Olaf II Haraldsson

990 (age 40)

Ringerike, Norway

Western Norway was ruled by the two Lade jarls. This was the inheritance of King Harold Fairhair. Eastern Norway was ruled by a number of kinglets. After the death of King Olaf Trygvasson in the battle of Svolder (1000), both the jarls and the kinglets seem to have been in some sort of dependence upon the Danish king. Olaf established himself immediately in eastern Norway as a sort of king of kings, and the next year he defeated the jarls at Nesjar. He then sailed north along the coast and was elected king by the yeomen. Olaf was thus the first king to rule over the whole country, both east and west. During the next years he traveled throughout the country, making this new institution, the national monarchy, physically evident to the chieftains, magnates, and people. He defended the peace, upheld the law, and forcefully converted to the Christian faith those areas that still lived by the old gods. The general and official introduction of Christianity necessitated a thorough revision of Norwegian law and the addition of new church codes (kristenretten) by the yeomen in cooperation with the King and his bishop. Olaf embarked on a national program of church building, establishing and endowing one church in each county (herred). Although many of the early missionaries to Norway had come from England, Olaf turned to Germany when he needed more missionaries, and the Norwegian Church was organized as part of the North German church province of Hamburg-Bremen. King Olaf's efforts to build a Norwegian Church were no doubt of importance in his work of uniting the Norwegian kingdom. This unification raised the most violent opposition. Olaf wanted to destroy the power of the kinglets, chieftains, and Viking warlords. He was determined to be the sole defender of the law with the right to tax all. His power rested on some regional support, the landed property of the Crown, and his housecarls. The King's wealth derived in a large measure from the alienated property of destroyed magnates. The opposition to him was strongest in the areas controlled by the Lade family-the Trondelag and the North. Cnut the Great of Denmark was their ally, and Olaf led an expedition against Denmark (1026) which was thoroughly defeated. On Olaf's return to Norway his position became increasingly difficult as large sections of the nation turned against him. He fled the country without battle in 1028, first to Sweden and then to Russia. He returned in 1030 and was defeated by the Lade faction and Trondelag yeomen at the battle of Stiklestad, where Olaf died. The fruits of this victory were Cnut the Great's. He sent his son Svein to rule Norway, together with the boy's mother, Aegifu. It was not a happy choice. Their rule came to be regarded as foreign oppression. Harvests were bad. In 1035 Svein fled in the face of the unresisted advance of Magnus, the son of Olaf. The dead king was firmly established as the national saint-Rex perpetuus Norwegiae, "eternal king of Norway, " an extraordinarily powerful symbol for the new monarchy and the new Church which he in many ways had founded. The power of Olaf was evident months after his death, and even his enemies, the group around Svein, seem to have considered him the special guardian of the Norwegian monarchy. Olaf was the most popular of the medieval northern saints. His feast became one of the great turning points of the year; his tomb in the Trondheim Cathedral was the object of countless long pilgrimages; and Norway's traditional law came to be known as the law of St. Olaf.

Olaf II Haraldsson Edit Profile

king

Background

St. Olaf was born in Ringerike circa 990. Olaf was a son of Harold Graenske, a magnate, or kinglet, in eastern Norway and presumably related to Harold I Fairhair, the first king of Norway. From an early age he partook in Viking expeditions to the Baltic, to England (1009-1011), and to the north of France (1012), where he was baptized at Rouen, having been converted either in England or in France. He returned to England, supporting Ethelred against Cnut the Great (1014), and was back in Norway in 1015.

Career

Western Norway was ruled by the two Lade jarls. This was the inheritance of King Harold Fairhair. Eastern Norway was ruled by a number of kinglets. After the death of King Olaf Trygvasson in the battle of Svolder (1000), both the jarls and the kinglets seem to have been in some sort of dependence upon the Danish king.

Olaf established himself immediately in eastern Norway as a sort of king of kings, and the next year he defeated the jarls at Nesjar. He then sailed north along the coast and was elected king by the yeomen. Olaf was thus the first king to rule over the whole country, both east and west. During the next years he traveled throughout the country, making this new institution, the national monarchy, physically evident to the chieftains, magnates, and people. He defended the peace, upheld the law, and forcefully converted to the Christian faith those areas that still lived by the old gods.

The general and official introduction of Christianity necessitated a thorough revision of Norwegian law and the addition of new church codes (kristenretten) by the yeomen in cooperation with the King and his bishop. Olaf embarked on a national program of church building, establishing and endowing one church in each county (herred). Although many of the early missionaries to Norway had come from England, Olaf turned to Germany when he needed more missionaries, and the Norwegian Church was organized as part of the North German church province of Hamburg-Bremen.

King Olaf's efforts to build a Norwegian Church were no doubt of importance in his work of uniting the Norwegian kingdom. This unification raised the most violent opposition. Olaf wanted to destroy the power of the kinglets, chieftains, and Viking warlords. He was determined to be the sole defender of the law with the right to tax all. His power rested on some regional support, the landed property of the Crown, and his housecarls. The King's wealth derived in a large measure from the alienated property of destroyed magnates. The opposition to him was strongest in the areas controlled by the Lade family-the Trondelag and the North. Cnut the Great of Denmark was their ally, and Olaf led an expedition against Denmark (1026) which was thoroughly defeated.

On Olaf's return to Norway his position became increasingly difficult as large sections of the nation turned against him. He fled the country without battle in 1028, first to Sweden and then to Russia. He returned in 1030 and was defeated by the Lade faction and Trondelag yeomen at the battle of Stiklestad, where Olaf died. The fruits of this victory were Cnut the Great's. He sent his son Svein to rule Norway, together with the boy's mother, Aegifu. It was not a happy choice. Their rule came to be regarded as foreign oppression. Harvests were bad. In 1035 Svein fled in the face of the unresisted advance of Magnus, the son of Olaf.

The dead king was firmly established as the national saint-Rex perpetuus Norwegiae, "eternal king of Norway, " an extraordinarily powerful symbol for the new monarchy and the new Church which he in many ways had founded. The power of Olaf was evident months after his death, and even his enemies, the group around Svein, seem to have considered him the special guardian of the Norwegian monarchy. Olaf was the most popular of the medieval northern saints. His feast became one of the great turning points of the year; his tomb in the Trondheim Cathedral was the object of countless long pilgrimages; and Norway's traditional law came to be known as the law of St. Olaf.

Achievements

Olaf swiftly became Norway's patron saint; his canonisation was performed only a year after his death by Bishop Grimkell. The cult of Olaf not only unified the country, it also fulfilled the conversion of the nation, something for which the king had fought so hard.

He is venerated also in the Eastern Orthodox Church by many Orthodox Christians.

In Italy, there is the Chapel of St Olav in the basilica of Sant'Ambrogio e Carlo al Corso in Rome. Its altarpiece contains a painting of the saint, shown as the martyr king defeating a dragon, representing victory over his pagan past. It was originally a gift presented to Pope Leo XIII in 1893 for the golden jubilee of his ordination as a bishop by Norwegian nobleman and papal chamberlain, Baron Wilhelm Wedel-Jarlsberg. The chapel was restored in 1980 and re-inaugurated by Bishop John Willem Gran, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo.

In Germany, there used to be a shrine of St. Olaf in Koblenz. It had been installed in 1463 or 1464 by Heinrich Kalteisen, at his retirement home, the Dominican Monastery in the Altstadt ( German, "Old City" ) neighborhood of Koblenz. He had been the Archbishop of Nidaros in Norway for six years, from 1452 to 1458. When he died in 1464, he was buried in front of the shrine's altar. But the shrine did not last. The Dominican Monastery was secularized in 1802 and bulldozed in 1955. Only the Rokokoportal ( "Rococo Portal" ), built in 1754, remains to mark the spot.

In the Faroe Islands, the day of St. Olaf's death is celebrated as Ólavsøka, an island wide holiday when they remember Saint Olaf, the king who Christianised the islands.

Recently the pilgrimage route to Nidaros Cathedral, the site of St. Olaf's tomb, has been reinstated. The route is known as The Pilgram's Way (Pilegrimsleden). The main route, which is approximately 640 km long, starts in the ancient part of Oslo and heads north, along Lake Mjosa, up the Gudbrandsdal Valley, over Dovrefjell and down the Orkdal Valley to end at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim. There is a Pilgrim's Office in Oslo which gives advice to pilgrims, and a Pilgrim Centre in Trondheim, under the aegis of the Cathedral, which awards certificates to successful pilgrims upon the completion of their journey. But the relics of St. Olaf are no longer in the Nidaros Cathedral.

Connections

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. Numerous royal, grand ducal and ducal lines are descended from Ordulf and Wulfhild, including members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Maud of Wales, daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, was the mother of King Olav V of Norway, so Olav and his son Harald V, the present King of Norway, are thus descended from Olaf.

Father:: Harald Grenske
Spouse:: Astrid Olofsdotter of Sweden
Daughter:: Wulfhild of Norway

References

Two Olafs of Norway: With a Cross on Their Shields (People from the Past)

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