The Viking Saint: Olaf II of Norway

Olaf II Haraldsson, a Viking king, combined toughness and audacity with a burning missionary faith to Christianize Norway and extirpate heathenism. He was canonized a saint 134 years later, remaining Norway's patron saint and a legendary warrior.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 28 June 2022
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd

The Vikings and sainthood are not concepts that are often associated with each other. However, Norway's King Olaf II Haraldsson (c. 995-1030) exemplified both to an exceptional degree. As a battle-hungry teenager, he nearly single-handedly brought down London Bridge (as depicted in the nursery rhyme) and participated in numerous other Viking raids. Olaf possessed none of the traditional Viking qualities of toughness and audacity, yet his routine baptism transformed into a burning missionary faith that was all the more remarkable for being combined with his typically Viking determination and energy, and sometimes ruthlessness as well. His overarching mission was to Christianize Norway and eradicate heathenism. His relentless efforts, often at great peril to his life, earned him the Norwegian throne in 1015, when he was barely in his twenties. For the next fifteen years, he labored against immense odds to subdue the rebellious heathen nobles of Norway while fending off Swedish hostility. Both finally combined against Olaf in 1030, when he fell bravely in battle, not far from Trondheim, still in his mid-thirties. After his body was found to possess healing powers, and reports of them spread from Scandinavia to Spain and Byzantium, Olaf II was canonized as a saint 134 years later. He remains Norway's patron saint, as well as a legendary warrior. Yet, more remarkably, he remains a saint not only of the Protestant church but also of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches - perhaps the only European fighting saint to achieve such acceptance.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399087810