Olaf Tryggvason: The Christian Viking’s Life & Death

Olaf Tryggvason was a Norwegian Viking prince forced into exile. His challenging youth made him a formidable warrior who pillaged his way across Europe before returning home to Norway to reclaim power.

Along the way, he received a prophecy that resulted in him converting to Christianity, and back in Norway, he tried to forcibly convert the pagan Vikings to his new religion. This made him many enemies and eventually led to his death in a great sea battle. Or, as some sources suggest, did he survive and wander the world as a Christian crusader?

Many of the people who appear in the Norse sagas are semi-legendary. They may be based on a real person, but they often assume the stories of a variety of Norse heroes to create a character who is larger than life.

While Ragnar Lodbrok may be one of the most famous Vikings, it is difficult to determine if anyone resembling the character in the sagas existed. Egil Skallagrimsson is probably another legendary Viking whose story, as told in his saga, is too fantastical to be real. But what about Olaf Tryggvason? Can the sources be trusted?

Most of what we know about Olaf Tryggvason comes from passages included in the Heimskringla (Saga of the Old Norse Kings) written by Snorri Sturluson in around 1230, an Icelandic medieval manuscript known as the Codex Flateyensis from the 14th century, and another called the Bergsbok from the 15th century.

These texts all date from centuries after Olaf reportedly lived and died. They are also all written by Christians, who would have had good reason to focus on a figure like Olaf, who is credited with playing an important role in the conversion of Norway to Christianity. He also reportedly played a role in the conversion of Greenland. According to Snorri Sturluson’s account, the explorer and leader of Greenland Leif Erikson converted to Christianity after spending time at Olaf’s court in Norway.

These Christian authors likely embellished stories about Olaf and increased his importance, but he was certainly a real person. He is referenced by the German medieval chronicler Adam of Bremen in around 1070 and in some slightly later Skaldic poems. One coin type also survives to verify his existence. Nevertheless, the following biographical details should be taken with a grain of salt.

Olaf Tryggvason was a member of the Norwegian nobility, possibly born but certainly raised in exile. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, who was the king of an area called Viken, a strait running between Norway, northwestern Sweden, and Jutland. He is also said to have been the grandson of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway.

In the 960s, Olaf’s father fell out of favor with the people that he was leading and was killed. This forced his mother to flee to the Orkney Islands, where the Norwegian Vikings had been settling alongside the locals since the 8th century. It is unclear whether Olaf was born there or taken there as a toddler.

Olaf’s position was precarious as the man who killed his father, Harald Greycloak, also seized control of Norway from Haakon the Good. Olaf’s mother, Astrid, was a Swedish princess and tried to take her son to her father’s court. But hearing of this arrangement, Greycloak requested that the Swedish king send Olaf back to Norway as a hostage. This forced Astrid and Olaf to flee again, this time heading east.

Astrid had a brother, Sigurd, who was at the court of Vladamir the Great of the Kievan Rus’ — Vikings who had settled in Russia and created the kingdom of Novgorod centuries earlier. Young Olaf was placed on a merchant ship but was captured and enslaved by Estonian pirates. He was sold several times over the course of six years until his uncle Sigurd arrived in Estonia and saw the boy, who seemed foreign. He bought Olaf and took him to the court of Vladamir.

According to the legend, while living in Novgorod, Olaf encountered one of the men responsible for his enslavement and poor treatment. The still-young boy killed him with a single ax blow to the head. A mob tried to kill Olaf, but he was protected by Queen Allogia. This also earned him the respect of Vladimir, who soon made him the chief of his men at arms. But Vladamir became wary of Olaf’s popularity, causing him to fall out of favor and eventually leave Novgorod.

The Vikings who had settled around the Baltic Sea were basically pirates, raiding ports and villages, and Olaf joined their number. Again, he quickly made a name for himself as a ferocious fighter and a successful leader.

He soon came to the attention of Queen Geira of Wendland (northern Germany), who was ruling following the death of her father. The pair married and Olaf set to work reclaiming territory that had declared independence or refused to pay taxes.

Soon the Wends were called to join a great army assembled by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II. It was a gathering of Christian forces, including Saxons, Franks, and Frisians, to take on the pagan Vikings led by Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and Hakon Jarl of Norway. While Olaf was himself a pagan, he led the Wend forces in this great army. The emperor won the battle and forced the Vikings to convert to Christianity. While this seems to have stuck among the Danes, the Norwegians quickly reverted to their pagan ways.

After the battle, Olaf returned to his wife in Wendland, but she died after just three years of marriage. Olaf was reportedly so heartbroken that he had to leave Wendland. He resumed his life of piracy raiding from Friesland (the Netherlands) to the Hebrides.

Miraculous Conversion

Up until this time, Olaf was a pagan. It is unclear whether he was a devotee of Odin and Thor, like his Norwegian ancestors, or if he had adopted the religion of the Kievan Rus’, who worshiped a god of thunder called Perun who wielded an axe called Mjolnir. Either way, this all changed when he landed on the Scilly Isles off the coast of Cornwall, England.

There he visited a seer (seers were very respected among the Vikings). She told him that he would become a great king and do great deeds and would bring the Christian faith to many people. She said that he would know the truth of this prophecy when he returned to his ships, found his enemies drawn up against him, and defeated them. He would be fatally wounded but would recover within seven days.

Olaf returned to his ship to discover mutineers and was seriously injured in the following battle. When he recovered, he converted to Christianity. This seems to have occurred in around 994 when Olaf was around 30 years old.

He then sailed to England to participate in a political gathering called by the Viking Queen Gyda, who was the sister of the king of Dublin. She was looking for a new husband and was intrigued by Olaf who arrived bedraggled from sailing rather than in his finest clothing.

Before the pair could marry, Olaf was challenged to a duel by another Scandinavian prince. Olaf won and became a Viking prince of England and Ireland.

While Olaf repeatedly found himself in positions of power, he was never satisfied and he set his eyes on Norway. In 995, news of Olaf’s presence and exploits in the British Isles reached the country. Jarl Haakon, who was ruling in Norway, sent a man called Thorer Klakka to find Olaf and lure him back to be dealt with.

It is unclear whether it was always Thorer’s intention or if he was impressed when he met Olaf, but he confessed to Olaf what he was there to do. He also told him that the Norwegian people had turned against Haakon because he took the daughters of local elites as concubines and then abandoned them.

This was Olaf’s opportunity. He sailed to Norway and met up with the revolting lords. The battle was already won before he arrived and Haakon had been forced to flee and hide in a pigsty with a servant called Kark. When Olaf arrived with his new followers to seek him out, he offered a reward to whoever killed Haakon. He was decapitated by his slave Kark, who Olaf then decapitated for his disloyalty.

Following this, Olaf seems to have been happily accepted as the new leader of Norway, no doubt thanks to his claim to be the grandson of Harald Fairhair.

The Tyranny of Olaf

The first thing Olaf did upon becoming king was demand that all his followers be baptized. They did so reluctantly. He also converted Leif Erikson who took Christianity back to Greenland and converted the people of Orkney, who were under Norwegian rule. At home, those who wouldn’t convert were exiled, or forced into conversion through taking family members hostage and torture. It is said that one man had a snake forced down his throat using a hot poker. Olaf also destroyed many pagan temples.

A few years later, in 997, he also established a new political center at Trondheim, creating a new center for his new Christian kingdom. This was a very strategic position. It had access to the sea that was protected by fjords, and it was on a peninsula that could easily be protected from land attack. It is suggested that he was establishing it as a base to conquer neighboring kingdoms and create a great Christian Scandinavian empire.

As part of this plan, he tried to marry the queen of Sweden, known as Sigrid the Haughty. But she refused to convert to Christianity and Olaf slapped her in response, making an enemy of Sweden. Instead, Olaf married Tyra, the sister of the king of Denmark. But this did not bring him favor with his neighbor, as this meant she was abandoning a strategic marriage with a Wendish king, arranged by her brother.

Olaf made enemies of his neighboring Viking kingdoms, but if they hadn’t attacked him, he probably would have been ousted by his own people like Jarl Haakon before him.

The kings of Denmark and Sweden and the Jarls of Lade, east of Norway, had enough of Olaf trying to expand his power. They also wanted to regain parts of Norway that they had previously possessed but Olaf now claimed. They ambushed Olaf in the Baltic Sea as he was sailing home from an expedition in the area.

This resulted in the Battle of Svolder, dated to September 999 or 1000. He was outmanned and his ship was quickly surrounded. Not wanting to be taken, Olaf reportedly threw himself into the sea to commit suicide.

There are also more fantastical tales about his death. According to one Skaldic poem, Olaf stood proud on the deck of his ship as the battle raged. But when the battle was lost, the opposing leader went to search for him, and Olaf disappeared before his eyes in a bright light.

Another source suggests that Olaf managed to swim safely to shore or was rescued by a passing ship. He then joined a monastery and there were reported sightings of him in Rome and Jerusalem, suggesting that he continued his work for Christianity.

While Olaf is presented by later Christian sources as a hero fighting for God, he also comes across as a power-hungry and opportunistic tyrant looking to claim power wherever he went.