Olaf Guthfrithson or Anlaf Guthfrithson was a Hiberno-Scandinavian leader who ruled Dublin and Viking Northumbria in the 10th century.
11 Facts About Olaf Guthfrithson
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Olaf Guthfrithson was the son of Gofraid ua Imair and great-grandson of Imar, making him one of the Ui Imair.
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Olaf Guthfrithson died in 941 and was succeeded in Northumbria by his cousin Olaf Guthfrithson Cuaran.
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Olaf Guthfrithson is then recorded as allying with Matudan mac Aeda, overking of Ulaid and raiding as far as Sliabh Beagh, where they were met by an army led by Muirchertach mac Neill of Ailech, and lost 240 men in the ensuing battle along with much of their plunder.
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Olaf Guthfrithson is described as "Lord of the Foreigners" by the Annals of the Four Masters in 937, at which time he went to Lough Ree and captured Amlaib Cenncairech, King of Limerick, and his troops after breaking their boats.
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In 941 the Chronicle of Melrose records that Olaf Guthfrithson raided an ancient Anglian church at Tyninghame in what is the East Lothian and at the time was a part of Northumbria.
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Olaf Guthfrithson died in 941 and he was succeeded in Northumbria by Olaf Guthfrithson Cuaran.
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Olaf Guthfrithson is known to have conducted raids on Auldhame and Tyninghame shortly before his death in 941.
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Olaf Guthfrithson's father is identifiable as Gofraid, who was king of Dublin between 920 and 934, and briefly ruled Northumbria in 927.
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John of Worcester, writing in the twelfth century, claimed that Olaf Guthfrithson had married a daughter of Constantine II of Scotland prior to 937, but this evidence is considered unreliable.
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The thirteenth century chronicler Roger of Wendover wrote that Olaf Guthfrithson married Aldgyth, the daughter of a Northumbrian earl called Orm as a consequence of the agreement at Leicester between Olaf Guthfrithson and King Edmund.