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Olaf hears that the ruler of Norway has lost the support of his noblemen, and sails away from England to claim his crown.
Hakon Sigurdarson, Norway’s de facto ruler, has gone to ground after upsetting his noblemen. His rival, Olaf Tryggvason, recently returned from England, guesses that Hakon will seek out Thora of Rimol; but Thora has hidden Earl Hakon and his servant Karker beneath the floor of a pigsty.
Baldur was the toast of Valhalla, but Loki was determined to take him down.
In Think and Speak (1929), NL Clay challenged his pupils to stage a mock trial of Loki for the death of Baldur, Odin’s second son. Snorro Sturluson in The Younger Eddas, dating from 1223-23, doesn’t leave much room for doubt, unless we imagine that our Court is not privy to Loki’s shape-shifting wiles. These were the events, as Har explained them to Gangler.
Vige was the inseparable companion of swashbuckling Viking warlord Olaf Tryggvason, who picked him up in Ireland.
During the reign of Ethelred the Unready (r. 978-1016) the coasts of the British Isles were plagued by Viking warlords, none of whom was more trouble than Norwegian prince Olaf Tryggvason. In 988 he became a Christian and married Gyda, an Anglo-Irish heiress, but he did not settle down. Olaf and his Viking band continued to sail around the coasts, taking whatever they needed or wanted.
Snorro Sturluson records some of the miracles attributed to Olaf II, King of Norway, after Englishman Bishop Grimkell declared him a saint.
King Olaf II Haraldsson (?995-1030) ruled Norway from 1015 to 1028. A year after Olaf died in the Battle of Stiklestad on July 29th, 1030, Grimkell, English-born Bishop of Nidaros (Trondheim), glorified him as a saint. Here, Snorro Sturluson records some of the miracles that were reported at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, St Olaf’s shrine, where building began in 1070.
Magnus had just reasserted Norway’s authority over The Isles and Man, when he stumbled into a party of Normans harassing the King of Gwynedd.
In 1098, Magnus III ‘Barelegs’, King of Norway, boldly reasserted Norway’s authority over the Isles and Man, a realm of islands around Scotland’s coastline which the Vikings had dominated for over two centuries. Pleased with his progress, Magnus sailed on south to Anglesey, where he stumbled upon a party of Normans celebrating victory over Gruffudd ap Cynan, King of Gwynedd.
Barely a generation after Harald Hardrada narrowly missed out on taking the English crown, his grandson Magnus re-asserted Norway’s authority over The Isles and Man.
Vikings increasingly dominated the northern coasts of the British Isles after King Harald Fairhair united Norway’s petty kingdoms in 872, at the Battle of Hafrsfjord. After Godred Crovan, lord of The Isles and Man, died in 1095 his successor Ingimundr was assassinated, and King Magnus III ‘Barelegs’, who had chosen him, was not pleased. In 1098, Magnus set out from Trondheim with a large fleet.
Harald Hardrada made sure that his fate was never out of his own hands.
For a time, exiled Norwegian prince Harald Hardrada captained the Varangian Guard, Scandinavians in the service of the Roman Emperor. In 1038, he helped General Giorgios Maniakis win back Sicily from the Arabs, yet it annoyed Giorgios that Harald’s men always picked the best places to camp, and the matter nearly came to blows.