VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCHTEXT SERIESGENERAL EDITORS

Anthony Faulkes and Richard Perkins

VOLUME XIIIA HISTORY OF NORWAYAND

THE PASSION AND MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

A HISTORY OF NORWAYAND

THE PASSION AND MIRACLES
OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

TRANSLATED BY

DEVRA KUNIN
EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BYCARL PHELPSTEAD

VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

2001

© Viking Society for Northern Research 2001
Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter
ISBN 978 0 903521 48 2

Web publication with corrections and supplementary note © 2008.

The cover illustration is based on a wall-painting depicting
St Óláfr on a voyage, illustrating a late medieval legend of a sailing
contest between St Óláfr and his half-brother Haraldr for the
Norwegian crown (see articles in Svahnström 1981, 135–60).
Church at Vallensbæk, Sjælland.

CONTENTS
PREFACEvii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

viii

INTRODUCTION
Historia Norwegiae
Passio et miracula beati Olavi

ix
ix
xxv

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

1

THE PASSION AND MIRACLES OF THE
BLESSED ÓLÁFR

26

NOTES TO HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

75

NOTES TO PASSIO BEATI OLAVI101

NOTES TO MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI109

INDEXES OF NAMES

123

MAPS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN

128

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ABBREVIATIONS

131

PREFACE
The introduction and notes to these translations of Historia Norwegiae
and Passio et miracula beati Olavi have been compiled with theneeds of students primarily in mind and are designed to provide
essential background information and to stimulate further readingof texts listed in the Bibliography.
Complete consistency with regard to the treatment of personalnames and place-names in the translations has proved neither possible nor desirable. In general, the aim has been to use the forms
most likely to be encountered when reading other texts from orabout medieval Scandinavia. Almost all personal names are therefore in their standard Old Norse forms; the exceptions include
some Anglo-Saxons, a Russian, biblical names and a few unidentiﬁed
individuals left in Latin. Place-names in Scandinavia are also
usually given in Old Norse where possible, with modern equivalents given in the index of place-names. With one or two exceptions, non-Scandinavian place-names (and all countries) are in
their usual English forms.
The Bibliography includes details of the texts to which references are made in abbreviated form. Biblical references are to theLatin Vulgate translation, with parenthetical references to the Authorised Version where this differs.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Devra Kunin’s translations were read by Peter Foote, Joan Turville-Petre andÞorbjörg Helgadóttir before I was invited to introduce and annotate them.
Christine Butler and Sarah Newton (respectively Assistant Archivist andLibrarian at Corpus Christi College, Oxford) kindly allowed me access toitems in their care, including the manuscript of Passio et miracula beati
Olavi. I am pleased to record my thanks to friends and colleagues who
have helped me during my work on these texts, especially Jeremy Brown,
Siân Duke, Peter Foote, Sally Mapstone, Andrew Nash, Heather O’Donoghue,
Morag Reavley, Gunnhild Røthe and Shaun Tougher. I also owe a debt ofgratitude to my parents for their support, and to Mr J. C. S. Scott, thanks
to whom I was able to learn Latin at a school which did not normally offer
the subject. Above all, I am deeply grateful to Anthony Faulkes andRichard Perkins, the General Editors of the Viking Society Text Series, whose
invaluable scrutiny of my work has saved me from sundry errors andinfelicities. Any that remain are entirely my own responsibility.
Carl Phelpstead
Cardiff
Feast of St Oswald 2000

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE (2008)
Publication on the web has provided an opportunity to make a few corrections.
In addition, it may be noted that the Dalhousie manuscript that includes
Historia Norwegiae has now been acquired by the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh (MS GD 45/31/1). An important new edition of the Latin text ofHistoria Norwegiae with facing English translation and extensive introduction
and commentary is essential reading: Historia Norwegie, ed. Inger Ekrem
and Lars Boje Mortensen, trans. Peter Fisher (2003); see my review in SagaBook XXVIII (2003), 105–08. Work on Passio Olavi since 2001 includes: Lars
Boje Mortensen, ‘Recent Research in the Legend of Saint Olav’ in Scripturusvitam: lateinische Biographie von der Antike bis in die Gengenwart: Festgabe
für Walter Berschin zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Dorothea Walz (2002), 1011–
18; Lars Boje Mortensen and Else Mundal, ‘Erkebispesetet i Nidaros –arnestad og verkstad for Olavslitteraturen’ in Ecclesia Nidrosiensis 1153–
1537: søkelys på Nidaroskirkens og Nidarosprovinsens historie, ed. Steinar
Imsen (2003), 353–84. Readers of Passio Olavi will also want to consult
Martin Chase, ed., Einar Skúlason’s Geisli: A Critical Edition (2005).

CPINTRODUCTIONTHE TWO WORKS translated in this volume are among theearliest surviving texts from medieval Norway. In addition totheir intrinsic value as historical documents providing insights into
the period of their composition and the more remote past, they also
occupy an important place in the literary history of medieval
Norway and Iceland. The purpose of this introduction is to elucidate the literary-historical context of the texts and to provide thereader with some orientation in the exceptionally complex scholarly debate which has surrounded them.
Historia Norwegiae
Historia Norwegiae 1 begins, after a brief Prologue, with a description of Norway and Greenland, a discussion of Lappish customs
and descriptions of Orkney and the Hebrides, the Faroes, andIceland. The rest of the surviving text provides an account of
Norwegian history from the legendary beginnings of the Ynglingar
dynasty to the return to Norway from England of the future kingand martyr, Óláfr Haraldsson, in AD 1015. Markedly disproportionate attention is given in this history to Norway’s two missionary
kings, Óláfr Tryggvason and Óláfr Haraldsson.
The state of our knowledge about the origins of Historia Norwegiae
may be summed up in words from a recent article by Inger Ekrem(1998b, 65):
The medieval text Historia Norwegie has been subjected to thoroughand frequent scrutiny since its ﬁrst publication in 1850. Neverthelessit remains to be established when, why, where, for whom and by whom
it was written.

The only surviving manuscript of Historia Norwegiae (in which itis entitled Ystoria Norwegie) is in the private possession of the Earlof Dalhousie at Brechin Castle in Scotland and is consequently
known as the Dalhousie manuscript (it is also occasionally referred
to as the Panmure Codex, from the former name of the Dalhousie
family). This paper manuscript, now comprising 35 leaves, contains
1 Various spellings of the title of this work will be encountered in thescholarship devoted to it.

x

HISTORY OF NORWAY

eight historical texts, seven in Latin and one in Scots English, theﬁrst three about Norway and the Norse earldom of Orkney and theother ﬁve about Scottish history (Michael Chesnutt, the latest
scholar to have access to the manuscript, provides a full description and study of it (1985)). Historia Norwegiae, which is the ﬁrst
item in the manuscript (fols 1r–12r), was ﬁrst edited by Munch
under the title Breve Chronicon Norvegiæ (1850, 1–18). The translation in this volume has been made from the later edition by
Gustav Storm, who provides both a critical and a diplomatic text
(1880, 69–124, 203–24).2
Chesnutt has disproved Munch’s theory that the manuscript may
have been commissioned by the last earl of Orkney, William Sinclair(earl 1434–70), but there does seem to be a link between the
Sinclair family and the three texts in the manuscript concerning
Norway and Orkney. Moreover, a lost copy of Historia Norwegiae
is known to have existed in Kirkwall, Orkney, in the ﬁrst half of theﬁfteenth century, when it was used by the compiler of a genealogyof the earls of Orkney which follows Historia Norwegiae in the
Dalhousie manuscript, but which is based on a text of that work
slightly different from the one which survives (Chesnutt 1985, 67–
68; cf. Storm 1880, xvii and Crawford 1977, 174–76). The spellingof Norse names and the orthography of the Scots text indicate thatthe Dalhousie scribe was a native speaker of Scots (Chesnutt 1985,
69). The manuscript was dated to between 1443 and 1460 by
earlier scholars including Storm (1880, xvii), but Chesnutt dates it
to c.1500–10 (1985, especially pp. 76, 88). He shows that the scribe
is to be identiﬁed with the scribe of the Haye manuscript from
Roslin (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland MS T.D. 209)
who was also responsible for the ﬁrst part of Oxford, Bodleian
Library, MS Arch. Selden B. 24 (one of the most important Scots
literary manuscripts, containing among other treasures the only
surviving copy of the Kingis Quair). The Selden manuscript was
written for the Sinclair family and belonged to a grandson ofWilliam Sinclair, while the Haye manuscript was owned by the
2 The preparation of a new collaborative edition of Latin texts frommedieval Norway, including both Historia Norwegiae and the Passio et
miracula beati Olavi, is now under way (see ‘Norwegian Medieval Latin
Literature’ 1997).

INTRODUCTION

xi

Roslin lairds who were also descendants of William Sinclair. We
can therefore attribute these three manuscripts, Selden, Haye, andDalhousie, to a scribe employed by the senior branch of the Sinclair
family during the reign of James IV of Scotland (Chesnutt 1985,
84–88).3
Although the surviving manuscript was copied c.1500–10, thedate of composition of Historia Norwegiae is certainly earlier.
Four fourteenth-century lists of Swedish kings that extend down to
the year 1333 seem to borrow from a text of Historia Norwegiae,
which must therefore have been written before c.1330 (Storm
1880, xviii–xix, with a diplomatic edition of these lists on pp. 225–
28; see also Steinnes 1946–48, 7–17). As explained below in thenotes to the text, the account of islands which pay tribute to
Norway suggests a latest possible date of 1266, since after thePeace of Perth agreed in that year Norway recognised the sovereignty of the Scottish king over the Hebrides. There remains,
however, considerable disagreement about how much earlier thanthat Historia Norwegiae was written. This question is closely connected to that of the relationship of Historia Norwegiae to otherearly histories from Norway and Iceland, and it is necessary toconsider this issue before returning to the question of dating.
Historia Norwegiae belongs to a group of three medieval Norwegian histories now known as the ‘Norwegian synoptics’ because
they each provide a relatively brief overview of a substantial periodof Norwegian history. One of the other two Norwegian synoptics
is, like Historia Norwegiae, in Latin: the Historia de antiquitate
regum Norwagiensium was written by Theodoricus monachus c.1180.
The other is an anonymous text written c.1190 in the Norse vernacular and known as Ágrip af Noregskonungaso≈gum.
The earliest histories of the Norwegian kings of which we know
are two brief epitomes by Icelandic historians of the ﬁrst half of thetwelfth century. Unfortunately, neither of these texts survives today. Sæmundr Sigfússon (1056–1133) is believed to have been theﬁrst Icelandic historian, and the anonymous poem Nóregs konungatal
3 All three manuscripts were probably copied during the period 1490–
1510. The Haye and Selden manuscripts have been attributed to a priest
and notary public associated with the Sinclair family called James Graye,
but Chesnutt casts doubt on this identiﬁcation of the scribe (1985, 86–87).

xii

HISTORY OF NORWAY(c.1190) claims to follow his account of the Norwegian kings
between Haraldr hárfagri and Magnús góði. Sæmundr almost certainly wrote his probably very brief lost history in Latin and
Iceland’s earliest vernacular historian is Ari Þorgilsson (1067/8–
1148). The Preface to his surviving Íslendingabók seems to statethat it is a revision of an earlier version which included additional
genealogical information together with biographies of Norwegiankings (konunga ævi; Íslendingabók 3). It is uncertain how muchinformation was included in these biographies; they are likely tohave been relatively brief, but may nevertheless be the foundations
upon which later historical writing in both Iceland and Norway
was built.4
After Ari, Icelandic historians turned to the composition of
biographies of individual Norwegian kings, beginning c.1150 with
Eiríkr Oddsson’s now lost Hryggjarstykki, which concentrated on
the life of the pretender Sigurðr slembir (d. 1139; see BjarniGuðnason 1978). This was followed by biographies of the two kings
most closely involved in the conversion of Norway to Christianity,Óláfr Tryggvason (r. 995–1000) and St Óláfr Haraldsson (r. 1015–
30). Two Latin Lives of Óláfr Tryggvason were written by monks
from Þingeyrar: Oddr Snorrason’s Life dates from c.1190, or maybe
earlier, c.1170, but survives only in three texts of an Icelandictranslation originally made c.1200, while our knowledge of Gunnlaugr
Leifsson’s version of c.1200 is limited to what can be deduced
about it from later Icelandic sagas which seem to have used it asa source. The sagas of St Óláfr Haraldsson are discussed below inrelation to the Passio et miracula beati Olavi; the account of theearly part of the saint’s life in Historia Norwegiae may be compared especially with the account in the Legendary Saga of StÓláfr, which is now generally thought to reﬂect closely the contents of the mostly lost Oldest Saga of St Óláfr (see further below).
A synthesis of these two approaches to historical writing, that of
the brief epitomes of Norwegian history (Ari’s lost konunga æviand the Norwegian synoptics) and that of the Icelandic biographiesof individual kings, gave rise to vernacular Icelandic Kings’ Sagas
which cover the reigns of several kings. The earliest of these
4 The possible connections between the Norwegian synoptics and theworks of Sæmundr and Ari are brieﬂy discussed below, pp. xiv–xvi.

INTRODUCTION

xiii

compendia is Morkinskinna (probably compiled c.1220; = Msk)
but this deals with events between 1030 and 1157 (originally1177), which is later than the period covered by Historia Norwegiae
in its surviving form. The most important Kings’ Sagas of thecompendium type for comparison with Historia Norwegiae are
therefore later works, especially the anonymous Fagrskinna (c.1225,
probably written in Norway by either an Icelander or a Norwegian;= Fsk) and Snorri Sturluson’s great masterpiece, Heimskringla(c.1225–35; = Hkr).
Some of the early Norwegian and Icelandic histories are written in Latin and others in Old Norse, but this should not be allowed
to obscure the essential unity of the historiographical tradition,
for Icelandic historians writing in the vernacular were nevertheless deeply inﬂuenced by the Latin culture of Europe. Historical
writing in Scandinavia and Iceland during the late twelfth andthirteenth centuries reﬂects the increased interest in history andhistorical writing which is characteristic of the so-called ‘twelfthcentury renaissance’.5 In particular, medieval Scandinavian and
Icelandic historical writing in both Latin and Old Norse is indebted
to the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontiﬁcum written by
Adam of Bremen c.1068–75 (= Gesta Hamm.); Birgit and Peter
Sawyer write that ‘The remarkable interest in Scandinavian history
exhibited in the decades after 1170 was not directly caused byAdam, but none of the historians who wrote then, nor their successors, could escape his inﬂuence’ (1992, 48). Among those mostdeeply inﬂuenced by Adam’s work was the author of Historia
Norwegiae.
The relationships between the early Norwegian and Icelandic
histories have been the subject of extensive scholarly debate
which has focussed on two related issues: the interrelationships
among the so-called ‘Norwegian synoptics’ (Historia Norwegiae,
Theodoricus’s Historia de antiquitate regum Norwagiensium and5 Cf. Haskins 1927, especially 224–77. For an introduction to medieval
historical writing in general see Smalley 1974. Scandinavian and Icelandic histories are usefully surveyed in articles under ‘Historieskrivning’ in
KLNM VI, cols 587–602, and by Andersson (1985) and Sawyer and
Sawyer (1992); see also articles on the individual texts and authors in
KLNM and MSE.

xiv

HISTORY OF NORWAYÁgrip af Noregskonungaso≈gum); and the connections between those
three texts and Icelandic historical writing. The course of debate onthese complex issues up to the early 1980s is concisely and usefully summarised by Andersson (1985, 201–11; see also Ulset
1983, 16–47), and the reader of the brief account which follows isreferred there for more detailed references. It is generally assumedon the basis of similarities between the two texts that the author ofÁgrip made direct use of Theodoricus’s work. In addition, the close
correspondences between Ágrip and Historia Norwegiae (conveniently listed in Ulset 1983, 170–82) are so numerous that ‘one muststand in literary debt to the other or, more likely, both derive froma common written source’ (Andersson 1985, 201). This common
source could be the lost Latin history by Sæmundr Sigfússon, or
the *konunga ævi included in the original version of Ari Þorgilsson’sÍslendingabók, or an otherwise unknown lost Norwegian history.
The most thorough discussions of this problem arrive at different
conclusions. Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson argues that both Ágrip andHistoria Norwegiae depend on a lost Norwegian-Latin history(1937, 1–54). Svend Ellehøj, on the other hand, argues that the lost
common source is Ari’s *konunga ævi (1965, 198–258). As Andersson
says, the difference between these two positions ‘does not appear
great, but the implications of the difference are far-reaching’ (1985,
202). If the lost source is a Norwegian text, rather than Ari’s
Icelandic history, then ‘we are led to believe that there was anindependent Norwegian school of history writing and that thesynoptics are a speciﬁcally Norwegian manifestation’ (Andersson
1985, 202). If, on the other hand, Ágrip and Historia Norwegiae
depend on Ari’s work this, together with Theodoricus’s admissionof his debt to Icelandic sources (ch. 1), means that medieval Norwegian historical writing was modelled on and indebted to that of
Iceland.
Andersson (1985, 203–09) offers a critique of Ellehøj’s arguments in favour of Ari’s *konunga ævi being the lost source,clearly demonstrating the shakily hypothetical foundations of his
account of the intertextual relations. Andersson concludes that
Ellehøj’s ‘arguments in favour of Ari’s *konunga ævi as a source
for the Historia Norwegiae lead to an impasse’ (1985, 209). While
Ellehøj’s view could be correct, his evidence is not conclusive andINTRODUCTION

xv

other explanations are also possible. Further alternatives make thesituation appear still more complicated. Tor Ulset, for example,
argues on stylistic grounds that the author of Ágrip translates fromboth Theodoricus and Historia Norwegiae (1983, 64–151) and thisdoes away with the need for a lost common source to explain thecorrespondences between Ágrip and Historia Norwegiae. BjarniGuðnason (1977), on the other hand, argues cogently that Theodoricus
made use of Sæmundr and Ari, and Andersson (1985, 210) points
out that this argument may logically be extended to explain similarities between the three Norwegian synoptics purely on the basisof their common dependence on Sæmundr and/or Ari. This in turnleads him to suggest that ‘such a hypothesis leaves standing very
little of the painstaking ediﬁce erected by Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson
and Svend Ellehøj, and the question arises whether any cogent
analysis of the textual relationships is possible’ (1985, 211). Justsuch a conclusion was anticipated in Siegfried Beyschlag’s attempt
to deny literary relations between the Norwegian synoptics andargue instead that the close correspondences between them arose
as a result of their common debt to oral traditions (Beyschlag1950). This approach has not been favoured by other scholars, but
is by its nature impossible to refute deﬁnitively.
It is no wonder, then, that Andersson (1985, 211) ends his account of scholarship on the Norwegian synoptics with this sobering
conclusion:
If Beyschlag’s theory is rejected and the analyses by Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson
and Ellehøj founder on their own disagreement as well as the altered
presuppositions suggested by Bjarni Guðnason, we are obliged toconclude that the last ﬁfty years of kings’ saga research have left us
empty-handed.

The most important intervention in this debate since the publication of Andersson’s article is that made by Gudrun Lange (1989).
She examines the relationship of Historia Norwegiae to a large
number of possible Icelandic sources including skaldic verse, theworks of Sæmundr and Ari, the Oldest Saga of St Óláfr and Oddr
Snorrason’s Life of Óláfr Tryggvason (Lange 1989, 141–63). She
also examines the likely sources for Theodoricus’s history andÁgrip in a similar way, and this exhaustive study enables her to
afﬁrm that, as Andersson (1985, 210) had suggested, all threexvi

HISTORY OF NORWAY

Norwegian synoptics could have used Sæmundr and Ari. Moreover, she argues that they could all also have used skaldic poetry,the Oldest Saga of St Óláfr, and Oddr Snorrason’s Latin Life ofÓláfr Tryggvason (1989, 178). She is able, however, to demonstrate only the possibility of such indebtedness, and has to admitthat many different possibilities exist (1989, 178). Despite this, she
concludes that medieval Norwegian historiography was clearly
dependent on that of Iceland, and offers as her solution of what wemight call the ‘Norwegian synoptic problem’ the observation thatthe synoptics may be indirectly related to each other through being
based on common Icelandic sources (1989, 181).
A recently published monograph on Historia Norwegiae by Inger
Ekrem explores the possible connections between its composition
and the establishment of a Norwegian archiepiscopal see at Niðaróss(modern Trondheim) in 1152/3 (on the establishment of thearchbishopric see Helle 1964, 27–31; Gunnes 1996, 50–73). In thecourse of her investigation Ekrem offers new arguments about thedate and authorship of Historia Norwegiae which, if accepted,
have signiﬁcant implications for the question of the work’s relationship to other Scandinavian and Icelandic histories. We may
therefore return at this point to the question of the date of Historia
Norwegiae. A glance at the table of ‘results of research 1850–
1989’ provided by Ekrem (1998a, 88; also in 1998b, 50) indicatesthat datings of the composition of the text have ranged from asearly as the 1150s to as late as c.1300, with the majority of scholars
in favour of dates between 1170 and 1220.6
Many have been convinced by S. Bugge’s comparison of the
text’s account of a recent volcanic eruption (10/32–11/4 below)
with a reference to such an event in the Icelandic annals for 1211,
suggesting a date of composition perhaps c.1220–30 (Bugge 1873,35–37; cf. Finnur Jónsson 1928, 275). Storm (1873, 377–78),
6 A sample will make clear both the range of suggested datings and thelack of scholarly agreement: 1152–63 (Hanssen 1949, 28); c.1170 (Koht
1919–20, 102; Schreiner 1927, 73; Ellehøj 1965, 144–46; 295); 1180–90(Storm 1880, xxiii); 1200–20 (Finnur Jónsson 1920–24, II 596–97; 1928,
276–77; Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson 1937, 20–22); 1260/64–66 (Meissner 1902,
39–43); Maurer (1867, 700–01; 1875, 9) suggests a date not before 1266
but possibly as late as the ﬁfteenth century.

INTRODUCTION

xvii

however, asserts the impossibility of being certain that the eruption
referred to in the text is the one which took place in 1211, and Koht
(1919–20, 104) notes that some versions of the Icelandic annals
refer to this event as an earthquake and that similar earthquakes arealso recorded in 1164 and 1182. In her discussion of the origins ofHistoria Norwegiae Ekrem argues in favour of an early date ofcomposition, pointing out that none of the certain sources for
Historia Norwegiae dates from later than c.1140 and that its list ofrulers of Normandy (p. 9 below) ends with Henry I of England(r. 1100–35), making no mention of Stephen or Henry II. Ekrem
argues that the work is therefore likely to have been written between 1140 and 1152–54, perhaps around 1150 (Ekrem 1998a,
8–13). This would make Historia Norwegiae the earliest Norwegian national history (Ekrem 1998a, 87; cf. Koht 1919–20) and sowould ﬁt best with a view of the relationships between the Norwegian synoptics which explains the agreement between Ágrip andHistoria Norwegiae by positing Sæmundr or Ari rather than a lost
Norwegian-Latin synoptic as their common source. Ekrem’s datingallows her to associate the composition of Historia Norwegiae
with the establishment of the archiepiscopal see at Niðaróss in
1152/3 and supports her argument that Historia Norwegiae may
have been written in order to convince the pope or his legate,
Cardinal Nicholas Breakspear, that Norway was worthy of its
own archbishopric (1998a, 19; cf. 1998b). If Ekrem’s theory is
accepted, Breakspear’s English nationality might help account forthe pro-English bias of Historia Norwegiae (cf. Ekrem 1998a, 68,
80–81).7
The Prologue to Historia Norwegiae implies that after its account of Nordic geography and the history of the kings of Norway
down to St Óláfr Haraldsson the work will go on to describe theconversion and Christianisation of Norway (1/11–16 below). Thatit does not do so conﬁrms that the text which survives is incomplete.
7 A connection with Breakspear’s mission might also help to account for
the Orcadian connections of the sole surviving manuscript of Historia
Norwegiae: Ekrem (1998a, 81) speculates that Earl Ro≈gnvaldr and Bishop
Vilhjálmr of Orkney could have brought a copy of the work back withthem after meeting Cardinal Breakspear during the visit they made to
Norway c.1153.

xviiiHISTORY OF NORWAY

This could be because the author died before ﬁnishing it, or as
Ekrem (1998a, 67) suggests, because Nicholas Breakspear’s mission to Norway and establishment of the archiepiscopal see madethe completion of the book unnecessary. Alternatively, it may be
because the interests of those who brought the text to Orkney, orof a later copyist there, were primarily in the Orcadian material
contained in what survives of Historia Norwegiae rather than in
the ecclesiastical history contained in its now lost continuation (cf.
Ekrem 1998a, 81).
Whatever the explanation for the now incomplete state of Historia
Norwegiae, a second ‘book’ containing an account of the life,
death and miracles of St Óláfr Haraldsson would have provided an
ideal climax to the complete work and would have fulﬁlled thestated intentions of the Prologue (cf. Ekrem 1998a, 68).8 Such aLife might have existed separately before incorporation into Historia
Norwegiae and might subsequently have taken on an independent
existence in ecclesiastical and liturgical use. Ekrem (1998a, 68)
suggests that the Passio et miracula beati Olavi (discussed andtranslated below) may be just such an adaptation of what was originally Book II of Historia Norwegiae, provided now with its own
introduction including some of the geographical and historicalmaterial found earlier in Historia Norwegiae. The fact that StÓláfr’s chief opponent in both Historia Norwegiae and the Passio
Olavi is Knútr Sveinsson of Denmark, whereas in the Norwegian
Homily Book version of the Life of Óláfr (discussed below) it is
the Norwegian chieftain Kálfr Árnason, is a signiﬁcant point ofcontact between the two texts, one which Ekrem suggests reﬂects
the anti-Danish/pro-English bias in Historia Norwegiae and in certain
miracles in the Passio et miracula beati Olavi (1998a, 85–86).9
8 Note, however, that Ulset (1983, 147–48) suggests the work may
originally have continued to at least the year 1155, and Storm (1880,
xxviii) believes it could have gone up to the author’s own time (the late
twelfth century, in Storm’s opinion). Schreiner (1927, 84), on the other
hand, claims that the text would not have continued past St Óláfr’s deathat the Battle of Stiklarstaðir.
9 This anti-Danish bias may reﬂect the fact that until the foundation of
the archbishopric of Niðaróss the Norwegian church was subject to thearchiepiscopal see of Lundr in the Danish kingdom.

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xix

The question of the authorship of Historia Norwegiae is necessarily bound up with that of the identity of the Agnellus to whom
the work is dedicated (see 1/27 and corresponding note below).
Munch (1850, ii, vi) argued in favour of Orcadian authorshiplargely on the basis of manuscript provenance and the knowledgeof Orkney displayed in the text. Ample evidence that the author
must have been Norwegian is, however, provided by phrases suchas ‘our kings’ (10/6), ‘which we call Hólmgarðr’ (23/23) and ‘ourÓláfr’ (24/34), together with the forms of some of the personal andplace-names in the text (on which see Storm 1880, xix; Hægstad
1919–20; Skard 1930, 12–15).10 Bugge argued that the text was
written by a Norwegian in Orkney (1873, 37–41), but there issomewhat more convincing evidence that the Norwegian author
may have written either while living in Denmark or after returning
to Norway from there. In particular, it seems the author of Historia
Norwegiae used a particular manuscript in Denmark which contained copies of texts by Adam of Bremen, Honorius Augustodunensis and possibly Solinus which he used as sources. This
manuscript, known as the Sorø codex, was destroyed in the ﬁre in
the Royal Library, Copenhagen in 1728 (see Steinnes 1946–48,
17–32; cf. Ellehøj 1965, 146–47; further arguments in favour of aconnection with Denmark are put forward by Sandaaker (1985)). The
author must certainly have studied abroad, probably in France(Koht 1919–20, 113–17; though cf. Skard 1930, 85), but possibly
in England (Storm 1880, xxiii). He seems to have written with a
non-Norwegian audience in mind, as is evident from the opening
description of Norway, the translation of Norse nicknames into
Latin, and the proposed identiﬁcations of Agnellus, the work’s
dedicatee, with Englishmen of that name (see note to 1/27).
Attempts have been made to identify the anonymous Norwegianauthor of Historia Norwegiae with known individuals, but nocandidate has won much support and such attempts at identiﬁcation necessarily rest on very shaky foundations given our uncertainty about the date of the text’s composition and our lack of
10 Finnur Jónsson (1920–24, II 598–99) and Paul Lehmann (1936–37,
2:75) nevertheless thought the author must have been an English or German cleric living in Norway.

xx

HISTORY OF NORWAY

biographical information from the period.11 After surveying earlier
scholarly opinion, Ekrem argues that Historia Norwegiae could
well be an early work of the future Archbishop Eysteinn Erlendsson,
to whom the Passio et miracula beati Olavi is also attributed(1998a, 71–79; on Eysteinn’s authorship of the Passio Olavi see
further below).12 Ekrem compares Eiliv Skard’s stylistic studies ofHistoria Norwegiae (1930) and the Passio et miracula beati Olavi(1932) and suggests that such differences of style as there are
between the two texts are not incompatible with their being thework of a single author, one who could have written Historia
Norwegiae relatively early in his career and then later in life
adapted what was originally the second book of that text to produce
a self-sufﬁcient account of the passion and miracles of St Óláfr.
In her recent work on Historia Norwegiae Ekrem (1998a; 1998b)
makes a strong case for seeing it as propaganda for the establishment of an archiepiscopal see at Niðaróss. In the conclusion of her
monograph she identiﬁes four aims which the author seems to have
hoped to further by writing Historia Norwegiae (Ekrem 1998a, 79;
more detailed reference to her arguments will be found in the notes
to the text below). These aims are: the establishment of a national
ecclesiastical province based at Niðaróss (hence the anti-Danishand pro-English bias of the text); the inclusion within that provinceof all lands which pay tribute to Norway or which were Christianised from Norway (the lands described at the beginning of Historia
Norwegiae are precisely those incorporated into the archdiocese);the establishment of a new episcopal see in the Uppland region(hence the emphasis on that region in the text; a new bishopric wasfounded at Hamar at the same time as the archdiocese was created);
11 Attempts at such identiﬁcation include Koht 1919–20, 109–17, Steinnes
1946–48, 32–59 and Steinnes 1965, 27–43.
12 Ekrem also, less enthusiastically, offers an alternative explanationaccording to which Eysteinn may be the dedicatee of the work, which may
then have been written by the Ro≈gnvaldr who was later consecrated bishopof the Hebrides and Isle of Man, perhaps by Cardinal Breakspear in Norway
in 1153 (1998a, 80; cf. 17, 78). Ekrem even brieﬂy considers the possibility
that Eysteinn might be both author and dedicatee of the work, something
she claims might be understandable in a medieval context in which ﬁctional dedicatees often appear in prefaces and prologues (1998a, 78–79).

INTRODUCTION

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and the canonisation of Óláfr Tryggvason (accounting for thedisproportionate attention given to his life and the many parallels
between it and the life of Norway’s accepted royal saint, Óláfr
Haraldsson). Ekrem suggests that the text was written before 1152/3
to further these four aims (all but the last of which were in factachieved). Although her account of the origins of Historia Norwegiae
is cogent and in many ways attractive, it is also at times highly
speculative; rather than providing a deﬁnitive solution to the problems of the date, authorship and purpose of Historia Norwegiae,
she offers yet another set of possibilities. Proponents of a later date
for the text might accept her analysis of its ideological position yet
argue that it was written after the establishment of the archdiocesein order retrospectively to justify the new situation. Ekrem has
pushed back the earliest possible date of the text to c.1150, but
without conclusively rebutting the arguments of those who favour
a date in the later twelfth or early thirteenth century. Much, ofcourse, depends on the view taken of the relationship of Historia
Norwegiae to other early Norwegian and Icelandic historical writing, but here there is unfortunately always a danger of circularity
since neither the date of the text nor its relationship to other texts
is certain. A belief that Historia Norwegiae depends upon someearlier text presupposes a later dating, whereas a belief in an earlier
date rules out the possibility of its being dependent on the other text.
References to the most important parallels and possible sources
for material in Historia Norwegiae will be found in the notes
below, but it will perhaps also be useful brieﬂy to list those whose
relationship to Historia Norwegiae has not yet been discussed
here, while noting that in some cases there is little certainty as towhether or not the writer of Historia Norwegiae did actually know
the text in question. Although there is no mention of Adam ofBremen in Historia Norwegiae it is clear that his Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontiﬁcum was one of the most importantmodels for the Norwegian historian. The two texts contain a similar mix of geographical, historical and church historical material,and Historia Norwegiae may also be seen as a response to Adam’s
ideological objectives. Whereas Adam emphasised the role ofHamburg–Bremen in the Christianisation of Scandinavia in an
attempt to maintain that archbishopric’s hold on its northern dioceses,

xxii

HISTORY OF NORWAY

Historia Norwegiae implicitly supports Norwegian ecclesiasticalindependence and emphasises the English rather than German
involvement in the conversion of Norway. Echoes of Adam’s work
are most clearly visible in Historia Norwegiae in its Prologue, thegeographical descriptions and the account of St Óláfr.
With the exception of allusions to Virgil’s Aeneid, which theauthor seems to have known at ﬁrst hand, such echoes as there areof classical Latin texts in Historia Norwegiae can be attributed tothe author’s acquaintance with one or more ﬂorilegia, anthologies
of classical quotations popular in the Middle Ages (cf. Skard 1930,
68–72). The author did, however, use the medieval Latin Imago
mundi (also known as De imagine mundi) by Honorius Augustodunensis (c.1110). There are clear traces of this in Historia Norwegiae(see Skard 1930, 78–83; Steinnes 1946–48, 18–29) but no speciﬁc
reference to Honorius or his work. There is, on the other hand, areference to Solinus (11/8 below), the author of a work known
variously as Collectanea rerum mirabilium, De mirabilibus mundi
or Polyhistor (c.200), though there is no other evidence of theauthor’s use of his text. Honorius, however, did use Solinus’s work,and manuscript scholia in the Sorø codex drawing attention to thismight have misled the author of Historia Norwegiae into thinking
that Solinus was the author of Imago mundi, or that it was substantially based on his work. Alternatively, the reference to Solinus
may be intended to indicate that Historia Norwegiae is conceived
as a supplement to Solinus’s work, telling of similar marvels but inthe northern areas of Europe which Solinus neglected (Ekrem
1998a, 24–25). The reference to Solinus (who, incidentally, is cited
more than once by Adam of Bremen) may even be a deliberate
deception; it was not uncommon for medieval writers to disguisetheir debt to a contemporary source by citing an antique one (Skard
1930, 81).
It has generally been agreed that information on Norman dukes
and English kings in Historia Norwegiae is derived from the Descriptio genealogiae ducum Normannorum in a short English chronicle
composed during the reign of Henry II, the Liber de legibus Angliae.
This is now found (in probably abbreviated form) in manuscriptsof the Chronicle of Roger of Howden (ed. Stubbs 1868–71, II 215–
52; see Storm 1880, xxi–xxii). Ellehøj (1965, 161–74), however,INTRODUCTION

xxiii

argues that the information on Norman dukes in Historia Norwegiae
is so similar to that found in other Norse texts as to suggest thatthey all derive this information from Ari’s lost konunga ævi, which
the Prologue to Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla says included
information about kings in England (Hkr I 6). If this were the case,and it is by no means certain, any connection between Historia
Norwegiae and Anglo-Norman historiography would be via Ari’s work.
The close similarities between the description of the habits ofbeavers in the section of Historia Norwegiae dealing with theLapps and similar descriptions in the works of Gerald of Wales
have often been remarked on and it seems likely that thetwo writers depend upon a common source (see further the note to
5/28 below). A reference to the Prophecies of Merlin (9/25) suggests an acquaintance with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum
Britanniae or more probably with an intermediate text, possibly the
Chronicle of Orderic Vitalis (see Skard 1930, 76–77 and the note
to 9/25–26 below).
Lange argues that it is possible, though no more certain than that,that the author of Historia Norwegiae made use of a number of
Norse sources. In addition to Ari, these include several skaldic
poems: Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld’s Óláfsdrápa, Halldórr ókristni’s
Eiríksﬂokkr, Óttarr svarti’s Ho≈fuðlausn, and Sigvatr Þórðarson’s
Víkingarvísur (Lange 1989, 143–44). Similarities between Historia
Norwegiae and the Legendary Saga of St Óláfr (which is held torepresent the contents of the Oldest Saga of St Óláfr) suggest thatthe Historia Norwegiae could have drawn on the Oldest Saga of StÓláfr (Lange 1989, 156–58). Lange also notes many points ofagreement between Historia Norwegiae and the Life of Óláfr
Tryggvason by Oddr Snorrason, especially in their descriptions of
Norway; again it is not impossible, but nor is it certain, that
Historia Norwegiae is indebted to the Icelander’s work (Lange
1989, 158–63).
The ﬂoridly rhetorical Latin of Historia Norwegiae has won its
author few modern admirers. It is described by Munch, for instance, as ‘turgidus et inﬂatus’ (‘turgid and inﬂated’; 1850, vi) andby Turville-Petre as ‘not pleasing’ (1967, 175). It may perhaps bethought of as reﬂecting youthful exuberance, a conceit which would
ﬁt well with Ekrem’s suggested attribution of the text to the young

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HISTORY OF NORWAY

Eysteinn Erlendsson. The Latin Vulgate Bible was one of the mostsigniﬁcant inﬂuences on the language and style of Historia Norwegiae(Skard 1930, 63–68). There are nearly four times as many allusions
to the Old Testament as to the New; the Psalms are alluded to morethan any other book, but there is also much use of the biblicalwisdom literature (especially Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom) and theBooks of Maccabees. The author’s familiarity with the Bible suggests that he must have had particular theological interests which
led him to the books he echoes most frequently. He demonstrates
a much better knowledge of the Bible than would be expected ofan ordinary priest or than is displayed by Theodoricus, who was amonk (Skard 1930, 67–68).
Many rhetorical ﬁgures are employed in Historia Norwegiae.
These include metonymy, periphrasis, litotes, apo koinou constructions, parallelism, much use of ﬁgura etymologica, hyperbaton,much alliteration, and some rhyme (Skard 1930, 52–62). The author
shows a particular fondness for synonyms (Skard 1930, 23) and forvariatio sermonis, the avoidance of the same words in quick succession (Skard 1930, 40–41, 49–52). For more detailed treatmentof the style of Historia Norwegiae than is appropriate in thisintroduction to an English translation the reader should consult
Skard (1930) and Ulset (1983).
Comparison of the content of Historia Norwegiae with othersources for the early history of Norway and its neighbours reveals
many points of agreement as well as some differences. It is unfortunately not always possible now to verify (or disprove) information given in these early sources or to decide between alternative
accounts. The agreement of several sources cannot necessarily betaken as indicative of historical reliability since their intertextual
relationships often mean they are not independent witnesses. On
the other hand, uncorroborated material found in only one surviving text is not necessarily incorrect and, as the notes below indicate, the accuracy of information found in no medieval texts other than
Historia Norwegiae is sometimes conﬁrmed by much later sources.
The considerable difference between the approaches of medieval
and modern historians to their task is well illustrated by the factthat not a single date is given for events in Historia Norwegiae.
Moreover, to the modern reader Historia Norwegiae appears toINTRODUCTIONxxv

mix historical and geographical fact with legend and pure ﬁction.
It may be helpful to remember that medieval historians, like somepostmodernist theorists, viewed historical writing as a rhetoricalenterprise which ﬁttingly drew on the imagination in order toexpress most persuasively what was perceived to be historical
truth. As Hayden White (1978, 123) writes,
prior to the French Revolution, historiography was conventionallyregarded as a literary art. More speciﬁcally, it was regarded as a branchof rhetoric and its ‘ﬁctive’ nature generally recognised.

Such an understanding of the nature of medieval historical writing
highlights its importance and great value as source material forunderstanding the beliefs and mentalité of the period of its composition, however unreliable it may be as a narrative of earlier
events. Ekrem’s recent analysis (1998a and 1998b) of the ideological aims of Historia Norwegiae demonstrates how stimulating suchan approach to historical writing of the past can be.
Passio et miracula beati Olavi
After a career as a viking in northern and western Europe, Óláfr
Haraldsson won the kingdom of Norway from Earl Sveinn Hákonarson at the Battle of Nesjar in 1016.13 As king, Óláfr acquired a reputation for strict but unbiased justice and continued the conversionof Norway to Christianity initiated by his namesake, Óláfr Tryggvason. Óláfr’s rule became unpopular and in 1029 Knútr ríki Sveinsson(Canute the Great) of Denmark and England took advantage of a
Norwegian uprising against Óláfr to establish his own control over
Norway. Óláfr ﬂed to Russia, but returned the following year in an
attempt to win back his kingdom. This failed when Óláfr was killed
at the Battle of Stiklarstaðir (modern Stiklestad) on 29 July 1030. 14
Miracles were reported soon after Óláfr’s death, and disaffection
with Danish rule under Knútr’s son, Sveinn, fostered belief in
13 On Óláfr’s life, see e. g. Jones 1984, 374–86; ODS 375–76; ReidarAstås, ‘Óláfr, St.’ in MSE 445–46. Articles in Svahnström 1981 address
various aspects of Óláfr’s life and cult.
14 On the Battle of Stiklarstaðir see Jón Viðar Sigurðsson, ‘Stiklestad,
Battle of’ in MSE 610–11; on the date of Óláfr’s death see the note to
31/21–23 below.

xxvi

HISTORY OF NORWAYÓláfr’s sanctity. Just over a year after his death, on 3 August 1031,
Óláfr’s body was exhumed and then enshrined in Christ Church inNiðaróss. His shrine became the centre of a cult and later, in
1152/3, the seat of an archdiocese which covered Iceland, Greenland, the Faroes, Orkney and Shetland, the Hebrides and the Isle ofMan, as well as Norway. Following Knútr’s death in 1035 Óláfr’sson Magnús returned from exile in Russia to become king. During
his reign the cult of his father became ﬁrmly established in Norway
and spread rapidly elsewhere. Óláfr became the most popular andthe most widely venerated Scandinavian saint.
The speed with which Óláfr’s cult spread beyond Norway isevident from the appearance of the earliest liturgy for his feast day
in England only about twenty years after his death.15 Writing in the
1070s Adam of Bremen states that Óláfr’s feast is celebrated by all
the peoples bordering the Baltic (Gesta Hamm. II.lxi (59)). Churches
were dedicated to Óláfr in England, Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of
Man and probably Sweden and Byzantium (cf. Dickins 1937–45;
ODS 376). St Óláfr also became one of the most popular saints in
Iceland (Cormack 1994, 138–44).
The Passio et miracula beati Olavi translated here has a complex
textual history. Essentially, there are two surviving versions in
Latin; certain vernacular texts also provide evidence for the historyof the work. The shorter of the two Latin versions is entitled Acta
sancti Olavi regis et martyris by Storm in his edition in Monumenta
15 There is a votive mass for Óláfr’s feast day in the Sherborne service

book known as the Red Book of Darley (MS Cambridge, Corpus ChristiCollege 422) from the early 1060s (see Warren 1883, 272, 274) and a Latinofﬁce for his feast day in the English Leofric Collectar of c.1050, MS
London, British Library Harley 2961 (ed. Dewick and Frere 1914–21, I,
cols 209–14). The ofﬁce is a compilation of biblical quotations, especiallyfrom Ecclesiasticus, which provides almost no historical information about
the saint and contains none of the legendary material found in the Passio
Olavi. On these and other liturgical texts concerning St Óláfr see Gjerløw
1967; 1968, 124–28. The earliest English reference to Óláfr’s sanctity isroughly contemporary with the Leofric Collectar: the Abingdon (C) text of
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (I 157) records Óláfr’s death in the entry for1030 (probably written c.1050), adding that he ‘wæs syððan halig’ (‘hewas afterwards a saint’). On Óláfr’s cult in Britain see Dickins 1937–45
and Fell 1981a, 95–96.

INTRODUCTION

xxvii

historica Norvegiæ (Storm 1880, 125–44). The longer Latin text iscalled Passio et miracula beati Olavi in Metcalfe’s edition (1881);
it is this version which is translated here, from Metcalfe’s text. In
what follows I shall use an abbreviation of Storm’s title, Acta
Olavi, when referring speciﬁcally to the shorter version and Passio
Olavi when referring to the longer or to both versions.
The shorter version edited by Storm was widely disseminated in
the form of lessons for Óláfr’s feast day and is found in a number ofmanuscript and early printed sources from France, England, Germany and Scandinavia. The oldest surviving text of the Acta Olavicame to light after Storm’s edition, in 1901 (see ‘Catalogus codicum
hagiographicorum latinorum bibliothecae publicae Duacensis’ 1901,
369–70). This is a Legendarium from the Benedictine monastery ofAnchin near Arras, MS Douai 295, from c.1200 (dated to the last
third of the twelfth century in Mortensen 2000a, 96; see now also
2000b). Two chapters on Óláfr from William of Jumièges’s Gesta
Normannorum ducum are appended to the text of the Acta. Anothertext is contained in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson C440,
an early fourteenth-century manuscript from a Cistercian monastery in the diocese of York. A manuscript of c.1400, the Codex
Bodecensis, which belonged to the Augustinian canons in Böddeken
in the diocese of Paderborn, is now lost, but was edited by the
Bollandists in Acta sanctorum (Julii VII, 124–27). This edition wasthen used by Storm as the basis for his text (Storm 1880, 125–44).
Two other manuscripts are the Swedish Liber Laurentii Odonis ofc.1400 (Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek MS A182) and alegendary of c.1500–12 (the Codex Neoclaustrensis) written by an
Augustinian canon of Bordesholm in the diocese of Slesvig (WienerNeustadt, Neukloster XII D 21). A number of printed Breviaries fromthe late ﬁfteenth and early sixteenth centuries also contain passagesof the Acta Olavi as lessons for Óláfr’s feast day (fuller details of
the extant texts of the Acta Olavi may be found in Storm 1880,xxxi–xxxii; Gjerløw 1967, cols 561–62; 1968, 125–26; liturgicaltexts are printed in Storm 1880, 229–82; see also Ekrem 2000, witha useful table of the contents of different texts on pp. 112–13).
Storm took the vernacular Old Norwegian Homily Book, which
includes a translation of a lost Latin text of the Acta Olavi (seebelow, pp. xxxiv–xxxv) as a guide to the original form and contents

xxviii

HISTORY OF NORWAY

of the Acta Olavi, which he reassembled from the Acta sanctorum
edition and lections in the Breviarium Nidrosiense (published Paris
1519) and other early printed breviaries (see Storm 1880, xxxi).
The Acta Olavi as edited by Storm begins with a brief Life,
concentrating on Óláfr’s passion. Scholars call this either a vita ora passio; to avoid confusion with the title Passio Olavi for the whole
work I shall refer to it as the vita, the title used at the end of thissection (Metcalfe 1881, 74).16 The vita is followed by a collectionof twenty miracle stories, the last of which breaks off very near its
beginning. Storm left gaps in his edition for ﬁve miracle stories
found in the vernacular Old Norwegian Homily Book but not in anyof the Latin sources known to him (nos XII, XIII, XV, XVI, XVII;
42/7–47/2, 47/18–51/22 in the text translated below).
In 1881 F. Metcalfe published his edition of the Passio et miracula
beati Olaui from a manuscript discovered after the production of
Storm’s edition. This is a much longer text; it includes the ﬁve
miracles for which Storm left gaps in his edition (thus conﬁrmingthat Storm’s reconstruction was essentially correct) and adds aroundthirty additional miracle stories. The existence of the two different
versions immediately raises the question of priority. Metcalfe implies that the Acta Olavi was a later abbreviation of the Passio
Olavi: he states that the Old Norwegian Homily Book (whose
contents correspond to those of the Acta Olavi ) was supposed torepresent the ‘complete work’ until discovery of the Corpus Christi
manuscript which is ‘fuller still’ (1881, 49). Sigurður Nordal argues
that the longer Passio Olavi would have been abbreviated because
it was too long for liturgical use (1914, 135). If the text were being
abbreviated for liturgical purposes, however, one might expect a
selection of miracles to be made from the text as a whole, rather
16 Though a passio concentrates on a martyr’s death and a vita gives

more attention to the life of a saint before his or her death, it is often
difﬁcult (as here) to make a clear distinction between the two hagiographic
genres. The Douai and Bordesholm manuscripts and some early printed
breviaries have a shortened version of the vita of St Óláfr. Ekrem (2000,
121–28) argues that the shorter vita is the original and that this was
expanded in a subsequent revision of the text. Østrem (2000, 188–89), on
the other hand, attributes the differences between the two vitae to theirdifferent intended functions: the shorter for liturgical use and the longer
as a ‘para-liturgical’ text for general ediﬁcatory reading.

INTRODUCTION

xxix

than simply using all of the ﬁrst twenty or twenty-one miracles; weshall see below that subsequent research has demonstrated that the
Passio Olavi is in fact a later expansion of the Acta Olavi.
The longer text printed by Metcalfe is preserved in only one manuscript, which dates from c.1200 and belonged to Fountains Abbey,
though it is now Corpus Christi College Oxford MS 209. This
clearly written and well-preserved manuscript, bound in a sealskin chemise, contains ﬁve religious works copied by several scribes;
the Passio Olavi occupies folios 57–90, preceded by two works of
St Augustine and followed by two works with particular connections to the Cistercian Fountains Abbey. Mistakes in Scandinavian
names in the Passio Olavi suggest that its scribe was not of
Scandinavian origin, and the manuscript was probably copied inEngland near the beginning of the thirteenth century (see Metcalfe
1881, 1–2; Mortensen, 2000a, 96, dates the manuscript to the last
third of the twelfth century). Fountains Abbey (founded 1132) hada daughter house at Lyse (Lysekloster), twenty miles south ofBergen, which was founded in 1146 (Metcalfe 1881, 2–3; France
1992, 77–85, 522) and interest in Norway’s protomartyr at Fountains
Abbey may have been stimulated by the connections between these
two monasteries.
The (longer) Passio et miracula beati Olavi may be divided into
four parts. The ﬁrst two, i. e. the account of Óláfr’s life and passion(vita) and the ﬁrst twenty miracles (twenty-one counting thevision before Stiklarstaðir), correspond to and are almost identicalto the entire text of the Acta Olavi (except that the Passio has theLatin text for the ﬁve miracle stories missing from the Acta).17
The miracle stories which both versions of the Latin text have incommon also appear in vernacular versions including the Old
Norwegian Homily Book and the Legendary Saga of St Óláfr (tobe discussed below). The remaining thirty or so miracle stories in
the Passio Olavi do not appear elsewhere. They divide into two
17 In the Acta Olavi and the Old Norwegian Homily Book Óláfr’s dream
before the Battle of Stiklarstaðir is recounted in the vita and so notincluded in the numbering of the miracles in the miracula section, hence
miracle number twenty in those texts, the healing of a Norwegian king, isthe twenty-ﬁrst miracle if one includes the dream at Stiklarstaðir (whichis placed in the miracula section of the longer Passio Olavi ).

xxx

HISTORY OF NORWAY

groups: a continuation apparently updating the ﬁrst collection(53/6–61/18) is followed by an ‘additional treatise’ (61/19–74/25)
compiled by one ‘Bishop Eysteinn’ (Augustinus episcopus) andincluding miracles in which he was involved or of which he hadheard at ﬁrst hand.
In 1920 Aarno Malin drew attention to a thirteenth-century manuscript fragment from a Finnish breviary which suggests that there
may once have been an even fuller text of the Passio Olavi than thatedited by Metcalfe from Corpus Christi College Oxford MS 209.
The Finnish manuscript contains the vita of Óláfr from the Acta/
Passio Olavi plus three miracle stories; one of these, involving an
English knight (Miles quidam de Britannia), is missing from theLatin Passio Olavi and from the vernacular Old Norwegian Homily
Book, although it is in the Douai, Rawlinson, and Bordesholm manuscripts and in later vernacular texts (in the Douai manuscript thestory occurs after the story of the mutilated priest (Metcalfe 1881,
82/4 = 39/21 below); Skard (1932, 2) refers to this as the story’s
correct place). The text in the Douai manuscript and the Helsinki
fragment ends with a concluding section which is also found at
the end of the miracle stories in the vernacular Old Norwegian
Homily Book. Malin (1920, 20–27) argues convincingly that rather
than being a later interpolation this additional miracle story belonged to the original text.
Storm argued that the author of the Acta Olavi must have beena cleric at the cathedral in Niðaróss (1880, xxxv). The discovery of
the longer text of the Passio Olavi with its ascription of the ‘additional
treatise’ to Bishop Eysteinn led Metcalfe to attribute the hitherto
anonymous Acta/Passio Olavi to Eysteinn (Øystein) Erlendsson,
Archbishop of Niðaróss 1161–88. Eysteinn studied at the school of
St Victor in Paris (Bagge 1984, 2–3; Gunnes 1996, 26–49) before
becoming a chaplain to the Norwegian king Ingi (r. 1136–61). He
was nominated second Archbishop of Niðaróss in 1157, was consecrated by the pope and returned to Norway in 1161. Eysteinn endeavoured to implement the Gregorian reforms in Norway and encouraged
clerical celibacy. He supervised the rebuilding of the cathedral inNiðaróss which housed St Óláfr’s shrine and was involved in liturgical revision there (Gjerløw 1968, 29–30). He obtained concessions
for the church from the secular power when, at Erlingr skakki’s

INTRODUCTION

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request, he crowned Erlingr’s eight-year-old son Magnús as king in
1163/4.18 Between the death of Sigurðr Jórsalafari in 1130 and1208 Norway was periodically riven by civil war between rival
claimants to the throne. Archbishop Eysteinn supported King Magnús
Erlingsson against Sverrir Sigurðarson, a pretender claiming descentfrom King Sigurðr Jórsalafari, and when Sverrir defeated Magnús
in 1180 Eysteinn ﬂed to England and excommunicated the new
king. In England Eysteinn was supported by Henry II (who had
undergone penance for his part in the death of his own archbishop,
St Thomas Becket) and stayed at the abbey of Bury St Edmunds
from 9 August 1181 to 16 February 1182. Jocelin of Brakelond refers
to the archbishop’s stay at the abbey in his Chronicle, and tells how
Eysteinn helped the monks to obtain their choice of abbot from theking (Butler 1949, 15–16). Eysteinn returned to Norway in 1183
and was reconciled with King Sverrir. He then continued the rebuilding of the cathedral in Niðaróss which housed St Óláfr’s shrine.
Eysteinn was himself considered a saint immediately after his
death on 26 January 1188; his sanctity was conﬁrmed by a local
synod in Niðaróss in 1229 and from then until 1268 pleas for his
papal canonisation were directed to Rome. A letter from Pope Gregory
IX dated 20 April 1241 orders an enquiry into Eysteinn’s miracleswith a view to his canonisation (DN I 18–19). The English monk andhistorian Matthew Paris, who visited Norway in 1248, refers to posthumous miracles performed by Eysteinn as proof of his sanctity.19
Before considering further whether the shorter or longer versionof the Passio Olavi came ﬁrst and the extent to which Eysteinn was
responsible for either text, it is necessary to mention some otherearly accounts of St Óláfr’s miracles. These provide evidence ofearly hagiographic traditions about the saint and include parallels
to individual miracle stories in the Passio Olavi.
18 Magnús’s coronation was the ﬁrst in Scandinavia. In a charter issued
at the coronation or soon after, Magnús committed Norway to the protection of St Óláfr and ‘received’ the realm from him as a ﬁef. Óláfr ﬁguredin the propaganda of both sides in the civil war between Magnús Erlingsson
and Sverrir Sigurðarson. On Scandinavian coronations and their links withroyal saints’ cults, see Hoffmann 1990.
19 On Eysteinn’s life and cult see Metcalfe 1881, 49–57; ODS 36 under‘Augustine (Eystein) of Trondheim’; Gunnes (1996).

xxxiiHISTORY OF NORWAY

The earliest evidence for the veneration of St Óláfr is provided
not by ecclesiastical texts in Latin but by skaldic poetry composed
soon after his death. Þórarinn loftunga’s Glælognskviða (‘SeaCalm Lay’) dates from c.1032.20 The poem is addressed to King
Sveinn Knútsson and recommends that he ask for the prayers of StÓláfr. Þórarinn refers to bells which ring of their own accord atÓláfr’s shrine, the uncorrupted state of the saint’s body and continued growth of his hair and nails, and the healing of blind people
at the shrine. Writing in the ﬁrst half of the thirteenth century,
Snorri Sturluson regarded Þórarinn as an eyewitness source for the
miracles of St Óláfr; he notes that ‘Þórarinn loftunga var þá með
Sveini konungi ok sá ok heyrði þessi stórmerki heilagleiks Óláfs
konungs’ (Hkr II 409; ‘Þórarinn loftunga was then with King
Sveinn and saw and heard these great signs of the holiness of KingÓláfr’). Sigvatr Þórðarson’s Erﬁdrápa (‘Memorial Poem’) dates
from c.1040.21 Sigvatr tells of the same miracles as Þórarinn,
though in a little more detail, and also refers to an eclipse associated with Óláfr’s death.22 Sigvatr also provides evidence that by
the early 1040s mass was already being celebrated in Óláfr’s honour in Norway (stanza 25). This in turn suggests that some kind of
account of the saint suitable for recitation at such services musthave existed by that time (cf. Holtsmark 1956, 16). The poems byÞórarinn and Sigvatr provide important early evidence of Óláfr’s
reputation for miracle-working sanctity, but give few actual details.
An important later skaldic poem on the saint which goes intosome more detail is Einarr Skúlason’s Óláfsdrápa or Geisli (‘Sunbeam’),23 which he recited at the celebrations marking the establishment of the archiepiscopal see at Niðaróss in 1152/3. Amongthe fourteen miracles which Einarr describes are eight of the ﬁrst
nine miracles (counting the dream before Stiklarstaðir) in the Passio
Olavi, a fact which we shall see provides clues about the ‘prehistory’of the Latin text (see the notes for details of these parallels).
20 Skjd. A I 324–27; B I 300–01.
21 Skjd. A I 257–65; B I 239–45.
22 The eclipse in fact took place a month later, on 31 August 1030

(Liestøl 1932, especially pp. 1–17, 27–28); Sigvatr was in Rome whenÓláfr was martyred and not at Stiklarstaðir.
23 Skjd. A I 459–73; B I 427–45.

INTRODUCTION

xxxiiiA record of Óláfr’s miracles would have been kept at his shrine
as evidence of his sanctity and to provide ediﬁcatory material in
support of his cult. The following words from the beginning of the‘additional treatise by Bishop Eysteinn’ may refer to written accounts of miracles earlier than the surviving Passio Olavi (thesemay, of course, be identical with the earlier work to which theadditional treatise is appended):
Having read all those accounts which antiquity has entrusted to us
concerning the life and miracles of the blessed Óláfr, we deem it ﬁttingthat we, who have been personally enlightened by his widespread
miracles in our own day, should also commit to the attention of future
generations, in writing, those things which have been performed bymiraculous powers, to his greater glory, as we have seen for ourselves
or have learnt from the testimony of truthful men. (61/21–28 below)

Further evidence of an early collection of miracle stories may beprovided by a work dedicated to Archbishop Eysteinn, the Historia
de antiquitate regum Norwagiensium by Theodoricus monachus.
Theodoricus refers to miracles of St Óláfr in Chapter 20 of his
work: ‘But because all these things have been recorded by several,
I regard it as unnecessary to dwell on matters which are alreadyknown’ (McDougall and McDougall 1998, 33). Scholars usuallyassume that Theodoricus is here referring to one or more now lost
written accounts of Óláfr’s translation and miracles (sometimes
referred to as *Translatio sancti Olavi; see McDougall and McDougall
1998, 92 n. 213 for references).
The oldest vernacular prose accounts of Óláfr’s miracles to survive are two fragments comprising MS AM 325 IV α 4to, and acollection of miracle stories in the Old Norwegian Homily Book.
The two leaves of MS AM 325 IV α 4to were published by Storm
in 1893 as the ﬁnal two of the eight fragments in his edition of allthat remains of the so-called Oldest Saga of St Óláfr. Jonna LouisJensen, however, has since re-edited these two leaves and shownthat they do not in fact belong with the other fragments (1970). The
ﬁrst leaf of AM 325 IV α 4to probably comes from an otherwise
now lost Norse Legendary of St Óláfr (Louis-Jensen 1970, 47;
Jónas Kristjánsson 1972, 161). All but the ﬁfth of the six miracle
stories contained in this leaf are recounted in the Latin Passio
Olavi (see the notes to the translation below for details). The leaf

xxxivHISTORY OF NORWAY

appears to be Icelandic and from the mid thirteenth century; areference to the visit to Norway in 1152/3 of the papal legate
Cardinal Nicholas Breakspear (later Pope Hadrian IV) together
with the fact that the surviving leaf is clearly a copy of an earlier
text led Louis-Jensen to argue for a probable original date ofc.1155–65 for the lost Legendary (1970, 59). Stylistically, thesaga-like terseness and detail of the stories contained in this leaf
contrast with the accounts in the Passio Olavi and the Old Norwegian Homily Book, as well as with the second leaf of AM 325,
which contains a ﬂorid account of the repentance of a sinful young
man on seeing a procession of St Óláfr’s relics (also found in the
Passio Olavi, 48/17–50/26 below). The two fragments of AM 325
are in the same hand, but the stylistic difference suggests that they
were probably not derived from the same text.
The ﬁrst twenty-one miracle stories in the Latin Passio Olavi (upto and including the healing of a Norwegian king, and including all
the miracles in the shorter Acta Olavi) appear in a vernaculartranslation together with a brief Life of St Óláfr in the Old Norwegian
Homily Book preserved in MS AM 619 4to (ed. Flom 1929, 162–77;
Hom. 108–29). This manuscript probably dates from c.1200 (Flom1929, 14; Hom. *38–*39). Although a translation, the Norwegian
Homily Book text is the fullest and best witness to the form theshorter Acta Olavi took before it was divided up into lections for
liturgical ofﬁces, and was accordingly used as a guide by Storm
when reconstructing the Acta Olavi from breviary texts.
Examination of the relationship between these vernacular texts
and the Acta/Passio Olavi has established that the shorter Latin
text was produced before the longer. The material which Geisli, the
Old Norwegian Homily Book and the Acta and Passio Olavi havein common suggests that by 1152/3 (the date of Geisli ) there
already existed a text which served as the basis for the ﬁrst part of
the Homily Book text and the ﬁrst part of the Passio Olavi; thiswould have contained the miracle stories which these texts sharewith Geisli (i. e. the ﬁrst eight or nine, those up to and including thehealing of a mutilated English priest, 39/21 below), plus the concluding clause in the Helsinki manuscript discussed by Malin(1920) and now found after miracle XX in the Old Norwegian
Homily Book (Holtsmark 1956, 20). Ekrem has recently suggested

INTRODUCTION

xxxv

that this earliest collection of miracle stories, which must datefrom before 1152/3, could originally have appeared at the end of alost second book of the Historia Norwegiae; the high proportion of
miracles occurring outside Norway in this section then becomesunderstandable in the light of Ekrem’s suggestion that the Historia
Norwegiae was written in support of the establishment of a Norwegian archbishopric, since such miracles might carry more weightwith the papacy and its advisers (Ekrem 1998a, 83–85).
Holtsmark draws attention to a number of discrepancies between
the vita section of the Acta/Passio Olavi and that of the the Old
Norwegian Homily Book which suggest that the latter cannot havebeen a direct translation of the former (1956, 20–22). She concludes that the Norse text must be translated from an earlier versionof the vita which was also the source for the version which now
survives in the Acta/Passio Olavi (1956, 22). There are not, however, the same kind of discrepancies between the miracula sectionof the Latin text and the translation of the miracle stories in the Old
Norwegian Homily Book. Holtsmark’s view, then, is as follows: atsome date between 1031 (the year of Óláfr’s translation) and
1152/3 (the celebrations in Niðaróss marking the establishmentof the archiepiscopal see) a *vita and a *miracula (containing themiracles up to and including the healing of a mutilated English
priest in the present Passio Olavi) were written down (1956, 23).
Einarr Skúlason appears to draw on this material in Geisli; it may
have been connected with the *Translatio Olavi to which Theodoricus is believed to refer. A translation of this *vita and *miracula
comprises the ﬁrst part of the Homily Book text. The *miraculasection was subsequently expanded to miracle number XX (thehealing of a Norwegian king, 52/15–53/5 below), and a translationof these additional miracles is also now found in the Old Norwegian Homily Book. The Latin of the vita was subsequently revised
and the original version lost, so that we now have only the revised
Latin text for the vita which differs from the vernacular version in
the Old Norwegian Homily Book.
Some elements of Holtsmark’s account are disputed by Erik
Gunnes. He agrees (1973, 3) that an initial miracle collection
included the ﬁrst eight miracles (or nine counting the dream at
Stiklarstaðir), but argues that this was later extended not to miracle

xxxviHISTORY OF NORWAY

twenty or twenty-one (i. e. the end of the collection in the Old
Norwegian Homily Book, and in the Acta Olavi—so far as we cantell given that the end of this text is lost), but to the end of thetwenty-fourth (or twenty-ﬁfth) miracle, the release from an ironband of the two French fratricides and matricides (54/24 below).
The sentence at this point beginning ‘Preterea, licet tediosa . . .’(Metcalfe 1881, 97) then marks the beginning of a new section:
Henceforth, although the prolix narrative may seem tedious at times
and the unpolished diction may weigh upon the listener, nevertheless,trusting to the devotion of your piety we shall make known to yourcharity, in a few words, some of those things that we know have been
done in recent times (54/27–32 below).

Gunnes also holds that the discrepancies which Holtsmark notes
between the vita of the Old Norwegian Homily Book and that of the
Passio Olavi are insufﬁcient grounds for positing an earlier, now
lost, Latin version of the vita by someone other than Eysteinn. He
believes that the discrepancies may be explained as adaptations ofEysteinn’s Latin by the Norse translator or as the result of later
revisions by Eysteinn, rather than by positing a version in which
Eysteinn had no involvement (1973, 3–4, 10). He dates Eysteinn’s
composition of the vita to the 1160s and suggests that he revised
it in exile when he added the miracles found only in the longer
Passio Olavi. The revised vita then became the basis for all known
liturgical ofﬁces (1973, 7; cf. 1996, 214; it is not clear why the
extra miracles were not widely circulated when the revised vitawas). Gunnes also argues that there is no reason to believe that
Eysteinn was not responsible for the whole text of the miracula,including the section translated into the vernacular (1973, 5).
Stylistic studies have helped to determine the extent of Eysteinn’s
involvement in the extant Acta Olavi and Passio Olavi (for more
information on style than it is appropriate to give here the reader
should consult Skard’s exhaustive study (1932)). In what follows
it will be convenient to refer to the section of the Passio et miracula
Olavi corresponding to the whole of the Acta Olavi (but including
the ﬁve stories missing in Storm’s edition) as A (26/1–53/5 below),
the extra miracles up to the ‘additional treatise’ as B (53/6–61/18),
and the additional treatise as C (61/19 to the end). The following
table may make matters clearer:

xxxvii

INTRODUCTION

A

Corresponds to contents of Acta
Olavi and of the Old Norwegian
Homily Book translation

B
C

{

Vita
Miracula*
Miracula†

26/1–31/28
32/1–39/21
39/22–53/5

Further miracles added when the
text was revised

Miracula

53/6–61/18

The ‘additional treatise’ by Bishop
Eysteinn

Miracula

61/19–end* Stories contained in the earliest miracle collection; all but one are also in Geisli.
† This section perhaps extends to 54/24 (see Gunnes 1973, 3).

Bang explained the origins of the Latin text(s) by positing a threestage process of composition based on the collection of stories atNiðaróss and involving three separate authors or redactors producing sections A, B, and C (1912, 59). Malin held that the Acta Olavi(corresponding to A) was earlier than the longer Passio Olavi(including also B and C) and argued on stylistic grounds that
Archbishop Eysteinn was responsible for both the shorter andlonger versions (1920, especially 16–27). In a review of Malin’s
work, Bull (1924) agreed with Malin’s views on priority but disagreed with his position on authorship. He held that Eysteinn wascertainly responsible for C and could also have written B, adding
both to an already existing A. But he, like Bang, believed that
it was more natural to attribute A, B and C to three separate
authors. The stylistic arguments of Malin and Metcalfe in favour of
single authorship for the whole work are, however, corroborated
and strengthened by Skard’s Sprache und Stil der Passio Olavi(1932). Skard agues that the slight differences in style between theearlier and later parts of the work are insufﬁcient to ascribe themto different authors. Important stylistic features found throughout
the work include synonymous nouns being used for rhetoricalvariatio, the inﬂuence of the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible,
and a number of Virgilian echoes (mainly of the Aeneid but also of
the Georgics) which Skard maintains demonstrate ﬁrst-hand knowledge of the Roman poet’s work rather than acquaintance withmedieval ﬂorilegia (1932, 76).24
24 The more signiﬁcant biblical and Virgilian allusions are referred to in

the notes below, but for exhaustive lists the reader should consult Skard
1932, 68–76.

xxxviii

HISTORY OF NORWAY

If we accept that Eysteinn was responsible for the whole of the
Passio et miracula beati Olavi, the tripartite structure of themiracle collection suggests that Eysteinn ﬁrst produced A, either
by collecting together older traditions or by revising an existing
text, perhaps adding miracles to a brief collection which had also
been used by the poet of Geisli. At a later date Eysteinn added
additional more recent miracles (B) and then added an original
account of further miracles to which he could personally bear
witness (C).
Holtsmark argues that Eysteinn may have revised an older Latin
text (which she believes had already been translated into Norse) to
produce the Acta Olavi in the 1060s, shortly after becoming archbishop. Gunnes dates Eysteinn’s composition of the vita to thesame period. Eysteinn’s later extensive expansion of the text, adding both B and C, was probably undertaken during his exile inEngland between 1180 and 1183. On returning to Norway he would
have left a text of this expanded Passio et miracula Olavi behind
in England, where it was copied c.1200 into the manuscript belonging now to Corpus Christi College, Oxford.25 This ‘ﬁnal’
version of the Passio appears not to have become known outside
Britain until it attracted the attention of scholars in the nineteenth
century (it is not clear why this fullest surviving version lacks the
miracle involving the English knight found in the Helsinki, Douai,
Rawlinson and Bordesholm manuscripts). Such a dating of thestages of the genesis of the Passio Olavi explains the slight stylistic differences between the earlier and later parts of the work as
due to the fact that Eysteinn worked on the ﬁrst part as a youngman, newly made archbishop, but added the later part during his
exile some twenty years later.
Although there has been debate and disagreement about the ‘prehistory’ of the Passio et miracula beati Olavi, and about the precise
extent of Eysteinn’s involvement in the earliest forms of the text,
there is a scholarly consensus that the text in Corpus Christi College
Oxford MS 209 edited by Metcalfe and translated here is, in this form,
25 The now lost Vita S. Olaui referred to in a catalogue of manuscripts
at Rievaulx Abbey, now Jesus College, Cambridge MS 34, may have been
another copy of Eysteinn’s text (cf. Dickins 1937–45, 59).

INTRODUCTION

xxxix

Eysteinn’s work and probably dates from his exile in England, 1180–83.
Recent work by Mortensen (2000a) and Ekrem (2000), however,challenges this consensus and questions Skard’s arguments in favourof single authorship of the whole text. Mortensen’s comparison
with the better attested growth of the collections of miracles of Annoof Cologne and Thomas Becket stresses the institutional role in thedevelopment of such collections and he even doubts whether Eysteinn
was responsible for the whole of the additional treatise (2000a, 101
n. 18). Ekrem argues that the text went through four stages: a shortvita and the miracles in 32/1–39/21 below, then a revised longer
vita and the addition of the miracles to 54/24, then the addition of
the remainder of B and ﬁnally C, with Eysteinn’s involvement
limited to this ﬁnal stage (any connection between Historia Norwegiae
and Passio Olavi of the kind Ekrem suggested in her earlier work
would then have involved the compiler of the ﬁrst version of the
Passio Olavi, and not Eysteinn; cf. Ekrem 2000, 143–54).
At this point, it will perhaps be helpful to discuss brieﬂy the
relationship of the texts we have been considering to some important later Norwegian and Icelandic accounts of St Óláfr. Both the‘ecclesiastical’ tradition of the Acta/Passio Olavi and Old Norwegian Homily Book and a more saga-like tradition seem to have fed
into the earliest Norse saga of St Óláfr which survives complete,
the so-called Legendary Saga of St Óláfr. This work is either
Norwegian, or Icelandic with Norwegian interpolations: it survives
only in a Norwegian manuscript of c.1250 (Uppsala Universitetsbibliotek, DG 8; see Jónas Kristjánsson 1976, 281), but originallydates from the early thirteenth century (Jónas Kristjánsson 1976,
293) or c.1200 (Ólhelg(Leg) 20). Since Louis-Jensen’s demonstration that the seventh and eighth fragments printed in Storm’s
edition of the so-called Oldest Saga of St Óláfr do not belong withthe remaining six fragments in Oslo, Riksarkivet MS 52 (dated toc.1225) it has become clear that the Oldest Saga and the Legendary
Saga are essentially two versions of the same text (Jónas Kristjánsson
1976, 292–93), the latter slightly abbreviating the former while
also adding some new material, including a collection of posthumous miracles at the end of the saga which is very similar to thecollection translated from Latin in the Old Norwegian Homily

xl

HISTORY OF NORWAY

Book.26 In addition to these posthumous miracles the Legendary
Saga also contains accounts of a number of miracles performed byÓláfr during his life which are not found in the ‘ecclesiastical’ tradition represented by the Old Norwegian Homily Book and Passio Olavi.
The account of the life of St Óláfr by Snorri Sturluson (1178/9–
1241) survives both as a separate saga (SepÓlhelg) and as thecentral third of Heimskringla, the great series of Kings’ Sagas
covering Norwegian history from its mythical past to the reign ofMagnús Erlingsson which Snorri probably completed around 1235.
The miracle stories which are collected at the end of the Separate
Saga of St Óláfr appear almost unchanged and in almost the sameorder in Heimskringla, but there they are dispersed throughout thesagas of Óláfr’s successors. Snorri’s Life of St Óláfr became thebasis for later versions in compilations of Kings’ Sagas where it
was supplemented with material from other sources.
Snorri’s sources for Óláfr’s miracle stories and his treatment ofthem are discussed by Whaley (1987, 326–32; cf. also Jørgensen
2000). Snorri seems to have known both a text close to the Old
Norwegian Homily Book and a text with more concrete detail,perhaps the original version of the text now preserved in fragmentary form in AM 325 IV α 4to. Alternatively, he may have known
a now lost text which already combined these two traditions: thelost Lífssaga Óláfs helga written by the Icelandic cleric Styrmir
Kárason in the 1220s may have done this. It is in any case likelythat Snorri made use of Styrmir’s work since Styrmir and Snorri
were good friends. Since, however, Styrmir’s saga no longer survives in its original form it is impossible to be certain.27
A number of the early histories of Norway cover Óláfr’s reign,
but unlike the ecclesiastical texts, the Legendary Saga and Snorri’s
26 An additional miracle and the fact that some stories are repeatedsuggest that the Legendary Saga depends on more than one source for thiscollection of posthumous miracles, and that the writer knew an earlier
version of the Legendarium represented by AM 325 IV α 4to, or a text likeit (cf. Whaley 1987, 329).
27 Nordal attempted a reconstruction of Styrmir’s saga (1914, 69–133).
Excerpts from Styrmir’s original are given in Flat. III 237–48; others areincorporated into Snorri’s Separate Saga in Flat. and some other manuscripts (see SepÓlhelg 683–95).

INTRODUCTION

xli

work these histories do not include extensive collections of miracle
stories. Instead they tend to make a brief and generalised reference
to the saint’s wonder-working powers and recount only one or two
miracles which are of importance in the course of later historicalevents in Norway. Perhaps because they do not involve the shrine
at Niðaróss, these miracles do not appear in the ecclesiasticaltradition represented by the Acta/Passio Olavi and Old Norwegian
Homily Book or in the fragments of AM 325 IV α 4to. So, the storyof Óláfr’s miraculous appearance to his son Magnús before theBattle of Hlýrskógsheiðr (1043) and the subsequent victory overthe pagan Wends is recounted in Ágrip (ch. 38), Theodoricus(ch. 24), Fsk (ch. 50), Msk 42–43 (and in Mgóð(Hkr) chs 27–28)
but not in the Passio Olavi, Old Norwegian Homily Book or Legendary Saga. Similarly, the miraculous release of Haraldr Sigurðarson
from prison in Constantinople appears in Fagrskinna (ch. 43), as
well as in Heimskringla (Haralds saga Sigurðarsonar ch. 14), but
not in the ‘ecclesiastical’ texts.
This contrast with ‘historical’ works invites consideration of thegenre of the Passio Olavi. As Metcalfe’s title suggests, the Passio
et miracula beati Olavi combines two hagiographic genres: thepassio (an account of a martyr’s death) and the miracula (a collection of miracle stories bearing witness to a saint’s sanctity). In
attempting to deﬁne hagiography Delehaye writes that ‘to be strictly
hagiographical [a] document must be of a religious character andaim at ediﬁcation’ (1962, 3). Hagiographic literary conventions
were the means to speciﬁc religious ends: amendment of life, theveneration and imitation of the saint concerned, and through these
the worship of God. Such aims are evident in words at the openingof the miracula section of the Passio Olavi:
It is ﬁtting to make brief mention of the many miracles that the Lord
has deigned to perform in order to make manifest the merits of theglorious martyr Óláfr, so that the souls of those who hear may be
moved to praise and venerate the divine mercy, and that it may berevealed to the faithful what great grace and glory the Lord has
bestowed upon his saint. (32/2–8 below)

This statement is typical of the prefatory comments which introduce
medieval miracle collections (cf. Ward 1982, 29–32). The miracles
attributed to a saint were routinely collected at the saint’s shrine forxlii

HISTORY OF NORWAY

at least a brief period after his or her death (Ward 1982, 33–36).
Such collections provided the kind of evidence of the saint’s sanctity which was required for canonisation, a process which was
conducted locally at ﬁrst (as with Óláfr), but was increasingly
reserved to the papacy during the Middle Ages (on the history of
the canonisation process see Kemp 1948).
Saints’ Lives recount the life of a historical ﬁgure, yet Smalley
describes the Saint’s Life as ‘a semi-historical genre’ (1974, 49).
We might say that whereas history is concerned with the past (evenwhen it is making a point about the present), the subject of hagiography is the eternal as it is manifested in history, the nature of
God and of salvation as both are revealed in the life of an historicalhuman being. We may distinguish the different approaches ofhagiography and history in terms of the two ‘master tropes’ ofmetonymy and metaphor which Roman Jakobson identiﬁed aswhat David Lodge calls ‘models for two fundamental ways oforganising discourse that can be traced in every kind of cultural
production’ (1988, 31).28 Non-hagiographic history is organised
metonymically, that is, by contiguity, adjacency or association; itsconception of time is successive and linear. Hagiography, on theother hand, is organised metaphorically: it works by analogy orresemblance, stressing the similarities between non-contiguous
events and people. The saint is portrayed in terms of an appropriate
set or paradigm which connects the saint’s life with the lives ofother saints and of Christ, and the perceived connections between
their lives are reﬂected in similarities between their written Lives.
The stereotypical characterisation employed in hagiography reﬂects this ‘metaphoric’ recognition of similarity in difference.
Whereas history’s preoccupation is with the particular, hagiography’s is with the typical. The hagiographer’s overriding interest isin an ideal of human behaviour and in God, rather than in theindividual human life. Saints’ Lives (and miracle stories) are therefore schematised according to various accepted models which ultimately follow patterns found in Scripture:
It was the overall intention of any hagiographer to demonstrate that
his saintly subject belonged indisputably to the universal community
28 See Jakobson and Halle 1956, 53–82; cf. Lodge 1977.

INTRODUCTION

xliii

of saints, and this entailed modelling each vita closely on those ofearlier authors.29

It did not even matter if a miracle story was wrongly ascribed to aparticular saint; what mattered was that the story should be edifying. Reginald of Canterbury admits in the Preface to his Life of St
Malchus that if he came across a good story anywhere he included
it, for all things are common in the communion of saints.30 Hagiographic conventions may therefore reduce the texts’ historicalreliability, but they offer an insight into the social and religious
attitudes of the period of composition. Saints’ Lives can provide
valuable evidence for historical mentalité even when their value assources for historical facts is negligible.31
St Óláfr is the ﬁrst and perhaps the most important of a numberof canonised Scandinavian rulers. Along with Saints Magnús andRo≈gnvaldr, Earls of Orkney, and Saints Knútr Sveinsson and Knútr
lávarðr of Denmark, Óláfr stands in a tradition of royal saints
which can be traced back from Scandinavia through Anglo-Saxon
England to Merovingian Francia, perhaps even to pre-Christiansacral kingship.32 Hoffmann lists motifs which the legends of StÓláfr share with Anglo-Saxon royal Saints’ Lives and concludes
that English models clearly inﬂuenced the hagiography of St Óláfr
(Hoffmann 1975, 80). This is not surprising, given the English
inﬂuences on the development of Norwegian Christianity in general and Óláfr’s cult in particular. Norway was largely Christianised by English clergy under Óláfr Tryggvason and Óláfr Haraldsson,kings who had both spent time in England. Adam of Bremen
records how, soon after Óláfr Haraldsson had become king, he
29 Lapidge 1991, 254; cf. Boyer 1981.
30 Cf. Lind 1942, 40–41.
31 Useful discussions of the historical value of medieval hagiography
and the attitudes of historians towards it include Aigrain 1953; Delehaye
1962; Heffernan 1988, especially pp. 38–71; and Fouracre 1990.
32 On sacral kingship see McTurk 1974–77; 1993; 1994–97; on Merovingianroyal saints see Graus 1965; on Anglo-Saxon royal saints see Ridyard
1988; Rollason 1983; 1989; Anglo-Saxon involvement in the conversionof Scandinavia is discussed in Abrams 1995; and for an account of Scandinavian royal saints’ cults which stresses their place in this tradition see
Hoffmann 1975.

xliv

HISTORY OF NORWAY

imported English priests and bishops to assist in the conversion of
Norway (Gesta Hamm. II.lvii (55)). Bishop Grímkell, who initiated Óláfr’s cult by building a chapel over his grave, declaring him
to be a saint and arranging the translation of his uncorrupted bodyin the year after his death, was among this group of bishops. It is
possible that Grímkell began the collection of miracle stories asevidence of the dead king’s sanctity. The earliest surviving Scandinavian sources to refer to Óláfr as a saint are by men who had spenttime in England, where they could have encountered the English
tradition of royal saints (Þórarinn loftunga, Sigvatr Þórðarson,
Archbishop Eysteinn); while Eysteinn was in England he stayed at
the abbey of the Anglo-Saxon royal martyr St Edmund.
The cult of St Óláfr inﬂuenced the development of later Scandinavian royal cults, including those of St Knútr Sveinsson of Denmarkand St Eric of Sweden. There is also evidence of literary connections between Scandinavian royal hagiographic texts. Knud Fabricius
notes such connections between the Passio Olavi and Ailnoth’sLife of the Danish royal protomartyr, St Knútr Sveinsson (1917,
379–80; cf. Hoffmann 1975, 124). Skard maintains that Ailnoth’s
work inﬂuenced the opening of Eysteinn’s work (1930–33, 367–
68; but cf. Gunnes 1996, 213).
An examination of the kinds of miracles which Óláfr is said tohave performed reveals clearly the inﬂuence of the typologicalmodels of the Saint’s Life genre and of the speciﬁc hagiographic
tradition of royal saints to which Óláfr belongs. Almost all the
miracles in the Passio et miracula beati Olavi occur after Óláfr’s
death. The exceptions are his dream before the Battle of Stiklarstaðir (32/9–21) and the story of his hand remaining unharmed
when he burned wood-chippings in it which he had made on a
Sunday (39/22–40/13). Other texts, for example the Legendary
Saga, attribute more miracles to Óláfr’s lifetime. Robert Folz’s
comparative study of European royal saints demonstrates that it is
not at all unusual for a royal saint to have few miracles attributed
to the period during which he was alive on earth (1984, 117–21).
Folz also shows that healings always account for the majority of aroyal saint’s miracles (1984, 128–30), and this is certainly true ofthe miracula of St Óláfr. The inﬂuence of hagiographic conventions

INTRODUCTION

xlv

stemming from the Bible becomes clear when we compare themiracles attributed to Óláfr with the words of Matthew 11: 5:
Caeci vident; claudi ambulant; leprosi mundantur; surdi audiunt; mortui
resurgunt; pauperes evangelizantur.
The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, thedead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them.33

Other types of miracle performed by Óláfr which are commonplace in medieval miracula include a number of instances where heprotects buildings or people from ﬁre, and two examples of his
granting assistance in battle. Often there is some kind of thematic
link between miracles in the collection; examples of subject-matter
shared by adjacent miracles include the two battles, several miracles involving the healing of people whose tongues had been cut
out and miracles associated with liturgical processions. Because
the aim of the miracula is to encourage devotion to God and his
saint rather than to provide historical information for scholars, themiracle stories generally lack speciﬁc details such as the names of
those involved or the date of the miracle; in some cases thesedetails are provided by other versions of the stories.
The contexts in which the stories of Óláfr’s miracles are preserved can be indicative of the functions which they served. The
heading over the vernacular Life of Óláfr in the Old Norwegian
Homily Book, ‘In die sancti Olavi regis et martiris’ (Hom. 108; ‘On
the Feast Day of St Óláfr, king and martyr’), and its inclusion in acollection of homilies suggest that this version was intended forrecitation on Óláfr’s feast day, 29 July. The Acta Olavi is preservedin breviaries as a series of lessons for ofﬁces on 29 July, although
Storm (1880, xxxv) pointed out that in some ways the miracle
stories might be more appropriate to the feast of Óláfr’s Translation, 3 August. Occasional references in the Passio Olavi to alistening audience suggest that it too was originally designed for
public recitation; two apostrophes to ‘brothers’ imply a monastic
audience (72/18, 73/31).

33 These words which Jesus uses of himself in turn echo Isaiah 35: 5–6.

A HISTORY OF NORWAYAND

THE PASSION AND MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

A HISTORY OF NORWAY
Here begins the Prologue. . . tus, treating in his Philostratus of the other good thingsof life, says in praise of friendship that between true friends 3
hardly any difﬁculties arise. Not by any means daring to
oppose the well-founded axiom of such a philosopher, knowing
myself incapable of matching in any way such sagacity and 6
my powers too feeble for such an onerous task, yet boundin duty to respond to the highly honourable urging of themost excellent of men, lest I show myself ungrateful for the 9favour of his many generosities, I shall therefore attempt,
willy-nilly, to undertake what is asked of me. For it is aheavy burden on my ignorant self to describe comprehen- 12
sively the situation of a region so very vast, to disentangle
the genealogy of its rulers, to relate the advent of Christianity side by side with the retreat of paganism and to ex- 15
pound the current state of both religions. You yourself know
best what a labour this will be, full of inordinate toil, asubject, though hitherto unattempted in Latin discourse, 18
devised by an eminent mind and imposed upon my callowness; and you know best how onerous the task and how
great the risk to be run on account of envious men. I com- 21
ply nevertheless, trusting in the sources we have and disregarding their devouring rancour if it touches us, because
you generations to come will have the fruits of my labour, 24
in which, if the author who obeys has done aught amiss inuntaught presumption, may the patron who ordains pardon it in forbearing charity. Therefore, Agnellus, whatever 27
other readers may say of these writings of mine, that they
are not smoothed with rhetorical charm but gravelled withrough barbarisms, do you who are set above me with a 30
teacher’s authority receive them with the kindness that beﬁts
a friend. For I am neither eager for praise as a historian

2

3

6

9

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

nor fearful of the sting of censure as a liar, since concerning
the course of early times I have added nothing new or unknown
but in all things followed the assertions of my seniors. On
the other hand, if I came upon something noteworthy that
occurred in our own day I have included it, for I have observed that the illustrious acts of many men, along withthe men themselves, daily escape the memory of our contemporaries because there are no writers to record them.
Here begins the ﬁrst book of the History of Norway

Norway, then, received its name from a certain king called
Nórr. And Norway is a very vast country, though for the
12 most part uninhabitable because of the great number ofmountains and forests and frozen tracts. It starts in theeast from . . . , a great river, but turns westwards and so
15 by a curving stretch bends its way towards the north. It isa land with many inlets and innumerable promontories andthrough its length contains three habitable regions. The ﬁrst
18 and largest is the seaboard region. The second is the interior, also called the mountainous, region. The third is theforest region, lived in by Lapps but not cultivated. Bounded
21 by the stream of ocean to the west and north, it has Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south, and Sweden, Gautland,
Angrmannaland and Jamtaland to the east. Thanks be to
24 God, the populations of these countries are now Christian,but northward and spreading from the east across Norway are many peoples devoted to paganism: Kirjalians,
27 Kvænir, Horn-Lapps and the people of the two Bjarmalands.
Of what peoples live beyond these we have no certain knowledge. However, when certain shipmen were trying to re30 turn to Norway from Iceland, they were driven by contrary tempests into the wintry region and at last made land
between the Greenlanders and the Bjarmians where, so they
33 claimed, they found men of prodigious size and a country

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

3

of maidens (these are said to conceive children by a drinkof water). Greenland is cut off from these by icy crags. Thiscountry, which was discovered, settled and conﬁrmed in the 3
universal faith by Icelanders, is the western boundary ofEurope, almost touching the African islands where the watersof ocean ﬂood in. Beyond the Greenlanders some manikins 6
have been found by hunters, who call them Skrælings. Weaponwounds inﬂicted on them from which they will survive growwhite without bleeding, but if they are mortal the blood 9
hardly ceases ﬂowing. But they lack iron completely: they
use whales’ teeth for missiles, sharp stones for knives.
Thus far we have made known Norway’s situation and 12
surroundings. Now let us also describe its threefold inhabitedregions.
The three inhabited parts of Norway

15

The seaboard region can be called Decapolis, for it is famous
for ten townships. It comprises four provinces containing
twenty-two districts. The ﬁrst province is called the Vík, 18
beginning at the border of Denmark and extending to theplace known as Rýgjarbit; it contains four districts. The
second is the Gula province, going as far as the island called 21
Miðja and containing six districts. In the northernmost ofthese, with the name Mœrr, there is a farm of a marvellous nature, for every felled tree and cut branch turns to 24
stone if they lie one year on the ground there. The third
province is called Þrándheimr, a bay with a very narrow
entrance, having eight districts in the capacious pouches 27
of its shores and three more outside it, making eleven inall. The fourth is Hálogaland, whose inhabitants often live
together with the Lapps and have frequent commerce with 30
them. This province bounds Norway to the north, where
the place Vegistafr marks the divide between it and Bjarmaland. The deepest stretch of northern sea is found there, 33

4

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

with a Charybdis and Scylla and whirlpools from which
there is no escape; and there are frozen headlands which
3 send headlong into the sea immense icebergs, which are
increased in bulk by the water spewed on them by the ﬂooding
waves and solidiﬁed by the frost of winter. Traders making
6 for Greenland often and unwillingly must set their course
among them and so run the risk of shipwreck. There arealso great whales of diverse kind there, shattering the strongest
9 ships and swallowing down the sailors they overwhelm. Oneeyed horse-whales with spreading manes are found there,
most ferocious beasts ploughing the depths of the sea. The
12 pistrix is among them and the hafstrambr, a monster ofgreat size but without tail or head, looking like a tree-trunk
as it leaps up and down and portending perils to mariners
15 when it appears. The hafgufa and the hafrkitti occur there,
the biggest of all sea-monsters, and countless more of this sort.
Leaving the seaboard, let us move to the mountainous
18 region.
The mountainous parts of Norway
The interior region goes from the border of Gautland andextends to Þrándheimr, comprising four provinces and twelve
districts. The ﬁrst of these provinces consists of the peopleof Raumaríki and Hringaríki in their sequent districts. The
24 second comprises Þelamo≈ r k and the settlements beyond it.
The third is Heiðmo≈ r k with the Alv valleys. And the fourthtakes in Guðbrandsdalar with the people of Lóar and other27 adjacent districts. It ends with the great Dofrafjall. There
are in addition numerous inhabited parts between the seaboard and mountainous regions, Valdres and Haddingjadalr
30 and others, which are subject to the Gulaþing laws. In themountainous region there is a river, red with golden sands,
which ﬂows out of the great lake Mjo≈ r s and reaches the
33 sea in the Vík. Saxons came there once upon a time and21A HISTORY OF NORWAY

5

they realised the presence of gold from what they saw on
the hooves of cattle swimming across that river. They secretly
smelted the gold and carried it away in boundless quantity. And close to the township of Oslo there is a great wealthof silver, but ﬂoods of water now make it inaccessible tomen and it lies hidden under cliffs of rock.
Now that we have traversed the mountainous region, let
us enter and explore the forests of the Lapps.
The Lapps

3

69

Bordering the length of Norway is a vast wasteland, separating it from the pagan peoples. This waste is lived in by
Lapps and by the wild animals whose ﬂesh they eat half- 12
raw and whose skins they wear. They are indeed most skilful
hunters, solitary rovers and nomadic. For homes they use
huts of hide which they carry about on their shoulders as 15
they move with their wives and children, travelling fasterthan a bird over snow-ﬁelds and mountain slopes by meansof smooth wooden slats attached under their feet (a device 18
they call ondros) and drawn by reindeer. For where theylodge is uncertain since at any given time it is the supply ofgame which decides their hunting-grounds. There is no limit 21
to the number of wild animals there: bears, wolves, lynxes,
foxes, sables, otters, badgers and beavers. This last beast,
the beaver, is marvellously wary. Since it is very often chased 24
by hunters’ hounds, it digs itself three underground dens
by a stream. When the water rises, it keeps to the middle
or top one, but when the water is low and dogs are snap- 27
ping, they leave a slave-beaver in the way of the hounds atthe entrance, and the master-beaver, as if homeward bound,makes his way with mate and cubs to the lowest den, where 30
he has freer access to the stream, for they put more trust
in travel by water than by land. When winter provisions
are to be gathered in, they work all the harder, using their 33

6

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

teeth to cut down huge elms (whose bark is the food they
prefer) and load them on their slave, who lies on his back
3 holding a bar of wood in his front paws. They use him asa cart in this way and bring in a great quantity, helping
each other to drag the load-bearer by gripping the bar with
6 their teeth. For there is a certain servile class of beaver
which fetches a very small price and on account of frequent
use for work is not furry but smooth-skinned. Among the9 Lapps are also a great many squirrels and ermines, and every
year the Lapps pay the skins of all these animals as large
tribute to the kings of Norway, whose subjects they are.
12
Their intolerable ungodliness will hardly seem credible
nor how much devilish superstition they exercise in theart of magic. For some of them are revered as soothsayers
15 by the foolish multitude because whenever asked they canemploy an unclean spirit, which they call a gandus, andmake many predictions for many people which later come18 to pass. By marvellous means they can also draw to themselves objects of desire from distant parts and although far
off themselves miraculously bring hidden treasures to light.
21
Once when some Christians were among the Lapps on
a trading trip, they were sitting at table when their hostesssuddenly collapsed and died. The Christians were sorely
24 grieved but the Lapps, who were not at all sorrowful, told
them that she was not dead but had been snatched away by
the gandi of rivals and that they themselves would soon
27 retrieve her. Then a wizard spread out a cloth under which
he made himself ready for unholy magic incantations andwith hands extended lifted up a small vessel like a sieve,
30 which was covered with images of whales and reindeer withharness and little skis, even a little boat with oars. The
devilish gandus would use these means of transport over
33 heights of snow, across slopes of mountains and throughdepths of lakes. After dancing there for a very long time

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

7

to endow this equipment with magic power, he at last fellto the ground, as black as an Ethiopian and foaming at themouth like a madman, then his belly burst and ﬁnally with 3
a great cry he gave up the ghost. Then they consulted anotherman, one highly skilled in the magic art, as to what should
be done about the two of them. He went through the same 6
motions but with a different outcome, for the hostess roseup unharmed. And he told them that the dead wizard had
perished in the following way: his gandus, in the shape of 9a whale, was rushing at speed through a certain lake whenby evil chance it met an enemy gandus in the shape of sharpened stakes, and these stakes, hidden in the depths of that 12
same lake, pierced its belly, as was evident from the deadwizard in the house.
On another occasion, when Lapps side by side with Christ- 15
ians were trying to hook the squamous ﬂock, the Lapps
had noticed creels almost full of ﬁsh in the dwellings of
the Christians, and these they drew from the water’s depth 18
and almost ﬁlled their boat with ﬁsh.
I have selected these piecemeal from among the innumerable deceptions of the Lapps and offered them as illus- 21
trations of such a godless group for the beneﬁt of people
who live at a greater distance from them.
Having made the circuit of Norway’s regions, let us turn 24
to the tributary islands. As for the islands which lie off thecoast of Norway itself, they are such a multitude that no27
one can count them.
The tributary islands
There are, then, certain islands lying off the coast of the
Gula province which are called the Sólund islands by the 30
inhabitants, from which the sea between Norway and Scotland is named the Sólund Sea. In this sea are the Orkney
islands, more than thirty in number, deriving their name 33

8

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

3

from a certain earl named Orkan. These islands have been
inhabited by various peoples and are now divided into two
realms: the southern isles, enhanced by the rule of petty
kings, and the northern isles, graced by the rule of earls.
Each of them pays no small tribute to the kings of Norway.

6

The Orkney islands

These islands were ﬁrst inhabited by the Picts and the Papar.
The Picts, who were only a little bigger than pygmies, worked
9 great marvels in city-building each evening and morning,
but at noontide they were utterly bereft of their strength andhid for fear in little subterranean dwellings. At that time
12 moreover the islands were not called the Orkneys but Pictland,
and this is why still to this day the sea dividing the islands
from Scotland is called the Pictland Firth by the local peo15 ple. The greatest of all whirlpools is to be found there, which
engulfs the strongest ships, sucking them in at ebb tide andspewing out their fragments with a belch at ﬂood tide. We
18 do not know at all where these people came from. On theother hand, the Papar got their name from the albs theywore, like clerics, for all clergy are called papæ in the German
21 tongue. There is moreover an island still today called Papey
after them. It is seen, however, from the character and scriptof the books they left behind them that they were Afric24 ans who practised Judaism. When Haraldr hárfagri ruledin Norway some vikings of the kin of a very mighty prince,Ro≈ g nvaldr, crossed the Sólund Sea with a large ﬂeet, drove
27 the Papar from their long-established homes, destroyedthem utterly and subdued the islands under their own rule.
With winter bases thus provided, they sallied forth all the
30 more securely in summer and imposed their harsh sway
now on the English, now on the Scots, and sometimes on
the Irish, so that Northumbria in England, Caithness in
33 Scotland, Dublin and other coastal towns in Ireland wereA HISTORY OF NORWAY

9

brought under their rule. In this company was a certain
Hrólfr, called Go≈ ngu-Hrólfr by his comrades because healways travelled on foot, his immense size making it im- 3
possible for him to ride. With a few men and by means ofa marvellous stratagem he took Rouen, a city in Normandy.
He came into a river with ﬁfteen ships, where each crew 6
member dug his part of a trench which was then coveredby thin turves, simulating the appearance of ﬁrm ground.
They then arrayed themselves on the landward side of the 9trenched ground and advanced prepared for battle. Whenthe townsmen saw this, they met the enemy in head-on attack,but these feigned ﬂight as if racing back to their ships. 12
The mounted men, pursuing them faster than the rest, allfell in heaps into the hidden trenches, their armoured horses
with them, where the Norwegians slaughtered them with 15
deadly hand. So, with the ﬂight of the townsmen, they freely
entered the city and along with it gained the whole region,
18
which has taken its name of Normandy from them.
Having obtained rule over the realm, this same Hrólfr
married the widow of the dead count, by whom he had William,called Longspear, the father of Richard, who also had a 21
son with the same name as himself. The younger Richard
was the father of William the Bastard, who conquered theEnglish. He was the father of William Rufus and his brother 24
Henry, who in the prophecies of Merlin is styled the Lionof Justice. When established as count of Normandy Hrólfr
invaded the Frisians with a hostile force and won the vic- 27
tory, but soon afterwards he was treacherously killed in
Holland by his stepson.
Meanwhile his comrades conﬁrmed their dominion in the 30
Orkney islands, which are indeed to this day still under
the rule of their descendants, though subject to the kings
33
of Norway by due payment of tribute.

10

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

The Faroe islands
36

In the streams of ocean there are also ‘islands of sheep’,eighteen in number, which the inhabitants call Færeyjar in
their native tongue, for fat ﬂocks abound in the ownershipof the farmers there, some having sheep by the thousand.
These islanders also pay tribute to our kings at ﬁxed times.
IcelandWestwards from there is the big island which the Italians
9 called Ultima Thule. It is now inhabited by a multitude ofcolonists but it was once a vast empty land and unknown
to men until the time of Haraldr hárfagri. Then Ingólfr and12 Hjo≈ r leifr, Norwegians who were ﬂeeing their homeland on
account of killings, took ship with their wives and children
and, seeking their way through the combing waves, ﬁnally
15 found the island which had ﬁrst been discovered by Garðarr
and subsequently by Anbi. In about ﬁfty years it was inhabited all over in the same way as it is today. The Norwe18 gians call this island Iceland, ‘the land of ice’, for the island
contains countless mountains covered with uninterrupted
sheets of ice and by their sheen mariners at sea and far
21 from land customarily set their course for the haven best
suited to them. Among them is Mount Hekla which, quaking all over like Mount Etna, is shaken by a terrible distur24 bance of the ground and sends out bursts of sulphurous
ﬂames. Small hot springs similarly boil up at various sites
which, roofed over and tempered by the introduction of cold
27 water, provide the local people with bath-like washing places.
There are some other wells on the island in which wool orcloth steeped overnight turns to stone. Another spring there,
30 gushing in the sandy coils of a river, has the taste and colourof beer; a mere mouthful is said to restore health.
Nor do I think it proper to pass over what is reported to
33 have occurred in our own time: for over a stretch of three

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

11

miles the whole ocean began to surge like narrow waters
and boil like a cauldron, while out of the deep the gaping
earth sent forth ﬁre-spewing vapours and a great moun- 3
tain emerging from the waves. This will be thought an evilomen by many people, auguring that when the elements
spontaneously disturb the regular tides and movements of 6
nature it either portends marvels on earth or preﬁgures theend of the world. For in the book Solinus wrote on the wondersof the world, he said that there is a very deep abyss in the 9earth itself (which is why it is written, ‘the fountains of thegreat deep were broken up’) and alongside it are open-mouthedcaverns containing winds which are said to be brought forth 12
by the breathing of the water, and these are the breath ofgales. Indeed, by their breathing these winds draw to them
the waters of the sea through hidden passages in the earth; 15
they shut them up in the vaults of the abyss, and then by
the same force drive them out again, causing sea-surges,
spates and the whirling of waterspouts. Earthquakes also 18
occur and various discharges of vapour and conﬂagration,
for when the winds’ breath, held in the cheeks of earth, presses
to burst out, it shakes the foundation of the world with a 21
dreadful roaring and forces it to tremble. So when the winds’
breath contends with ﬁre in the earth’s interior, then evenin mid-ocean the depths are ﬁssured and smoky exhalations 24
and sulphurous ﬂames are seen to emerge. Similarly, what
is a tremor in the ground is believed to correspond to thunderin the clouds, a rift here to lightning there. Although we do 27
not clearly understand these marvels in the world, or others greater still, they are not therefore to be taken as omens
or reckoned portents foreboding the deluge. On the con- 30
trary, since in some mysterious manner they gloriously serve
him who knows all things unknown, the immutable Creator of mutable things, they comply with nature in every way. 33
Since, truly, the spark of our feeble intellect, surrounded

12

3

6

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

by the obscurity of corporeal darkness, is found quite incapable of investigating the deepest causes, let us call for
enlightenment on him who with the spirit of understanding
brings to light the things hidden in darkness.
So far we have described the tributary islands one byone. Let us now, however, turn our pen to an account of thekings who have ruled Norway and from whom they descend.
The origin of the kings

The ancient line of the kings of Norway had its beginningin Sweden, from where Þrándheimr, the principal regionof Norway, was also settled. So King Ingvi, whom many
12 assert to have been the ﬁrst to rule the kingdom of Sweden,
fathered Njo≈ r ðr, who fathered Freyr—both these were
worshipped as gods by their posterity through many cen15 turies. Freyr fathered Fjo≈ l nir, who was drowned in a vatof mead and whose son, Svegðir, chased a dwarf into arock and is said never to have returned, which can cer18 tainly be counted a fable. He fathered Vanlandi, who wassmothered by a demon in his sleep and died. This sort ofdemon is called mara in Norwegian. Vanlandi fathered
21 Vísburr, who with all his retinue was burned alive by hissons so that they might all the sooner inherit the kingdom.
His son, Dómaldi, was hanged by the Swedes as a sacri24 ﬁce to the goddess Ceres to ensure the fertility of the crops.
He fathered Dómarr who died of sickness in Sweden andwhose son, Dyggvi, also ended his life in that country. His
27 son Dagr succeeded him in the reign; Danes killed him ina general battle at a ford called Skjótansvað or Vápnavað
when he was seeking to avenge a sparrow’s wrongs. He
30 fathered Alrekr who was beaten to death with a bridle byhis brother, Eiríkr. Alrekr was the father of Ho≈ g ni, whose
wife killed him with her own hands, hanging him from a
33 tree by a golden chain at the place Agnaﬁt, which is now
9A HISTORY OF NORWAY

13

called Stockholm. His son, Ingjaldr, was killed in Sweden
by his own brother because of the taunting of the latter’s
wife; her name was Bera (which is ursa in Latin). After 3
him came his son, Jo≈ r undr, who met a miserable end when
he fought against the Danes and was hanged by them on
the sea-inlet in Denmark which the natives call Limafjo≈rðr. 6
He was the father of Aun who, it is told, in the drawn-out
inﬁrmity of old age took no solid food for nine years before
his death but only sucked milk from a horn like an infant. 9
Aun fathered Egill, nicknamed Vendilkráki, who was deprived of his kingdom by his own slave, named Tunni. The slaveraised civil strife against his master in eight battles and 12
won the victory in all of them; he fell in the ninth, vanquished at last, but the king himself was soon afterwards
gored to death by a ferocious bull. He was succeeded in 15
the realm by his son Óttarr who was killed by a namesake,Óttarr, earl of the Danes, and Fasti, his brother, in Vendill,
one of the provinces of Denmark. His son Aðils, or Aðísl, 18
ﬂeeing from idolatrous sacriﬁce, fell from his horse in frontof the temple of Diana and died. He was father of Eysteinn,
whom the Gautar forced into a house and burnt alive with 21
his men. His son Yngvarr, nicknamed ‘the White’, was killed
in a campaign on an island in the Baltic Sea which is calledEysýsla by the natives. This Yngvarr fathered Braut-O≈ nundr 24
who was killed by his brother, Sigvarðr, at Himinheiðr,whose name means ‘ﬁeld of heaven’. In succession to him
his son Ingjaldr was elevated to the kingship. He had im- 27
moderate fear of a King Ívarr, called víðfaðmi, who terriﬁed
many people at the time, so with all his retinue he shuthimself up in his feasting-hall and set it on ﬁre. His son 30
Óláfr, with the nickname ‘Tree-feller’, ruled the kingdom
long and peacefully and died full of days in Sweden.
Óláfr was the father of Hálfdan, with the nickname ‘White- 33
leg’, whom the Norwegians of the mountainous region

14

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

accepted as king when he came from Sweden. He gave up
the ghost at an advanced age in the district of Þótn. When3 his son Eysteinn, nicknamed ‘Fart’, was sailing in narrow
waters between two islands with many ships in company,
he was knocked off the stern-deck by a spar from another6 vessel and disappeared, sunk beneath the waves. He was
succeeded by his son Hálfdan who was lavish of gold andmost tenaciously sparing of food, for he presented his re9 tainers with gold and tortured them with hunger. He was
the father of Guðrøðr the Hunter-king who was betrayedby his own wife, for a young man whom she bribed pierced his
12 side with a spear. His son Hálfdan, nicknamed ‘the Black’,
likewise held the kingdom in the mountainous region after
his father. On his way from a feast, when he was travel15 ling with wagons and many mounted men across the iceof a lake called Ro≈ nd, he was carelessly driven into a breakin the frozen surface, where herdsmen customarily watered
18 their beasts, and perished under the ice.
His son who succeeded him, Haraldr hárfagri, so called
because of his comely head of hair, was the ﬁrst to hold21 sway over the whole seaboard region; indeed, the interior
region, hitherto ruled by petty kings, was likewise as goodas under his rule. Many and marvellous are the things told
24 of him, which it would take too long to rehearse in sequenceat this point. He ruled for seventy-three years and had sixteen sons. The ﬁrst-born was Eiríkr, nicknamed blóðøx,27 that is ‘bloody axe’. The second was Hákon, whom Æthelstan,
king of the English, adopted as a son. The third Óláfr. The
fourth Bjo≈ r n, which means ‘bear’. The ﬁfth Sigvarðr, nick30 named ‘the Giant’. The sixth Gunnrøðr. The seventh Guðrøðr.
The eighth Hálfdan High-leg. The ninth Ro≈ g nvaldr réttilbeini, who was fostered by a sorceress in the district of
33 Haðaland and was active in the same magic art as his
foster-mother. The tenth was Eysteinn. The eleventh Jo≈rundr.

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

15

The twelfth Sigtryggr. The thirteenth Yngvarr. The fourteenth Tryggvi. The ﬁfteenth Hringr. The sixteenth Hrólfr.
The oldest of these, Eiríkr Bloodaxe, acquired the king- 3
dom after his father and took to wife a vicious and mostiniquitous woman from Denmark named Gunnhildr, thedaughter of the notably foolish Gormr, king of the Danes, and 6of the notably sagacious woman, Þyri. With Gunnhildr hehad six sons, namely Haraldr, with the nickname ‘Greypelt’,second Gamli, third Sigvarðr Gleam, fourth Gunnrøðr, ﬁfth 9
Erlingr, sixth Gormr. After ruling for a year, and pleasing
no one on account of the excessive arrogance of his wife,
Eiríkr was deprived of the kingdom by his brother Hákon, 12
foster-son of Æthelstan, king of England, with the agreement of the chief men of Norway, and Eiríkr withdrew asa fugitive to England. There he was well received by his 15
brother’s foster-father and laved in the fount of baptism;he was made earl over all Northumbria and proved mostacceptable to all until his outrageous wife, Gunnhildr, 18
arrived. The Northumbrians would not suffer her pestilential
fury and forthwith threw off their intolerable yoke. Eiríkr,
however, died when he was attacked while on a foray in 21
Spain, and Gunnhildr returned with her sons to her brother
Haraldr, king of the Danes.
Hákon was accepted as king by the seaboard peoples of 24
Norway. This man, most dutifully reared by a most Christian king in England, nevertheless went so far astray thatby a most wretched exchange he preferred an ephemeral 27
realm to the eternal kingdom. In his anxiety to retain hissovereign rank he became, alas, an apostate, subject in servitude to idols, serving gods, not God. But although eternally 30
deprived of perdurable greatness because of blind ambition for ﬂeeting majesty, he nevertheless observed his nation’slaws and the decisions of the people more faithfully than 33
all the kings who lived in the heathen age. Because of this16

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

he was indeed dear to the nobility and an object of devotion to the commoners. He defended his homeland with
3 the utmost vigour for twenty-seven years. In the last yearsof his life he was engaged in almost constant warfare against
his nephews, the sons of his brother and Gunnhildr, their
6 mother. Two of their battles were especially renowned. One
was at the place called Rastarkálfr on the island of Fræði
in the district of Norð-Mœrr, where Gamli, son of Gunnhildr,
9 and a great number of their host were forced off a promontory into the sea. The other great battle they fought wasin the Gula province at the settlement called Fitjar, an
12 encounter in which many fell on both sides. Two sons ofGunnhildr, Gormr and Erlingr, fell there, while their otherbrothers ﬂed. But in their retreat a lad in their company
15 threw a spear aimed at the battle-line of the enemy whichgave King Hákon himself a lethal wound in his upper arm
on the right side. It will be clearly apparent to all and sun18 dry that it was divine vengeance that brought about thisevent in such a way: having dared to deny the Christ Child,
he was now overcome by a mere boy after his enemies were
21 defeated. He decided to return to his estate of Alreksstaðir
but he died on the way in the very haven where he had
been born, and as a result this place has ever since been
24 called Hákonarhella, that is ‘Hákon’s stone’.
After these events the whole seaboard region was held
for fourteen years by Gunnhildr and her sons, Haraldr,
27 Sigvarðr and Gunnrøðr. Under their rule Norway was mostheavily oppressed by famine and all sorts of evils throughthe exceptional wickedness of its rulers. But Sigvarðr and30 many other men were killed at an assembly by the peopleof Vo≈ r s, led by Vémundr vo≈ l ubrjótr. Gunnrøðr, however,
was killed on the Alreksstaðir estate (the famous town of
33 Bergen is now situated nearby) by a certain Þorkell, nicknamed klyppr, whose wife he had ravished against her will.

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

17

He thrust him through with a sword, and one of his retainers,
Erlingr the Old by name, manfully avenged him. But . . .
Of the great number of Haraldr hárfagri’s sons two, that 3
is Eiríkr and Hákon, are said to have ruled the seaboard
peoples in succession to their father; the others had rulein the mountainous region. Some indeed ended their lives 6
before their time to rule arrived, for Hálfdan High-leg was
killed by the Orkney islanders, while Ro≈ gnvaldr réttilbeini,
infamous for the disgrace customarily attached to degrad- 9
ing practices, is said to have been thrown into a whirlpool inHaðaland on his father’s orders. But their brothers left to posterity an altogether worthy lineage, for from their line sprang 12
those two health-bringing namesakes, Óláfr and Óláfr, who,
like bright lights of heaven, illumined their homeland withthe radiance of holy faith. Bjo≈ r n, son of Haraldr hárfagri, 15
was nurtured in Grenland, where he is also said to haveruled. He fathered Guðrøðr who was the father of Haraldr theGrenlander, who was brought up and had rule in Grenland. 18
He made a very choice match with Ásta, daughter ofGuðbrandr kúla, and she bore him Óláfr, perpetual kingof Norway. Sigvarðr Sow, king in the mountainous region, 21
took Ásta in marriage after the death of her husband. Sigvarðr
risi (that is, ‘the Giant’), son of Haraldr hárfagri, was thefather of Hálfdan who was the father of Sigvarðr Sow. By 24Ásta he had Haraldr, a man of great sagacity and deep
experience in the art of war. The fabric of the genealogyof the kings of Norway, stretching down to this day, de- 27
scends from him, as it were by a thread. Óláfr, son of Haraldr
hárfagri, was the father of Tryggvi. Tryggvi, nurtured in
Raumaríki, where he is said to have ﬁrst had rule, married 30
Ástríðr, a lovely maiden from the mountainous region.
Later, when he had subjugated the Vík, he was cunningly
led astray and treacherously killed by his cousins, namely the 33
sons of Eiríkr, in a small island in Ranríki on an occasion

18

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

when they were supposed to conﬁrm a pact of peace betwen
them. That place is still called Tryggvareyrr, that is ‘Tryggvi’s
3 cairn’. Many people maintain that Tryggvi’s death cameabout in this different way: when the local people, that is
the men of Ranríki, had no stomach to tolerate the harsh6 ness of his rule, an assembly was summoned, as if for the
public weal, at which they had the king deceitfully killed
by Saxi, Skorri and Skreyja, youths bribed with money for9 the purpose. But whether it was done by the ﬁrst lot or thesecond, the name of the site on that island demonstrates
that he was done to death there. Meanwhile Ástríðr her12 self, now pregnant, went with three ships and ﬁtting company to the Orkney islands; there she was most loyally given
refuge and there the happy mother-to-be gave birth to the
15 future king, whom she named Óláfr, through whom Norway ﬁnally received the most salutary admonitions of Christ.
On the death of the sons of Gunnhildr, a certain Hákon
18 (nicknamed ‘the Bad’ on account of the unrestrained crueltyof his nature), who had the title of earl, usurped sovereignty over all Norway after having expelled all the petty
21 kings and done away with those who were tributary to the
Swedes. And he preferred to be called ‘earl’ like his forebears rather than ‘king’, for through his father Sigvarðr
24 and his mother Bergljót, daughter of Þórir the Silent, he wasdescended from the line of the earls of Mœrr and Hálogaland. Mighty in war but stubbornly devoted to idolatry, he
27 increased his dominion far and wide, subduing numerous
neighbouring regions. But when he learnt of the fatherless boy born in Orkney, he straightway laid crafty plans
30 against the lad who would, he suspected, deprive him of
the kingdom. When his mother learnt of the earl’s malevolent plots, then in order to remove the boy from her to safety
33 she gave him, by God’s provident mercy (so I believe), although she loved him dearly as her only son, to a certain

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

19Þórólfr Louse-beard to foster and carry to Sweden. Þórólfr
took the child as his to foster with every care and carrying him in his bosom passed through Þrándheimr in the 3
greatest peril. After that he got to Sweden, where he paused
for a time, then made for Russia but landed in Estonia. In
the end while sailing off Eysýsla they were intercepted by 6
pirates and some of them taken prisoner, some killed. Amongthem the boy’s foster-father was also executed, while theboy Óláfr himself was sold as a slave to Estonians. Óláfr 9
was redeemed from there by a kinsman of his who by chance
was sent there at that time by the king of Russia with thetask of collecting taxes. For some years Óláfr lived privately 12
with him in Russia. When he was about twelve years oldhe manfully avenged his foster-father in the middle of themarket-place of Hólmgarðr, and word of this unheard-of 15
act of vengeance by a lad barely twelve years of age soon
reached the king. Because of it he was presented to theking, by whom he was ﬁnally adopted as a son. Practising 18
piracy as a youth, traversing the Baltic shores and striking
terror into all the peoples of those parts, this glorious bandit
was in his ignorance steered away from God. His ﬂeet was 21
swelled by Norwegians and Danes, Gautar and Slavs, whojoined him in making their winter quarters in Jómsborg,
the strongest of the Slav townships. From here he made 24
for Frisia, after that entered Flanders, and from there went
to England, and after ravaging these lands he worked wonders
in Scotland and spared no one in Ireland. But indeed the 27
Creator, taking care of his created, in the bowels of hismercy miraculously visited this tyrant so free and ﬁerce,and by his visitation illumined him, so that those whom 30
he had hitherto cloaked in the shadow of death, He might
now clothe in the robe of eternal radiance. For when thisÓláfr had inﬂicted his insensate rage on the peoples named 33
he came upon a hermit serving God on a small island off

20

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

Britain. Óláfr put him to the test by changing clothes withhis shield-bearer, but he at once recognised this servant
3 of the king and admonished him to serve his lord faithfully. At that the princely leader of pirates made haste tovisit the hermit, who he now had no doubt was a prophet
6 of God, and he heard from him many predictions which
he soon found by experience to be true.
‘You will be,’ he said, ‘an illustrious king, most devout
9 in the Christian faith and most beneﬁcial to your people,
for through you innumerable people will become truly
Christian. And if the things I foretell are true, take this as
12 a sign: the day after tomorrow, when you leave your ships,
you will see cattle on the shore and you will realise that there
is deceit behind it, for you will be ambushed by enemies.
15 But while you are suffering losses among your men, you
yourself will be wounded almost to death and you will be
carried barely alive on a shield to your ships. After a week
18 you will be healed with heaven’s help and on your return
you will be laved in the fount of life.’
The outcome veriﬁed all these things, just as he fore21 told them.
When the blessed Óláfr, through the health-giving change
effected by the right hand of the Most High, had received
24 the grace of baptism, and the greater part of his host withhim, he crossed the sea to Norway, having with him Bishop
Johannes and the priest Þangbrandr whom he sent to preach
27 to the Icelanders. He also had with him many other ministersof God, all of whom began to preach Christ with one mind
and one mouth to the heathens. The Norwegians, converted
30 to the faith by the measureless mercy of the great God, madeÓláfr their king and expelled Earl Hákon from the realm after
he had been ruling for thirty-three years. A slave of his by
33 the name of Karkr killed him despicably by night in Gaulardalr, one of the districts of Þrándheimr, and even brought

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

21

his severed head to the king, hoping to win great rewards.
But what befell him was just the reverse of that, for he was publicly condemned as a most villainous murderer and hanged 3
as a criminal. But the sons of Earl Hákon, Sveinn and Eiríkr,
ﬂed to Denmark and were peacefully received by King Sveinn.
Meanwhile Óláfr reconciled all his countrymen in the 6seaboard region to the King of Kings, and if there were
those whom the bishop could not subdue to the reign ofChrist by the sword of the spirit, the king used material 9means on noble and commoner, suckling child with theman in years. Thus it came about that within ﬁve years herendered to Christ all the peoples of the tributary islands, the 12
Shetlanders, the Orcadians, the Faroese and the Icelanders,shining in faith, rejoicing in hope, ardent in charity. As aresult, the chariot of God, multiplied by ten thousand, and 15
the waggon of Christ, ﬁlled full of his salvation freely offered,
were drawn by this wonder-working king, as if by the strongest
horse, to the farthest bounds of the world and set on course 18
to return to the homeland of Paradise.
Óláfr married a lady from Denmark, sister of King Sveinn,Þyri by name, who had in fact been previously betrothed 21
against her will to the duke of Slavland. But because King
Sveinn determined to keep fast hold on Sjáland, which hehad given in dowry to his sister, King Óláfr went to war 24
against the Danes, and he ordered that a great ﬂeet fromÞrándheimr and Gulaþing should be gathered by the leading men; and he himself summoned the host of the eastern 27
region and waited for the others on the border between
Denmark and Norway. So, when some of the Gulaþing men
arrived, the king set off with no great numbers on the planned 30
expedition, hoping that the rest of the force would follow
him. But they were unwilling to cross their country’s frontier, especially when their leader had departed, and they 33
went back to their homes. When the king realised that they

22

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

had cheated him, he decided to go to the Slavs and seek
reinforcements from the men who had been his most loyal
3 comrades in piracy. But while sailing past Sjáland, he wascut off by enemies in ambush like a sheep by wolves. The fact
was that, when King Sveinn heard that Óláfr would be com6 ing with an armed force, he summoned his stepson, Óláfr
king of the Swedes, and Eiríkr, the son of Earl Hákon, andthese three against one then fought their sea-battle in this
9 way. First Sveinn attacked Óláfr with thirty ships while hefought back with only eleven, but the royal ship was furnished with eighty bench-divisions. This vessel, which had
12 the image of a serpent’s head on prow and stern, was called
the Long Serpent. It had room for one hundred and sixty
oarsmen if all the half-bench spaces together were occu15 pied for rowing, and in the battle now spoken of all of them
are said to have been in coats of mail. There were also forty
clerics in the thirty half-bench spaces nearest the stern; not
18 brought up to war, they worked harder at praying than ﬁghting. After a long struggle each one of Sveinn’s ships had beencleared of men and he returned with great disgrace to his
21 allies. Then his stepson Óláfr, with the same number of ships,
attacked his namesake and suffered worse loss than Sveinn,
his predecessor, and retired with great dishonour. Eiríkr,
24 last in sequence but ﬁrst in victory, made a most ﬁerce attack on the enemy; not unmindful of the death of his father
and his own ﬂight, he dealt injuries to pay for those inju27 ries. But Óláfr, as if starting all over again in resistingwith all his might the strong onslaught of those bold rebels,
strove to hurl stones, spears and other missiles at their
30 adversaries. Finally, with no strength left and their ships
boarded by their enemies with no one to lift a hand against
them, all those still quickened by the warmth of life were
33 devoured by the sword’s mouth, except the king himself
who was last seen by them standing on the lofty stern-deck.

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

23

But when the battle was over they found him neither alive
nor dead, and because of this some say that, being in armour, he sank under the waves. There are others who claim 3
to have seen him long afterwards in a certain monastery.
But how he may have been brought through the perils of
the sea to the ﬁrm ground of the shore—by his own swim- 6
ming or by a skiff’s conveyance or by spirits angelic andattendant—or whether he drowned there is, I believe, unknown to all our contemporaries. Therefore let us more 9honestly leave the subject by omitting what is indeﬁnite
rather than offering false opinion on an uncertain fact. But
certainly Óláfr’s wife bore the death of her husband with 12
excessive tribulation and died of grief.
After these events rule over all Norway was concededby Sveinn Forkbeard to the sons of Earl Hákon. They pre- 15
sided over the realm as earls for fourteen years and almost
uprooted God’s holy church which the blessed Óláfr had
18
planted and Johannes watered.
Óláfr Haraldsson
In those times Óláfr, son of Haraldr the Grenlander, washeld in high esteem in Russia. Because he was dispossessed 21
of his native land, he had to turn to piracy. He usually winteredin Eapolis, which we call Hólmgarðr, attended by no small
ﬂeet. In summer he constantly harassed all the peoples round 24
the Baltic Sea with raiding and ravaging. He utterly laid waste
the large and populous island of Eysýsla, and so harried twoothers equal to it in size and population, namely Gotland 27
and Eyland, that their inhabitants paid enormous sums intribute throughout the time he stayed in Russia. In the country of the Kurlanders he inﬂicted no small slaughter on them, 30
crowned with most glorious success. After long displaying
the ﬁerceness of a tyrant, this splendid leader made readyto return to his homeland, but when he arrived in Denmark, 3324

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

he was invited by Sveinn, king of the Danes, to cross the sea
with him to England; Knútr accompanied his father Sveinn.
3 They won the victory in every battle through the militaryshrewdness of that most blessed tyrant, Óláfr. At last Æthelred
was driven out and Sveinn held the whole island but only
6 brieﬂy, for three months later he was removed from thelight of this world. When Knútr returned to his homeland,
he was made king by the Danes in place of his father. Óláfr
9 meanwhile waged war against the Britons and reached evenregions of Spain; leaving there the clearest tokens of his
triumph, he returned to Denmark and was received with high
12 honour by his comrade, now king of the Danes. They madea pact of brotherhood by adoption. But because Knútr had
ﬂed ingloriously from England on the death of his father, he
15 now intended to return with an enormous army. He strongly
urged his comrade Óláfr and his step-brother of the same
name to go with him, promising them half if it proved possible
18 for him to win the whole island with their support. Consequently they eagerly started off together and with billowing sails and fair winds in three days reached the port
21 of Yarmouth. From there they moved on to attack London,
where by chance King Edmund was staying at the time,
now deprived of his father Æthelred. When the king learnt
24 of the arrival of the enemy, he summoned the townsmen
and ordered them to fortify the bridge over the River Thamesso that his foe should not have free entry. They took ac27 tion without delay to fulﬁl his command, and he gathered ahost from the neighbouring districts. Meanwhile the Danes,
approaching the bridge with huge clamour, began all with30 one intent to assault their fortiﬁcations, while those on theother side strove with all their might to defend themselves
and their property. When Knútr had thus contended all day
33 in fruitless effort and suffered the sore loss of many of hismen, our Óláfr put himself and his men into great danger

A HISTORY OF NORWAY

25

for the sake of victory. With eleven ships he rowed hardagainst the bridge defences, his troops covered by protective
shields, and risking their lives to make mock of the contrivan- 3
ces of the defenders, they most audaciously penetrated them.
When the supremely victorious Óláfr had made his entry
into the city, he was accorded splendid acclamations of praise 6
by the whole host, and the renown of the triumph won was
attributed all to him. After London was taken they fought hardagainst King Edmund ﬁve times in nine months. At last when 9both sides were exhausted, the kings, Edmund and Knútr,
made a pact by which as long as both lived they should rulethe island on equal terms, but the one who outlived the other 12
should have it all. Then when Edmund had reigned for a single
month he was deprived of the light of this world and Knútr
took possession of the whole kingdom. He married the mother 15
of his late co-regent, named Ælfgifu, who as . . . Sveinn and
Knútr, nicknamed ‘the Hard’, his two sons. The agreement
he had most ﬁrmly made with his supporters he set entirely 18
at nought, allowing both his brother and his comrade to departdisappointed of all reward for their labours. Before leaving,Óláfr of Norway was then betrothed to the sister of Óláfr 21
of Sweden, Margaret by name, whom he had long esteemed
highly with the favour of deep affection becomingly reciprocated. But this came to nothing, for she was forced by her 24
brother to marry King Jaroslav of Russia against her will.
This act would have fomented very great hatred and discord
among those three illustrious princes had not Margaret’s 27
exceedingly wise sister, following the counsel of her fosterfather, most ﬁttingly re-knit the severed ties of the previous
betrothal: for Óláfr made her his wife and by her had . . . 30
Óláfr, returning from England with two big ships of burden,
crossed the sea to his native Norway. Four bishops werewith him, namely Grímkell, Bernard, Ruðólfr and Sigfrid. 33
The end

26

THE PASSION OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

THE PASSION AND MIRACLES OF THE
BLESSED ÓLÁFR
Here begins the Passion of the blessed Óláfr, king andmartyrWhen the illustrious King Óláfr ruled in Norway, a vast
country located towards the north and having Denmark to
the south, there entered into that land the feet of them that
6 preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of goodthings. The peoples of that country, previously subject tothe ungodly rites of idolatry and deluded by superstitious
9 error, now heard of the worship and faith of the true God—
heard indeed, but many scorned to accept. Living in a region close to the north, it was that same north, from which
12 comes every evil over the whole face of earth, that had
possessed them all the more inwardly and gripped them all
the more ﬁrmly in the ice of unbelief. From its face Jeremiah
15 saw a seething pot; and in Isaiah there is the boaster whosays, ‘I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will
sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides
18 of the north.’ But the great and praiseworthy Lord, whobuilds his city on the sides of the north, scattered the rigour of the north with the mild wind of the south and at last
21 softened the stubborn and ﬁerce hearts of savage peoples
with the warmth of faith. They heard of the teaching of theLord, and he sent messengers to them as heralds of his
24 word. They should preach in those parts the truth which is
in Christ Jesus, overthrow the cult of idols, promise unfailing life and eternal joys to those who believed, and deter
27 the unbelieving and contumacious with the fear of judgement to come and everlasting torment.
Now this kingdom, as we have said, was ruled by King30 Óláfr. Although a pagan, he was nevertheless benevolent
by nature and from a certain nobility of mind very eager to3

THE PASSION OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

27

follow the ways of righteousness. Having learnt the purityof Gospel truth in England, he took the faith wholly toheart and with devout zeal hastened to receive baptismal 3
grace in the city of Rouen. Puriﬁed thus at the healthgiving font, he at once became a different man and, as theapostle said, was buried with Christ by baptism into death. 6
Forgetting what had gone before, passing on to things tocome, this most perfect observant of the faith he had adopted
walked in newness of life. All vain pleasure seemed pal- 9
try to him, and the glory of earthly kingship grew vile incomparison with heavenly bliss. Although of royal rank,
he was poor in spirit, and though involved in worldly af- 12
fairs, he yet gave his mind to heavenly matters. Whatever
divine law forbids he vehemently rejected; whatever that
law commands he embraced with the most ardent love. 15
Not content with his own salvation, he strove with unﬂagging urgency to convert the people he was appointed
by divine providence to govern. And by a new order of 18
things, the king played an apostle’s part and he, the ruler,himself preached the grace of the word of Christ to all people
far and wide. Moreover, by the grace poured into his lips, he 21
led not a few away from the abominable worship of demons
to knowledge and veneration of their Creator. His wonderfuldevotion and most abstemious life kindled in the hearts of 24
many contempt of this world and love of the heavenly homeland. Whose stubbornness, whose hardness of heart, was
not subdued by the sweet words, full of spiritual wisdom, 27of the illustrious Óláfr? Whose torpor and sloth were notroused by his peerless conduct?
Even in the midst of a vicious and perverse nation he 30
made many converts. Yet he also had very many strong andmighty enemies, who were moved more by wilfulness thanpiety, more by custom than reason, more by rash fury of 33
spirit than love of truth. They fought with all their might

28

THE PASSION OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

against the message and holy works of this most noble martyrof Christ and sought to overthrow the just ways of the Lord.
3 But the righteous man, bold as a lion, was without dreadand, following the example of the blessed Job, he did not
fear a great multitude nor did the contempt of families ter6 rify him. Nor could he be turned from his steadfast preachingby the threats and plots of enemies.
Gracious Jesus, what labours, what persecutions he en9 dured before he was able to turn that unbelieving and hostilenation from its perversity! Without doubt, it was given tohim not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his
12 sake. Not only was he ready to suffer, not only ready toyield up the crown of temporal kingship for Christ’s sake,but he also desired to win the glory of everlasting felicity
15 through the crown of martyrdom. Oh, what ardour of devoted love, what fervour of faith, inﬂamed the breast of
this most excellent martyr of Christ, in the midst of savage
18 people who, trusting in their own folly, were in Solomon’s
words less safe to encounter than a bear robbed of her whelps.
Yet whenever he could, in public and in private, he never
21 ceased to pour forth before them the message of faith andsalvation which they detested. He accomplished much ina short time and won a countless multitude for the Lord. Peo24 ple ﬂocked eagerly to baptism and the number of believers
grew day by day. Idols were smashed, sacred groves felled,
temples overthrown. Priests were ordained and churches
27 built. The people made offerings with devotion and zeal.
The worshippers of idols were put to shame and those who
put their trust in graven images were confounded. In many
30 parts of that land the host of unbelievers were silenced,
not daring to murmur, and all iniquity stopped her mouth.
The king rejoiced beyond belief to see the dearest fruits
33 of his labours now come to pass. But the unwearied preacherof the Gospel never ceased, now to persuade the obstinate,THE PASSION OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

29

now to instruct the ignorant, now to strengthen those frailin the faith. In his reign he showed nothing of kingly pride,nothing of tyranny, but rather furnished to all an example 3of great humility and mildness. Concerned moreover for
the future welfare of the people he ruled, lest the lordly andpowerful should oppress the lowly with their might, he 6composed and proclaimed laws both ecclesiastical and civil,
full of great wisdom and framed with wonderful discernment. In them he assigned to each estate its proper rights, and 9
determined within strict bounds what authority the bishops
should have over their people and what deference the people
should show their bishops. In this he was a most moderate 12
and just judge, and wisely bearing in mind how often kings
arrogantly misused their subjects, he restrained and bridled
royal licence with the rigour of law. These laws reveal how 15
devoted this glorious king was to God, how benevolent to
his fellow-men.
Words cannot express the many beneﬁts the oft-named 18
king conferred upon his people, the good he did while hegoverned them, by enacting laws and relieving the poor,by diligent preaching and by the example of his most holy 21
life. But in return he had many trials and tribulations toendure from the people, until at length he could not oppose the multitude of evils. Thinking the moment required 24
it, he withdrew into Russia till the Lord should deign toﬁnd a time suitable for him to fulﬁl his desire and purpose.
Let no one suppose that this most stalwart and steadfast 27
champion of Christ was subject to human weakness, that
he retreated for fear of martyrdom. For he had often courted
martyrdom of his own free will, as the outcome of events 30
and his illustrious death made manifest. For the beneﬁt ofothers he saved himself to await a more favourable moment,
when he might present more plentiful fruits to the Lord 33
and return with manifold interest the talent entrusted to him.

30

THE PASSION OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

Therefore the glorious martyr of Christ went into Russia where he was nobly received by Jaroslav, the magniﬁcent
3 king of that realm, and held in the highest esteem as longas he chose to remain. He stayed there for some time, andleft the inhabitants with a model of upright life and a famous
6 recollection of his piety, charity, kindness and patience.
At length, reﬁned by the ﬁre of persecution and exile, foundacceptable and worthy to sustain greater trials, prompted
9 by divine inspiration, he returned by way of Sweden tohis native land. By the grace of God, conferred upon him
more abundantly than ever, he was there received by many
12 with ardent longing. Favoured and long wished for by goodmen, he appeared fearsome and terrible to opponents ofwholesome instruction. Clad in the breastplate of faith, girded
15 with the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, inhonour and dishonour, evil report and good report, withthe armour of righteousness on the right hand and the left,
18 the illustrious preacher steadfastly sowed the word of faithwherever he went, ready to suffer any persecution for Christ’s
sake. He willingly put himself in the way of dangers, not
21 refusing to accept martyrdom if it was God’s will.
And since the labourer is worthy of his hire, it pleased
the Lord at last to bring his champion out of the prison of
24 the ﬂesh, that he might receive in fullest and superabundant measure the reward of his labours and that the kingmight see the King in his beauty. People in that particular
27 part of the country where his most holy body now rests were
obdurate and inﬂexible in their malice, inexorable enemiesof the truth and so of the king. The martyr of Christ chanced
30 to come into that district to preach God’s grace to the unbelieving people. When the enemies of the truth learnt this,they summoned a wicked council and gathered together
33 against the Lord and his anointed. For his preaching ofsalvation was entirely opposed to them and their works.

THE PASSION OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

31

Some of them were corrupted by the bribes of his enemy,a certain Knútr; some were prompted by malice alone and,further, were unwilling to receive a new religion, contrary 3
to their ancestral laws. So they assembled an army and gave
battle to the king at the place now called Stiklarstaðir, catching
him unawares and at some little distance from his own men. 6
But the most illustrious martyr was unafraid in the face ofthe multitude, his thoughts wholly centred on things celestial and in his innermost being desirous of attaining heaven 9through the crown of martyrdom. The warfare was at handwhich he, the lover of peace, undertook to ﬁght for thesake of justice and equity. He mustered his forces there- 12
fore, as well as he could in a short time, and went to meet
his enemies.
Thereupon the Lord resolved to grant to his martyr the 15
reward for which he had endured so many trials and toreveal to him his glory for which he had so long and eagerly
thirsted. So in order to crown him with greater glory, God 18
permitted the glorious martyr to fall by the spears of thewicked. He died in defence of the faith, cruelly cut off byenemies of the faith, four days before the ﬁrst of August, 21
on a Wednesday, in the year one thousand and twenty-eightafter the Lord’s incarnation. He went joyously from a soldier’s camp to the King’s eternal palace, from battle to the 24
peace of God which passeth all understanding and to thepraise and glory of our Lord, Jesus Christ, to whom is honour
27
and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Here ends the life of Saint Óláfr, king and martyr

32

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

Here his miracles begin
It is ﬁtting to make brief mention of the many miracles
that the Lord has deigned to perform in order to make manifest
the merits of the glorious martyr Óláfr, so that the soulsof those who hear may be moved to praise and venerate
6 the divine mercy, and that it may be revealed to the faithfulwhat great grace and glory the Lord has bestowed upon
his saint.
Indeed, on the eve of the day when the illustrious Óláfr
9
suffered martyrdom, the Lord Jesus appeared to him, soothing
him with fair words, with words of solace. ‘Come to me,’12 he said, ‘my beloved. It is time for you to reap the most
sweet fruits of your labours, and receive the crown of everlasting honour, enjoying communion with us in eternal
15 bliss.’ The martyr, fully heartened by this vision, and elated
beyond measure by the ineffable delight he had received,
offered himself joyously to martyrdom, for now, by divine
18 inspiration, he understood the signiﬁcance of the ladder,raised up to the heavens, that he had seen in his dreams
not long before. By means of this ladder he was to ascend
21 happily to the sweetness that he had tasted.
Accordingly, when the time of his martyrdom had passed
and the royal attendants had washed his most holy body in
24 a certain house, the water, mixed with the blood that had
ﬂowed from the wounds of the blessed martyr, was thrownout through the door of the house. Now a certain blind man,
27 passing by the same house, fell down in a place that was
still wet with the bloodstained water. And when he put his
ﬁngers, wet with that water, to his eyes again, at once the
30 darkness was cleared away, and he regained his former
sight.
He was greatly astonished, this man on whom the divine
33 marvel was accomplished, and seeking to discover whose
blood the water had been mixed with, he learned for certain3

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

33

that he had recovered his sight through the powers of theblessed Óláfr. All those who heard the news of the miracle
were awe-stricken, and with ﬁtting proclamations they exalted the Divine Mercy, who had deigned to glorify hismartyr with such an illustrious miracle.
How a certain chieftain of Ireland overcame, throughthe intervention of the blessed Óláfr, a king who
unjustly opposed him

3

6

There was in Ireland a certain chieftain, Guthormr by name, 9
by birth a Norwegian, in fact a nephew of the blessed martyr Óláfr and a man distinguished in descent and mighty
in battle. He was allied and united in close fellowship with 12
Margaðr, the king of Dublin. Now it came to pass that thetwo set out together on a raid, with a vast ﬂeet, and returned enriched with many treasures and abundant booty. 15
Then one day, when they met to divide the spoils between
them, the aforesaid king, seeing the immeasurable plunder, was blinded by the love of avarice and, heedless of 18
their mutual alliance and reciprocal oath, he demanded thatthe chieftain choose which one of two things he would have:‘Either,’ he said, ‘you will yield all the spoils to me, along 21
with the ships, or you will have an attack from me to suffer.’
Placed in these straits, the chieftain Guthormr did not know
where to turn. To yield the plunder along with the ships 24
seemed to him shameful and disgraceful beyond measure,
to go into battle would be highly dangerous. There wasindeed a great difference between the two armies, for the 27
king is said to have had ﬁfteen ships, but the chieftain only
ﬁve. The troubled chieftain therefore sought a truce of twodays, that he might try to turn the tyrant from his evil purpose. 30
For that was the vigil of the feast of the blessed martyrÓláfr. But because he could by no entreaties mollify thespirit of the brute, he chose to die nobly rather than to bring 33

34

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

such shame and dishonour upon his kindred as to yield his
spoils and ships to the tyrant. And since no mortal aid was
3 to be had, he besought divine aid, and devoutly prayed theblessed martyr Óláfr to succour him. He promised that hewould have a silver cross made for the church of the martyr,
6 if he delivered him from the hand of the treacherous king.
Why make many words of it? Having arrayed his forces,
he attacked the enemy lines and, ﬁghting most mightily,
9 he overthrew the entire horde of savages, with the aid of
Christ and the intervention of the most glorious martyr.
Having thus gained an unexpected victory, and having
12 returned with a multitude of spoils and great rejoicing, he
had a silver cross made of unheard-of size. It exceeded inlength the measure of a human body, and he placed it in
15 the church of the blessed martyr, by his body, as a memorial
offering for the divine triumph and the unexpected victorythat he had won through Óláfr’s holy merits.
18
Far and wide resounded the exalted fame of the illustrious martyr and the miracles that the Lord deigned to perform in order to proclaim his glory. Not content to be con21 ﬁned to the boundaries of Norway, it spread to the ends ofthe earth. In the royal city of Constantinople his memory
is renowned, and in that city a church has been built in
24 honour of the martyr. For it befell at one time that the emperorof the aforesaid city, having assembled his army, went forth
to do battle against a certain king of the heathens. The armies
27 on both sides being arrayed for warfare and positioned withmartial skill, they entered into combat. The foreigners fell
upon the Christians most ﬁercely, and in the ﬁrst encoun30 ter they were the victors. The greater part of the Greeks
fell and the might of the Christian army was enfeebled. A
small force remained which expected nothing but death.
33 The emperor, stricken and well-nigh heartbroken, turned
to divine aid, and with many tears they all together im-

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

35

plored the help of the blessed martyr, who they knew byreport often came to the aid of those ﬁghting for righteousness. They vowed that they would build a church in 3
the royal city, in the name of the martyr and in honour ofthe blessed Virgin Mary, if, by Óláfr’s intervention, theyshould return as victors. O glorious and extraordinary 6
miracle! The martyr appeared to some of the soldiers andpreceded the vanguard of the Christians as an illustrious
standard-bearer. Dread seized the enemy army, and they 9
all turned to ﬂee, smitten with divine terror. Defended by
the aid of the martyr, a force by no means large harried
those ﬁerce savages, although a great and powerful army, 12
not long before, had been unable to withstand them. Inestimable slaughter was made of the pagans, and the Christian victors returned with great spoils. Having returned to 15
Constantinople victorious, and mindful of the vow to theblessed martyr, by which they had bound themselves, theemperor therefore built a church in honour of the blessed 18
Virgin Mary, and the people’s offering to the fabric-fund
was so devout and eager that, when an immense church had
been completed and everything necessary for its adornment 21
had been done, a great deal of the money that had beenoffered was still left over. And by the splendour of the many
precious things that were sent from Constantinople, the 24
church in which Saint Óláfr rests bears witness that thehearts of all were devoted to the service of the blessed martyr,
because of these and many other extraordinary acts of grace. 27
Concerning the loaves changed into stones in the oven
There was in Denmark a certain ofﬁcial, a man hateful andvile, and, as is read of the unjust judge, he ‘feared not God, 30
and neither regarded man.’ This man had a serving-woman
who was born in the district of the blessed martyr Óláfr,
and she was most devoted to the veneration of the saint. 33

36

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

The ofﬁcial, being a malicious and wicked man, and one
who took delight in deriding the praises of good men, did
3 not believe the things that were said of the martyr. But
whatever the common word of all men reported concerning his miracles and his glory, he deemed to be false and6 foolish rumour. Now it happened that the anniversary of
the martyrdom of this same king and martyr came around,a day which the men of that region observe with great rever9 ence. This worst of men, therefore, ﬁnding it a time meet todisplay his malice, showed openly by his deeds the depravity that he had long practised in his heart. For not only
12 did he not wish to show respect to the saint’s day, but incontempt of it, he even ordered the aforesaid woman, whom
he knew to be more devoted than others to the veneration
15 of the martyr, to take loaves to be baked on that festal day.
Since she knew the perversity of the man and that she would
suffer the severest punishments if she did not yield to his
18 evil command, she obeyed, though unwillingly, the sacrilegious order. Much aggrieved, she took the loaves to theoven, importuning the saint with copious lamentations. She
21 also declared and conﬁrmed by oath that she would neveragain do honour to the martyr, unless he showed his powerby deﬁnite signs in such a desperate situation. O new and24 hitherto unknown miracle! At one and the same moment,
the most worthless of men was stricken with blindness, andthe loaves that had been placed in the oven were changed
27 to stones. One of those stones is preserved to this day inthe church of the blessed martyr as proof and memorial ofthe miracle.
30

Concerning a boy’s tongue that had been cut out andwas restored to him at the sepulchre of the martyr

A certain boy having been falsely accused of a crime—as
33 often the just bear the blame for the wicked—his tongue

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

37

was cut out. Roused by the report of the miracles which,as he had often heard, were performed through the saint’s
holy merits, he went to the shrine of the martyr. With many 3tears he implored the saint, praying with loud lamentations
that by his intervention he would restore to him the powerof speech that he had unjustly lost. He had thus remained 6
steadfastly at the tomb of the martyr for some time, in prayer
and in tears, when at the time when he usually lapsed into
peaceful slumber, he fell asleep. And behold, he saw coming 9
forth from the shrine a man of middle height, with a handsome countenance, who, approaching nearer and opening
the youth’s mouth with his hand, drew forth the remain- 12
ing part of his maimed tongue and stretched it out withsuch force that the youth, unable to bear the violence ofthe effort, was compelled to cry out in his sleep. And thus 15
arising from sleep healed, he broke forth, rejoicing, into
praises of God and the martyr. And thus it was that he who
had come to the tomb of the saint mourning and mute 18
returned joyfully to his home, able to speak freely.
A certain other man had been taken prisoner by the Slavs,
who cut out his tongue. By chance he escaped. Coming to 21
the shrine of the martyr and praying with heartfelt miserythat his tongue might be restored to its former wholeness,he recovered the power of speech which he had lost, and 24
in that church he dedicated his life to perpetual service ofthe martyr.
A certain woman, who was so bent by deformity that 27
her feet pressed back against her thighs, was conveyed tothe tomb of the martyr. When she had kept vigil there fora very long time in tears and supplication, she was restored 30
to complete health. With sinews lengthened, legs straightened and feet strengthened, with the use and proper formof each limb restored, she walked back to her home, light- 33
hearted and rejoicing.

38

3

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

Concerning a priest whose eyes, tongue and legs weremaimed, and who was restored to health through thepowers of the martyr

There were two brothers of noble family, who possessed
an abundance of worldly wealth. They had a sister, who was
6 outwardly comely but most careless regarding the slandersof the wicked, as the consequences proved. Being closely
acquainted with a certain English priest who lived in her
9 brothers’ house, this woman conferred many a kindness
upon him, with sincere piety. It happened nonetheless thatinjurious suspicion arose concerning her. But since mali12 cious rumour easily corrupts the minds of those who listen
to it, relentless talk caused blame to be laid upon the innocent priest. Now because of her great familiarity with the
15 priest, her brothers were as certain of the matter as if it had
been proved. Outraged beyond measure and incensed withboundless wrath, they concealed their fury with dissemb18 ling. Indeed, on a certain day they summoned the priest,
who suspected no evil, to go with them, supposedly to attend to some business, and they took along a certain man
21 of theirs who was privy to the wickedness they had planned.
When therefore they reached a more secluded place, fardistant from their home, they seized the priest, who had
24 feared nothing of the sort, and broke his legs, cut out his
tongue, and gouged the eyes from his head. Finally, when
they saw him painfully trying to speak by moving the stump
27 of his tongue, they fell upon him, pulled out with pincers thepart of his tongue that they had left him, and cut it again.
Then, left there half-dead, he was taken by a certain poor
30 woman to her house. But he who had experienced such cruelty
from men did not despair of the mercy of heaven. His mouth
being silent, his devout heart spoke the more tellingly; being
33 weaker, he was stronger and mightier in faith, and having
turned wholeheartedly to the glorious martyr Óláfr, of whose

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

39

powers he had heard such great things, he begged him not
to fail him in such need, pleading all the more piteously as
he was the more pitiable, and the more desperately, the 3
greater was his despair. Thus, persevering in prayer andlamentation and with a crushed heart, he implored the aidof the martyr without cease, a pitiful wretch deserving of 6pity. At last, on the following day, he was eased by theserenity of sleep. And behold, the holy martyr appeared
to him, saying that he was Óláfr, whom he had invoked so 9
devoutly and urgently. Then, after touching with a gentle
hand the priest’s eyes and legs and other injured places,
ﬁnally, putting his hand to his tongue, he pulled at the root 12of the tongue with such force that the priest gave a loudcry, compelled by exceedingly great pain. After the healing touch of the martyr, he who had suffered such grave 15
wounds was at once so succoured by the plenitude of divine mercy that it seemed as if nothing at all had happened
to him. His tongue was renewed; his legs were healed; his 18
eyes were restored; and his wounds and injuries of all sorts
were completely cured. However, to bear witness that hiseyes had been torn out, a white scar remained on his eyelids. 21
How he burned in his palm the shavings of a stick that
he had been cutting on a Sunday
Let us proceed to that miracle which is on every tongue, 24
one that, although we introduce it later in the narrative,
was nevertheless the ﬁrst of all that we relate, as far as theorder of events is concerned. For it came to pass while the 27
saint was still living in the ﬂesh, that on a certain Sunday
the glorious king Óláfr had chanced upon a stick where
he was sitting, and he was whittling it with a small knife 30
that he had in his hand, forgetful that it was the Lord’sDay. For they observe holy days with great strictness in
Norway, nor does anyone venture to do any work then, great 33

40

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

or small. Therefore, one of the king’s attendants, seeingthat the king was carving on the Sabbath, but not daring
3 to say outright that it was Sunday, reminded him with thesewords: ‘Lord king’, he said, ‘tomorrow will be Monday.’By this admonition the king was recalled to himself, and6 earnestly sorry that he had been cutting a stick on Sunday, hegathered all the shavings of the stick on his hand, set ﬁreto them, and burned them. And when they had been burned,
9 his hand was seen to be uninjured. Thus was repeated themiracle of the three boys that was once acclaimed in Babylon.
The ﬁre had its natural power to consume the bits of stick,
12 yet it was not at all able to harm the hand of the blameless
king.

15

How a certain peasant escaped hanging by calling upon
the blessed Óláfr

Likewise at a certain time there occurred another illustrious
and unheard-of miracle. For a certain peasant, a frank and18 blameless man, was wrongly charged with the crime of theftby certain powerful men of his district, who were moved
not by justice but by malice. And without an inquiry he
21 was tried, protesting his innocence, and through the iniquityof his enemies he was sentenced to be hanged. And when,
despite his pleas, the tormented and wretched man saw no24 recourse to justice in a perverse people, he despaired altogether of mortal aid. So in his heart he looked only to themercy of God, and earnestly prayed to the blessed martyr
27 Óláfr that he, who often by his prayers mercifully delivered the guilty from their just deserts, should for justicesake succour through prayer one who was innocent in the
30 sight of God. Why make many words of it? Their iniquity
came forth from a gross heart; without delay it was put
into effect. One who was guiltless was hanged by those
33 who deserved to be hanged. A true lawgiver, Saint Óláfr

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

41

had pity upon the pitiful wretch and came to the aid of theone who called upon him, asking for justice by virtue of
his innocence. For as soon as he was raised from the ground, 3
he saw, as if in a vision, the holy martyr Óláfr place a plankbeneath his feet, and by its support he remained unharmed
for nearly nine hours, until his wife and his sons returned, 6
having obtained permission from a certain nobleman to takedown his body and commit it to the tomb. And when theycame to take him away, his son climbed the tree from which 9
he hung suspended, a tree rooted in a certain high precipice. When the aforesaid youth had inched his way to thetop, with a vigorous stroke he cut through the rope that 12
held him up. When this had been done, his hapless body
had such a steep fall that it seemed he must be dashed topieces; no one would have thought that he could possibly 15
be still alive and well. But neither the severity of the fall
nor the height of the crag could inﬂict harm upon one towhom, for justice sake, the power of the martyr had ex- 18
tended aid. He remained as one fast asleep, recalling thevision as if in a dream. When the coldness passed from his
limbs, however, their strength increased, and, having re- 21
gained his senses, he gradually recovered. He went in haste
to the holy martyr’s shrine, and to God’s glory revealed tothe archbishop there and to the clergy in turn what had be- 24
fallen him, which was conﬁrmed by the testimony of many.
Concerning the audacity of a certain man and thepunishment of his audacity

27

It happened at one time that a dangerous ﬁre burned thecity in which the holy martyr rests, and to protect the church
the martyr’s body was therefore placed before the ﬂames as 30
a defence. But a certain man, who was quite rash, approachedand began to beat the shrine of the martyr, threatening that
all would be left to burn if he did not manifest his customary 33

42

3

6

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

aid and safeguard with his prayers the church and the stillundamaged buildings. The church, indeed, remained untouched, but that cleric was seized on the following nightwith a severe pain in the eyes. He recovered his health atlast in that very church, through the prayers of the holy
martyr.
Concerning a youth delivered from captivity by theintercession of the martyr

A certain youth, Danish by birth, was taken captive by Slavs
and held with other prisoners in the strictest conﬁnement.
For during the day he remained in chains, without a guard,
12 but at night the son of his keeper was chained to him
with a fetter on one leg so as to guard him closely. But
this wretched man, lying awake in his anguish, fearfully
15 deliberated what course of action remained to him. He feared
hard labour; he was in terror of tortures; and because hedespaired of ransom, he endured the depths of misery. Since
18 he had in fact been redeemed from captivity by his relations
twice before, they would ﬁnd it both difﬁcult and costly
to do so again. Oh how grievous is life when death is longed
21 for, how utterly wretched it is to live when death seems tohold sway over life! Hence he was thrown into doubt, whether
death should put a swift end to his present suffering, or
24 whether he might have better fortune if he lived. He killed
the son of his captor and cut off his foot; then, carrying
his chains, he ﬂed to the woods. But at daybreak the deed
27 was discovered; a clamour was raised and the malefactor
was sought. Two dogs were loosed that had been remarkably well trained to track down Christian fugitives. Their
30 skill immediately showed the search-party the way, andtheir barking betrayed the man’s hiding-place. The wretch
was captured, dragged away, beaten with scourges, laid low,
33 nearly given over to death; he had no man’s pity to help
9

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

43

him, nor any mercy from the heartless pagans. Indeed, only
the inborn villainy of the heathen prevented his impending death, for avarice overcame their natural hatred. That 3
most wretched vice so possessed his captor that the youth’s
expected ransom outweighed the vengeance owed for his
son’s blood. Thereupon he was dragged back and thrust 6
into prison with sixteen other Christians, and he was conﬁned
more strictly than the others, with fetters of wood as wellas iron. His former suffering was but a shadow compared 9
to this, and his past woes seemed to him, without doubt,
merely foreshadowings of those to come. For no one who
approached him showed pity to the helpless man, but in- 12
deed each one inﬂicted torment on the wretch as if on acondemned man. Nothing was given him, nothing was allowed, save that he might suffer all that unbridled cruelty 15
could inﬂict on him. And thus his misery grew so greatthat those who were bound with the same chains lamented
his misery and counselled him therefore to dedicate him- 18
self by a vow to the holy martyr Óláfr, and if the saintdelivered him, to serve him always in his church. When hehad gladly accepted this advice and was sleeping that night 21
among his companions, he saw a man of middle heightstanding near him and calmly addressing him with thesewords: ‘Why, O wretch,’ he said, ‘do you not rise?’ And 24
he replied: ‘My lord, who are you?’ He responded: ‘I am,’he said, ‘that Óláfr whom you have invoked.’ And he said:‘Lord, I would willingly rise, but I am bound by one foot 27
with a shackle, and also chained in fetters with my companions.’ But he said, ‘Arise quickly, without fear, for you
are free.’ At once, therefore, when he was awakened from 30
sleep, he related the dream to his companions, who at once
urged him to test whether what he had seen was true. And
straightway he was seen to get to his feet and he felt him- 33
self free of every chain. But some of his companions claimed

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

that this had been done for him in vain, since the door was
fortiﬁed most securely with bolts and bars on the outside.
3 A certain old man, however, who was held in the same
conﬁnement, admonished him not to doubt the aid of themartyr, by whose manifest favour he was now free. ‘Do
6 not believe,’ he said, ‘that such a famous miracle has been
performed in vain, as if such a glorious act, failing to achieve
its due success, should show itself more worthy of silence
9 than of praise, as if, that is to say, suffering should comeof the martyr’s aid rather than freedom. Bestir yourself,
therefore, and feel the door, because if you get out you
12 will be sure of safety.’ It happened in just that way, for hefound the door open and ﬂed to the woods again. Why delay
this tale? As soon as they discovered this, they searched
15 as before, having loosed the dogs. The wretched man lay stilland saw them coming. But the men’s eyesight was clouded
and the dogs’ sense of smell lost its natural keenness, and18 so they passed by where he lay and at last returned home, asmuch bewildered as disappointed by what had occurred. But
the glory of the works of the blessed martyr grew even greater;
21 for, having raised this man from the depths of afﬂiction,
he by no means allowed him to incur further danger when
he had reached the seashore. For it would not avail him to
24 be delivered from tortures into complete safety, unless his
deliverance also afforded him healing. His head had been
struck so hard in the cruel beating that he had entirely lost
27 his hearing. Freed, therefore, in the aforesaid way, and having
been joined by two Christians who were worn by long captivity, he embarked on the dangers of the sea; with speedy
30 decision he cast aside sloth, and—to put the matter brieﬂy—
made his escape, together with his companions. And so,when he came to the church of the blessed martyr to give
33 thanks for the help he had received, he rejoiced in the recovery of perfect health. Having been granted his wish,

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

45

however, he soon began to change his mind about fulﬁlling
his vow, until, now that he was hale and hearty, he took
ﬂight, his resolution overthrown. And when after a day’s 3
journey he had been hospitably received, for charity’s sake,by a certain venerable man, he saw by night three maidens
standing near him, fair of face and clad in radiant attire. 6
They severely reprimanded him, and asked how it was that
he did not fear to offend the saint by his rash venture, after
having seen so many of his powerful miracles, and how 9
he dared to withdraw from the service he had promised inreturn and conﬁrmed on oath. And so, having been awakened by this vision, when he arose in the morning he re- 12
lated to his host everything that had happened to him fromthe beginning, and by his advice he was urged to return at
once. These miracles are proclaimed by a manifest sign, 15
since we have seen (glory be to the Saviour!) the aforesaid youth in the church of the blessed martyr, dedicatedto his service for life, and we have had sight of the marks 18of the fetters upon his limbs.
Concerning a woman delivered from the disease of
epilepsy

21

In that city which now possesses the precious shrine of therelics of the blessed martyr Óláfr there was a certain woman
who had long been oppressed by the afﬂiction of the disease 24
of epilepsy, and she was given in marriage to a certain youth,
who was ignorant of her ailment. All things having beensolemnised, therefore, that by custom the nuptial rite re- 27
quired, as they lay sleeping on a certain night her inﬁrmity
returned, and her wits left her as she was thrown about,frothing at the mouth; her body, moreover, was dreadfully 30
deformed and altered in colour, as if bereft of life. Whenher husband saw this, he said that he was the mostunfortunate of men, since for his sins it had fallen to his 33

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

lot to be joined so indissolubly to such an irremediable
evil. Nevertheless, he asked how it had come to pass, and3 whether she had ever sought any remedy. And she confessed that she was tormented in this way nearly every month,and that no physician had bestowed his skill upon her. The
6 woman was racked as much by compassion for her husband as by her own inﬁrmity, for his grief was revealed
all the while by the expression of his face. Placed in these
9 straits, she importuned with constant prayer the glorious
Virgin, who is indeed the Mother of Mercy, and the holy
martyr Óláfr, that he would by his power give her relief
12 and put an end to her sorrows. And so, having gone to her
priest, she confessed those sins which the frailty of theﬂesh had prompted, but also explained the causes of her
15 suffering and sought his counsel concerning a remedy. But
he, guided to the gospel by divine impulse, quoted fromthe holy words, ‘This kind of disease goeth not out but by
18 prayer and fasting.’ Exhorted by these words, she and herhusband then, along with others inﬂicted by various inﬁrmities, went to the church of the blessed martyr. Having
21 brought plenty of lamps, on the night held sacred to him
they held vigil with complete devotion and fasting, for the
feast-day dedicated to the martyr was on the morrow. And
24 so, when the clergy had observed the nocturnal ofﬁce proper
for the celebration of the day when the glorious championof Christ received the crown of martyrdom, she returned
27 home and in due course received perfect health. For, although
the severity of the malady was such that from youth upward she was tormented every month without exception,
30 yet after receiving this grace she has never since sufferedan attack at any time. Afterwards, because of the help they
had received, their devotion grew so great that every year
33 on the eve of the feast of Saint Óláfr, the same night onwhich she rejoiced in her recovered health, they have served

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

47

God most zealously, strictly fasting, with vigil and withalms.
How a ﬁre was extinguished when his image was set
against it

3

In a certain city in Russia, called Hólmgarðr, it happened
that such a ﬁre suddenly blazed up that the destruction of 6
the whole township seemed at hand. The townspeople, utterly undone by fear, thronged to a certain priest of the Roman
dispensation, Stephanus by name, who then served in the 9church of Saint Óláfr, so that they might try the powers of
the blessed martyr in such a crisis, and so that the reportsof him that they had heard from rumour might be proved 12
by deﬁnite signs. Now the priest, by no means a laggard,
thought well of their purpose, seized the saint’s image andwith his own arms set it before the ﬂames; but the ﬁre passed 15
no farther, and the part of the city that remained was saved
from the conﬂagration.
What happened in a certain district called Þelamo≈rk is also 18
worth the telling. For on a certain day the inhabitants ofthat district held a great gathering to discuss the constructionof a church in honour of the blessed martyr, and because 21
they had not found stones that could be used for the purpose, they determined instead upon a building of wood.
The man who had been brought in as master-mason of the 24
proposed work, having been frustrated several times, set
out upon his return journey, but on that very day, througha divine miracle, the slopes of a neighbouring mountain 27
were shattered with astounding force. Afterwards, theycollected enough stones there that were suitable for thework, and they most devoutly undertook the labour of build- 30
ing the church.
Likewise in that district, in a neighbouring town, it befell that a little boy wandered away from his family, who 33

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

were at a meal with friends, and they besought their help
to look for him. When they had scoured the entire town
3 and not found the child at all, they did not abandon theeffort but searched again on the next day. And when theexhausted searchers had found no trace of him, they re6 turned, consoling each other. Having made an invocation
to Saint Óláfr, they took up a collection, each according
to his means, and sent it to the church of the holy martyr.
9 Then, under the saint’s patronage, they made a third attempt to ﬁnd the boy. And as soon as they set out, theyfound him sleeping in a certain place near the house, where
12 they had certainly searched with care before. They returned
home gladdened, and for the return of one whom they had
mourned as lost they praised the great works of the Lord,
15 who has deigned to perform so many miracles for his
champion.

18

Concerning a youth delivered from the power ofthe Devil

We have brieﬂy touched upon certain works which the Lord
has performed for his martyr’s sake, but not the least among
21 the rest is a miracle which still moves the hearts of the faithful. For just as the soul of any believer is superior by nature
to the body, so is the death of the soul deemed to be more
24 grievous and its salvation more precious. For truly what
the Enemy of humankind did in Paradise, he does not desist from doing every day among us. For he strives to tear
27 out the righteousness from the heart of every person andto insinuate the false charms of his promises. For he makes
light of God’s admonitions and urges belief in what he falsely
30 promises; he offers mere worldly honours, and makes lightof the eternal punishments of which God warns us. Our
ﬁrst parent was deceived by this bane of pride, through
33 which his unwary descendants are wounded every day byTHE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

49

the Enemy. He made use of this dart when he so corrupted
a certain youth by the venom of his wicked temptation that,
heedless of the Creator’s command, he was enticed to fol- 3
low the spirit of pride. This unfortunate wretch was fromthe district which is called Ytterøya, and the ancient Enemy
had stricken him with such blindness that the torments to 6
come held no terrors for him, such was his desire for the
goods of this world. Indeed, in the hope of ﬂeeting honour, he fell under the sway of eternal death, and he became 9a slave and sacriﬁce to the Devil when, through apostasy,
he denied his Creator and lost the freedom of the childrenof God. And when by evil instigation he was drawn head- 12long into every sin, and the Enemy exulted as if sure ofhis prey, then came the feast day of the blessed martyr.
And when the crowds, as usual, had ﬂocked to his church, 15
this youth was also in attendance, that he might be drawn
the more to guilty worldly desires by the unbridled wantonness of forbidden sights, and that he might be bound 18
the more to the Enemy, the more he fell by yielding to his
temptation. But truly the Lord, who desires the salvationof all, pitied his dying sheep the more, the worse he knew 21
him to be deceived. For, when the glorious body of theblessed martyr Óláfr was borne in procession from the church,
the aforesaid youth began to weigh within himself the glory 24of the martyr, and to consider in his heart his own wretchedstate. He reﬂected upon the glory he had lost, and brooded
fearfully over the terrors of damnation he had incurred. 27
For truly such grace had touched his spirit from the salutary presence of the martyr that the veil of sin had been lifted, and his humbled and grieving spirit showed outwardly, 30
with tears of contrition, what he suffered inwardly from
guilt. And when the bier was lifted from the place where
it stood and carried away, he betook himself to the same 33
place where he had seen that the martyr’s body rested. And

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

there, with a downcast spirit, he began to beseech the holy
martyr with great lamentation that he might be found worthy
3 to be freed by the saint’s prayers from the chain of damnation that bound him. And thus, the prayers of the martyr having been heard, he was roused as if from the ob6 livion of death and recovering little by little his lost strengthof mind, he discovered in his humility what he had lost in
his pride. But he dreaded to open the wound of his un9 chaste heart, and confounded by shame he hesitated to avail
himself of the remedy of confession. Truly he had need ofthe martyr’s help to rescue him from the mire that held him
12 fast, lest the deep pit of vice should swallow once more theunwary captive whom the mercy of the martyr had released
from the jaws of hell. And so by divine providence he was
15 seized by a most grievous weakness, nor did he recoverfrom it until he had disclosed his sin in confession, andwashed away the wrath of the Creator with worthy pen18 ance. But when his soul had been saved, without delay thejoyous youth regained his bodily powers, so that the illness of the body might teach how his soul had been en21 chained. Without doubt, the cure arose whence the illness
had ﬁrst come. For as his body was stricken helpless by
the chain of the soul, so did its salvation depend upon the
24 loosing of that chain, and he uplifted himself all the moredevoutly to do good afterwards, because he knew that hehad been cast down the more vilely before.
27

Concerning two blind persons and a mute who were
restored to health on Saint Óláfr’s day

Now, in the year when the church of the blessed martyr
30 Óláfr was newly invested with archiepiscopal honour and thepallium, crowded throngs of people gathered there, among
them three invalids who had come from a great distance,
33 suffering from afﬂictions. Together they had come to theTHE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

51

church of the blessed martyr, hoping through his patronage to achieve the beneﬁt of health, especially on that very
day when the martyr won joy everlasting, casting off for 3
Christ’s sake the bonds of the ﬂesh. There was indeed among
them a certain blind man who was found worthy, on theeve of Saint Óláfr’s day, to be comforted by the joy of sight. 6
Further, on the following day, when the rites of the procession were solemnised, and the bier had been set downin the churchyard as usual, a certain dumb man received 9
the grace of speech, and rejoicing he loosed the long hindered powers of his tongue in praises of the Saviour. In
addition to these, there was a certain woman from the dis- 12
tant parts of Sweden who had chosen to travel to the abodeof the holy martyr to pray there. Although she suffered many
difﬁculties on the way, as much from her blindness as from 15
the hardships of travelling, nevertheless, ﬁrm in faith andstrengthened by hope, she completed the journey she had
undertaken. And when she entered his glorious church on 18
his feast-day, and the most holy ofﬁces of mass were being
celebrated, she was found worthy to receive the longedfor joy of sight which she had been without for a full thirteen 21
years.
Concerning the healing of a certain mute
A certain Varangian had bought a slave in Russia, a youth of 24
good character, but dumb. Since he could say nothing about
himself, who his people might be was unknown, but theskill in which he was trained showed that he had lived among 27
the Varangians, for he knew how to make the weapons thatthey alone employ. A long while after he was sold, when
he had known various masters, he was ﬁnally bought by a 30
merchant who out of regard for his piety released him fromthe yoke of slavery. Having gained his longed-for freedom,
he went to the city called Hólmgarðr, and stayed for a few 33

52

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

days in the home of a certain pious matron who had received him for hospitality’s sake. Now this woman was
3 zealous in devotion to the blessed martyr Óláfr, and she
applied herself to prayer in his church at all hours. Thus it
was that during the night-time she seemed to see the bles6 sed martyr Óláfr, bidding her to bring the aforesaid boy with
her to the church, and hastening to obey, she straightway
brought him to the morning service. Then when they came
9 to the church together, the boy soon fell asleep, and theman who had ﬁrst appeared to the woman, ordering thatthe youth be brought to the church to be healed—for his
12 features and apparel presently showed that it was he—now
appeared to the boy and bestowed a cure upon him by thefavour of divine grace.
15

Concerning the healing of the king of Norway

A long time after the elevation of the martyr, a church wasbuilt in his honour in the place where, through the shed18 ding of his blood, he had taken the shorter way to life’s
reward. Now, at the time when the bishop came to dedicate
the church, it happened that the king fell gravely ill in that21 neighbourhood. For his knee was so grievously afﬂicted with
an abscess that his whole thigh and shin were constantly
rigid with an unbearable swelling. Urged by his piety to at24 tend the dedication, and with his inﬁrmity growing worse,
he was carried to a ship and brought by river to a placenear the church. Then, conducted in a litter by his attend27 ants, he was set down in the church. When the ceremony had
been completed with the customary solemnity, the king’s
attention was drawn to the stone upon which the blessed
30 martyr had fallen in death, which still shows the stain of
his blood. The topmost part of this stone protruded fromthe altar, and the king then approached and laid his knee
33 and the other afﬂicted parts of his leg near to it. Without

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

53

delay, the richness of divine mercy straightway afforded
such aid that the swelling was allayed that very evening
and, now that his pain had been removed, he was foundable to perform any duties, with all his limbs as agile as if
he had never been stricken.
Concerning two girls who were freed from a contractionof the limbs

3

6

Furthermore, at that same time a certain little girl, who
had been bent and deformed since infancy, came out of the 9church healed. Likewise, a year later, on Saint Óláfr’s day,another girl won the bounty of the like grace, for her sinews
were withered, and for more than ﬁve years her heels had 12
been joined to her haunches. With the assistance of thefaithful, she was carried before the door of the choir, andwhen the saint’s most holy body was lifted for the proces- 15
sion, a cracking of stretching sinews was heard, and at thatmoment she was healed by a miraculous power.
In the same year, in the place called Stiklarstaðir, a cer- 18
tain woman recovered her sight at the shrine of the blessedmartyr. In childhood the pupil of her eye had been injuredby another child with the point of a small knife, and the 21
damage to one eye had caused both to be afﬂicted with blindness, but when her blindness had been cleared away by theintervention of the martyr she rejoiced in the recovery of 24
her former sight.
Concerning a merchant healed of a broken leg
On the eighth day after Epiphany, a certain merchant who 27
was wintering in Iceland fell down on the ice and broke
his leg in three places, a break which, for ten weeks, no
skill was able to mend. Indeed, on Palm Sunday, seeing 30
that his leg was now livid and wasting away, he lamented
greatly and implored with many sighs the intercession of

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

the blessed Óláfr, vowing that he would visit his church
within three years, and that he would always keep the eve
3 of Saint Óláfr by fasting on bread and water, if he should
be cured through his patronage. Thereupon, he was overtaken by a peaceful sleep, and in the morning he was able
6 to move his foot and even to stand. Indeed, on the following
Sunday, which was Easter, he went out with a ﬁrm stride.
Likewise there came two brothers from the French city cal9 led Chartres, one of whom was a cleric, the other a layman.
These two, driven, truly, by a boundless rage because they
had been deprived of their paternal inheritance, had killed
12 their mother and infant brother in a ﬁre, along with thesoldier who had married their mother and deprived themof their inheritance. In penance, therefore, they had been
15 bound with iron bands and exiled from their homeland.
Performing their penance devoutly, they had gone as far
as Jerusalem, and there, at the tomb of the Lord, the iron
18 that bound the arm of the layman broke apart. But since
rest was not yet given after toil, they traversed nearly all
the Christian world for the sake of absolution. And so they
21 came to the church of the blessed Óláfr; before the altar,
on the third Sunday of Lent, the aforesaid brother was set
free from the remaining iron, which was still bound around24 his loins when he arrived.
How the barn of a certain peasant was saved,
undamaged, from a neighbouring ﬁreHenceforth, although the prolix narrative may seem tedious at times and the unpolished diction may weigh upon
the listener, nevertheless, trusting to the devotion of your30 piety we shall undertake to make known to your charity,
in a few words, some of those things that we know havebeen done in recent times. Thus, in the district called Mœrr,33 not far from the church of the blessed Óláfr, a certain peasant27

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

55

had loaded the year’s produce into his barn, the walls of
which were constructed of leafy branches. But because thenarrowness of the barn could not hold the abundance of the 3
harvest, he had put the remaining crop in a heap besidethe wall of the barn, so close that there was hardly a cubit’s
distance in between. It happened, however, that the crop 6
in neighbouring barns was suddenly consumed by a ﬁre, andthe blaze was spread wildly by blowing winds to the walls
woven of dry branches. The man, seeing this, implored the 9succour of Saint Óláfr in this extremity, adding that if anyof his property were saved from the ﬁre, he would giveover half of everything to the church of the blessed Óláfr. 12
That said, the ﬁre was driven back, without doing any harmeither to the crop or to the walls of the barn. Moreover, what
we relate to your charity, we have learned from the testimony 15
of people from that neighbourhood, and it has been clearly
conﬁrmed by the donation of money that we have received.
In addition, one day when a tempest had arisen, a cer- 18
tain ship was driven against a headland where the roughcoastline was like a wall, steep and unapproachable, offering access only to birds. The sailors, dumbfounded by the 21
crashing of the sea and the height of the cliff, therefore importuned Saint Óláfr with heartfelt lamentations to hearken
to them when death was so dreadfully near. But then the 24
helpless ship was guided back against the fury of the storm,
swifter by command than by the power of a thousand men,and on entering the welcome harbour, the sailors, mindful 27of the martyr’s help, gladly contributed the aforesaid ship
to us for the construction of his church.
Concerning two boys delivered from captivity

30

In the district called Angrar there was a certain man who
was rich in property and not of the lowest lineage. He had
three sons, the heirs of his wealth, the youngest of whom 33

56

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

had strayed among pagans and been taken captive. Indeed,although the pagans were as far divided from Christians
3 in distance as they were in faith, nevertheless, so frequent
were the dealings between them for the redemption ofprisoners that the pagans knew very well about the father’s
6 riches, and so they set the ransom-fee at forty marks. Whenthe old man heard that, he absolutely refused to hand over
his goods to a pagan, whatever might become of the boy.
9 Sustained, therefore, by faith and with increasing hope, heturned to the blessed Óláfr for help, to whose service hewas most faithfully devoted, along with his sons and his
12 whole household. Every year he took the responsibility forcollecting the annual donation in the aforesaid district andsent it to the church of the blessed Óláfr. Wherefore, con15 ﬁdent in the powers of the martyr, he entrusted his son tohim, promising a gold ring of great weight to his church,
as if by way of tribute from his forebears, if by the saint’s
18 help he might gain the longed-for return of the lost hostage. At the same time, while the boy was held in the custody of the pagans along with another Christian, he saw
21 in his dreams a certain man of middle height and with ahandsome countenance, who stood there and questioned
him about his rank and station. When he had made suit24 able replies to him the boy also asked the name of the one
who appeared to him in this way. And he said, ‘I am calledÓláfr. I live in your district and often visit your father’s
27 house. Because of this, I wish you to know that ransom
has now been paid for you. Therefore, on the eve of Maundy
Thursday, you will escape the enemy’s domain and have
30 our safe-conduct to your own people.’ Then when the boy
awakened from sleep, he recalled the vision and related it
to his fellow captive, and at the appointed time he kept
33 the saint’s promise in mind. For on the night in question,
when none of the pagans was awake, they escaped together,THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

57

laden with rattling chains and fettered with shackles. And
because the encumbrance of the chains hindered them fromgoing farther, they hid in a place near the buildings, lest they 3
should be discovered by daylight. And when the morning
came, the heathen people searched through every hidingplace. Shielded by divine protection, however, they were 6
betrayed neither by the vigilance of the searchers nor by
the noise of the chains when they tried to break them. Andso, heartened by these signs, they were made more certain 9that they would reach refuge with the aid of divine mercy. So,
having got rid of their chains, they crossed the pagan lands
quickly, travelling only by night and seeking the nearest safe 12
hiding-place every morning. Desire gave them unﬂagging
strength without stint; fear of being recaptured took away
their weariness, until, through the intervention of the martyr, 15
the divine will restored them unharmed to their friends andfellows.
Likewise concerning two boys miraculously rescued from 18
a waterfall through the powers of the blessed Óláfr
Also worthy of note is an event which happened recently,
as we know from the statements of many, in a part of Europe 21
beyond the southern mountains. While two boys were playing in a certain river, they got into a little boat that they
happened to ﬁnd, and it was silently carried by the currents 24
toward a waterfall where the river made a dangerous drop
over a steep cliff. Seeing that immediate death threatened
them, the boys tearfully called upon Saint Óláfr with all 27
their might, and at once, by God’s mercy, they came torest against a certain rock that jutted up in the middle of
the river where the water rushed violently through a nar- 30
rower curve, on the brink of the falls. The little boat went
over the precipice, but the boys, clinging together, held fast
to the aforesaid rock. Now the father of the boys had awaited 33

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

their return all night, unaware of what had happened tothem. In the morning he set out with his friends and neigh3 bours to look for them at the riverbank where he had leftthem playing. Then, when he saw them standing on the rockand calling tearfully for their father, he suffered more cru6 elly than if they had been quickly carried off to their fate,
for their death would be painfully prolonged before his eyes,
instead of taking place at a distance. But because the inac9 cessibility of the place and the danger of the waterfall prevented human aid, those who had gathered commended thesouls of the boys to God, and returned home, exhausted by
12 toil and wakefulness. That night, when the father fell asleep
for a short while, there appeared a man with a pleasantface, who, when asked his name, said that he was called
15 Óláfr. Holding out his arms with one athwart the other,crosswise, he said, ‘By a device fashioned in this wise, thesons for whom you lament will be brought to shore. For,
18 mark, the man who will deliver them will soon be here.’ Thenthe father, recalling the vision, freely related it to everyone who came. And when a certain man arrived and heard
21 it, he said he was an artisan and undertook the work. Whenthe device was completed, it was thrust by the concerted
effort of many all the way out to the rock, forming a sort
24 of bridge over which the boys crawled until they reached
the welcome embraces of their kin. Then truly the father
and one of the boys hastened at once to the abode of the
27 blessed martyr to give thanks, and there they related allthat had happened to them, with the corroboration of neighbours.
30

33

How a certain deacon was delivered from a painful
disease and from a sinful desire
A certain deacon, Danish by birth, came to the city of theblessed Óláfr, and there he fell into the frailty of the ﬂesh

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

59

and fathered many sons. As the number of his sons grew,
so he was oppressed by greater poverty, and because of
the neediness of his wards he came to his senses at last. 3
Upon seeking our counsel, he admitted that he had been amonk, and, having received admonitions for his salvation,
he promised to return to the monastic life. After a short 6
time had passed, however, the spark of repentance that had
been kindled was extinguished by baneful desire, and when
he was held fast in the grip of his former lust, he was smitten, 9in divine punishment, with an unbearably painful swellingof his virile member. Unable to rest, therefore, and forced by
the extreme pain to wander about, whenever he was allowed 12
he threw himself down in his distress before the altar of
the blessed Óláfr, although he was unworthy and a hardened sinner. Although impenitent all the while, he did not 15
fear to prostrate himself there again and again, until at last
he was overcome by sleep. And behold, a man came tohim in the guise of a physician, and declaring, when asked 18
his name, that he was Óláfr whom he had invoked, he pierced
the sufferer’s aching member with a hot iron. Now when
the horror of the vision had awakened him, the organ that 21
had been touched by the iron in his dream felt enveloped
in ﬁery pain. Thereupon he sought a warm bath, so thatthe severity of the torment might at least be made more 24
bearable by the balm of the soothing waters. While he wassettled in it, his member, eased and unswollen, fell against
his stomach where the iron had seemed to touch, and the 27
power of sinning had left it. Moreover, what we have related to your charity about this matter, we have ascertained30
ourselves from the testimony of elders of our church.
There came two Spanish brothers from the region of
Galicia who had killed their mother when she threw herself in the way of the swords with which they had attacked 33
their step-father. Moreover, when the man ﬂed and took

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

refuge in a monastery, they consigned it to the ﬂames, burning
him along with ﬁve monks. In consequence, bound with
3 iron and the most onerous penance, they made a pilgrimage throughout all the lands of the faithful. At last they
were driven to these most remote parts, led by the fame of
6 the martyr. Before the altar of the blessed Óláfr the youngerof the brothers, who seemed near to death from the swellingof his arm and the biting of the iron, was delivered from
9 both shackle and pain on a Sunday night during matins.
Likewise, during the following winter, a certain youth
who had long been mute recovered his speech.
12
There was also in the vicinity of the city a certain peasant, Þórðr by name, called ‘Inair’ in Norwegian. He hada son who was much beloved, being an only child, but the
15 boy’s knees were so bent that his feet seemed to be joined tohis shanks. And because the father was grievously distressed by the child’s suffering, he brought him to the church
18 of the blessed martyr on Saint Óláfr’s eve. Now when theboy was lying asleep beside his father, he saw in his dreams
a certain man who pulled his bent legs straight with such
21 force that the boy was compelled to cry out to him to be
more gentle. But then, awakened from sleep, he rose up
healed.
24
Likewise, in the district called Sogn, it happened that abuilding called a bath-house belonging to a certain peasant was consumed by such a violent ﬁre that ﬂames poured
27 forth from the upper vent as well as the door. When thepeasant saw this, he was dismayed at the sudden catastrophe, and he dedicated a ﬁfth part of his properties to the
30 blessed Óláfr if by his intervention he would deliver themfrom the ﬁre. That done, he betook himself to the otherbuildings, to save his goods, but as he was doing so, he
33 wondered why the progress of the raging ﬁre appeared tobe slower than usual. He approached the door, opened it

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

61

and looked in, but he found that the ﬁre was as fully extinguished as if the whole building had been drenched withwater. Without delay he summoned neighbours, had the 3buildings valued and sent to us, at Bergen, the part of theirworth that belonged to the martyr.
At another time, during the reign of King Eysteinn, a 6
certain queen was suspected of having secretly carried off
the body of the martyr into Denmark. Therefore it seemed to
the king and to everyone else that an investigation of this 9matter should be undertaken, and to this end they opened
up the shrine in which lay the most holy body of the saint.
When it was opened, such a sweet fragrance pervaded the 12
entire church that all those who partook of that experience
understood fully that they had savoured a heavenly, not15
an earthly, sweetness.
A certain dumb man, who had by custom been receiving our charity for six years, recovered his speech on the18
day of the resurrection of the Lord.
An additional treatise by Bishop Eysteinn of Norway
concerning the miracles of the blessed Óláfr
Having read all those accounts which antiquity has entrusted 21
to us concerning the life and miracles of the blessed Óláfr,
we deem it ﬁtting that we, who have been personally enlightened by his widespread miracles in our own day, should 24
also commit to the attention of future generations, in writing, those things which have been performed by miraculous
powers, to his greater glory, as we have seen for ourselves 27
or have learnt from the testimony of truthful men. Truly,
as we are enjoined by the duty of charity to suffer withthose in afﬂiction so doubtless are we obliged to rejoice 30
with those relieved from sickness who rejoice in their newfound health. But since no one is closer to a man than the
only son of his mother, then if we are bidden for charity’s 33

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

sake to praise the blessings of health conferred upon others,
how much more are we bound, ﬁrst and foremost, to render3 praise with thanksgiving for those blessings which we know
to have ﬂowed abundantly for our own needs from the powersof the martyr, through the grace of God. And thus I, Eysteinn,
6 was at one time carrying out my episcopal duties, by God’s
will, in the church of the blessed martyr when I was summoned by the master-builder to the top of a wall, to settle cer9 tain matters concerning the construction. But the walkway,over which stones were carried, broke under the weight ofthe crowd that followed us and collapsed. I alone, for my
12 sins, was thrown from that height, to teach me to be more
careful of my life and duty, while the others clung to thescaffolding and hoists. My side struck against the narrow
15 edge of a mortar-trough, and the narrowness of the surface that broke my fall made the accident all the moredangerous. My people bore me away like one lifeless, and18 when after a time I recovered my senses, I was brought tomy own bed, where I lay anguished and anxious, aggrievedby a twofold grief. For my broken ribs gave pain, but it
21 pained me no less that I would be unable to attend the approaching ceremonies in honour of the martyr; for in threedays it would be Saint Óláfr’s day, attended by an inﬂux
24 of people from far and wide. Distressed by these troublesof body and soul, I turned in prayer to my patron, the blessedÓláfr, although doubting my own worthiness, nevertheless27 with full faith; and as experience shows, not forgetful of
his own, he came to the aid of the one who called uponhim. For when the festal day had dawned, and the people
30 had as usual been summoned to the celebration of the massby the sound of bells, I discussed with my attendants whether
I ought to be carried to the church, since I was too weak
33 to walk. They urged me to it, and I welcomed their advice, for my own inclination drew me on. At ﬁrst I hardlyTHE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

63

expected to take part in the ceremonies of the mass, fearing that my strength would fail me, but when I entered thechurch, the pain abated somewhat, and when I had taken 3
a little time to gather my strength and resolution, I daredto hope for greater things. Therefore I asked to be robed
again, quickly, that I might appear with the clergy in the 6
procession. When we had arrived at the place where theprocession customarily halted for a sermon, I did not venture to preach, but I attempted, nevertheless, to expound a 9little upon the Lord Pope’s indulgence of sins and remission of penance. But when, in answer to my prayers, mystrength grew even as I spoke, I drew out the exhortation 12
in the usual—albeit unexpected—sermon. And I carriedout the rites of mass and of the whole ceremony, in such a
way that the effort did not leave me fatigued, but rather 15
the fatigue left me thoroughly refreshed, and, although thepain had not yet fully left me, my bones were nevertheless fully knit and perfect health was gradually to follow. 18
Concerning a man delivered from madness and frommanifold ills of the ﬂesh
In the mountainous district called Rendal, there was a cer- 21
tain man, Þórir by name, who took to wife a woman of his
own station. This man had grown prosperous at that time froma fortunate inheritance left to him by his parents, but then 24
he was stricken with such a dreadful illness that everyone
marvelled that such manifold wrath of divine chastisement should smite one wretched body. For he was simul- 27
taneously stricken both by paralysis of all his limbs andby inﬁrmity of mind. Indeed, now that he had became mad,deaf and dumb, it seemed that nothing proper to a man 30
remained to him save breath alone. Among the many
unheard-of things that occurred during this man’s illness, I
deem one more marvellous than all the rest: that he survived 33

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

for eight weeks—and, after an interval, for three weeks
more—without tasting food or drink or any bodily nour3 ishment. Like a lifeless body, this man was brought by his
friends and relations on the hazardous journey to the churchof the blessed Óláfr, where they attended him day and night
6 in the church. From the feast of Saint Michael until the day
when he received the grace of healing, those who had brought
him remained at his side with praiseworthy devotion and9 admirable constancy, save when they yielded to physicalnecessity. Although he could not so much as turn his thoughts
to God, because of his wretched condition, nevertheless
12 we believe that the faith and admirable constancy of his
companions helped him greatly. And thus, when Saint Óláfr’s
day came, and there was an innumerable gathering of people
15 from different regions, and when for the salvation of all
the life-giving sacrament was begun before the assembled
multitude, just then he fell from where he had been placed
18 to the foot of the shrine, as if someone had pushed him.
Without delay he rose up so completely healed that you
would have seen no sign of any such afﬂiction in him. And
21 so, coming to the altar to give thanks, he revealed to us
that he did not know in the least what had become of him,
or where he had been from the feast of the blessed Mary
24 until that day. Further, on that same day, before he took ameal, he visited every church in the city of Niðaróss togive thanks, moved by proper piety to bear witness to his
27 perfect cure.
How a certain youth was delivered from a phantasmal
illusion
A certain youth hired himself out for a year to the farmerof the farm called Uttorgar. One day he was bound for theforest to cut ﬁrewood, so he took up an axe and a horse33 collar and hastened to his work. When he was coming from30

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

65

the outskirts of the farm into the wilderness of woods andmountains, he saw at a distance two women approachingfrom one side, and they far surpassed the women of that dis- 3
trict in the beauty of their garments and their features. Whenhe had marvelled at their comeliness and their raiment, he
was so enthralled that he followed them he knew not where. 6
And when he had been led in this way for a long time,through impenetrable places, they came to a cliff where acave lay open in the wall of rock before them. Having entered 9
it, he saw a countless throng of merrymakers and feasters,
as it seemed, with one man sitting in their midst, as if morehonoured than the others, and his authority seemed to rule 12
the rest. When this same nobleman saw him enter, he welcomed his arrival most graciously, and the rest of the merry
crowd rejoiced to receive him well. And although all seemed 15
to welcome him gladly, yet the aforesaid guides of his journey
did so yet more courteously and as if with a warmer ardour, plying him with all sorts of food and drink and ﬁnally 18
with other most desirable things of every kind. But although
he was lured by such phantasmal illusions to the destruction of his understanding, nevertheless in his heart he re- 21
membered his faith and never ceased to call upon God andSaint Óláfr. And when, supported by divine mercy, he hadrefused everything that was offered, and relying on God’s 24
help had overcome the deceitful wiles of the Enemy, thenthe Ancient Adversary, confounded, resorted to open hostilities, seeing that the efforts of his false art were in vain. 27
For the cave, which at ﬁrst had been a resplendent court, ﬁlledwith every luxury, now became frightful; those who had
previously worn human form and fair raiment now became 30
loathsome evil spirits. A ﬁre was also seen raging with sulphurous ﬂame in the middle of the stone ﬂoor along thewhole length of the cave. The savage throng surrounded 33
him with clamour and coming from the left side, as if wary

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

of the right, they drove the trembling youth hither and thither
toward the ﬁre. His strength gave way to weariness and3 hunger, but the weaker he grew in the ﬂesh, the stronger
he grew in spirit. For even as he found himself bereft of all
human succour, so did he turn with surer hope to the divine
6 mercy. But, behold, as he lamented and prayed aloud fordeliverance, the entrance to the cave was illumined by a sudden light; the demons ﬂed; the phantasmal ﬁre vanished.
9 Then a man came, serene of countenance and of speech,saying, ‘You have called me, behold I am here.’ The youth,
however, fearing the earlier deception, answered not a word.
12 He who appeared to him, however, earnestly showing by
his holy words that he was on the side of righteousness,
said further, ‘I am Saint Óláfr whom you have invoked, and15 you need no longer be troubled by fear, for I have been
sent to guide you safely to your home.’ But afterwards the
youth could neither remember nor relate how he fared, how
18 much time passed, or what took place, from that hour until
he entered the building in which he and the other labourers
were wont to sleep. But it is certain that he had set out in the
21 morning and returned on the evening of the following day.
Whereupon he went to a priest and, when he had unfolded
the adventure to him from beginning to end, he devoutly
24 bound himself by oath to life-long service in the churchof the martyr, in thanks for the help he had received. And
so they both came to us, for at that time we were occupied
27 with church matters in a neighbouring district, in the courseof our customary circuit of the diocese. What he had ﬁrst
discussed and decided with the priest, he afterwards con30 ﬁrmed to me and, as the test of time has shown, what hedevoutly resolved to do, he has carried out no less devoutly.
Likewise, a woman who had lost her sight from an af33 ﬂiction of the eyes, rejoiced at having obtained a cure a
few days before the feast of Saint Óláfr.

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

67

At the same time, a certain man of Lundr recovered hissight in the parish church of Hringisakr, a church which
has the honour to bear the name of the martyr. Although 3
at ﬁrst he could not see perfectly, nevertheless, scorning
to be led by a guide, he hastened to Niðaróss to give thanks.
While he passed some days there preparing for Saint Óláfr’s 6
day by devoting himself to acts of thanksgiving and supplications for complete healing, he received a cure, as welcome as it was delayed. But because no one in those parts 9
was acquainted with the aforesaid youth, no one put faithin his words alone. But as Saint Óláfr’s day drew near, amultitude gathered from diverse regions, and among them 12
were respected men from his district who acknowledged
acquaintance with the aforesaid youth, and conﬁrmed his
15account with trustworthy testimony.
Concerning a pagan cured of bodily inﬁrmity andspiritual error upon invoking the martyr
Two youths from Estonia, who were newly converted from 18
unbelief to the faith, visited the church of the blessed martyr Óláfr, to pray there. They reported that the radiance ofthe many miracles performed through the intervention of 21
the blessed martyr Óláfr was growing brighter throughout that still pagan nation, so that the people might moreardently desire the light of faith. One of their memorable ac- 24
counts was the story related by one of them concerning his
pagan father, and this report we deem worthy to be repeated,
if it will not be wearisome to your charity. At one time a 27
Christian army invaded those parts and laid waste the accursed temples, along with the people found there. The
Christians then judged it a ﬁtting time to preach the word 30
of faith to those who lived there, while the terror of this new
Christian victory was upon the land of the unbelievers.
Among those who withstood this holy mission, the father 33

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

of the aforesaid youth was the most bitter in his opposition, even while their leader himself exhorted them, now
3 with threats, now with soft words of persuasion. For thisman had recently lost a son in conﬂict with the Christians,
and this grief was the chief cause of his hatred and resist6 ance to salvation. Now, when he would yield neither tothreats nor to blandishments nor to the salutary persuasions of his son, who, as we have said, had received the
9 grace of baptism, then ﬁnally the divine mercy looked upon
him with compassion and he was seized by a most grave illness. Why make many words of it? As the disease worsened
12 he was worn and tormented until, with his whole bodyshrunken together, he seemed to have cast off human form.
And so the soothsayers and those ﬁrst in conducting the
15 impious heathen rites were called together, that they mightrelieve the man’s sufferings by their abominable art. But
where divine grace is at work, the evil art is in vain. His
18 son, exceedingly concerned for his salvation, exhorted his
anguished father and mingled salutary discourses with hisceaseless prayers. Distinguishing between belief and un21 belief, he set forth the glory destined for the faithful andthe hell awaiting the heathen. And because the memory of
the blessed martyr Óláfr was renowned in the neighbour24 ing districts because of the multitude of his miracles, theson therefore conﬁdently urged his father to ask for Óláfr’s
grace. Hearing, then, the suggestion of this sort of truth,
27 the man hardened his heart, foolishly doubting those things
that are beyond doubt. And so, because he was held fastby the false religion of his forebears, it was only by means
30 of bodily suffering and the threat of eternal torment that
he yielded, however ﬂeetingly, to the teaching of salvation. Finally, the stronger conquered, for Christ stole away
33 the spoils long kept by the despot. His stubborn paganism
was subdued at last, and in his inmost heart he began toTHE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

69

beseech God’s grace and the intervention of the holy martyr. He made a vow and afﬁrmed that if he should ﬁnd favour
with heaven, he would both accept baptism and visit the 3church of the martyr as soon as he possibly could. And
when he bound himself by oath to God and the martyr, he
was found worthy to be set free from the chains of inﬁrmity. 6
For it was with upright legs and renewed strength that, mindful of his vow, he eagerly hastened to the grace of baptism.
Having received it, he sought the church of the martyr to 9
perform the acts of thanksgiving, with votive offerings, forthe cure which had been granted him. And there, when hehad marvelled that the practice of Christianity shone with 12
such glory, he was the more conﬁrmed in his faith, having
seen for himself the difference between his adopted religion
and the one that he had left. Thus, tasting how sweet is 15
the Lord, and how blessed the man who places his hope inhim, he added to his former vow that, upon returning home,
he would protect, to the best of his ability, any Christian 18
ﬂeeing from slavery among the pagans there.
Concerning a youth cleansed of leprosy
In the presence of the multitude gathered from various re- 21
gions on Saint Óláfr’s day, the son of one of our higher
clergy offered thanks for his healing. For the accomplishment of this wondrous cure let all proclaim with one voice 24
the praise and glory of the One who performs all such glorious
works for the greater glory of his saints. For indeed thatyouth had been so beset with the ﬁlth of leprosy that the 27
wasting disease was the despair of his relations and thedefeat of his physicians. And truly, as it often happens thatthe spirit grows stronger as the ﬂesh weakens, therefore 30
the dearth of human succour made them turn the more conﬁdently to divine compassion. And so the youth and his relations besought the intervention of the martyr to accomplish 33

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

his cure, vowing, in addition, that they would visit his churchwith an offering if divine mercy should be shown them in
3 response to their vow. And then, when their prayers had
been answered, they did their part to fulﬁl their vow. For
truly the youth was now an utter stranger to inﬁrmity, and6 his piety overcame his shame so that he chose rather to become a public spectacle than to allow God’s glorious miracle
to be hidden in silence because he shrank from display.
9
But neither, I think, ought that matter to be passed overin silence which was made known to me, here in my church,
by the credible testimony of a certain youth. He had re12 cently come from pagan parts, where a great many Christians had gathered to ﬁsh, now that Lent was over. Whenthey made their ﬁrst casts, and had waited a long while, in
15 vain, for the gift of God, they earnestly discussed what was
to be done. For lying in a narrow inlet in the middle of thepagan wastes, three or four weeks distant from Christian
18 lands, and disappointed of their expected catch, they were
troubled no less by tedium than by lack of food. But one
day a storm dashed the sea against the surrounding cliffs
21 so that it resounded in the strange winding hollows, andall the welkin roared, shaken by the dark tempest. Then,because the ﬁshermen could discern little sign of a calm in
24 the uproar of the elements, they humbly besought with plea
and with prayer the mercy of God and the intervention of
the martyr, afﬁrming as one that they would hold themselves
27 bound to send to the church of the blessed Óláfr the best
ﬁsh taken by each ship, if the divine mercy should favour
them. The pagan Lapps who had also gathered there to ﬁsh,
30 hearing the vow of the faithful, asked to be admitted as
fellows to this plan, but in such a way that their godlings
should be no less honoured with the fruits of their vow
33 than the blessed Óláfr with the offerings of the faithful.
But since there is no concord between Christ and Belial,

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71

the wretches in their error were spurned. Upon the dawning of the next day, the darkness of the tempest receded,along with the darkness of night. When the weather had 3
cleared, calm seas followed, and the calm was followedby such an abundance of ﬁsh that the only question was
how to catch them. But there is something even more won- 6
drous to relate of this miracle. Every day the pagans assembled to ﬁsh along with the Christians, but despite all
their skill they were disappointed of their usual catch, as 9
if they were scorned by God. For the catch made by theirboats but barely sufﬁced for their pressing need of provisions. As a result of the vow made by the Christians, 12
however, twenty-four great ﬁsh, in accordance with thenumber of ships, came to us on the eve of Easter, together
with the aforesaid account. But since truth is absolutely 15
necessary where the work of God is concerned, we withheld judgement in this matter until we visited in summer
the borders of the pagan lands, where we received conﬁrma- 18
tion of the youth’s account from others who also had personal knowledge of the matter.
A three-year-old bull was brought to the church of the 21
blessed Óláfr. Now when we asked from whence or indeed
why it had been brought, the man whose servant was leading the bull said that it came from the district called Ljoxa. 24
And he gave the reason, saying, ‘When in my youth I had
acquired a farmstead and had stocked it with cattle andother necessities, in accordance with my means, I eagerly 27
hoped, as husbandmen do, that my livestock would multiply. But either barrenness denied them offspring or, when
they did bear, death maliciously snatched away their young. 30
And so I was considering selling my property and trying
my fortune in the town, but my friends and neighbours opposed the idea, saying, “It will hardly go well with those 33
who take to trade late in life without experience.” They

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

advised me rather to turn to God and Saint Óláfr with prayer
and vow. Willingly indeed I undertook a vow, promising
3 to Saint Óláfr the ﬁrst calf to be born every year. What amarvel! For seven years in a row, before this vow, not asingle bull-calf had survived, but now, three years after
6 the vow, there are twelve. Two of the ones that belong toSaint Óláfr remain at home to be reared, but this one, since
it was older, we have brought as a devout offering of the
9 avowed ﬁrst-fruits.’
Furthermore, a certain woman, who had lost the use of herlegs seven years before from a contraction of the sinews,
12 had been in our township for four years, receiving charityand visiting the church, all the while dragging herself about,doubled over, by the effort of her hands. When this woman
15 kept vigil in the church of the blessed martyr through thenight of the Holy Annunciation, she was found worthy toreceive perfect health as a message of holy grace.
18
Not without cause, brothers, are the holy martyrs illustrious far and wide for their miracles in the very places whereonce they were held in contempt, where, in defence of the
21 faith, they were slaughtered by the ungodly. It therefore
happened that on Saint Óláfr’s day a certain deaf-mute froma nearby community of Cistercian monks came, along with
24 many others, to the church that was built on the site ofSaint Óláfr’s martyrdom. While the priest was deliveringa sermon of exhortation to the people, this man, overcome
27 by the fatigue of the journey—or rather by divine will—
fell asleep, and in a vision he saw a prodigious light glowing
in the midst of the crowd with an extraordinary brilliance,
30 and this was followed by a man whose face and raimentshone forth with the splendour of effulgent radiance. When
this man drew near, he seemed to speak to him ﬁrst with a
33 greeting, saying to him, ‘If you are seeking a cure, behold,God has healed you.’ He asked, ‘Who are you, my lord?’

THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

73

He replied, ‘I am the one whom you have invoked.’ At that
he awoke, and there before all the people, in proof that hewas completely cured, he proclaimed with clear voice and 3
words the mercy shown him by the power of God and theintervention of Saint Óláfr. We ﬁrst learned these thingsfrom the priest of that place, then from the very abbot and 6
monks in whose service the aforesaid youth had previously
been and afterwards remained.
Likewise, on the following Saint Óláfr’s day, a small 9
boy recovered his long-lost power of speech in the churchof the martyr, beside his body. Afterwards, during the longstay made by this same mute in the township the pure clar- 12
ity of his voice proved beyond doubt that he had been curedof his afﬂiction.
Concerning a boy healed of crippled limbs

15

A certain boy, Karl by name, whose feet were bent back by adisease of the limbs, was brought by his mother and brothers
to the church of the blessed martyr Óláfr. When he was rest- 18
ing in the hospital devoted to the inﬁrm near the church, he
saw in a dream, around midnight, three men, most radiantly
shining, who were walking through the hall and looking at 21
the bodies of the afﬂicted. And when they had made a circuit of the whole hall three times, they came once again in
the course of their walking to the bed where the crippled 24
boy was lying. Truly, although it was night-time, such a brilliant light ﬁlled the whole hall that it was as if the rays ofthe sun could be seen through all its walls. Now one of the 27
men stood at the boy’s head, another at his feet, and thethird—a short man with a handsome face, whose countenance surpassed the others’ in radiance—stood between 30
them in the middle. This man, most beloved brothers, we believe and hold without doubt to have been the blessed Óláfr,
for he was accustomed to appear to men in that guise, as we 33

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THE MIRACLES OF THE BLESSED ÓLÁFR

know from the accounts of many. Now when he was standing there in the middle over the boy he made the sign of the
3 cross above his knees, and, leaning over, he breathed uponthem, then placed his hand upon the boy’s brow and wakened him, saying, ‘Behold you are now healed, sleep not,6 rise up quickly.’ And forthwith the boy woke, opened hiseyes, and saw that the great light that had been in the hall
was fading away little by little after the departure of the
9 holy men. Then, frightened and all atremble, he began tocry out, and he desired to explain to those who were withhim what had happened to him. But, mindful of the words
12 of the holy man, he reached his hands to the place where,
before, his crippled feet were wont to press. When he did
not ﬁnd them pressing there, he began to raise himself with
15 great trust in the mercy of God and in the powers of SaintÓláfr, to whose abode he had come, and he stood up on
his feet, healed. Giving boundless thanks to God, he walked
18 about freely, and to all those who were staying in the hospice he described what had been done. In the morning, after
the ceremony of mass was completed by God’s grace, the21 boy, who for three years had been trammelled by a disease
so severe that his shins and feet were joined inseparably
to his buttocks, now walked freely wherever he wished,
24 having been released and completely healed by a divine
miracle.

NOTES TO HISTORIA NORWEGIAE
1/2 . . . tus] A large initial and between two and four other letters are
missing at the beginning of the text, with the result that the author of
the work referred to here as the Philostratus has not certainly been
identiﬁed. While Storm read the surviving letters as tus others haveread the ﬁrst letter as an i without its dot (e. g. Lehmann 1936–37, 2:
76; Koht 1950, 9; Ekrem 1998a, 22). No work entitled Philostratus is
known to have existed. Ekrem (1998a, 25–26) suggests that the work
referred to here may be a version of the Imago mundi by Honorius
Augustodunensis (c.1110) supplemented by additional material fromthe Greek Eikones by Flavius Philostratus (c.200), with the name of
the latter work’s author having become substituted for that of the work.
The letters surviving in the manuscript might then be the last three of
Honorius’s name (reading i instead of Storm’s t). Or they may be theﬁnal letters of the name Solinus (which would ﬁt the manuscript lacuna
better); it seems that the author of HN may have thought that Solinus
was the author of Honorius’s Imago mundi, either because he foundthat work together with Solinus’s Collectanea rerum memorabilium(to which HN later refers, see 11/8) in his manuscript, or because reference to Solinus in the scholia to Honorius’s work led the author of
HN to believe that Honorius based his work on that of Solinus (Ekrem
1998a, 24). An alternative explanation offered by Ekrem (1998a, 26)
would see the philistratu of the manuscript as a misreading by the
Scottish copyist of phie tratu, an abbreviation for philosophie tractatu;
either Honorius’s Imago mundi or Solinus’s Collectanea rerum
memorabilium could be described as a ‘philosophical treatise’. For
the use in HN of Honorius’s work see Skard 1930, 78–83; Steinnes
1946–48, 17–28.
1/4–1/10 Not by any means . . . many generosities] It was common
practice in the Middle Ages to employ the modesty topos in prefaces
and prologues and to ascribe a text’s existence to the insistence of apatron; cf. also 1/29–1/30 below. On the modesty topos see Curtius
1953, 83–85.
1/12–1/16 to describe . . . both religions] The writer here sets out his
three aims. The third of these is unrealised in the work as it survives.

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

1/18 hitherto unattempted in Latin discourse] This probably implies
that the writer did not know of any Latin history of Norway. In particular it suggests he did not know of the work of Theodoricus, though
he may have known Ari Þorgilsson’s lost vernacular konunga ævi. It isalso possible, however, to read this as implying that the writer knew of
no work which attempted to fulﬁl all three of his aims: a geographicaldescription, an account of Norway’s rulers, and an account of the religious struggle between Christianity and paganism. This would leave
open the possibility of the writer’s knowing of Theodoricus’s work
since it does not contain a geographical description of the region.
1/27 Agnellus] The identity of the dedicatee of HN remains uncertain.
The manuscript reads angnelle or anguelle, which Storm (1880, 72)
emends to Agnelle. Most scholars have followed Storm (1880, xxiii)
in identifying him with the Thomas Agnellus who was Archdeacon ofWells at the end of the twelfth century (see also Koht 1919–20, 110–
11). Paasche (1957, 432) preferred a Franciscan called Agnellus who
was in Oxford in 1224 and he has been another popular candidate (cf.
Ekrem 1998a, 88; 1998b, 50). Bugge (1873, 34–35) suggests Agnellus
could stand for the Norse name Lambi, and identiﬁes him with a priorof that name at the Norwegian monastery in Elgseter c.1240, an identiﬁcation dismissed by Storm (1880, xxi). Ekrem offers two possible
alternatives: (i) Ormr, abbot of Munkeliv monastery in 1146 (by reading anguelle as the vocative of a diminutive of anguis, ‘snake, worm’,
the meaning of ON ormr (1998a, 72–73); a candidate also suggested
by Hanssen 1949, 13–15, and Steinnes 1949–51, 184; 1965, 28); (ii)
Eysteinn Erlendsson, Archbishop of Níðaróss 1161–88 (by reading
agnelle, and taking this as an abbreviation for Augustinelle, the vocative of a diminutive form of Augustinus, the Latin equivalent of Eysteinn(1998a, 74–75)). This identiﬁcation is also suggested by Sandaaker(1985, 86 n. 11). According to Ekrem the identiﬁcation with Eysteinnneed not rule out his possible authorship of HN since non-existentdedicatees were not unusual in the Middle Ages (1998a, 78).
1/31 teacher’s authority] Steinnes (1965, 28) notes that the word forteacher here (didascalicus) has the speciﬁc sense of a canon in chargeof the school at a cathedral.

NOTES

77

2/9 the ﬁrst book of the History of Norway] This indicates clearly thatthe surviving text is only the beginning of the work, though it is uncertain whether what survives is all that was ever written or whether one
or more subesquent books have now been lost.
2/11 Nórr] The S text (MS Stock. Perg. 4to nr 18) of the Norse translation of Oddr Snorrason’s Life of Óláfr Tryggvason states that Sa
konungr ræð fyrstr Norege er Nór het (Oddr 83; ‘The ﬁrst king to rule
Norway was called Nórr’). Nórr also appears in the section of the latefourteenth-century Flateyjarbók entitled Hversu Nóregr byggðisk (Flat.
I 21–24) and in Orkneyinga saga chs 1–2.
a very vast country] Gesta Hamm. IV.xxxi (30) says of Norway that‘in its length that land extends into the farthest northern zone’ (trans.
Tschan 1959, 211).
2/14 from . . . , a great river] A manuscript lacuna. Storm (1880, 73)
suggests Albia or Albiae in the light of Schol. 131 (126) to Gesta Hamm.
IV.xxi (21), or alternatively Gautorum or Gautelf. Salvesen (1969, 19;
cf. 39 n. 3) has [Göta-]elven, following Koht (1950, 11).
2/20 Lapps] Latin Finni. Like Old Norse ﬁnnr, Latin ﬁnnus may refer
either to a Lapp (Saami) or to an inhabitant of Finland (Suomalainen)
cf. MSE 379 s.v. ‘Lapland’.
2/23 Jamtaland] This province is here clearly regarded as outside Norway. Msk 353 and Snorri Sturluson in Msona(Hkr) ch. 15 hold that
Eysteinn Magnússon annexed Jamtaland in 1110, but this is too earlya date for the composition of HN; Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar ch. 11
states that King Sverrir annexed Jamtaland and Sverris saga ch. 26
suggests that this was done in 1177. This would ﬁt with a dating of HN
to before 1177. Ekrem (1998a, 29), however, suggests that HN is concerned with ecclesiastical boundaries; Jamtaland did not belong to theNiðaróss archdiocese until 1570.
2/26–27 Kirjalians, Kvænir, Horn-Lapps] Comparison with Egils sagach. 14 suggests that by Horn-Lapps the author here means the inhabitants of Finland between the Kirjalians and the Kvænir. Horn-Lapps

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

also appear in the Icelandic Hauksbók (probably written c.1306–10;
at any rate before Haukr Erlendsson’s death in 1334), but by thattime they have become man-eating creatures with horns on their heads
inspired by Isidore of Seville’s description of satyrs (cf. Storm 1880,
74–75).
2/27 people of the two Bjarmalands] Perhaps meaning Bjarmaland oneach side of the White Sea (Koht 1950, 11). Saxo Grammaticus (Gesta
Danorum VIII.xiv.6) refers to Biarmia ulterior, thus perhaps implying
the existence of Biarmia citerior (cf. Storm 1880, 75; Salvesen
1969, 39).
2/31–32 land between the Greenlanders and the Bjarmians] Implies aland connection between these north of the Atlantic Ocean; cf. thetwelfth- or thirteenth-century Geographical Treatise preserved in an
Icelandic manuscript of 1387: Af Biarmalandi ganga lond óbygd of
nordr-ett, unz vidtekr Grenland (Kålund 1908, 12; ‘From Bjarmaland
uninhabited land continues through the north until it joins Greenland’).
2/33–3/2 a country of maidens . . . drink of water] Cf. Gesta Hamm.
IV.xix (19): ‘Likewise, round about the shore of the Baltic Sea, it issaid, live the Amazons in what is now called the land of women. Some
declare that these women conceive by sipping water’ (trans. Tschan
1959, 200).
3/2 Greenland] Note that Greenland appears within the description of
Norway rather than separately among the tributary islands; this implies
a date for the composition of HN before 1261, when Greenland began
to pay tribute to the Norwegian crown. Greenland is described by Adamof Bremen in Gesta Hamm. IV.xxxvii (36) after a description of Iceland.
3/3–3/4 settled and conﬁrmed in the universal faith by Icelanders] Icelandic accounts of the discovery, settlement and conversion of Greenland include Íslendingabók ch. 6, Eiríks saga rauða and Grœnlendingasaga. See further Jones 1986, especially 73–114, and Ólafur Halldórsson 1978.
3/7 Skrælings] ON Skrælingar (‘wretches’). Although HN implies that

NOTES

79

these Skrælings live in Greenland, in Grœnlendinga saga and Eiríks
saga rauða this name is given to the inhabitants of Vinland, part ofNorth America discovered and visited by Icelanders and Greenlanders
around the year 1000. Ari writes of a people es Vínland heﬁr byggt okGrœnlendingar kalla Skrælinga (Íslendingabók 13–14; ‘who inhabited Vinland and whom the Greenlanders call Skrælings’).
3/16 Decapolis] Greek for ‘ten cities’. This name is used of a part of
the Holy Land in the Gospels of Matthew (4: 25) and Mark (5: 20).
Storm lists the ten Norwegian cities as Niðaróss, Bergen, Oslo, Borg
(Sarpsborg), Tunsberg, Konghelle, Stavanger, Véey (Veøy), Skíðan
(Skien) and Kaupangr in Sogn (1880, 76; cf. Koht 1950, 13).
3/17 provinces] The Latin term is patria, referring here to the area
covered by a speciﬁc legal code (lƒg). On the use of the term patria in
HN see Robberstad 1949–51.
3/18 districts] The Latin term is provincia. For lists of the names of
districts within the provinces mentioned here and references to thesources see Storm 1880, 77–78, and Koht 1950, 13–14.
4/1 Charybdis and Scylla] A whirlpool and a sea monster in classicallegend, also brieﬂy mentioned by Honorius (Imago mundi I.xxxv).
4/1–2 whirlpools from which there is no escape] Cf. Gesta Hamm.
IV.xxxix–xl (38–39).
4/12 pistrix . . . hafstrambr] The pistrix appears in one reading in Pliny’s
Naturalis historia IX.iv (3) (textual note). The hafstrambr is mentioned
in a list of kinds of whale in the þulur attached to Skáldskaparmál in
the Codex Regius manuscript of Snorri Sturluson’s Edda (1998, 127),
and in Konungs skuggsiá 27, 163.
4/15 hafgufa . . . hafrkitti] The hafgufa is also mentioned in the þulur
appended to Skáldskaparmál (Snorri Sturluson, Edda 1998, 127), in
Konungs skuggsiá 17 and in ¯rvar-Odds saga 132. The hafrkitti ismentioned in the discussion of different kinds of whale in Konungsskuggsiá 16.

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

4/30–5/6 In the mountainous region . . . cliffs of rock] Koht (1919–20,
112) took this passage as evidence that the author of HN was not fromthe east of Norway, arguing that no one who knew the area around theriver in question (the Vorma) or around Oslo could have believed whatis stated here. From Storm (1880, 82) onwards scholars have taken thereference to silver here as evidence supporting the belief that theabandoned mining galleries under Gamle Aker church in Oslo represent
the earliest mining in Norway. If those mines date back to the second
half of the twelfth century they would be by far the oldest in Norway.
Recently, however, Moseng has exposed the shaky foundations on
which this belief has been based. He points out (1992, 48–49) that HN(the only medieval source which might provide evidence of mining at
Aker) mentions only silver, not silver mining, and is no more speciﬁc
geographically than ‘close to the township of Oslo’, a wide area.
According to Moseng (1992, 61–69) there is no deﬁnite evidence ofmining in Norway before 1490, and no reason to believe the mines at
Aker were in operation before c.1532. He regards this passage in HN
as typical of a common kind of medieval ‘tall story’ about great quantities of precious metals.
5/13 whose skins they wear] Cf. Gesta Hamm. IV.xxxii (31): ‘They
use the pelts of beasts for clothing’ (trans. Tschan 1959, 212).
5/19 ondros] Not originally, as stated here, a Lappish term, but ONƒndrar (sg. ƒndurr). These were skis, speciﬁcally those with seal orreindeer skin undersides (cf. Koht 1950, 17).
5/21–23 There is no limit . . . and beavers.] Cf. a similar list of wild
animals in Gesta Hamm. IV.xxxii (31).
5/28 slave-beaver] The term biæuerthrel (‘slave-beaver’) is used in
the Danish Chronicon Lethrense (49), written c.1170. The descriptionof beavers and their behaviour in HN is strikingly similar to descriptions by Gerald of Wales in his Topographia Hibernica I.xxv–xxvi,
Itinerarium Kambriae II.iii, and Descriptio Kambriae I.v (the last twoof these passages are identical and are more extensive than the ﬁrst;
for translations see Thorpe 1978, 174–77, 227–29). HN and Gerald
may depend on a lost common source, or simply depend on common
oral traditions. See also Bernström 1957.

NOTES81

6/12–7/14 Their intolerable ungodliness . . . in the house] On thisdescription of Lappish shamanistic practices see Bäärnhielm andZachrisson (1994) and Tolley (1994; 1996). This passage includes
the earliest detailed account of a Lappish shamanistic séance. Tolley’s
comparison of the account with later evidence for Lappish shamanism from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries demonstrates that
despite some misunderstandings on the part of the author of HN andsome assimilation to Norse rather than Lappish magical beliefs theaccount is an essentially reliable description of a Lappish séance (Tolley1994). In a later article (1996), Tolley offers evidence that Snorri
Sturluson may have used the description of the Lappish séance in HN
when describing the supernatural powers of Óðinn in Yngl. ch. 7; Tolley
does not, however, consider the question of whether Snorri could actually understand a Latin source text (on Snorri’s acquaintance with
Latin see Faulkes 1993).
6/14 art of magic] The association of the Lapps with magic is commonplace in the Icelandic sagas and elsewhere (e. g. in Shakespeare,
The Comedy of Errors IV.3.11).
6/16 gandus] Like ondros, an originally Norse rather than Lappish
term (ON gandr). Tolley (1994, 143–48) compares Lappish and Norse
beliefs about souls and spirits and concludes that the author of HN has
given the Norse name gandr to a spirit with characteristics derived
from (i) various Lappish spirits ‘both anthropomorphic and theriomorphic, as well as the shaman’s free-soul and the dead’ and (ii) the
Norse gandr (including the ability to change into various forms). On
the gandr see also Tolley 1995.
6/27 under] Storm emended the MS reading sub to super. The translation here follows Tolley (1994, 136), who dismisses Storm’s emendation as ‘needless’. The cloth under which the shaman prepares himself
is not found in later accounts of Lappish shamanism, although suchaccounts mention linen hats or veils worn by women assistants; Tolley(1994, 141) suggests the cloth is probably ‘a genuine feature which
later disappeared amongst men’ and which ‘may have symbolized theheavens to be traversed’.
6/29–31 with hands extended . . . boat with oars] The lifting up of

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

arms before entering a trance occurs in later descriptions of shamanistic séances (Tolley 1994, 141). The small decorated vessel like a sieve
is probably some kind of percussion instrument; Tolley translates ‘likea tambourine’ (1994, 137); see also his discussion of decorated Lappishdrums (1994, 151–53).
6/34–7/2 After dancing . . . as an Ethiopian] Later accounts of Lappish
shamanism feature leaping about, and one account from 1672 mentions that the shaman turns black before entering a trance. As Tolley(1994, 141 n. 9) notes, ‘given the lack of breathing that is emphasised
in many of the accounts, it seems likely that the Lappish shaman did
indeed turn distinctly off-colour during trance’.
7/4 he gave up the ghost] Cf. Tolley 1994, 142: ‘The author writes of
the collapse and death of the shaman without separating them, whereas
in fact the shaman must ﬁrst have collapsed as if lifeless, then sent out
his soul, and subsequently have died while in trance as a result of theattack on his helping spirit’.
7/10 whale] Latin cetus can refer to any large water creature and Tolley(1994, 137 n. 5) suggests that the usual translation ‘whale’ may beproblematic given the lake setting (unless stagnum should be translated ‘fjord’ rather than ‘lake’). The ability of a sorcerer to turn himself into a whale is, however, also found elsewhere in Norse literature;see, for example, Knýtlinga saga ch. 3; ÓlTrygg(Hkr) ch. 33.
7/11 an enemy gandus] Shamanic contests involved ﬁghts between
animal spirit helpers in which anything suffered by these spirits would
be reﬂected in the shaman who owned them (cf. Tolley 1994, 149–50).
7/22–23 for the beneﬁt of people who live at a greater distance fromthem] One of several statements implying an intended foreign audience for HN.
7/31–32 Scotland] The text has Hyberniam (MS Iberniam), that is Ireland (so Koht 1950, 20 and Salvesen 1969, 23). The islands in question, however, lie close to the Norwegian coast, thus between Norway
and Scotland. A similar misunderstanding of the location of Ireland

NOTES

83

seems to be evident in Gesta Hamm. IV.xxxv (34) and in the report ofhis voyages which Ohthere made to King Alfred and which was subsequently incorporated in the Old English translation of Orosius’s
Historia adversus paganos (Bateley 1980, 16/1–9). Bateley’s note(1980, 193–94) on the passage in the Old English Orosius suggeststhat Ohthere may have been thinking in terms of sea-routes rather thanactual geography and the same may be true of the author of HN.
7/32–33 the Orkney islands, more than thirty in number] By the Orkney
islands the writer means Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides (cf. 8/2–4
below and note). For the number ‘more than thirty’ cf. Gesta Hamm.
IV.xxxv (34): ‘The Orkney Islands, numbering nearly forty, lie close
together’ (trans. Tschan 1959, 215); and Honorius, Imago mundi I.xxxi:
Orcades triginta tres (thirty-three Orkney islands).
8/1 Orkan] Latin Orchanus. He is not mentioned in any other source
and may be the author’s invention, perhaps by analogy with Nórr (seeabove 2/11 and note).
8/2 various peoples] Storm (1880, 88) suggests Norse and Celtic peoples (i. e. those living in Orkney and the Hebrides respectively) aremeant, but as the statement refers to the past it seems more likely that
it is the Picts and Papar mentioned below that the writer has in mind.
8/2–4 two realms . . . rule of earls] The southern isles here are theHebrides (ON Suðreyjar); the northern isles comprising the Orkney
earldom included both Orkney and Shetland until 1195 when, following a rebellion against him, King Sverrir deprived the earls of Shetland.
8/5 Each of them pays no small tribute to the kings of Norway] Orkney paid tribute to the Norwegian king from 1150, the Hebrides from1152 (Storm 1880, 88). The Hebrides were recognised as belonging to
Scotland at the agreement of the Peace of Perth in 1266, although they
had in practice ceased to be under Norwegian control in 1264. Thissentence therefore suggests 1266 as the latest possible date for thecomposition of the text. Since there is no hint that Shetland does notbelong to the Orkney earldom (see previous note) it is likely that HN
was written before 1195.

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

8/8 Picts] The earliest known inhabitants of Scotland. With regard to
the statement here that they were ‘little bigger than pygmies’ Bugge(1873, 39) draws attention to a long-lived Orcadian tradition to thiseffect which is noted by Sir Walter Scott in Note C in his historicalnovel The Pirate (1996, 346). Scott tells of a clergyman visiting theisland of North Ronaldsay c.1800 who was suspected of being Pictish
because he was ‘a very little man, dark complexioned . . . ill-dressed
and unshaved’. Munch (1850, 36–37) suggests that small structures
known in Orkney as ‘picthouses’ may have suggested that the Picts
must have been unusually short.
8/13–14 the sea dividing . . . Pictland Firth] Now the Pentland Firth. It
is signiﬁcant that the Firth is said to ‘divide’ Orkney from Scotland;
this reinforces the connections between Orkney and Norway, and Ekrem(1998a, 42) takes this as supporting her theory that the opening geographical description in HN covers the region which would legitimately
belong to a Norwegian archdiocese.
8/15–17 The greatest of all whirlpools . . . at ﬂood tide] The Pentland
Firth retains a reputation today as a particularly rough stretch ofsea.
8/19–21 the Papar . . . German tongue] An alb is a white linen garment
reaching from the neck to the ankles which is worn by the clergy at
Mass. The Latin term papæ is here (wrongly) derived from Low German pape (cf. MHG pfaffe). Latin papa, ‘father’, was a title used bypriests and is the source of ON papar and modern English ‘pope’.
Finnur Jónsson (1920–24, II 598–99) and Lehmann (1936–37, 2:75)
believed the author of HN could have been a German living in Norway, but it would have been easy for a Norwegian to acquire sufﬁcient
German to make this statement in those parts of Norway, such as
Bergen, which had trading links with Germany (cf. Koht 1919–20,
113). Whereas HN says these people were called Papar only because
their dress resembled that of priests, Ari refers to Papar in Iceland
before the settlement by Scandinavians who were Irish Christians: ‘Þáváru hér menn kristnir, þeir es Norðmenn kalla papa . . . þeir váru
menn írskir’ (Íslendingabók 5; ‘Those Christian men were here thenwhom Norse people call papar . . . They were Irish’).

NOTES85

8/21–22 an island still today called Papey after them] Several islandand place-names in Orkney and Shetland derive from papar.
8/22–24 It is seen . . . practised Judaism] The source for this remarkable statement is unknown. Storm (1880, 89) suggests that the books
referred to may have been fragments of Old Testament books. While
this might explain the Judaism, it can hardly account for the idea thatthey came from Africa. Perhaps this was suggested by the fact that achapter on Africa follows that on Orkney in Honorius’s Imago mundi(I.xxxi–xxxii). It may also be signiﬁcant that one of the features suggesting Pictish race to the early nineteenth-century inhabitants of North
Ronaldsay was their visiting clergyman’s ‘dark complexion’ (Scott
1996, 346; cf. note to 8/8 above). Ari’s papar left books behind themin Iceland, but these indicated that they were Irish and Christian(Íslendingabók 5).
8/26 Rƒgnvaldr] Rƒgnvaldr was made earl of Mœrr in Norway by
King Haraldr hárfagri and was given Orkney and Shetland as compensation for the death of his son Ívarr on campaign with King Haraldr.
Rƒgnvaldr then granted control of Orkney to various other membersof his family in turn. See Orkneyinga saga ch. 4; Hhárf(Hkr) chs 24, 27.
9/2 Gƒngu-Hrólfr] Literally, ‘Walk-Hrólfr’, a son of Rƒgnvaldr ofMœrr. Identiﬁed with Rollo, ancestor of the dukes of Normandy.
9/5 Rouen] Latin Roda rather than the usual Rothomus or Rodomus,
probably reﬂecting the Norse form of the name (cf. Old Icelandic Rúða);see Storm 1880, 90.
9/19–29 Having obtained . . . his stepson] This information on Norman dukes and English kings probably derives from the Descriptio
genealogiae ducum Normannorum in the Liber de legibus Angliae(Stubbs 1868–71, II 239–41; see the Introduction above pp. xxii–xxiii).
Ellehøj (1965, 161–74), however, argues that the information on Norman dukes in HN derives from Ari Þorgilsson’s lost konunga ævi. In atable at the end of his book Ellehøj provides a useful overview of
information on the Norman dukes from several Norse sources in parallelcolumns.

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

9/20 count] Cf. 9/26 ‘count of Normandy’. Latin comes rather than dux,
‘duke’; the words are used interchangeably at this date, but the choiceof comes here perhaps emphasises Hrólfr’s Norse origins by highlighting his relationship to the earls, jarlar, of Mœrr (cf. Ekrem 1998a, 43).
9/22–23 The younger Richard was the father of William the Bastard]
A generation is missing here and the text may originally have read
‘The younger Richard had a son Robert who was the father of William
the Bastard’ (cf. Storm 1880, 91). William the Bastard is better known
today as William the Conqueror (king of England 1066–1087).
9/25–26 Henry, who in the prophecies of Merlin is styled the Lion of
Justice] The Prophetiae Merlini comprise sections 111–17 of Geoffreyof Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae, and the leo iustitiae ismentioned in section 112 (11). Skard (1930, 77) notes that Geoffrey
does not explicitly identify the Lion of Justice with King Henry I ofEngland (r. 1100–35); this is, however, made explicit by Orderic Vitalis
in Book XII of his Historia ecclesiastica (VI 386–89), suggesting thatthe author of HN may have used Orderic’s text, though the identiﬁcation is also made in the Liber de legibus Angliae (Stubbs 1868–71, II
241). In HN the Latin actually reads qui in prophetia Merlini regis leo
justitiæ prænominatus est, ‘who in the prophecies of King Merlin isstyled the Lion of Justice’. Storm (1880, 91) argues that as Merlin isnever called a king elsewhere, regis here stands for in historia regum,a reference to the title of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work. Skard (1930,
77 n. 1), however, draws attention to possible sources for the belief
that Merlin was a king; see in particular Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita
Merlini 52 (line 21): Rex erat et vates . . . (‘He was a king and prophet’).
9/32–33 subject to the kings of Norway by due payment of tribute] Cf.
note to 8/5 above.
10/2–3 ‘islands of sheep’, eighteen in number] Cf. ON fær, ‘sheep’. The
ninth-century Irish writer Dicuil (Liber de mensura orbis terrae VII.15)
refers to unnamed islands north of Britain ﬁlled with innumerable sheep.
10/6 our kings] This implies that the author was Norwegian.
10/8–9 island which the Italians called Ultima Thule] By Italians theNOTES

87

writer means Romans; cf. Gesta Hamm. IV.xxxvi (35). Adam ofBremen cites several early writers who refer to an island north of Britain
called Thule and states that ‘This Thule is now called Iceland, fromthe ice which binds the ocean’ (trans. Tschan 1959, 217).
10/10–11 a vast empty land and unknown to men] The author of HN iseither unaware of traditions recorded by Dicuil (Liber de mensura orbis
terrae VII.7–13; taking Dicuil’s Thule to refer to Iceland) and Ari(Íslendingabók 5) that Irish hermits inhabited Iceland before the arrivalof Scandinavian settlers (Storm 1880, 92), or he deliberately avoids
mentioning them so as not to compromise the Norse origins of Icelandand its consequent place within the archdiocese of Niðaróss (Ekrem
1998a, 44–45).
10/11–12 Ingólfr and Hjƒrleifr, Norwegians] In Íslendingabók 5 AriÞorgilsson states that Ingólfr was the ﬁrst Norwegian to come to Iceland. The much fuller account of the discovery of Iceland in Landnámabók 34–47 mentions others who arrived there earlier but did not settle
there: Naddodd(r) the Viking (from the Faroes), Garðarr Svávarsson(a Swede) and Flóki Vilgerðarson. Garðarr is said in HN to have discovered Iceland (10/15), but his Swedish nationality is not mentioned,
perhaps because the author wishes to stress Iceland’s Norwegian origins for church political reasons. Landnámabók also tells of Ingólfr’s
sworn brother and fellow-settler, Leifr (later Hjƒrleifr).
10/16 Anbi] Storm (1880, 93) suggests this name may be a corruptionof Oddo (= Nadoddr) or Auda (= Auðr djúpauðga, an important early
settler of Iceland). Koht gives the form Ambe in his translation(1950, 26).
ﬁfty years] According to Ari wise men said that Iceland was settled
in sixty years (Íslendingabók 9).
10/18 land of ice] Cf. Gesta Hamm. IV.xxxvi (35): ‘Thule is now called
Iceland, from the ice which binds the ocean’ (trans. Tschan 1959, 217).
10/22–23 Mount Hekla which, quaking all over like Mount Etna] The
volcanic Mount Etna is mentioned by Honorius Augustodunensis(Imago mundi I.xxxv and I.xli–xliii); news of its eruption in 1169 spreadthroughout Europe (Koht 1950, 27). The Icelandic annals refer to erup-

88

HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

tions of Hekla in 1104, 1158, 1206, 1222 and 1300 (see Islandske
Annaler).
10/32–33 what is reported to have occurred in our own time] Many
scholars have agreed with Bugge’s suggestion (1873, 35–37) that theeruption referred to here is the one recorded in Icelandic annals for theyear 1211, suggesting that HN was written soon after that date. But
see Storm 1873, 377–78 and Koht 1919–20, 104 for reasons for doubting this.
11/8–9 the book Solinus wrote on the wonders of the world] A reference to C. Julius Solinus’s Collectanea rerum memorabilium (written
c.200). At this point, however, HN is based not on Solinus but on
Honorius Augustodunensis’s description of Mount Etna in Imago mundi
I.xli–xliii. On possible reasons for the reference to Solinus when basing
the text on Honorius see note to 1/2 above and the Introduction, p.
xxii.
11/10–11 the fountains of the great deep were broken up] Genesis 7: 11.
11/18 Earthquakes] Bede gives a similar description in De natura rerum chs 28 and 49 (PL 90, cols 249–50A and 275B).
12/4 brings to light . . . in darkness] Cf. 1 Corinthians 4: 5.
12/8 The origin of the kings] HN is one of a number of sources listing
the Yngling kings of Sweden from whom the earliest Norwegian kings
were believed to be descended. The surviving texts include: Ynglingatal,
a probably ninth-century poem by Þjóðólfr of Hvin; a genealogicallist at the end of the extant version of Ari Þorgilsson’s Íslendingabók(27–28) which may be indicative of the contents of his lost konunga
ævi; Snorri Sturluson’s Yngl.; genealogies in Langfeðga tal frá Nóa in
MS AM 415 4to (Kålund 1917–18, 57–58) and Ættartala Haralldz
frá Óðni in Flat. (I 26–27); and, for the kings from Óláfr trételgja
onwards, Af Upplendinga konungum in Hauksbók 456–57. Ellehøj(1965, 114–15) prints lists of the kings from these sources in parallelcolumns, from which it is clear that HN is closest to Íslendingabók,
though it occasionally shows connections with Yngl. and the Flat.

NOTES

89

genealogy. Various explanations of the relationships between the texts
have been put forward. For brief summaries see Magerøy 1976, Rausing
1993; for a full discussion with reference to earlier scholarship andarguing that HN used Ari’s lost konunga ævi as a source, see Ellehøj
1965, 109–41 and 293–94; Krag 1991 offers a reinterpretation of theevidence based on a redating of Ynglingatal to the twelfth century. On
genealogies with mythological names generally see Faulkes 1978–79.
12/10–11 Þrándheimr, the principal region of Norway] Also the region in which the shrine and cathedral of St Óláfr Haraldsson weresituated and the seat of the archdiocese of Niðaróss.
12/11 Ingvi] The Yngling kings are named after him. In the list ofkings appended to Ari’s Íslendingabók (27) Yngvi is a Turkish, i. e.
Trojan, king (Tyrkjakonungr) in accord with the widespread medieval
tendency, following Virgil’s Aeneid, to trace the origins of western
European royal lines back to Troy. In HN he is the ﬁrst Swedish king,either because this was the case in Ari’s original version of Íslendingabók or because the author of HN altered his source at this point. Ari
and HN agree that Yngvi is the father of Njƒrðr the father of Freyr, but
Snorri has Óðinn as the father of Njƒrðr and states that Freyr hét Yngvi
ƒðru nafni (‘Freyr was also called Yngvi’; Yngl. 24). Flat. I 26 hasÓðinn–Freyr–Njƒrðr–Freyr.
12/13–14 Njƒrðr, who fathered Freyr—both these were worshipped
as gods by their posterity] Njƒrðr is the ﬁrst Svíakonungr (‘king of theSwedes’) in the appendix to Íslendingabók (27). For this euhemerising
explanation of the pagan gods cf. the Prologues to Snorri Sturluson’s
Edda (1982, 3–4), Hkr (I 3–5) and SepÓlhelg (3).
12/15 Fjƒlnir] The ﬁrst of the kings to be mentioned in Þjóðolfr of
Hvin’s Ynglingatal (st. 1).
12/23–24 Dómaldi, was hanged by the Swedes . . . fertility of thecrops] The form Domald in HN corresponds to Dómaldr in Ari(Íslendingabók 27); Yngl. (ch. 15) and Ynglingatal (st. 5) have the form
Dómaldi. Yngl. and Ynglingatal also state that he was sacriﬁced, but
only HN mentions that he was hanged. The close relationship between

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

the king and the fertility of the land, together with the belief that thesacriﬁce of a king could secure fertility, were ancient and long-lived
beliefs of the Germanic peoples. Lönnroth (1986) discusses Snorri’s
version of the story of Dómaldi in relation to these beliefs.
12/24 Ceres] A classical rather than Norse deity. The name may be used
for the beneﬁt of readers outside Scandinavia as an equivalent of Freyja.
12/31 Alrekr was the father of Hƒgni] HN alone has the name Hƒgni
(Latin Hogna) which appears to be an error for Agni; cf., for example,Íslendingabók 27. HN agrees with Ari that Alrekr was the father of Agni/Hƒgni, whereas Snorri has them the other way round (Yngl. chs 19–20).
12/33–13/1 Agnaﬁt, which is now called Stockholm] The phrase qui
nunc Stokholm dicitur and the description of the manner of Agni’s
death are not in the Dalhousie manuscript of HN but are added by
Storm from the Swedish king lists which depend on an earlier text of
HN. Evans (1981, 90 n. 3) claims that the reference to Stockholm almost certainly does not derive from the original version of HN andpoints out (1981, 101–02) that the name Stockholm is not found in
Swedish sources until 1252. Ynglingatal and Yngl. give fuller accountsof the events alluded to here; see further Evans 1981.
13/1 Ingjaldr] Ynglingatal (st. 12), Ari (Íslendingabók 27), Snorri(Yngl. ch. 21) and Flat. (I 26) all have the name Yngvi. It is not clear
why HN has a different name.
13/3 Bera (which is ursa in Latin)] Both mean ‘bear’.
13/4 Jƒrundr] Ynglingatal (st. 14) and Snorri (Yngl. ch. 24) state that
he was hanged by Gýlaugr Háleygjakonungr.
13/10 Aun] The MS has Auchim (emended in Storm 1880, 100 to
Auchun), perhaps a mistake for Authun. He is known in other sources
as Aun, which Koht suggests might be an abbreviation of Audun or
Audvin (1950, 29).
Egill, nicknamed Vendilkráki] In giving this cognomen to Egill HNagrees with Íslendingabók 27, but in Yngl. ch. 27 the name, as is more

NOTES91

correct, belongs to his son Óttarr who is said in Þjoðólfr’s Ynglingatalst. 19 to have died in Vendill. Though Egill dies in exile according to
HN and Ynglingatal st. 20, in Yngl. (ch. 26) he returns to Sweden anddies there.
13/18 Aðils, or Aðísl] Ari has the form Aðísl (Íslendingabók 27),
Ynglingatal st. 21 and Yngl. ch. 29 have Aðils. Yngl. ch. 29 has a different account of his death from that given here: Snorri records that Aðils
attended a sacriﬁce at Uppsala and rode around the hall on his horse.
The horse stumbled; Aðils was thrown and broke his skull against arock. Aðils appears in Hrólfs saga kraka and, as Eadgils, in the AngloSaxon poem Beowulf.
13/20 Diana] Another classical rather than Norse deity (cf. 12/24). In
Breta sƒgur (Hauksbók 241) Diana is made equivalent to Gefjun,
though Snorri says that the sacriﬁce Aðils attended was made to thefemale guardian spirits known as dísir (Yngl. ch. 29).
13/21 Gautar] Ynglingatal st. 23 and Yngl. ch. 31 assert that he waskilled by Jutlanders (see further Krag 1991, 125–26).
13/24–25 Braut-¯nundr who was killed by his brother, Sigvarðr] No
other surviving source says that he was killed by his brother (but cf.
Krag 1991, 128–29).
13/27 Ingjaldr] Nicknamed (enn) illráði (‘the Wicked’) in Íslendingabók 27 and Yngl. ch. 41.
13/28 víðfaðmi] ‘Far-reaching’.
13/31 Óláfr, with the nickname ‘Tree-feller’] Ari (Íslendingabók 27)
and Ynglingatal (st. 29) count Óláfr trételgja among Swedish kings, as
here; in Snorri’s Yngl. ch. 43 he is a king in Vermaland. Snorri also
records a quite different manner of death: in Yngl. ch. 43 Óláfr is burned
as a sacriﬁce to Óðinn. The list of Uppland kings in Hauksbók (456)
begins with Óláfr trételgja.
13/33–34 Hálfdan, with the nickname ‘White-leg’] The ﬁrst of the

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

Ynglingar to rule in Norway in this text. Ari (Íslendingabók 27) andHauksbók (456) agree with HN that Hálfdan ruled the Uppland area;
Ynglingatal (st. 30) and Yngl. (ch. 46) claim that he also ruled Vestfold(see further Krag 1991, 133).
14/3 Eysteinn, nicknamed ‘Fart’] He appears with the nickname fretr(‘fart’) in a genealogy which though interpolated after the Prologue ofÍslendingabók largely agrees with the genealogy appended to that workand so may depend on Ari’s original version (Íslendingabók 3). The
cognomen is not found in Ynglingatal, Yngl. or Af Upplendinga
konungum in Hauksbók.
14/7–8] Hálfdan who was lavish . . . sparing of food] In the interpolated genealogy after the Prologue of Íslendingabók (see precedingnote) Hálfdan is called enn mildi ok enn matarilli, ‘the muniﬁcent andstingy with food’ (Íslendingabók 3).
14/10 Guðrøðr the Hunter-king] Called veiðikonungr (‘Hunter-king’)
in the genealogy interpolated after the Prologue of Íslendingabók (3).
In Ynglingatal st. 33 and Hauksbók 457 he is nicknamed gƒfugláti(‘generous’), and Yngl. ch. 48 says hann var kallaðr Guðrøðr inngƒfugláti, en sumir kƒlluðu hann veiðikonung (‘he was called theGenerous, but some called him Hunter-king’).
14/12 Hálfdan, nicknamed ‘the Black’] His life is recounted by Snorri
Sturluson in Hálfdsv(Hkr).
14/14–18 On his way . . . under the ice] Cf. Ágrip 2. Other sources,
including Hálfdsv(Hkr) 91–92, record that the feast was a mid-winterYule-feast.
14/19 Haraldr hárfagri] Snorri tells in Hkr of Haraldr’s promise not to
cut or comb his hair until he was king of all Norway; when this had
been achieved he did have it cut and acquired the nickname hárfagri,‘ﬁne-hair’ (Hhárf(Hkr) 97, 122).
14/25 seventy-three years] Theodoricus (ch. 1) and Ari (Íslendingabók
6) state that Haraldr ruled seventy years; according to Ágrip (6) heNOTES93

ruled sixty years after winning the whole of Norway. Other sources
agree with HN that he ruled for seventy-three (e. g. Nóregskonungatalst. 9; Fsk ch. 5; SepÓlhelg ch. 1); cf. further references in McDougalland McDougall 1998, 57–58 n. 18.
14/25–26 sixteen sons] Ágrip (4) and Hkr state that Haraldr had twenty
sons, though their lists are not identical (cf. Ágrip, 84–85 n. 10). Thirteen of the sons listed in HN are in the list in Ágrip; three of thoselisted here do not appear elsewhere (Jƒrundr (14/34), Yngvarr (15/1),
and Hrólfr (15/2)). Comparison of the remaining names with othersources suggests that Gunnrøðr and Guðrøðr (14/30) were originally
one and the same person, as also were Sigtryygr (15/1) and Tryggvi(15/2); cf. Koht 1950, 34–35.
14/26 Eiríkr, nicknamed blóðøx] The nickname is usually explained
as due to the fact that he killed so many of his brothers (cf., for example, Ágrip 8), though Fsk 79 says that he acquired the name because of
his activity as a viking.
14/31–32 Rƒgnvaldr réttilbeini] The nickname means ‘straight-leg’.
15/5–6 Gunnhildr, the daughter of the notably foolish Gormr, king of
the Danes] Among Scandinavian sources, only HN records, as was infact the case, that Gunnhildr was the daughter of Gormr of Denmark(d. c.940; cf. the naming of one of Eiríkr’s sons Gormr after him);
Norse sources maintain that Gunnhildr was the daughter of one ¯zurr,that she came from Hálogaland and that she was brought up among
the Lapps (Finnar; cf., for example, Ágrip 8, Hhárf(Hkr) 135, Fsk 74,
Egils saga 94, Njáls saga 11). Jómsvíkingasaga ch. 1 (Blake 1962, 2)
records that Gormr was known as ‘the Foolish’ at ﬁrst, but later as
Gormr the Old or the Mighty.
15/8 six sons] Snorri names seven sons (Hhárf(Hkr) ch. 43), Ágrip (8)ten. It seems that Gamli and Gormr were originally the same person(Koht 1950, 36; Ágrip 88 n.15).
15/14–16 Eiríkr withdrew . . . foster-father] HN agrees with Ágrip (8,16) and Theodoricus (ch. 2) that Eiríkr went directly to England (via

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

Denmark, according to Ágrip). Hkr (I 152, II 159) and Egils saga(176) record that he arrived in England after visiting Orkney. Hákon’s
foster-father, Æthelstan, reigned 925–39 and Eiríkr is unlikely to havearrived in England during his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS D)
records s. a. 948 that King Eadred invaded Northumbria in that year to
win it back from Eiríkr’s control. Hkr (I 152–53) says that Æthelstan
offered Eiríkr rule (ríki, i. e. presumably an earldom) in England (cf.
Ágrip 16); he is thought to have become ruler there in 847/48.
15/22 Spain] Ágrip (16) also records that Eiríkr died in Spain. Allother Norse sources agree that he died in battle on Stainmoor inWestmorland in 954.
15/32–34 he nevertheless observed . . . heathen age] In Ágrip, Fsk andonce in Hkr Hákon is called ‘the Good’.
16/6 Two of their battles] Fsk (81–82, 88–93) also mentions two battles,
but Theodoricus mentions just one (ch. 4), and Ágrip (10–12) and Hkr(Hákonar saga góða chs 19–31) mention three.
16/26 fourteen years] Hkr (I 239) gives ﬁfteen years, Theodoricus
twelve (ch. 4), Sæmundr the Wise (as preserved in Nóregskonungatalst. 18) nine. Ágrip 18 may have either xv or xii (cf. Ágrip 91 n.33). SeeÓlaﬁa Einarsdóttir 1964, 177–79.
16/31 vƒlubrjótr] This may mean ‘breaker of sorceresses’ or ‘knucklecruncher’.
16/34 klyppr] ‘squarely-built’.
17/2 But . . .] The manuscript shows no sign of a lacuna, but it seems thata section of the text telling how Haraldr Eiríksson died has been lost here.
17/7–8 Hálfdan High-leg was killed by the Orkney islanders] Cf.
Orkneyinga saga ch. 8 and Hhárf(Hkr) ch. 30.
17/8–11 Rƒgnvaldr réttilbeini . . . father’s orders] Rƒgnvaldr is said
above to have been fostered by a sorceress and to have followed her inNOTES95

the practice of magic (14/32–34). The practice of magic (seiðr) was
often associated with ergi, ‘unmanliness’ including (passive) homosexual activity, and this may explain the ‘degrading practices’ referredto here which impel Rƒgnvaldr’s father to order his death by drowning(cf. Ström 1974, 8–9, 16–17). In Hhárf(Hkr) ch. 34 Rƒgnvaldr is burnt
to death in a house by his half-brother, Eiríkr Bloodaxe, but it is probable that HN preserves the more original version of events.
17/13 Óláfr and Óláfr] I. e. Óláfr Tryggvason and St Óláfr Haraldsson.
The manner in which they are introduced together here may be seen as
part of the sustained attempt by HN to present Óláfr Tryggvason asjust as worthy of canonisation as his sainted namesake (on this see
Ekrem 1998a, 60–63; 1998b, 58–59).
17/16 Grenland] Elsewhere, Bjƒrn and his son Guðrøðr are said to haveruled Vestfold (cf. Hhárf(Hkr) ch. 35; Hkr, Haralds saga gráfeldar ch. 1).
17/20 kúla] ‘Knob, ball’.
17/20–21 perpetual king of Norway] At his coronation in 1163/64
Magnús Erlingsson received Norway to rule on behalf of her perpetualking in heaven, St Óláfr.
17/21 Sow] The Latin scrofa used here means ‘sow’, but the Norse
form of the nickname, sýr, often declines differently from the common noun sýr, ‘sow’, possibly indicating a different original meaning.
17/22–23 Sigvarðr risi (that is ‘the Giant’)] In Icelandic sources his
nickname is hrísi (Ágrip 4, Hhárf(Hkr) ch. 25, Msk 56, 190 and Fsk
71, 226); with the long vowel this means not ‘giant’ but ‘illegitimate
son/bastard’ (cf. ON hrísungr).
17/28 Óláfr] In Ágrip 4 he has the nickname digrbeinn (‘stout-leg’),but in Hkr I 119 is called Geirstaðaálfr (‘elf of Geirstaðir’) after an
earlier character of that name who also, according to Ólhelg(Leg) 30
had the additional nickname digrbeinn.
17/34 a small island] The mound Tryggvareyrr (see 18/2) is modern

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

Tryggvarör on Tryggvaey (modern Tryggö) to the west of Sótanes(Ranríki). Ágrip 26, Oddr 6 and other sources place Tryggvareyrr on
Sótanes.
18/8 Saxi, Skorri and Skreyja] All nicknames of men whose names
are not now known.
18/11–13 Ástríðr herself . . . Orkney islands] HN is the only source torecord that Óláfr was born in Orkney; all others have him born in
Norway. Ágrip 26 has Ástríðr ﬂee to Orkney after Tryggvi’s deathwith a three-year-old Óláfr. In ÓlTrygg(Hkr) ch. 1 Óláfr is born on an
island in a lake after Tryggvi’s death.
18/28–31 when he learnt . . . deprive him of the kingdom] Here theyoung Óláfr Tryggvason is strikingly compared to the Christ-Child (a‘fatherless boy’) and Hákon jarl to Herod; cf. Matthew 2: 1–18. The
comparison of Óláfr with the Christ-Child is made more explicitly in
Oddr 22–23.
19/10 a kinsman] Ástríðr’s brother, Sigurðr Eiríksson was at the courtof Vladimir, son of Grand Prince Svyatoslav of Kiev.
19/13–18 When he was about twelve . . . adopted as a son] A slightly
fuller account of this deed is in Ágrip ch. 18, though that text makes
no mention of Óláfr’s adoption by the king. Oddr 26–28 provides amuch fuller account in which Óláfr is said to have been nine years old.
19/18–19 Practising piracy as a youth] On Óláfr’s Viking activity see
Jones 1984, 131–33. See also note to 23/24–25 below.
19/23 Jómsborg] Only HN and Ágrip state that this was Óláfr’s winterbase. The main source of information on this south Baltic town andthe Vikings who inhabited it is the early thirteenth-century Jómsvíkingasaga, though it is not clear how much faith may be put in the historicalaccuracy of its account. See Blake 1962.
19/34–20/1 a small island off Britain] Ágrip 28 refers simply to ‘a placein England’, but most other sources agree that the hermit lived in the

NOTES

97

Isles of Scilly. Britannia in HN corresponds to ON Bretland, referring
speciﬁcally to the Celtic parts of Britain, here Cornwall. The story ofÓláfr’s encounter with the hermit and subsequent baptism parallels asimilar story told of his namesake Óláfr Haraldsson in Ólhelg(Leg)64. (On the transfer of stories concerning St Óláfr Haraldsson to his
namesake in an attempt to promote Óláfr Tryggvason’s sanctity see
Lönnroth 1963; 1965, 16–18.) Turville-Petre (1967, 135–36) draws
attention to a source for the stories in the Dialogues of Gregory theGreat. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s. a. 994 states that Óláfr was baptised (or possibly conﬁrmed) at Andover in that year.
20/22 the blessed Óláfr] Cf. 23/17. Ekrem (1998a, 61–62; 1998b,
58–59) adduces this title as evidence of an attempt by the writer of HN
to advance Óláfr Tryggvason’s canonisation. St Óláfr Haraldsson isreferred to below as beatissimus, ‘most blessed’ (24/4).
20/22–23 the health-giving change . . . Most High] Cf. Psalm 76: 11(77: 10).
20/26 Johannes] Cf. Gesta Hamm. II.xxxvii (35), Oddr ch. 26 (17).
Other sources (Ágrip ch. 19, Theodoricus ch. 8) give the bishop’s nameas Sigeweard/Sigurðr. Oddr (91–92) introduces him as Jón, but later(98, 246) says that he was also called Sigurðr.
Þangbrandr] A prominent early foreign missionary to Iceland. He
was rather more successful at making (and in some cases slaying) enemies than converting heathens. See Íslendingabók 14; Kristnisaga
14–30).
20/28–29 one mind and one mouth] Cf. Romans 15: 6.
20/33 Karkr killed him despicably by night] Parallel accounts tell
how Karkr murdered Hákon in a pigsty (cf. Theodoricus ch. 10,Ágrip ch. 13, Oddr ch. 21 (15), ÓlTrygg(Hkr) chs 48–49). On Karkr’s
name in different texts and its possible meaning see Ágrip 92 n. 40.
21/12–13 the Shetlanders . . . Icelanders] All peoples who came under
the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Niðaróss when it was establishedin 1152/53. Shetlanders and Orcadians are listed separately here, though

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HISTORIA NORWEGIAE

in the earlier geographical description the Shetland islands were notmentioned.
21/14 shining in faith . . . ardent in charity] Cf. Romans 12: 10–12.
21/22 the duke of Slavland] Þyri had in fact been married to Búrizleifr(Boleslaw the Brave), ruler of Poland 992–1025. HN here agrees closelywith Ágrip 32, but a slightly different account is given in Hkr (I 273,
341–43), Oddr 143–47 and Fsk 146–47.
22/3 while sailing past Sjáland] What follows is an account of theBattle of Svƒlðr, the location of which is now uncertain. HN follows
Gesta Hamm. II.xl (38) and agrees with Ágrip ch. 20 in locating thebattle near Sjáland (Sjælland) in Øresund. See further McDougall and
McDougall 1998, 74 n. 113 and references there.
23/1–11 But when the battle . . . an uncertain fact] For similar uncertainty about Óláfr’s fate, see Theodoricus ch. 14, Ágrip ch. 20,
ÓlTrygg(Hkr) ch. 112 (citing Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld’s Óláfsdrápa(erﬁdrápa)). Oddr (chs 73 (61) to 75 (63), 78 (65) to 81) claims thatÓláfr escaped the battle, visited the Holy Land and died a monk.
23/16–18 almost uprooted . . . Johannes watered] Cf. 1 Corinthians
3: 6; Matthew 15: 13. See also Oddr 1.
23/23 in Eapolis] The manuscript reads in ea poli or in eo poli, where
poli is presumably ablative of the Latinised Greek word polis, ‘city’.
Koht (1950, 49) adopts the latter reading, taking poli to refer to
Hólmgarðr.
23/24–25 he constantly harassed all the peoples round the Baltic Sea]Óláfr’s Viking activities are recorded in Sigvatr Þórðarson’s Víkingarvísur and Óttarr svarti’s Hƒfuðlausn.
24/1–2 he was invited . . . to England] Sveinn sailed to England in1013, but Óláfr did not accompany him. Óláfr had been in England in
the army of the Dane Þorkell Strút-Haraldsson inn hávi between 1009

NOTES99

and 1012, then went to France and Spain, wintering in Rouen in
1013–14. On Þorkell’s campaign and Óláfr’s activities in England see
Campbell 1949, 73–82.
24/4 most blessed tyrant] Latin beatissimus tyrannus. Tyrannus here
may have the sense of ‘Viking’; cf. Skard 1930, 23, 51; Ekrem 1998a,
43, 61.
Æthelred] Æthelred ‘the Unready’ (Old English unræd, ‘ill-advised’),ﬂed England late in 1013 but returned after Sveinn’s death on 2 February 1014 with Óláfr among his followers. Æthelred then reigned again
until his own death in 1016.
24/19 they eagerly started off together] In fact, Óláfr was not with
Knútr; cf. notes above to 24/1–2 and 24/4.
24/22 King Edmund was staying at the time] Æthelred died in 1016
and Edmund was in London that year; Óláfr had already returned to
Norway by then. He had, however, been involved in a battle for London
in the winter of 1009–10; Sigvatr’s Víkingarvísur and Óttarr’s Hƒfuðlausn celebrate his attack on London Bridge then. See Ólhelg(Hkr)
chs 12–13.
25/16 Ælfgifu] This is the Anglo-Saxon name used by Emma of Normandy, Æthelred’s widow and the daughter of Richard I of Normandy.
HN is the only foreign source to use this name rather than Emma; see
Campbell 1949, 55–58 (especially 56–57). Storm (1880, 123 n. 6),
however, suggests the following manuscript lacuna may have provided
her alternative name Emma.
25/17 Knútr, nicknamed ‘the Hard’] Norse sagas refer to him as HƒrðaKnútr, i. e. Knútr from Hƒrð in Jutland. The nickname in HN agrees
with that found in Danish sources. Knútr was the only son of Knútr
Sveinsson and Emma/Ælfgifu of Normandy; his half-brother Sveinn
was Knútr’s son by his concubine, Ælfgifu of Northampton.
25/22 Margaret] She was the sister of Knútr, not of Óláfr of Sweden.
Other sources record that Óláfr was betrothed to Ingigerðr, a daughter

100

HISTORIA NORWEGIAEof Óláfr of Sweden, and that he eventually married her sister, Ástríðr;see, for example, Theodoricus ch. 16, Ágrip ch. 25, Fsk ch. 30,
Ólhelg(Hkr) chs 88–93.
25/30 by her had . . .] Ágrip (ch. 25) gives Óláfr’s daughter’s name as
Gunnhildr, but other sources (e. g. Theodoricus ch. 16, Fsk ch. 30,
Ólhelg(Hkr) chs 181, 197) give Óláfr’s daughter’s name as Úlfhildr,
which is more likely to be correct.
25/32 Four bishops] Also listed in Gesta Hamm. II.lvii (55) as among
the many English bishops and priests Óláfr had with him.
25/34 The end] HN cannot originally have been intended to end here
and in such a perfunctory manner. Ekrem (1998a, 87) suggests thatthe word Explicit may have been transferred here from the end of what
was originally Book II, or alternatively that the original reading was
Explicit liber I.

NOTES TO PASSIO BEATI OLAVIThe Passion . . . Óláfr] The list of contents on the ﬁrst page of themanuscript (in a probably fourteenth-century hand) calls the work
Passio sancti Olaui regis et martyris (‘The Passion of St Óláfr, Kingand Martyr’; cf. Metcalfe 1881, 5). Metcalfe’s title, retained here, moreaccurately reﬂects the contents of the text.
26/1–2 Here begins . . . and martyr] In the manuscript, headings are
written in red ink, either in the margin or in the text above the relevant
section.
26/1 Passion] The Life of Óláfr with which the work begins is called
Passio ‘Passion’ at its beginning, but Vita ‘Life’ at its end (31/28).
Storm’s edition heads the Life with a description of its contents: ‘Sancti
conversio; labores ejus apostolici non minus quam regii; martyrium’(1880, 127; ‘The conversion of the saint; his work as an apostle noless than as a king; his martyrdom’). The Hom. Life is headed ‘In die
sancti Olaui regis et martiris’ (108; ‘On the Feast of St Óláfr, King andMartyr’).
26/3–28 When . . . torment] As noted by Fabricius (1917, 379–80) and
Skard (1970, 83), the opening of the Life has similarities (including
the reference to Jeremiah) with the proemium to the Life of the Danish
protomartyr, St Knútr Sveinsson (r. 1080–86) written in the 1120s by
Ailnoth of Canterbury (cf. VSD I 82–84); these similarities suggest aliterary connection between the two works, but this is denied by Gunnes(1996, 213).
26/3–5 Norway . . . the south] This seems to imply an expected audience for the text outside Norway ignorant of that country’s location.
The Hom. version of the Life begins with a slightly different description of Norway, omitting the reference to Denmark (Hom. 108) anddoes not mention Óláfr until after describing the heathen state of Norway and God’s sending of missionaries there (Hom. 108 line 30).
26/5–7 the feet . . . good things] Romans 10: 15; cf. Isaiah 52: 7,
Nahum 1: 15. This phrase is not in Hom. On the role of English missionaries in Norway see Abrams 1995.

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PASSIO BEATI OLAVI

26/14 Jeremiah] Cf. Jeremiah 1: 13–14. Hom. does not include thisreference to Jeremiah (cf. Hom. 108). Metcalfe (1881, 67) notes a resemblance here between the Passio and a passage on the northern rebellion of William the Conqueror’s reign in a collection of the miracles of St John of Beverley, Miracula sancti Johannis eboracensis
episcopi by William Ketell of Beverley, written c.1150 (Raine 1879–
94, I 265). Eysteinn (or an earlier reviser of the Passio) may haveadded the allusion to Jeremiah after encountering Ketell’s work andafter the vernacular translation preserved in Hom. had been made (cf.
Holtsmark 1956, 21). Skard (1930–33, 367), however, denies the likelihood of any influence from Ketell’s work.
26/15 boaster] Hom. (108) has ﬁanden and anscoti (both = ‘adversary;devil’); in Isaiah 14:12 it is Lucifer.
26/16–18 I will exalt . . . the north] Isaiah 14: 13. The association of
the north with evil, inspired by biblical passages such as this and theone from Jeremiah referred to in the note to 26/14 above, was commonplace in the Middle Ages. For ‘stars of God’ (Vulgate astra Dei),
Hom. has himintungl, ‘stars of heaven/the sky’ (Hom. 108). Hom. continues the quotation from Isaiah: ‘ok likiasc hinum á-gæzta guði’ (‘and[I shall] be like the most high God’; cf. Isaiah 14: 14).
26/18–19 who builds . . . the north] Psalm 47: 3 (48: 2).
26/24–25 the truth . . . Christ Jesus] Cf. John 1: 17.
26/30–27/1 Although a pagan . . . righteousness] Hom. has no reference to Óláfr’s character before he was converted.
27/1–4 Having learnt . . . Rouen] Adam of Bremen implies that Óláfr
was converted to Christianity in England (Gesta Hamm. II:lvii(55)). The eleventh-century Norman historian William of Jumièges
states that Óláfr was baptised in Rouen, the capital of Normandy(Gesta Normannorum Ducum v.12; van Houts 1992–95, II 26–29).
Icelandic sagas record a different tradition: in ÓlTrygg(Hkr) ch. 60
the three-year-old Óláfr is baptised during Óláfr Tryggvason’s missionary campaign to Hringaríki with the king as sponsor (though Snorri

NOTES103

does record that Óláfr visited Rouen during his youth as a viking,Ólhelg(Hkr) ch. 27); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 8 has a similar account, though
there Óláfr is said to be ﬁve years old. Theodoricus says that somethink Óláfr and his mother were baptised during Óláfr Tryggvason’s
missionary campaign in Upplƒnd, and others believe he was baptised
in England, but that he has read in the ‘History of the Normans’(i. e. William of Jumièges) that Óláfr was baptised in Rouen by
Archbishop Robert (Storm 1880, 22; McDougall and McDougall
1998, 17).
27/4–5 health-giving font] Cf. Titus 3: 5.
27/5 became a different man] 1 Kings (1 Samuel) 10: 6.
27/5–6 the apostle] St Paul.
27/6 buried . . . death] Romans 6: 4. The translation in Hom. echoes
Romans 6: 6 rather than 6: 4, presumably reﬂecting an earlier lost
version of the Vita (cf. Holtsmark 1956, 21).
27/7–8 Forgetting . . . to come] Philippians 3: 13.
27/9 walked in newness of life] Romans 6: 4.
27/12 poor in spirit] Cf. Matthew 5: 3.
27/21 the grace . . . his lips] Psalm 44: 3 (45: 2).
27/30 in the midst . . . perverse nation] Philippians 2: 15.
28/3 the righteous . . . a lion] Proverbs 28: 1. This comparison with alion and the following reference to Job (see next note) are not in the
Hom. version (cf. Hom. 109).
28/4–6 following the example . . . terrify him] cf. Job 31: 34.
28/8 Gracious Jesus] This rhetorical apostrophe is absent from Hom.
(cf. Hom. 109).

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28/10–12 Without doubt . . . his sake] Philippians 1: 29.
28/18–19 trusting in their own folly . . . her whelps] Proverbs 17: 12.
28/24–25 the number . . . day by day] Cf. Acts 2: 47; 5: 14.
28/25–26 Idols . . . overthrown] Cf. 4 Kings (2 Kings) 23: 12–14.
28/28–29 The worshippers . . . were confounded] Cf. Isaiah 42: 17.
28/31 all iniquity stopped her mouth] Psalm 106 (107): 42.
29/2–17 In his reign . . . fellow-men] Having detailed Óláfr’s contribution to his country’s religious life the text now portrays him as an
ideal (secular) ruler, a rex iustus.
29/3 nothing of tyranny] Contrast the description of Óláfr in Historia
Norwegiae as beatissimus tyrannus, ‘most blessed tyrant’ (Storm 1880,
121; 24/4 above; tyrannus perhaps has the sense ‘viking’ there).
29/7 proclaimed laws . . . civil] Óláfr, like Kings David of Israel and
Alfred of England, acquired a reputation as a law-giver; cf. Theodoricus
ch. 16; Ólhelg(Leg) chs 29, 38; Ólhelg(Hkr) ch. 58. References to thelaw of St Óláfr may be found in lawbooks, especially Gulaþingslƒg :see Keyser et al. 1846–95, V 417; see also Blom 1981, 31–33.
29/9–15 In them he assigned . . . rigour of law] Archbishop Eysteinn
was a ﬁrm supporter of Gregorian reform in Norway, with its strict
demarcation of powers between church and monarch, and this passage may be read in the light of Eysteinn’s conﬂict with King Sverrir.
Gunnes (1973, 6) suggests that the sentence ‘In them . . . their bishops’ is inspired by a passage from Hugh of St Victor, De sacramentis
christianae ﬁdei II.2.6 (PL 176, col. 419), written in 1139. Eysteinn
had close links with the Augustinian canons of St Victor in Paris, studying there before becoming chaplain to King Ingi and probably visiting
them again in 1160; Gunnes therefore takes this allusion to Hugh’swork as evidence for Eysteinn’s authorship of the vita section of the
Passio Olavi (1973, 7).

NOTES

105

29/25 Russia] Other accounts of Óláfr’s exile in Russia include
Theodoricus chs 16, 18; Ágrip ch. 26; Ólhelg(Leg) chs 69–72;
Ólhelg(Hkr) chs 181, 186–92. Óláfr stayed with Jaroslav, ruler in Kiev
(ON Jarizleifr, r. 1019–54), who was married to Óláfr’s sister-in-law
Ingigerðr (to whom Óláfr had earlier been betrothed), the daughter ofKing Óláfr of Sweden. Jaroslav was half-brother and promoter of thecults of Russia’s protomartyrs, Princes Boris and Gleb (d. 1015).
Óláfr’s son Magnús remained in Russia until recalled to become Kingof Norway in 1035, after which he encouraged his father’s cult, raising the interesting possibility that he learned of the political usefulness of royal saints’ cults while staying with Jaroslav; on Saints Borisand Gleb see Hollingsworth 1992, xxvi–lvii, 3–32; on the politics ofroyal sanctity in Scandinavia and Russia see Hoffmann 1994 and Poppe
1994 respectively.
29/34 talent] cf. the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25: 14–30. This
allusion is absent from Hom. (cf. Hom. 110).
30/4–6 He stayed . . . and patience] Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 69 states thatÓláfr stayed with Jaroslav in Hólmgarðr (Novgorod); if he left thiskind of favourable impression there this might explain the dedicationof a church to Óláfr in Hólmgarðr. Miracles which took place at thatchurch are recorded below, 47/3–17, 51/23–52/14.
30/9 by way of Sweden] Other accounts (Theodoricus ch. 18;
Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 72; Ólhelg(Hkr) chs 196–98) tell how Óláfr collected
troops in Sweden.
30/14 wholesome instruction] 1 Timothy 1: 10; 2 Timothy 4: 3.
Clad in . . . faith] 1 Thessalonians 5: 8.
30/14–15 girded . . . word of God] Ephesians 6: 17. The version of thispassage in Hom. follows more closely Ephesians 6: 14, 16, 17.
30/15–17 in honour . . . the left] 2 Corinthians 6: 8.
30/22 the labourer . . . his hire] Luke 10: 7.

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PASSIO BEATI OLAVI

30/25–26 the king might see . . . in his beauty] Isaiah 33: 17.
30/26–27 that particular part . . . holy body] I. e. Þrándheimr, the region around Niðaróss.
30/32–33 gathered together . . . his anointed] Psalm 2: 2, cf. Acts 4:
26. Cf. Theodoricus (Storm 1880, 39; McDougall and McDougall 1998,
29). This is the only close verbal parallel between the Passio and Theodoricus and may be due to independent use of the Scriptural source.
31/2 a certain Knútr] Knútr inn ríki Sveinsson, King of Denmark andEngland (r. 1016–35). The Passio marginalises the internal Norwegian political background to Óláfr’s death, as is evident from a comparison with the additional information given at this point in the vernacular translation in Hom. (which, however, does not mention Knútr):‘En forenge fyrir þvi liði. þa var næmdr Cálfr Arnasonr. maðr cynstór.
illr ok utrvr sem aller verða drotens svicarar. Sa hinn illi maðr var í
svicum við hann. ok com í mote honum með micclum ﬂocce. ok vannhann þa niðings-værc á sinum lánar-drotne er hann var famennastr
fyrir staddr’ (Hom. 111); ‘And the leader of that troop was called KálfrÁrnason, a man of noble descent, evil and faithless like all who betray
their lord. This evil man was a traitor to him and came against him
with a large company and performed a despicable deed against hisliege lord when he was before the place with the fewest men.’
31/5 Stiklarstaðir] Hom. notes that this is in the Veradalr region (Hom.
111). A church was later built at the scene of Óláfr’s martyrdom (cf.,for example, 52/16–19, 72/24–25 below)
31/19–20 the spears of the wicked] Hom. (111) speciﬁcally mentions
wounds which Óláfr received in his knee and cheek before dying.
Theodoricus (ch. 19) notes that there are varying reports about how
and by whom Óláfr was wounded; in both Ágrip (ch. 31) andÓlhelg(Leg) (chs 81–82) Óláfr receives a wound in the knee or leg
and is then dealt a death-blow; in Ólhelg(Hkr) (ch. 228) Óláfr receives
three wounds, in his left leg, abdomen, and the left side of his neck.

NOTES

107

31/20 He died . . . the faith] Hoffmann (following Graus 1965, 428)
identiﬁes kings killed in battle against heathens as one of four types ofGermanic royal saint (1975, 14). Óláfr was assimilated to this model
although there would have been Christians and pagans on both sides
and his opponent Knútr was closer to the papacy than was Óláfr (cf.
Hoffmann 1975, 77–78).
31/21–23 four days . . . Lord’s incarnation] The manuscript reading
octobris must be an error for augusti, or possibly for mensis octavi (cf.
Gjerløw 1967, col. 562). Whereas the Passio here gives the year as
1028, Ari (Íslendingabók 19) and Snorri (Ólhelg(Hkr) ch. 235) imply
that the year was 1030. Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 88 appears to give a date inJuly 1030, though not the 29th. Theodoricus ch. 19 gives the year as1029 (followed by Ágrip 44; see 100 n. 98). This may be an attempt at
compromise between 1028 and 1030 (cf. Fsk xxxvi). The Passio,
Theodoricus and Snorri, however, all agree that Óláfr died on a Wednesday. 29 July fell on a Wednesday in 1030 (see Ólaﬁa Einarsdóttir 1964,
75–76, 185–86, 329). An eclipse of the sun, to which Sigvatr Þórðarson
refers in his Erﬁdrápa (st. 30), occurred on 31 August 1030 (cf. Liestøl
1932, especially pp. 1–17, 27–28). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MSS
C, E) also gives the year of Óláfr’s death as 1030. Hom. gives the yearof the martyrdom as 1024, which is clearly wrong; it also notes thatthe day of Óláfr’s death is now observed as his feast day: ‘ok þat mundárs er nu halda aller cristnir menn hotið hans siðan. er vér cËllum
Olafs-messo hina fyrri’ (Hom. 111; ‘and that will now be held in honour
by all Christian men as his feast day, which we call the former Óláfr’s
mass’).
31/24–25 the peace . . . all understanding] Philippians 4: 7.
31/26–27 to whom is honour . . . and ever.] Romans 16: 27.

NOTES TO MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI
32/5 those who hear] This implies public reading of the text (cf. 54/29
and note below). This sentence neatly sums up the aims of the hagiographer (see Introduction pp. xli–xlv).
32/9–21 Indeed . . . tasted] Both Storm’s edition of Acta Olavi (where‘It is ﬁtting . . . his saint’ introduces Cap. II but ‘Indeed . . . tasted’ isCap. I.xi) and Hom. place this miracle story towards the end of thevita (where it belongs chronologically) and before announcing the
beginning of the miracula. Accounts of Óláfr’s dream of ascending aladder to heaven occur in a number of sources, including Gesta Hamm.
II:lxi (59) Schol. 41 (42); Geisli stt. 15–16; Hom. 111; Ólhelg(Leg) ch.
78; Ólhelg(Hkr) ch. 214. The Passio (32/19–20) states that Óláfr had
dreamed of a ladder previously but does not explicitly say that he sees
one on this occasion (unlike Hom.).
32/10 the Lord Jesus] Passio Olavi here agrees with Geisli and Hom.,but Gesta Hamm. does not mention any ﬁgure in the dream (Gesta
Hamm. II:lxi (59) Schol. 41 (42)).
32/11 with fair . . . of solace] Zechariah 1: 13.
32/22–33/5 Cf. Geisli stt. 22–24; Acta Olavi II:i; Hom. 112 (i);Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 87 (twice); 89; SepÓlhelg ch. 236; Ólhelg(Hkr) ch.
236.
33/6–34/17 Cf. Geisli stt. 31–34; Acta Olavi II:ii; Hom. 112–13 (ii);
AM 325, 35 (1r1–5); Ólhelg(Leg) chs 90–91; SepÓlhelg ch. 266;
HSig(Hkr) chs 54–55. On Óláfr’s early cult in the Irish Sea region see
Hudson 1988, 258–89, 265 n. 8. This and the next miracle are linked
by the theme of granting assistance in battle.
33/9 Guthormr] Although said only to be Norwegian and a nephew ofSt Óláfr here, Snorri provides him with a genealogy (Ólhelg(Hkr) ch.
128; cf. HSig(Hkr) ch. 54): Guthormr’s mother, Gunnhildr, is the daughter of Ásta Guðbrandsdóttir, mother of St Óláfr and of Haraldr harðráði
Sigurðarson. Guthormr’s residence in Dublin may be explained by

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MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI

close ties between Dublin and Scandinavia (Hudson 1988, 261–63).
Snorri places this miracle in the reign of Haraldr harðráði (1045/48–
66) and recounts it before an event of 1061 (Haraldr’s invasion of
Jutland the summer before the Battle of the River Niz, HSig(Hkr) ch.
60); Hudson suggests the disruption caused to the narrative by Snorri’s
placing of this event indicates he may have been accommodating information he had on the date of the miracle (1988, 259, 263).
33/13 Margaðr, the king of Dublin] Latin margodo, cf. Margodus, Hom.
112; Mardagus, Ólhelg(Leg) 210; Margaðr, Hkr(HSig) chs 54–55. Identiﬁed by Munch (1855, 171–72) with Echmarcach Rƒgnvaldsson (kingof Dublin 1036–38, 1046–52), an identiﬁcation accepted by Metcalfe(1881, 75), Skard (1970, 85), Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson (Hkr III 135 n.
1), and Heinrichs et al. (Ólhelg(Leg) 211 n. 163). Hudson argues that
Margaðr is more likely to be an Old Norse form of the Irish name
Murchad (1988, 259–60). One Murchad, son of Diarmait mac Máelna mbó, ruled in Dublin during the latter part of Haraldr harðráði’s
reign and until 1070; he was also, like Margaðr in the Passio, a naval
commander who led raids in the Irish Sea (see Hudson 1988, 260–61,
with references). Hudson’s identiﬁcation of Margaðr with this Murchadﬁts with Snorri’s implied date for the miracle of c.1061; Hudson suggests that Guthormr may have accompanied Murchad on his raid on
the Isle of Man in 1061 (when he received tribute from EchmarcachRƒgnvaldsson, who was by then king of Man) before they fought eachother over the spoils (1988, 263).
33/31 the vigil of the feast] The saga accounts imply that the commemoration of Óláfr’s martyrdom (29 July) rather than of his translation (3 August) is referred to (cf. Hudson 1988, 265 n. 5).
34/8 he attacked] Geisli, AM 325 and Snorri record that this battle
took place in the Menai Strait.
34/9 overthrew] Latin prosternit (prostravit, Storm 1880, 134; cf.
Hudson 1988, 261). Snorri records that Margaðr fell, ‘died’, in thebattle (HSig(Hkr) 136). The identiﬁcation of Margaðr with Murchad
mac Diarmata depends on Murchad escaping from this defeat, as hedied in Dublin in 1070; Hudson explains Snorri’s verb as a mistransla-

NOTES

111

tion of the Latin, but it is in fact unlikely that Snorri made direct use of
the Latin text; he does seem to have used a text similar to Hom. (cf.
Whaley 1987, 328–29), which reads ‘þa lagðe hann við iorðu
konungen’ (Hom. 113; ‘then he laid the king to the earth’, i. e. killedhim). A similar difﬁculty arises, however, with the identiﬁcation ofMargaðr with Echmarcach Rƒgnvaldsson, since he died in Rome in
1065 (cf. Hudson 1988, 260).
34/13 a silver cross] Snorri implies that it was still in the cathedralwhen he was writing (i. e. c.1220–30; HSig(Hkr) 137).
34/17 Óláfr’s holy merits] The Passio lacks a doxology at the end of
this miracle and an introductory clause at the beginning of the next
which are found in Hom. 113 and Ólhelg(Leg) 212.
34/18–35/27 Cf. Geisli stt. 51–56; Acta Olavi II:iii; Hom. 114 (iii);
AM 325, 35 (1r5–9); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 92; SepÓlhelg ch. 267;
Hákherð(Hkr) ch. 21, Msk 65–66. Of the miracles found in both the
Passio and Geisli this is the only one to appear in a different positionin the two works; it is the thirteenth and penultimate miracle in Geisli,preceding the healing of the English priest, in what Holtsmark calls its
original place (1956, 23).
34/20–22 Not content . . . the earth] Cf. Psalm 18: 5 (19: 4).
34/24 the emperor] In Hkr the emperor is named as Kirjalax(Hákherð(Hkr) ch. 21), that is Kyrios Alexios (Lord Alexios), whom
Metcalfe (1881, 76 n. 6) identiﬁes with the Emperor Alexios I
Komnenos (r. 1081–1118). In Icelandic sources, however, the name
Kirjalax also became attached to other Byzantine emperors, particularly to Alexios’s son, John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43; co-regent from
1092; see Blöndal/Benedikz 1978, 122), and Blöndal/Benedikz (1978,
148–50) take the battle referred to here to be the Battle of Beroë in1122, in which John II defeated the Pechenegs (a Turkish tribe who
lived along the lower Danube) on his Balkan frontier. Sandaaker, however, notes that Msk 65 associates the miracle with Haraldr harðráði
and has a blind king see Óláfr though no one else can see him, while
AM 325 states that the enemy were bolgar ‘Bulgarians’, not Pechenegs;

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MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI

he therefore argues that the battle is more likely to have been that inwhich the Bulgarian revolt of 1040–41 led by Peter Deljan was suppressed, although the story changed over time so that the enemy became heathen in later versions and the motif of the blind king seeing
St Óláfr lost its importance (Sandaaker 1991). Norse sources state thatthe battle took place at Pétzínavellir. Blöndal/Benedikz suggest that
‘this curious place-name probably derived from the name of the warring tribe [i. e. the Pechenegs] rather than from any real ﬁeld-namenearby’ (1978, 148, cf. 153); Sandaaker, however, identiﬁes it withthe plains of Pc“inja, a tributary of the River Vardar in Macedonia.
Geisli, AM 325 and Snorri state that 450 (i. e. 540) Varangians(Scandinavian mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine emperor;
see note to 51/24 below) were involved, and that the odds against the
Byzantine forces were sixty to one (for the last point cf. Ólhelg(Leg)214). For a comparison of Norse and Greek accounts of the battle see
Blöndal/Benedikz 1978, 148–53. In Geisli and Hkr the account of thisbattle is preceded by a miracle which explains how the Byzantine
emperor came to know of St Óláfr: a sword called Hneitir which Óláfr
discarded when fatally wounded in the Battle of Stiklarstaðir ends up
in the possession of a Varangian, from whom the Emperor learns aboutSt Óláfr and buys the sword, installing it above the altar of the Byzantine church of St Óláfr attended by the Varangians (Geisli stt. 43–45;
Hákherð(Hkr) ch. 20; cf. next note).
35/3–5 a church . . . Virgin Mary] Greek sources attribute John II’s
victory at Beroë to the intervention not of St Óláfr, but of the Virgin
Mary (cf. Blöndal/Benedikz 1978, 151, 185). Whereas AM 325 andHákherð(Hkr) ch. 21 state that this church was dedicated only to StÓláfr, the Bergsbók hybrid text of Snorri’s saga of St Óláfr states thatthe dedication was to both Óláfr and Mary (SepÓlhelg 834). The statement at this point in the Passio that the church is to be dedicated toÓláfr and Mary is apparently contradicted below, where it is said theemperor has a church built in honour of Mary only (35/18–19). Blöndal/
Benedikz believe it ‘highly probable’ that there was a church constructed by the Varangians in Constantinople consecrated to the Virgin Mary and St Óláfr (1978, 152–53). The oldest church known from
Byzantine sources to have been used by the Varangians was dedicatedto Mary; Blöndal/Benedikz suggest ‘it was probably this one that was

NOTES

113

built after John II’s victory at Beroë’ (1978, 186), and that ‘it is morethan likely that it contained a chapel dedicated to St Olaf, over whose
altar the sword [Hneitir; see previous note] was placed’ (1978, 153).
35/7–8 The martyr appeared . . . the Christians] Sandaaker suggeststhat this miracle story may be inﬂuenced by Byzantine cults of warrior saints such as Saints George and Demetrios (1991, 92, 96); on
such cults see Delehaye 1909. In a miracle which is not recorded in
the Passio Olavi Óláfr grants victory to his son Magnús góði in battle
against pagan Wends at Hlýrskógsheiðr (Geisli st. 28; Ágrip ch. 38;
Theodoricus ch. 24; Fsk ch. 50; Msk 42–44; Mgóð(Hkr) chs 27–28).
Two other Scandinavian royal saints also grant supernatural assistancein battle: St Magnús of Orkney, whom late medieval traditions credit
with decisive interventions in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 (Bathoand Husbands 1936–41, II 277) and the Battle of Summerdale in 1529
(Cody and Murison 1888–95, II 218–19); and St Knútr lávarðr, who
assists Valdimarr Knútsson of Denmark against the pagan Wends(Knýtlinga saga 292).
35/8–9 an illustrious standard-bearer] Norse texts have him riding ona white horse (e. g. Msk 65; Hákherð(Hkr) ch. 21), an animal also
associated with Saints George and Demetrios (Sandaaker 1991, 92).
35/28–36/29 Cf. Geisli stt. 35–36; Acta Olavi II:iv; Hom. 115 (iv);Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 93; SepÓlhelg ch. 268; HSig(Hkr) ch. 56.
35/29 Denmark] This miracle story suggests that the cult of St Óláfr
became established in Denmark from an early date (cf. ‘Now it happened . . . great reverence’, 36/6–9 below).
ofﬁcial] Latin prepositus. Probably a reeve, bailiff or local magistrate (Storm 1880, 136; Metcalfe 1881, 78); the vernacular texts referto him as greiﬁ, ‘count’.
35/30 the unjust judge] The parable of the unjust judge is in Luke 18: 1–8.
35/30–31 feared not God . . . regarded man] Luke 18: 2.
36/26–27 changed to stones] These stones appear in iconography

114

MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI

associated with the saint; Icelandic churches dedicated to Óláfr hadstones carved from lava as reminders of this miracle (cf. DI I 710 n. 2).
36/30–37/19 Cf. Geisli stt. 37–38; Acta Olavi II:v; Hom. 115–16 (v);
AM 325, 35–36 (1r9–25); Ólhelg(Leg) chs 94; 101; SepÓlhelg ch.
276; Msona(Hkr) ch. 30. This and two of the next three miracles arelinked by the healing of tongues which have been cut out.
36/32 A certain boy] In the second of the two versions of this miraclein Ólhelg(Leg) (ch. 101) the boy’s name is given as Kolbeinn and thatof the person who cut out his tongue as Þóra, mother of King Sigurðr
munnr (who died in 1155). A monk of Niðaróss called Hallr is said tohave seen the healed boy (Ólhelg(Leg) 229). Snorri also gives the boy’s
name but says that Þóra was the mother of Sigurðr Jórsalafari (d. 1130;
Msona(Hkr) ch. 30).
37/4 loud lamentations] The difﬁculty of doing this after having had
his tongue cut out is here disregarded; contrast the behaviour of the
English priest below (‘His mouth . . . more tellingly’ 38/31–32).
37/10 a man of middle height] The ﬁrst of three allusions to Óláfr’s
medium height (cf. 43/22, 56/21); at 73/29 he is described as short.
Ideally a king would be a tall man (cf. Msona(Hkr) ch. 21). In Norsesources Óláfr is nicknamed inn digri, ‘the stout’ or ‘fat’. On physicaldescriptions in Old Norse literature see Helgi Þorláksson 1979, especially pp. 174–80.
37/20–26 Cf. Geisli stt. 40–41; Acta Olavi II:vi; Hom. 116 (vi); AM
325, 36 (1r25–9); Ólhelg(Leg) chs 99, 101; SepÓlhelg ch. 277;
Hsona(Hkr) ch. 24.
37/20 A certain other man] Called Halldórr in Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 101,
where the date is given as a fortnight before the earlier of St Óláfr’s
feast days in the year of Nicholas Breakspear’s visit to Norway (i. e.
15 July 1152/53). Snorri also gives his name as Halldórr but gives thedate as a fortnight before the later of St Óláfr’s feast days (i. e. his
Translation, 3 August), giving a date of 20 July.
Slavs] Speciﬁcally Wends; cf. vínðr in Hom. 116.

NOTES

115

37/27–34 Cf. Acta Olavi II:vii; Hom. 116 (vii); SepÓlhelg ch. 274;
Mberf(Hkr) ch. 22. Of the ﬁrst nine miracles in the Passio this is the
only one that is not also in Geisli.
38/1–39/21 Cf. Geisli stt. 58–61; Acta Olavi II:viii; Hom. 117–18 (viii);
AM 325, 36 (1v2–9); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 96; SepÓlhelg ch. 278;
HSona(Hkr) ch. 25.
38/4 two brothers] Storm (1880, 138) attributes the phrase ‘Brøðr tveir
váro í Vic austr’ in Hom. (117; ‘There were two brothers east in Vík’;followed by Ólhelg(Leg) and Snorri) to a misreading of the Latin duo
viri fratres (‘two men [who were] brothers’). Snorri gives the brothers’ names as Einarr and Andréás, sons of Guthormr grábarði
(HSona(Hkr) 334).
38/8 a certain English priest] Ólhelg(Leg) and Snorri give his name as
Ríkarðr (Richard).
39/21 MS Douai 295 follows this miracle involving the mutilated priest
with a miracle story involving an English knight. This additional miracleis also preserved in the Helsinki fragment edited by Malin (1920, 12–14) and in the Rawlinson and Bordesholm manuscripts and later vernacular texts (cf. Introduction p. xxx above). Skard states that this is
the story’s correct place (1932, 2), although he inserts it later in his
own translation (Skard 1970, 53–54), at the point immediately before
the Corpus Christi College Oxford text echoes the concluding sectionof the additional miracle (cf. 54/27 below). This conclusion is otherwise omitted in the Oxford manuscript, although it appears in translation at the end of the miracle collection in Hom. (but without the miracle involving the English knight which it follows in the Douai andHelsinki manuscripts). This additional miracle story tells of a knight(miles) from Britain who kills his brother and mother in a ﬁght over aninheritance, repents and then goes to the shrine of St Óláfr where he is
miraculously relieved of iron fetters with which he had bound himself
as a penance.
39/22–40/13 Cf. Acta Olavi II:ix; Hom. 118–19 (ix); Ólhelg(Leg) ch.
97; SepÓlhelg ch. 186; Ólhelg(Hkr) ch. 190. As the author admits,

116

MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI

this story is obviously out of place in a collection of posthumous miracles, although it appears here in all versions except Snorri’s; he places
it during the period of Óláfr’s exile in Russia.
39/24 Let us proceed] This phrase marks the end of the material which
Passio Olavi shares with Geisli; from this point there are only minimal differences between the text of the Passio and the translationin Hom.
39/31–2 the Lord’s Day] Cf. Exodus 20: 8–11; Deuteronomy 5: 12–15.
40/9–10 Thus was . . . in Babylon] For the story of the three young
men who remained unharmed when burned in a ﬁery furnace by
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon see Daniel 3.
40/14–41/25 Cf. Acta Olavi II:x; Hom. 119–20 (x); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 97.
40/30–31 Their iniquity . . . gross heart] Cf. Psalm 118 (119): 70.
40/33 A true lawgiver] On Óláfr as a lawgiver see note to 29/7 above.
41/10–11 rooted . . . precipice] alte fixa manebat. Cf. Aeneid ii:650.
41/24 the archbishop] This reference necessarily dates the occurrenceof this miracle to after the establishment of the archiepiscopal see atNiðaróss in 1152/53.
41/26–42/6 Cf. Acta Olavi II:xi; Hom. 120 (xi); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 98;
SepÓlhelg ch. 273; Mberf(Hkr) ch. 21. This is the ﬁrst of several miracles in the collection in which Óláfr saves buildings from destruction
by ﬁre.
41/28–29 the city] I. e. Niðaróss.
42/7–45/19 Cf. Hom. 120–23 (xii); Ólhelg(Leg) chs 98–99; SepÓlhelgch. 275; Msona(Hkr) ch. 31. This and the following miracle are absent
from Acta Olavi; Storm left blank spaces for them in his edition as
they are found in the vernacular translation of Acta Olavi in Hom.

NOTES

117

44/17 the dogs’ sense of smell] cf. Aeneid iv:132.
45/20–47/2 Cf. Hom. 123–24 (xiii); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 100.
46/4 nearly every month] Contrast ‘every month without exception’,line 29 below.
46/17–18 This kind . . . and fasting] Matthew 17: 20 (17: 21).
47/3–17 Cf. Acta Olavi II:xiv; Hom. 124 (xiv); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 101.
47/8–9 a certain priest of the Roman dispensation] I. e. not Eastern
Orthodox. The Latin reads: quendam latinum sacerdotem; Hom. renders
this ‘clærcs æins ok kenni-mannz’ (‘a cleric and a learned man’). The
priest was presumably attached to the church of St Óláfr in the city(cf. 52/4).
47/18–31 Cf. Hom. 124–25 (xv); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 102. This and thefollowing two miracles are absent from the Acta Olavi; Storm left
blank spaces for them.
47/32–48/16 Cf. Hom. 125 (xvi); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 102.
48/17–50/26 Cf. Hom. 125–27 (xvii); AM 325 (2r–v); Ólhelg(Leg)chs 103–04.
48/24–49/4 what the Enemy . . . spirit of pride] This passage alludes
to the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
(Genesis 3).
49/11–12 freedom . . . God] Romans 8: 21.
49/20–21 the Lord . . . of all] 1 Timothy 2: 4.
49/21 pitied . . . sheep] Cf. Matthew 18: 12.
50/10–12 Truly he had need . . . held him fast] Cf. Psalm 39: 3 (40: 2);
68: 3 (69: 2).

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MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI

50/27–51/22 Cf. Acta Olavi II:xviii; Hom. 127–28 (xviii; the text is
supplied from Ólhelg(Leg) as this and the next one and a half miracles
are missing from the manuscript owing to the loss of a leaf; see Hom.
127 n. 2); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 105; SepÓlhelg ch. 271; Ólkyrr(Hkr) ch. 6.
50/29 the year] I. e. 1152/53. Snorri’s account has these miracles occur on the ﬁrst anniversary of the consecration of Christ Church (i. e.
St Óláfr’s feast day 1077).
50/31 pallium] A ‘circular band of white woollen material with two
hanging strips and marked with six dark purple crosses which is wornon the shoulders by the Pope and granted by him to archbishops’ as asymbol of their authority (ODCC 1211, s. v. ‘Pallium’).
51/23–52/14 Cf. Acta Olavi II:xix; Hom. 128 (xix; supplied fromÓlhelg(Leg) ch. 106).
51/24 Varangian] The Varangians were a group of Scandinavian mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine emperor (see Pritsak in MSE
688–89; Blöndal/Benedikz 1978). The Ólhelg(Leg) version of thismiracle seems to take Varangian as equivalent to ‘Norwegian’ (‘Þessgato þo marger menn, at hann minndi norrœn vera, ﬁrir þui at hanngerðe vapn þau iamnan oc bio, er Væringiar æinir nyta’ (Ólhelg(Leg)234); ‘By this many people guessed that he was a Norwegian, because
he made and prepared those weapons which only the Varangians use’).
Skard (1970, 49) translates ‘ein mann frå Norderlanda’ and notes (1970,86) that some Scandinavians went to Byzantium as merchants, others
to join the emperor’s guard.
52/2–4 Now this woman . . . at all hours] Cf. Luke 2: 37.
52/15–53/5 Cf. Acta Olavi II:xx (Storm’s text ends abruptly in the ﬁrst
sentence of this miracle story, as he was unaware of the existence ofCorpus Christi College Oxford MS 209; see Introduction pp. xxvi–
xxix above); Hom. 128–29 (xx; the manuscript lacuna in Hom. ends
halfway through this miracle, at 129/10); Ólhelg(Leg) ch. 107.
52/17–18 the place . . . his blood] I. e. at Stiklarstaðir. A later miracle
in the collection also takes place there (72/18–73/8).

NOTES

119

52/29–31 the stone . . . his blood] In Orkneyinga saga ch. 104 thesame is said of the stone on which St Rƒgnvaldr, Earl of Orkney, shedhis blood.
53/5 stricken] The miracle collection in Hom. ends here. The following miracles are found only in the text of the Passio Olavi preserved in
Corpus Christi College Oxford MS 209.
53/27 the eighth . . . Epiphany] The feast of the Epiphany, marking thevisit of the Magi to the infant Jesus, is on 6 January. Major feasts suchas this acquired a secondary celebration eight days later (counting inclusively) on their ‘octave’; from the twelfth century the celebrations
were observed thoughout the intervening week (cf. ODCC 1173, s. v.
‘Octave’).
54/8–24 Compare the additional miracle involving an Englishman in
the Douai, Helsinki, Rawlinson and Bordesholm manuscripts and in
the fragmentary hybrid version of Snorri’s saga of St Óláfr from AM
235 fol. printed in Unger 1877, II 182. Metcalfe (1881, 96 n. 4) draws
attention to a similar miracle attributed to St John of Beverley in an
Appendix to Ketell’s Miracula sancti Johannis eboracensis episcopi
written c.1170–80 (ed. Raine 1879–94, I 308–09) and suggests thisstory may have been transferred to Óláfr.
54/24 arrived] Skard includes the story of the English knight at thispoint in his translation (1970, 53–54); see note to 39/21 above.
54/27–32 Henceforth . . . in recent times] Gunnes takes this clear narrative shift to more recent times as indicative of the beginning of a
new section added to an earlier version of the work (1973, 3; 11 n. 9).
There is an echo here of the concluding section of the miracle collections found in the Douai and Helsinki manuscripts and in Hom. (cf.
note to 39/21 above).
54/29 listener] This again implies the text is to be read aloud (cf. 32/5).
55/14–17 Moreover . . . received] The ﬁrst occasion on which the authorvouches for the truth of the miracle story on the basis of his own ﬁrsthand experience; whether the ‘author’ here is Eysteinn or an earlier

120

MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI

writer whose work he revised depends on the extent of his involvement in the composition of this section of the miracula (called B in
the Introduction above, pp. xxxvi–xxxvii).
55/29 the construction of his church] Eysteinn began the rebuilding ofNiðaróss cathedral on succeeding to the archiepiscopate in 1161 andoversaw the construction of the transept and chapter house (sacristy).
56/6 forty] Latin essent. The manuscript copyist appears to have taken
XL (= forty) in his exemplar as the contracted form of essent or esset(cf. Metcalfe 1881, 98 n. 5). Forty marks was the wergild in Norway
in the twelfth century.
57/21–22 in a part of Europe beyond the southern mountains] Latin inprouintia europa trans montes australes. Metcalfe (1881, 100 n. 1)
argues that the context suggests that somewhere in Norway south of
Dovrefjell is meant, with ‘Europa’ perhaps being a scribal mistake fora Norwegian place-name. There seems, however, no compelling reason to discount his alternative suggestion that the ‘southern mountains’ are the Alps. Skard (1970, 87) draws attention to the possibilityof reading Eyjabu (i. e. Øyer in Gudbrandsdalen) for Europa, so thatthe waterfall would be Hunderfossen.
58/33–59/1 the frailty . . . many sons] Since this deacon was a monk
(59/5) he would have taken a vow of celibacy. This story takes on further
signiﬁcance, however, in the light of Archbishop Eysteinn’s promotionof celibacy among the secular clergy as part of the Gregorian reforms.
59/31–60/9 This miracle resembles that involving the two fratricidal
and matricidal French brothers, 54/8–24 above.
60/13 Þórðr . . . Norwegian] Latin nomine Thordus, dictus norwaice
inair. This is strange; ‘Þórðr’ is as Norse a name as inair, i. e. ‘Einarr’.
Metcalfe suggests that inair might be read mair, and this taken as a
scribal error for the Old Norse nickname mær, ‘maiden’ (1881, 102
n. 3; cf. Skard 1932, 6 n. 1).
61/6 King Eysteinn] Eysteinn Magnússon (r. 1103–23) or Eysteinn
Haraldsson (r. 1142–57).

NOTES

121

61/12 such a sweet fragrance] A commonplace of medieval hagiography.
61/19 Bishop Eysteinn] Technically, Eysteinn was archiepiscopus, notepiscopus, though in terms of the three major orders of the sacred
ministry (deacon, priest, bishop) an archbishop of course remains abishop. Metcalfe suggests an English scribe may have been unawareof Eysteinn’s true title (1881, 104 n. 1).
61/29–30 suffer with those in afﬂiction] Romans 12: 15.
64/6 the feast of Saint Michael] The feast of St Michael the Archangelis on 29 September.
64/23 the feast of the blessed Mary] It is not clear which Marian feast
is referred to.
65/34–66/1 coming . . . the right] Skard refers to a pre-Christian folkbelief that the left was the stronger side, replaced by a Christian belief
that the right side was stronger (1970, 87).
67/1 Lundr] The see of Niðaróss belonged to the province of Lundr
from the establishment of the archiepiscopal see there in 1104 untilNiðaróss was itself raised to metropolitan status in 1152/53.
67/18–19 Estonia . . . the faith] The ﬁrst organised mission to Estonia
took place c. 1170 under Fulk, who was consecrated Bishop of theEstonians in 1167. A number of raids were subsequently made on the
country, culminating in Valdimarr II of Denmark’s crusading invasionin 1219 (Rebane 1989; Christiansen 1997, especially pp. 109–13).
68/32–33 Finally . . . the despot] Cf. Luke 11: 22.
69/15–17 tasting . . . hope in him] Cf. Psalm 33: 9 (34: 8).
70/6–7 to become a public spectacle] Cf. 1 Corinthians 4: 9.
70/13 ﬁsh . . . was over] The eating of ﬁsh was, however, normallypermitted during the Lenten fast when the eating of meat was forbidden.

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MIRACULA BEATI OLAVI

70/34 there is no concord . . . Belial] Cf. 2 Corinthians 6: 15.
72/16 the Holy Annunciation] This feast is observed on 25 March.
72/23 a nearby community . . . monks] This is the earliest known reference to the Cistercian order in Scandinavia; on the Cistercians in
Norway see France 1992, 72–98. Of the three certain Cistercian foundations in Norway, the nearest to Stiklarstaðir was Tautra monastery,
but this was not founded until 1207. France (1992, 92–98) discusses
evidence for a fourth Cistercian monastery, at Munkeby, a short distance from Levanger in northern Þrándheimr (Trøndelag), and argues
that this is ‘almost certainly’ the monastery referred to here (1992, 96).
72/24–25 the church . . . martyrdom] I. e. the church whose building
and dedication are referred to in 52/16–21 above.
73/19 the hospital] A hospital near the cathedral is mentioned in a
diploma of King Eiríkr Magnússon dated 13 November 1298 (DN I 80).
73/20 three men] Óláfr frequently appears as the leader of a group of
three saints in iconography, mostly of much later date than the Passio;
the saints who accompany him are usually the Scandinavian royalmartyrs St Knútr Sveinsson of Denmark and St Erik of Sweden, though
he also appears with other saints; see Nyberg 1981.
74/25 miracle] There is no explicit, and the remainder of this leaf inthe manuscript is blank (sixteen lines and the verso).

INDEXES123

INDEXES
Modern equivalents of place-names are given in parentheses. Approximate
regnal dates are given for historical rulers. See the notes for instances where
genealogical information in the texts translated here does not agree with othersources. Since the texts are not consistent in the use of patronymics and nicknames, characters with the same ﬁrst name are listed here in order of ﬁrst
appearance.
Personal namesAðils/Aðísl, son of Óttarr 13/18
Diana, classical goddess 13/20
Ælfgifu, wife of Knútr Sveinsson, Dómaldi, son of Vísburr 12/23
mother of Edmund by previous mar- Dómarr, son of Dómaldi 12/25
riage to King Æthelred 25/16
Dyggvi, son of Dómarr 12/26
Æthelred, English king (978–1016) Edmund [Ironside], English king
24/4, 24/23(1016), son of Æthelred 24/22, 25/9,
Æthelstan, English king (924–39)
25/10, 25/13
14/27, 15/13
Egill Vendilkráki, son of Aun 13/10
Agnellus, dedicatee of Historia Nor- Eiríkr, brother of Alrekr 12/31
wegiae (see note) 1/27
Eiríkr blóðøx (Bloodaxe), Norwegian
Alrekr, son of Dagr 12/30, 12/31
king (928–33), son of Haraldr hárAnbi, voyager to Iceland 10/16
fagri 14/26, 15/3, 15/12, 15/14,
Ásta, daughter of Guðbrandr kúla,
15/20, 17/4, 17/34
wife of Haraldr the Grenlander and Eiríkr, son of Earl Hákon, ruler ofmother of St Óláfr; later wife of
Norway (999–1015) 21/4, 22/7,
Sigvarðr Sow and mother of Haraldr
22/23harðráði 17/19, 17/22, 17/25
Erlingr, son of Eiríkr Bloodaxe 15/10,
Ástríðr, wife of Tryggvi, mother of
16/13Óláfr Tryggvason 17/31, 18/11
Erlingr the Old 17/2
Aun, son of Jƒrundr 13/7, 13/10
Eysteinn, son of Aðils 13/20
Belial, ancient Canaanite deity 70/34 Eysteinn Fart, son of Hálfdan WhiteBera, wife of Ingjaldr son of Hƒgni 13/3
leg 14/3
Bergljót, daughter of Þórir the silent, Eysteinn, son of Haraldr hárfagri 14/34
mother of Earl Hákon 18/24
Eysteinn, Norwegian king (see note)
Bernard, bishop 25/33
61/6
Bjƒrn, son of Haraldr hárfagri 14/29, Eysteinn, Bishop, [Eysteinn/Øystein
17/15
Erlendsson, Archbishop of Niðaróss
Braut-¯nundr, son of Yngvarr 13/24
1161–88] 61/19, 62/5
Ceres, classical goddess 12/24
Fasti, brother of Óttarr of Denmark
Dagr, son of Dyggvi 12/27
13/17
Devil, the, Enemy (of humankind), Fjƒlnir, son of Freyr 12/15
Ancient Adversary 48/18, 48/25, Freyr, son of Njƒrðr 12/13, 12/15
49/1, 49/5, 49/10, 49/13, 49/19, Gamli, son of Eiríkr Bloodaxe 15/9,
65/26
16/8

124

HISTORY OF NORWAYGarðarr, discoverer of Iceland 10/15 Haraldr the Grenlander, son of GuðGormr, Danish king, father of Gunnrøðr, father of St Óláfr 17/17, 24/20
hildr 15/6
Haraldr, son of Sigvarðr Sow [NorweGormr, son of Eiríkr Bloodaxe 15/10,
gian king (1045–66)] 17/25
16/13
Henry [I, king of England (1100–35)]
Grímkell, bishop 25/33
9/25
Guðbrandr kúla, father of Ásta 17/20 Hjƒrleifr, settler in Iceland 10/12
Guðrøðr the Hunter-king, son of Hálf- Hringr, son of Haraldr hárfagri 15/2
dan 14/10
Hrólfr, son of Haraldr hárfagri 15/2
Guðrøðr, son of Haraldr hárfagri 14/30 Hrólfr/Gƒngu-Hrólfr [Rollo], count ofGuðrøðr, son of Bjƒrn 17/17
Normandy (c. 911–c. 925) 9/2, 9/19,
Gunnhildr, daughter of Gormr of Den9/26
mark and Þyri; wife of Eiríkr Blood- Hƒgni, son of Alrekr 12/31
axe 15/5, 15/7, 15/18, 15/22, 16/5, Ingjaldr, son of Hƒgni 13/1
16/8, 16/13, 16/26, 18/17
Ingjaldr, son of Braut-¯nundr 13/27
Gunnrøðr, son of Haraldr hárfagri Ingólfr, settler in Iceland 10/11
14/30
Ingvi, father of Njƒrðr 12/11
Gunnrøðr, son of Eiríkr Bloodaxe Isaiah, Old Testament prophet 26/15
15/9, 16/27, 16/31
Ívarr víðfaðmi 13/28
Guthormr, Norwegian chieftain in Jaroslav, Russian ruler (1019–54)
Ireland, nephew of St Óláfr 33/9,
25/25, 30/2
33/23
Jeremiah, Old Testament prophet
Hálfdan White-leg 13/33–34
26/14
Hálfdan, son of Eysteinn Fart 14/7
Job 28/4
Hálfdan the Black 14/12
Johannes, bishop 20/26, 23/18
Hálfdan High-leg, son of Haraldr Jƒrundr, son of Ingjaldr 13/4
hárfagri 14/31, 17/7
Jƒrundr, son of Haraldr hárfagri 14/34
Hálfdan, son of Sigvarðr risi 17/24
Karkr, slave and slayer of Earl Hákon
Hákon, Norwegian king (933–59), son
20/33
of Haraldr hárfagri and foster-son Karl, boy healed by St Óláfr 73/16
of Æthelstan 14/27, 15/12, 15/24, Knútr Sveinsson, Danish and English
16/16, 17/4
king (1016–35), 24/2, 24/7, 24/13,
Hákon the Bad, Norwegian Earl (974–24/32, 25/10, 25/14, 31/294), son of Sigvarðr 18/17–18, Knútr the Hard, son of Knútr Sveins20/31, 21/4, 22/7, 23/15
son, king of Denmark (1035–42)
Haraldr hárfagri (Finehair), Norweand of England (1040–42) 25/17
gian king (858–928), son of Hálfdan Margaðr, King of Dublin 33/13
the Black 8/24, 10/11, 14/19, 17/3, Margaret, sister of Óláfr of Sweden,
17/15, 17/23, 17/28–29
betrothed to St Óláfr, marries JaroHaraldr Greypelt, son of Eiríkr Bloodslav 25/22, 25/27
axe 15/8, 16/26
Mary, Blessed Virgin, 35/5, 35/19,
Haraldr, Danish king (940–86), son of
46/10, 64/23
Gormr 15/22
Merlin 9/25

INDEXES

125

Michael, St, 64/6
Sigvarðr, father of Earl Hákon 18/23
Njƒrðr, son of Ingvi 12/13
Skorri 18/8
Nórr 2/11
Skreyja 18/8
Óláfr Tree-feller, son of Ívarr víðfaðmi Solinus 11/8
13/30, 13/33
Solomon 28/18
Óláfr, son of Haraldr hárfagri 14/28, Stephanus, priest in Hólmgarðr 47/9
17/28
Svegðir, son of Fjƒlnir 12/16
Óláfr Haraldsson, St, Norwegian king Sveinn, son of Earl Hákon 21/4
(1015/16–1030) 17/13, 17/20, Sveinn [Forkbeard], king of Denmark
23/19, 23/20, 24/4, 24/8, 24/16,(986–1014) and of England (1013–
24/34, 25/5, 25/21, 25/30, 25/31,
14) 21/4, 21/20, 21/23, 22/5, 22/9,
26/1–74/25 passim
22/19, 22/22, 23/15, 24/1, 24/2, 24/5
Óláfr Tryggvason, Norwegian king Sveinn, son of Knútr Sveinsson 25/16(994–99) 17/13, 18/15, 19/9, 19/12, Tryggvi, son of Haraldr hárfagri 15/2
19/33, 20/1, 20/22, 20/31, 21/6, Tryggvi, son of Óláfr, king in Rauma21/20, 21/24, 22/5, 22/9, 22/27,
ríki 17/29, 18/3
23/12, 23/17
Tunni 13/11
Óláfr, Swedish king (995–1022) 22/6, Vanlandi, son of Svegðir 12/18, 12/20
22/21, 24/16, 25/21
Vémundr vƒlubrjótr 16/31
Orkan 8/1
Vísburr, son of Vanlandi 12/21
Óttarr, son of Egill Vendilkráki 13/16 William Longspear, son of GƒnguÓttarr, Danish earl 13/16
Hrólfr, count of Normandy (c. 925–
Richard, count of Normandy (942–96),942) 9/20
son of William Longspear 9/21
William the Bastard, count of NorRichard, count of Normandy (996–
mandy (1035–87), king of England1026), son of Richard 9/22
(1066–87) 9/23
Ruðólfr, bishop 25/33
William Rufus, king of EnglandRƒgnvaldr 8/26
(1087–1100) 9/24
Rƒgnvaldr réttilbeini, son of Haraldr Yngvarr the White, son of Eysteinn
hárfagri 14/31–32, 17/8
13/22, 13/24
Saxi 18/8
Yngvarr, son of Haraldr hárfagri 15/1
Sigfrid 25/33
Þangbrandr, priest, missionary to the
Sigtryggr, son of Haraldr hárfagri 15/1
Icelanders 20/26
Sigvarðr, brother and slayer of Braut- Þorkell klyppr 16/33¯nundr 13/25
Þórðr/‘Inair’ 60/13
Sigvarðr risi (the Giant), son of Haraldr Þórólfr Louse-beard 19/1
hárfagri 14/29, 17/22–23Þórir the Silent 18/24
Sigvarðr Gleam, son of Eiríkr Blood- Þórir 63/22
axe 15/9, 16/27, 16/29
Þyri, mother of Gunnhildr 15/7
Sigvarðr Sow, step-father of St Óláfr Þyri, sister of Sveinn of Denmark, wife
17/21, 17/24
of Óláfr Tryggvason 21/21, 23/11

126

HISTORY OF NORWAY
Place-names and names of peoples

African islands 3/5
Faroese, the, 21/13
Africans 8/23–24
Faroe islands, Færeyjar 10/1–3
Agnaﬁt (identiﬁed with Stockholm in Fitjar 16/11
the text: see note) 12/33
Flanders 19/25
Alreksstaðir (Årstad) 16/21, 16/32
Frisia 19/25
Alv valleys (Alvadalene) 4/25
Frisians 9/27
Angrar (Hangran) 55/31
Fræði (Frei) 16/7
Angrmannaland (Ångermanland) 2/23 Galicia 59/32
Babylon 40/10
Gaulardalr (Gauldalen) 20/33–34
Baltic Sea 2/22, 13/23, 23/25
Gautar 13/21, 19/22
Baltic shores 19/19
Gautland (Götaland) 2/22, 4/20
Bergen 16/33, 61/4
Gotland 23/27
Bjarmaland 2/27, 3/32–33
Greeks 34/30
Bjarmians 2/32
Greenland 3/2, 4/6
Britain (Wales/Cornwall: see note) 20/1 Greenlanders 2/32, 3/6
Britons 24/9
Grenland (southern Norway) 17/16,
Caithness 8/32
17/18
Chartres 54/9
Guðbrandsdalar (Gudbrandsdalen)
Charybdis 4/1
4/26
Constantinople 34/22, 35/16, 35/24 Gula (western Norway) 3/21, 7/30,
Danes 12/27, 13/5, 13/17, 15/6, 15/23,
16/11; Gulaþing 4/30, 21/26, 21/29
19/22, 21/25, 24/1, 24/8, 24/12, Haddingjadalr (Hallingdalen) 4/29
24/28; a Danish youth 42/9; a Haðaland (Hadeland) 14/33, 17/11
Danish deacon 58/32
Hálogaland (Hålogaland) 3/29, 18/25–
Decapolis 3/16
26
Denmark 2/21–22, 3/19, 13/6, 13/18, Hákonarhella/‘Hákon’s Stone’ (Håkons15/5, 21/4, 21/20, 21/29, 23/33,
hella) 16/24
24/11, 26/4, 35/29, 61/8
Heiðmƒrk (Hedmark) 4/25
Dofrafjall (Dovrefjell) 4/27
Hekla, Mount (volcano in Iceland)
Dublin 8/33, 33/13
10/22
Eapolis (= Hólmgarðr: see note) 23/23 Himinheiðr 13/25
England 8/32, 15/13, 15/15, 15/26, Holland 9/29
19/26, 24/2, 24/14, 25/31, 27/2
Hólmgarðr (Novgorod) 19/15, 23/23,
English, the 8/31, 9/24, 14/28; an Eng47/5, 51/33
lish priest 38/8
Horn-Lapps 2/27
Estonia 19/5, 67/18
Hringaríki (Ringerike) 4/23
Estonians 19/9
Hringisakr (Ringsaker) 67/2
Ethiopian, an, 7/2
Iceland 2/30, 10/7, 10/18, 53/28
Etna, Mount (volcano in Sicily) 10/23 Icelanders 3/4, 20/27, 21/13
Europe 3/5, 57/21
Ireland 8/33, 19/27, 33/6, 33/9
Eyland (Öland) 23/28
Irish, the, 8/32
Eysýsla (Ösel/Saaremaa) 13/24, 19/6, Italians 10/8
23/26
Jamtaland (Jämtland) 2/23

INDEXES

127

Jerusalem 54/17
Rendal 63/21
Jómsborg 19/23
Rouen 9/5, 27/4
Kirjalians 2/26
Russia 19/5, 19/11, 19/13, 23/21, 23/29,
Kurlanders 23/30
25/25, 29/25, 30/1–2, 47/5, 51/24
Kvænir 2/27
Rýgjarbit (Gjærnestangen?) 3/20
Lapps 2/20, 3/30, 5/8, 5/9, 5/12, 6/9, Rƒnd, Lake, (Randsfjorden) 14/16
6/10, 6/21, 6/24, 7/15, 7/16, 7/21, Saxons 4/33
70/29
Scotland 7/31–32, 8/14, 8/33, 19/27
Ljoxa (Leksa) 71/24
Scots 8/31
Limafjƒrðr (Limfjorden) 13/6
Scylla 4/1
Lóar (Lom) 4/26
Shetlanders 21/13
London 24/21, 25/7
Sjáland (Sjælland/Zealand) 21/23, 22/3
Lundr 67/1
Skjótansvað/Vápnavað (unidentiﬁedMiðja (Mia) 3/22
location in Poland/East Prussia)Mjƒrs (Mjøsa) 4/32
12/28
Mœrr (Møre) 3/23, 18/25, 54/32
Skrælings (see note) 3/7
Niðaróss (Trondheim) 64/25, 67/5
Slavland 21/22
Norð-Mœrr (Nordmøre) 16/8
Slavs 19/22, 19/24, 22/1, 37/20, 42/9
Normandy 9/5, 9/18, 9/26
Sogn 60/24
Northumbria 8/32, 15/17
Sólund islands (Solund) 7/30
Northumbrians 15/19
Sólund Sea 7/32, 8/26
Norway 1/1, 2/9, 2/10, 2/11, 2/25–26, Spain 15/22, 24/10
2/30, 3/12, 3/15, 3/31, 4/19, 5/10, Spanish brothers, two, 59/31
6/11, 7/24, 7/26, 7/31, 8/5, 8/25, Stiklarstaðir (Stiklestad) 31/5, 53/18
9/33, 12/7, 12/11, 15/14, 15/25, Stockholm 13/1
16/27, 17/21, 17/27, 18/15–16, Sweden 2/22, 12/10, 12/12, 12/25, 13/1,
18/20, 20/25, 21/29, 23/14, 25/32,
13/32, 14/1, 19/1, 19/4, 30/9, 51/13
26/3, 34/21, 39/33, 52/15
Swedes 12/23, 18/22, 22/7
Norwegians 9/15, 10/12, 10/17–18, Thames, River, 24/25
13/34, 19/22, 20/29; a Norwegian Tryggvareyrr/‘Tryggvi’s Cairn’ 18/2–3
33/10
Ultima Thule 10/9
Orcadians, Orkney islanders 17/8, Uttorgar (in Hålogaland) 64/31
21/13
Valdres 4/29
Orkney, the Orkney islands, the Orkneys Vápnavað/Skjótansvað 12/28
7/32, 8/6, 8/12, 9/31, 18/13, 18/29 Varangians 51/24, 51/28
Oslo 5/4
Vegistafr 3/32
Papar 8/7, 8/19, 8/27
Vendill (Vendel) 13/17
Papey 8/21
Vík (Oslofjorden) 3/18, 4/33, 17/32
Paradise 21/19, 48/25
Vƒrs (Voss) 16/31
Pictland 8/12
Yarmouth 24/21
Pictland Firth (Pentland Firth) 8/14 Ytterøya 49/5
Picts 8/7, 8/8Þelamƒrk (Telemark) 4/24, 47/18
Ranríki 17/34, 18/5
Þótn (Toten) 14/2
Rastarkálfr 16/7
Þrándheimr (Trøndelag) 3/26, 4/21,
Raumaríki (Romerike) 4/23, 17/30
12/10, 19/3, 20/34, 21/26

Sótanes

Central and South Norway

Sweden and the Baltic

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