Battle of Stiklestad The Battle of Stiklestad ( , Old Norse : " Stiklarstaðir " ) in 1030 is one of the most famous battles in the history of Norway . In this battle , King Olaf II of Norway ( Old Norse : " Óláfr Haraldsson " ) was killed . He was later canonized . His younger half - brother , Harald Sigurdsson , was also present at the battle and would in 1047 go on to become King of Norway , only to die in a failed invasion of England in the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 . Harald was only fifteen when the battle of Stiklestad took place . Background . During the 9th century , Norway was divided between several local kings controlling their own fiefdoms . By the end of the century , King Harald Fairhair ( Old Norse : " Haraldr Hárfagri " , " Harald Hårfagre " in modern Norwegian ) managed , mainly due to the military superiority gained by his alliance with Sigurd Ladejarl of Nidaros , to subjugate these mini – kingdoms , and he created the first unified Norwegian state . This alliance came apart after Harald ' s death . The jarls of Lade and various descendants of Harald Fairhair would spend the next century interlocked in feuds over power . As well as power politics , religion also played a part in these conflicts , as two of the descendants of Harald Fairhair , Hakon the Good and Olaf Tryggvason attempted to convert the then heathen Norwegians to Christianity . In the year 1000 , Svein ( Old Norse : " Sveinn " ) and Erik ( Old Norse : " Eiríkr " ) of Lade took control over Norway , being supported by the Danish King Svein . In 1015 , Olaf Haraldsson , representing the descendants of Harald Fairhair , returned from one of his Viking trips and was immediately elected as King of Norway . In June 1016 , he won the Battle at Nesjar against the Jarls of Lade . Olaf Haraldsson ' s success in becoming King of Norway was helped by the Danes being kept occupied with the ongoing fighting in England . In the year 1028 , the Danish King Cnut the Great made an alliance with the Lades , and Olaf had to go into exile in Novgorod ( Old Norse : " Garðaríki " ) . In the year of 1029 the last Lade , Hakon Jarl , drowned and Olaf returned to Norway with his army to regain his throne and the Kingdom of Norway . Battle . According to saga sources , he traveled with his 3 , 600 man army through Sweden and crossed the mountains into the valley of Verdal ( Old Norse : " Veradalr " ) , about north of the city of Trondheim . Olaf and his men arrived at Stiklestad , a farm in the lower part of the valley . This was where the Battle of Stiklestad took place , as described by Snorri Sturluson in his famous work " Heimskringla " , written about 200 years later . At Stiklestad , Olaf met an army led by Harek of Tjøtta ( Old Norse : " Hárekr ór Þjóttu " ) , Thorir Hund from Bjarkøy and Kálfr Árnason , a man who previously served Olaf . The peasant army consisted of one hundred hundred according to Snorri , which in long hundred s means 14 , 400 , and not 10 , 000 . He states that the battle cry of Olaf ' s men was " Fram ! Fram ! Kristmenn , krossmenn , kongsmenn ! " ( Forward ! Forward ! Men of Christ , men of the cross , men of the king ! ) , while that of the opposing army was " Fram ! Fram ! Bonder ! " ( Forward ! Forward ! farmers ! ) . According to Snorri , Olaf received three severe wounds — in the knee , in the neck , and leaning against a large stone the final mortal spear thrust up under his mail shirt and into his belly . While earlier sources do not specify who dealt the king his blows , Snorri makes Thorir Hund responsible for the latter , using the spear that had killed his nephew and set the fallout between the king and Thorir in motion . The king ' s body was carried away and buried secretly in the sandy banks of the Nidelva River south of the city of Trondheim . Aftermath . The year after the battle , his grave and coffin were opened and according to Snorri the body was incorrupt and the hair and nails had grown since he was buried . The coffin was then moved to St . Clement ' s Church in Trondheim . Olaf came to be venerated as a saint and given the name " Saint Olaf " . Stiklestad Church ( " Stiklestad kyrkje " ) was erected on top of the stone against which he died . The stone is supposedly still inside the altar of the church . One hundred years later , Nidaros Cathedral was built in Trondheim on the site of his original burial place . Olaf ' s body was moved to this church and enshrined in a silver reliquary behind the high altar . This reliquary took the form of a miniature church , common to medieval reliquaries containing the entire body of a saint , but was unique in that it is said to have had dragon heads at the apex of the gables similar to those still seen on Norwegian stave church es . In the 16th century , during the Protestant Reformation period , Olaf ' s body was removed from this reliquary , which was melted down for coinage by order of the Dano - Norwegian king . His remains were reburied somewhere in Nidaros Cathedral — exactly where is still today an unsolved mystery . Queen Josephine of Leuchtenberg of Norway and Sweden , the consort of Oscar I , asked for the one known remaining relic of St . Olaf , an ulna or radius in a medieval reliquary in the Danish National Museum , from King Frederick VII of Denmark , which he gave to her and which she in turn gave to St . Olaf ' s Cathedral in Oslo in August 1862 . Evaluation . While Snorri ' s description of the battles in the Heimskringla makes for epic reading , a lot of its grandeur most likely must be put down to the writer ' s taste for the grand . In Gardarike , Olaf was only surrounded by his most loyal followers . Neither can one expect that recruitment was especially ample in Sweden or through the sparsely populated valleys through which Olaf travelled . Thus , Olaf ' s army probably was of a rather rag - tag character , an impression accentuated by tales of how local robber groups would join it as Olaf made his way down Verdal . The recruitment of robber gangs and other scofflaws was likely no surprise to the polytheistic heathens that opposed Olaf ' s attempts to forcibly convert them by murdering and torturing regional Jarls and Kings to terrorize them into accepting Christianity . In fact , why Olaf chose to travel through the politically hostile Trøndelag , rather than to try to rally his relatives and political allies of Eastern Norway , is to this day an unsolved mystery . Perhaps he was making a last - ditch attempt for Nidaros , hoping to win acceptance for his claim to the throne amongst the peasants of Trøndelag . On the other hand , the opposition , basically lower nobles and grand farmers under the influence of King Cnut , could not have had much time to assemble a large force . When alerted to Olaf ' s presence , they must have responded swiftly , considering that they met Olaf relatively far up in the valley . Therefore , their action points more towards a small , hastily arranged rally of men rather than the elaborate logistics that would have been needed to assemble a 10 , 000 man strong army . Those who could have mobilized a large scale army , the local nobles of Trøndelag ( of which Einar Thambarskelfir was a prime example ) were notable largely by their absence on either side . Also , a battlefield of a raging battle between nearly 20 , 000 men should have produced rich archeological findings to that effect ; at Stiklestad , however , these are sparse . This however , is common in Norway - the rocky soil is not as well suited to battlefield archaeology like continental and English soil , it makes georadar readings all but unusable and the location of the battle site highly uncertain . On Stiklestad , however , the soil is deep soil with some clay , and georadar has been used in 2008 , showing traces of large buildings , but not much to indicate a battlefield . As is the case with most battles mentioned in the sagas , the sizes of the battling armies are probably impossible to determine . Olaf ' s role in Norwegian history had only just begun at his death . While nobles and rich farmers had expected their position to improve with the removal of the aggressive Olaf , the opposite happened . The rule of Cnut ' s mistress and their infant son Svein was exceedingly harsh on the people . Especially the church , a traditional ally of Olaf , came under the squeeze . Thus , it accentuated the late king ' s martyr status , as it joined and egged on common folk in revolting against the hardships enforced by the succeeding Danish rule . Propaganda proclaiming how heroic Olaf ' s last stand had been made for great nation - building material in the immature Norwegian state where the warrior ethic of the Vikings and their Gods and Goddesses were still highly revered . According to Snorri , even nature lent a hand , as the day of the battle coincided with a nearly full solar eclipse , as reflected in the description of an ill - fated ' blooded red sun ' , which was interpreted as a certain omen of bad things to come . However , the solar eclipse took place at about 2 : 00 p . m . on August 31 that year contrary to the traditional date of the battle on July 29 . Olaf , a rather stubborn and rash ruler , prone to torturing and murdering those who refused to submit to Christianity , ironically became Norway ' s patron saint . His canonization was performed only a year after his death by the bishop of Nidaros . The cult of Olaf not only unified the country , it also fulfilled the conversion of the nation , something for which the king had fought so hard . While divisive in life , in death Olaf — " rex perpetuus Norvegiae " , the eternal king of Norway — wielded a unifying power no foreign monarch could hope to undo . Cnut , most distracted by the task of administering England , managed to rule Norway for five years after the battle through his viceroy son Svein . However , when Olaf ' s illegitimate son Magnus ( dubbed ' the Good ' ) laid claim to the Norwegian throne , Cnut had to yield . Thus , a century of prosperity and expansion followed , lasting until the kingdom again descended into a civil war over succession . Legacy . In 1901 , poet Per Sivle wrote a poem " Tord Foleson " , about King Olaf ' s standard - bearer at the battle . Foleson was able to plant the banner before he died , and it remained standing throughout the battle , even after the king fell . It was kept erect and replaced by the local populace for centuries , and a memorial stands at the site today . The most famous line of the poem , " Merket det stend , um mannen han stupa " ( ' The symbol stands , even when the man falls ' ) , is inscribed on the memorial in Stalheim , Norway . It is also on the inscription wall in the Bergen - Belsen concentration camp memorial site . In July 1954 , the owner of the farm at Stiklestad gave permission for the performance of a play based on the battle on his property . The Saint Olav Drama ( ) is an outdoor theatre performance played every end of July in Stiklestad . The play was written by Olav Gullvåg and has been staged every year since 1954 . Annually , people travel to Stiklestad to watch " The Saint Olaf Drama " at what is now the largest outdoor theatre in Scandinavia .