page_title: Olof Skötkonung
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Olof Skötkonung / Life
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Stadshuset fasad mittpartiet med skulpturer av Ansgar Almquist: Olof Skötkonung
context_page_description: Olof Skötkonung was King of Sweden, son of Eric the Victorious and, according to Icelandic sources, Sigrid the Haughty. He succeeded his father in c. 995. He stands at the threshold of recorded history, since he is the first Swedish ruler about whom there is substantial knowledge. He is regarded as the first king known to have ruled both the Swedes and the Geats. In Sweden, the reign of king Olov Skötkonung is considered to be the transition from the Viking age to the Middle Ages, because he was the first Christian king of the Swedes, who were the last to adopt Christianity in Scandinavia. He is associated with a growing influence of the church in what is today southwestern and central Sweden. Norse beliefs persisted in parts of Sweden until the 12th century, Olof being the last king in Scandinavia to adopt Christianity.
  Olof was victorious alongside Sweyn Forkbeard when the kings created an alliance to defeat the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason in the Battle of Svolder. After the Battle of Svolder, the victorious leaders split Norway into areas of control. Heimskringla gives the most detailed account of the division.
context_section_description: Our knowledge of Olof is mostly based on Snorri Sturluson's and Adam of Bremen's accounts, which have been subject to criticism from source-critical scholars. The eldest account by the German ecclesiastic chronicler Adam of Bremen (c. 1075), relates that Sweyn Forkbeard was expelled from his Danish realm by the Swedish King Eric the Victorious in the late 10th century. When Eric died (c. 995), Sweyn returned and regained his kingdom, marrying Eric's widow. Meanwhile, however, Olof had succeeded his father Eric, gathered an army, and launched a surprise attack against Sweyn. The Danish king was once again expelled while Olof occupied his lands. After this, however, the conflict was resolved. Since Sweyn had married Olof's mother he was reinstated on the Danish throne and the two kings were thereafter allies. Snorri Sturluson (c. 1230) and the other Icelandic saga writers likewise say that Sweyn married Olof's mother after the death of Eric the Victorious, however without mentioning any conflict. Also, Snorri describes Sweyn and Olof as equal allies when they defeated the Norwegian king Olav Tryggvason in the battle of Svolder 1000, and thereafter divided Norway between themselves (see below). It is commonly believed that Adam's account about Sweyn's defeats at the hand of Eric and Olof is partial and might have been misinterpreted; the marriage to Olof's mother may in fact have sealed Sweyn's precedence position.
caption: Olof Skötkonung as imagined by Ansgar Almquist in the 1920s, statue at Stockholm City Hall.
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-TZ20", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.1", "Image DateTime": "2012:07:14 07:09:55", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "636", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D3": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "12788", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8316", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "11/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:07:14 07:09:55", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:07:14 07:09:55", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "315/64", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Cloudy weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "176/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2292", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3152", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "11934", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "197", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}