eirikson traveled to Ancient Estonia to collect taxes for King Vladimir. He saw a boy who did not appear to be a native. He asked the boy about his family, and the boy told him he was Olaf, son of Tryggve Olafson and Astrid Eiriksdattir. Sigurd then went to Reas and bought Olaf and Thorgils out from slavery, and took the boys with him to Novgorod to live under the protection of Vladimir.
Still according to Heimskringla, one day in the Novgorod marketplace Olaf encountered Klerkon, his enslaver and the murderer of his foster father. Olaf killed Klerkon with an axe blow to the head. A mob followed the young boy as he fled to his protector Queen Allogia, with the intent of killing him for his misdeed. Only after Allogia had paid Weregild for Olaf did the mob calm down. As Olaf grew older, Vladimir made him chief over his men-at-arms, but after a couple years the king became wary of Olaf and his popularity with his soldiers. Fearing he might be a threat to the safety of his reign, Vladimir stopped treating Olaf as a friend. Olaf decided that it was better for him to seek his fortune elsewhere, and set out for the Baltic.
Thou wilt become a renowned king, and do celebrated deeds. Many men wilt thou bring to faith and baptism, and both to thy own and others' good; and that thou mayst have no doubt of the truth of this answer, listen to these tokens. When thou comest to thy ships many of thy people will conspire against thee, and then a battle will follow in which many of thy men will fall, and thou wilt be wounded almost to death, and carried upon a shield to thy ship; yet after seven days thou shalt be well of thy wounds, and immediately thou shalt let thyself be baptized.
After the meeting mutineers attacked Olaf, and he was wounded but survived, and as a result he converted to Christianity.
David Hugh Farmer, in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, writes 'it is tempting' to identify the seer with Saint Lide who lived on the island of St Helen's in the Isles of Scilly.
By another account, Saint Ælfheah of Canterbury baptized him near Andover, Hampshire, England in 994.Stenton Anglo-Saxon England, p. 378 However, Henrietta Leyser, the author of Ælfheah's entry in the Oxford National Dictionary of Biography, states that Olaf was already baptized and that the 994 event at Andover was a confirmation of his faith, part of a Danegeld treaty in which he agreed to no longer raid in England.
Following the death of Geira, it states in The Saga of Olaf that he travelled to Russia. During his stay here, he had a dream in which God spoke to him. The voice he heard said, "Hear me, you who promise to be a good man, for you never worshipped gods or paid them any reverence. But rather you disgraced them, and for that reason your works will be multiplied for good and profitable ends. Still you are very deficient in those qualities that would allow you to be in these regions and make you deserving to live here in eternity, because you do not know your Creator and you do not know who the true God is."
Olaf seized this opportunity, and sailed for Norway. When he arrived many men had already revolted against Haakon, who was forced to hide in a spider hole dug in a pigsty, together with his slave, Tormod Kark. When Olaf met the rebels they accepted him as their king, and together they started to search for Haakon. They eventually came to the farm where Haakon and Kark were hiding, but did not find them. Olaf held a meeting just outside the swine-sty and promised a great reward for the man who killed Haakon. The two men in the hole heard this speech, and Haakon became distrustful of Kark, fearing he would kill him for the reward. He could not leave the pigsty, nor could he stay awake indefinitely, and when he fell asleep Kark decapitated Haakon with a knife. The next day Kark went to Olaf and presented him the head of Haakon. King Olaf did not reward him, and instead decapitated him.
After his confirmation as King of Norway, Olaf traveled to the parts of Norway that had not been under the rule of Haakon, but that of the King of Denmark; they also swore allegiance to him. He then demanded that they all be baptized, and most reluctantly they agreed.
Both his Wendish and his Irish wife had brought Olaf wealth and good fortune, but, according to the Sagas, his last wife, Tyra, was his undoing, for it was on an expedition undertaken in 1000 to wrest her lands from Burislav that he was waylaid off the island Svolder by the combined Swedish, Danish, and Wendish fleets, together with the ships of Earl Haakon's sons.
Olaf continued to promote Christianity throughout his reign. He baptized the explorer Leif Ericson, who took a priest with him back to Greenland to convert the rest of his kin.Snorre Sturlason, Heimskringla, Or the Lives of the Norse Kings (Kessinger Publishing, 2004), p. 188 Olaf also converted the people and Earl of the Orkney Islands to Christianity. At that time, the Orkney Islands were part of Norway. While Olaf sent missionaries to other lands and baptized dignitaries who visited Norway to spread Christianity, within his own kingdom he used forced conversion through means such as exile, hostage taking, mutilation, torture, and death for those who refused as well as destroying pagan temples. Noted victims include Thorlief the Wise who had one eye torn out—his torturers were supposed to blind him but his stoic bearing during the torture led them to run away after doing only half the job—and Raud the Strong who had a venomous snake forced into body through his mouth by a red hot iron. Ultimately, Olaf's efforts at widespread conversion failed.
Other sagas suggest that one way or another Olaf made his way to the shore; perhaps by swimming, perhaps with the help of angels, most likely rescued by one of the Wendish ships present.Ekrem 2003:99; Oddr Snorrason 2003:134; Theodoricus monachus 1998:18. After his escape, Olaf supposedly sought salvation for his soul abroad, perhaps joining a monastery. Mesta describes a series of "sightings" of him in the Holy Land, the last in the 1040s. Retrieved 30 January 2007.
For some time after the Battle of Svolder, there were rumors that Olaf had survived his leap into the sea and had made his way to safety. Accounts reported by Oddr Snorrason included sightings of Olaf in Rome, Jerusalem, and elsewhere in Europe and the Mediterranean. Both King Ethelred the Unready and Olaf's sister Astrid allegedly received gifts from Olaf long after he was presumed dead. The latest sighting reported by Oddr took place in 1046.Oddr Snorrason. The Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason. Shepton, J., transl. Nutt, 1895. 449–465.
Olaf routinely used force to compel conversion to Christianity, including execution and torture of those who refused.Midgaard 1963:25–26. Raud the Strong refused to convert and, after a failed attempt using a wooden pin to pry open his mouth to insert a snake, was killed by a snake goaded by a hot poker through a drinking horn into Raud's mouth and down his throat. Eyvind Kinnrifi likewise refused and was killed by a brazier of hot coals resting on his belly. The possibly apocryphal figure, Sigrid the Haughty was said to have refused to marry Olaf if it meant forgoing her forefathers' religion, upon which Olaf slapped her with his glove, an act that prompted her to unite his enemies against him years later.
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