The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason’
In The Copybook
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason’
In The Copybook
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.
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.
Viking raider Olaf Tryggvason, newly converted to Christianity, threw his weight behind a Danish invasion of England.
After converting to Christianity, Olaf Tryggvason renounced his career as a self-employed pagan pirate. But the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that six years later he felt free to ally himself with King Sweyn of Denmark, a Christian, and challenge Ethelred the Unready for the English crown.
Viking raider Olaf Tryggvason, taking a break on the Isles of Scilly, cannot resist the temptation to hear his fortune told.
In 988, Norwegian prince Olaf Tryggvason took a break from raiding the coastal populations of the British Isles, and stayed for some time in the Isles of Scilly. Despite several years of service at Novgorod to Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kiev, Olaf was still a Norse pagan; yet rumours of a Christian hermit who could tell one’s fortune were too intriguing to ignore.
Zealous convert Olaf Tryggvason went from England to Norway to spread the Gospel, but it seemed the Lord did not like Olaf’s way of doing it.
When Olaf Trygvason returned from England to Norway in 995, he seized the crown of Earl Hakon and declared himself King with the intention of converting all Norway to Christianity. His method was to ask nicely and then slaughter anyone who refused; happily, in Rogaland a higher power than Olaf was at work.
An aristocratic widow advertises for a husband, and among the line-up of natty and noble suitors is a rough-and-ready Olaf Tryggvason.
In 984, exiled Norwegian prince Olaf Tryggvason lost his wife Geira, and went on a four-year grief-stricken rampage through Britain, before suddenly becoming a Christian in the Isles of Scilly. Hearing that Gyda, the King of Dublin’s sister, had summoned a Thing (a Viking council) to choose a husband, Olaf returned to England.