The Baptism of Olaf Tryggvason
Viking raider Olaf Tryggvason, taking a break on the Isles of Scilly, cannot resist the temptation to hear his fortune told.
988
King Ethelred the Unready 978-1016
Viking raider Olaf Tryggvason, taking a break on the Isles of Scilly, cannot resist the temptation to hear his fortune told.
988
King Ethelred the Unready 978-1016
This post is number 1 in the series The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason
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.
tr. Samuel Laing (abridged)
WHILE Olaf Tryggvason lay in the Scilly Isles he heard of a seer on the islands, and what he foretold many believed was really fulfilled.* He therefore sent one of his men, who was the handsomest and strongest, clothed him magnificently, and bade him say he was the king. Now when the messenger came to the fortune-teller, and gave himself out for the king, he got the answer, “Thou art not the king, but I advise thee to be faithful to thy king.” And more he would not say to that man.
The man returned, and told Olaf, and his desire to meet the fortune-teller was increased. Olaf repaired himself to him, and asked him if he could foresee how it would go with him with regard to his kingdom, or of any other fortune he was to have. The hermit replies in a holy spirit of prophecy, “Thou wilt become a renowned king, and do celebrated deeds. Many men wilt thou bring to faith and baptism, and both to thy own and others’ good.”
Sturluson does not name the hermit. During the Middle Ages, a St Lide, Lyde or Elid was venerated at his grave on the island of St Helen’s, in the north of the Isles of Scilly; the archaeological remains discovered there so far suggest that he had been a bishop, and a contemporary of Olaf, and many have surmised that he was the hermit of this story, though there is no firm evidence for it. His feast is kept on August 8th.