1029–1035
Stiklestad
In 1029 Haakon Eiriksson, Cnut’s jarl in Norway, is lost at sea, and Olaf Haraldsson sets out from Rus’ to win back his kingdom, leaving his young son Magnus in Rus’. Anund Jacob of Sweden gives him 400 men and guides through Dalarna, and the exile Dagr Hringsson joins him. Olaf gathers his army in Jämtland and crosses the mountains into Verdalen, about 80 km north of Trondheim.
The death of Saint Olaf on an altar frontal from Trøndelag, probably painted in Trondheim in the first half of the 14th centuryWikimedia Commons, unknown painter, Public domain (Olav der Heilige06.jpg)
At the farm of Stiklestad a farmers’ army under Thorir Hund, Kálfr Árnason and Hárek of Tjøtta, men who have taken Cnut’s side, meets him. Snorri Sturluson, writing about 200 years later, gives Olaf 3,600 men and the farmers 14,400. Olaf is wounded in the knee and the neck and killed by a spear thrust, and his fifteen-year-old half-brother Harald Sigurdsson escapes wounded. The traditional date is 29 July 1030, but the eclipse that Snorri places on the day of the battle fell on 31 August.
Thorir Hund spears Olaf at Stiklestad, painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo, 1859Wikimedia Commons, Peter Nicolai Arbo, Public domain (Stiklestad.jpeg)
On 3 August 1031 Bishop Grimketel has Olaf’s body raised and enshrined at Nidaros, and his cult spreads across the North. Cnut rules Norway through his son Svein and Svein’s mother Ælfgifu, whose new taxes and laws make them hated. Einar Thambarskelfir and Kálfr Árnason fetch Magnus from Rus’, and in 1035 the eleven-year-old is made king, while Svein flees to Denmark and dies there.
A coin of Magnus the Good struck in Denmark, drawn by Ole Andreas ØverlandWikimedia Commons, Ole Andreas Øverland, Public domain (Magnus den gode mynt p.jpg)
Sources
- Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, Saga of Olaf the Holy.
- Þórarinn loftunga, Glælognskviða (about 1030 to 1034).
- Kari Gade (trans.), Morkinskinna: The Earliest Icelandic Chronicle of the Norwegian Kings (2000).
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