37 Facts About Olaf Tryggvason

Olaf Tryggvason was King of Norway from 995 to 1000.

Olaf Tryggvason was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken, and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of Norway.

Olaf Tryggvason is said to have built the first Christian church in Norway in 995, and to have founded the city of Trondheim in 997.

Olaf Tryggvason is mentioned in some contemporary English sources, and some skaldic poems.

Olaf Tryggvason was three years old when they set sail on a merchant ship for Novgorod.

Olaf Tryggvason became the possession of a man named Klerkon, together with his foster father Thorolf and his son Thorgils.

Olaf Tryggvason was then sold to a man called Reas for a fine cloak.

Olaf Tryggvason saw a boy who did not appear to be a native.

Olaf Tryggvason asked the boy about his family, and the boy told him he was Olaf, son of Tryggve Olafson and Astrid Eiriksdattir.

Still according to Heimskringla, one day in the Novgorod marketplace Olaf Tryggvason encountered Klerkon, his enslaver and the murderer of his foster father.

Only after Allogia had paid blood money for Olaf Tryggvason did the mob calm down.

Olaf Tryggvason decided that it was better for him to seek his fortune elsewhere, and set out for the Baltic.

Heimskringla states that after leaving Novgorod, Olaf Tryggvason raided settlements and ports with success.

Olaf Tryggvason ruled the part of Wendland in which Olaf had landed, and Olaf and his men were given an offer to stay for the winter.

Olaf Tryggvason accepted and after courting the Queen, they were married.

Olaf Tryggvason began to reclaim the baronies which while under Geira's rule had refused to pay taxes.

Later, during one of their conversations, Olaf Tryggvason asked Geira if there were any towns that she had lost control over.

Olaf Tryggvason was part of this army because his father-in-law was king of Wendland.

Olaf Tryggvason felt so much sorrow from her death that he could no longer bear to stay in Wendland, and set out to plunder in 984.

In 988, Olaf Tryggvason sailed to England, because a thing had been called by Queen Gyda, sister of Olaf Tryggvason Cuaran, King of Dublin.

Gyda and Olaf Tryggvason married, and spent half their time in England and the other half in Ireland.

Thorer befriended Olaf Tryggvason and told him of the situation in Norway, that Jarl Haakon had become unpopular with the populace, because he often took daughters of the elite as concubines, which was his right as ruler.

Olaf Tryggvason quickly grew tired of them and sent them home after a week or two.

Olaf Tryggvason had been weakened by his fighting with the Danish king, due to his rejection of the Christian faith.

When Olaf Tryggvason met the rebels they accepted him as their king, and together they started to search for Haakon.

Olaf Tryggvason held a meeting just outside the swine-sty and promised a great reward for the man who killed Haakon.

The next day Kark went to Olaf Tryggvason and presented him the head of Haakon.

King Olaf Tryggvason did not reward him, and instead decapitated him.

Olaf Tryggvason then demanded that they all be baptized, and most reluctantly they agreed.

In 997, Olaf Tryggvason founded his seat of government in Trondheim, where he had first held a thing with the revolters against Haakon.

Olaf Tryggvason baptized the explorer Leif Ericson, who took a priest with him back to Greenland to convert the rest of his kin.

Olaf Tryggvason converted the people and Earl of the Orkney Islands to Christianity.

Olaf Tryggvason died at the sea Battle of Svolder when his forces were defeated by a combined armada from Denmark, Sweden and the Jarls of Lade.

Saxo Grammaticus says that Olaf Tryggvason preferred suicide to death at the hands of the enemy and jumped overboard in full armour rather than see his foes victorious.

Olaf Tryggvason's invasion was defeated by forces loyal to Cnut the Great's son Svein Knutsson.

For some time after the Battle of Svolder, there were rumors that Olaf Tryggvason had survived his leap into the sea and had made his way to safety.

Olaf Tryggvason routinely used force to compel conversion to Christianity, including execution and torture of those who refused.