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Biography of Olaf, II
Name: Olaf, II
Birth Date: c. 990
Death Date: 1030
Place of Birth: Norway
Nationality: Norwegian
Gender: Male
Occupations: king
Olaf, II
Olaf II Haroldsson (ca. 990-1030), also called St. Olaf, was king of Norway from 1015 to 1028. The first king of the whole of Norway, he organized its final conversion and its integration into Christian Europe.Olaf was a son of Harold Graenske, a magnate, or kinglet, in eastern Norway and presumably related to Harold I Fairhair, the first king of Norway. From an early age he partook in Viking expeditions to the Baltic, to England (1009-1011), and to the north of France (1012), where he was baptized at Rouen, having been converted either in England or in France. He returned to England, supporting Ethelred against Cnut the Great (1014), and was back in Norway in 1015.Western Norway was ruled by the two Lade jarls. This was the inheritance of King Harold Fairhair. Eastern Norway was ruled by a number of kinglets. After the death of King Olaf Trygvasson in the battle of Svolder (1000), both the …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…power of Olaf was evident months after his death, and even his enemies, the group around Svein, seem to have considered him the special guardian of the Norwegian monarchy. Olaf was the most popular of the medieval northern saints. His feast became one of the great turning points of the year; his tomb in the Trondheim Cathedral was the object of countless long pilgrimages; and Norway's traditional law came to be known as the law of St. Olaf. Further Reading A modern abridged English-language edition of the sagas, including the saga of St. Olaf, is From the Sagas of the Norse Kings by Snorri Sturluson (1967), utilizing the translation of Erling Monsen. For Olaf's place in Norwegian history see Halvdan Koht and Sigmund Skard, The Voice of Norway (1944); Wilhelm Keilhau, Norway in World History (1944); Karen Larsen, A History of Norway (1948); and T.K. Derry, A Short History of Norway (1957; 2d ed. 1968).
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