Olav I. Tryggvason

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King Olav Tryggvason by Nicolai Arbo
"ONLAF REX NORmannorum". Only four copies of Olaf Tryggvason's silver penny survive today.

Olav I. Tryggvason (* 968 ; † September 9, 1000 in the Svolder ) was a Norwegian king who ruled from 995 to 1000. In Old Norse was his name Óláfr Tryggvason and coined by him Silberpfennig coins he describes himself in the Latin inscription as "OOVRU REX NOR" (short for: Onlafus rex Normannorum ). In a contemporary Anglo-Saxon text it is called "Anlaf" and in the Latin translation "Analavus".

Olav Crow's Leg

The chronicler Adam of Bremen and Saxo Grammaticus have Olav nicknamed Craccaben ( Krakaben given d. H. "Crowleg") because Olav, despite its partially bordering on cruelty Christian zeal allegedly in pagan manner of bird bones have had probable and prophesy.

Life

The sources on Olav I. Tryggvason are very thin. Sæmundur fróði and the contemporary scholars around him made King Olav Tryggvason a descendant of Harald I ("fair hair"). His parents were Tryggve Olafsson and Astrid. Some sagas let Tryggvi be king of Viken (area by the Oslofjord), others of Oppland . Astrid is said to have been from Obrestad (now part of municipality ) on Jæren (south of Stavanger ). His connection to Vestland , explained in this way, was strengthened by the fact that he married his sister, who was also called Astrid, to Erling Skjalgsson in Sola (near Stavanger). Erling was the richest and most powerful man in Vestland.

Since Olav was later regarded as the first truly Christian king, legends could not fail to be formed. The saga authors had little reliable material, and so they resorted to adventure motifs and clichés from the saints' lives, which in turn had biblical models. The accounts of his youth resemble Jesus' childhood story. The biblical flight into Egypt from Herod becomes here the flight to the east from the evil Queen Gunnhild , mother of the sons of Erik . During this escape, like Joseph in the Old Testament, he was sold as a slave. Like David executed Saul's murderer, he also executes Håkon Jarl's murderer. His predecessor, Håkon Jarl, was stylized as a heather as an evil contrasting figure, a lusty pig who did not obey any laws. This whole tradition has no historical value.

Snorri reports that Olav fought in the army of the Wendish prince Boleslaw , who was his father-in-law, at the Danewerk . That would have been 974. Soon after, his wife is said to have died. Before Olav became king in 995, he had been on raids as a Viking for a long time . He is said to have extended it far to the east and west, but especially to the British Isles . He is also said to have looted in France. It is possible that he is the occasion reported in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle as a Viking chief at the end of the 10th century. Anlaf participated in a failed attack on London in 994 under Svend Tveskæg . Afterwards he is said to have devastated large areas until King Æthelred paid him 16,000 pounds for peace. English sources report that he was then baptized by a bishop with Æthelred as godfather and that he promised not to attack England again. According to other sources, Olav was baptized by a hermit in the Isles of Scilly in 994 .

As a result, he Christianized the Orkneys according to the Orkneyinga saga by placing Jarl Sigurd of Orkney in front of the alternative: baptism or head off . As a precaution, he took Sigurd's son with him to Norway as a hostage. In the meantime he married Gyda of Ireland , daughter of the Viking king Olaf Cuaran ( Dublin ), and spent his time managing her estates in England and Ireland.

In 995 he finally returned to Norway to assert his claim to the throne against Håkon Jarl , a vassal of the Danish king Svend Tveskægs. When he landed in Trøndelag , however, he was already on the run from rebellious farmers. The Trøndian farmers made Olav king. Starting from Trøndelag, Olav I. united Norway directly or indirectly under his rule.

Three places make the Christianization of Norway in his kingdom: Nidaros , Dragseidet (a Thingplace on a peninsula in the municipality city ) and Moster, a district of Bømlo between Haugesund and Bergen . Here Olav is said to have established Christianity at a thing meeting. Church construction began in these three places. In Nidaros resistance arose against Christianization, which he broke militarily. Resistance leader Skjegge Asbjørnson, known as "Jernskjegge", fell. To seal the peace that was subsequently concluded, Olav is said to have married his daughter Gudrun Jernskjeggsdottir. This is said to have tried to stab him on their wedding night. He then chased them away. If this story is true, then Gudrun had the shortest tenure of any Norwegian queen, just a few hours.

In 997 he initiated the Christianization of the Faroe Islands by making Sigmundur Brestisson his follower. At the same time he initiated the proselytization of Iceland , whose inhabitants adopted Christianity in the course of the year 1000. He married Tyra, the sister of the Danish king Sven Gabelbart , in Danish Svend Tveskægs.

After only five years of reign he failed due to his clumsy policy towards Svend Tveskjæg and his hostility to Erik Håkonsson , the son of the murdered Håkon Jarl . He had married Sven's daughter Gyda and thus joined the Danish king. For unknown reasons, Olav Tryggvason got involved in the fighting between the Duke and later King of the Poles Boleslaw I , the Swedish King Olof Skötkonung and Svend Tveskæg, and the Yom Vikings . He went to the Baltic Sea with a fleet of eleven ships to negotiate with the Polish ruler. He himself was on the ship Ormurin langi , the largest ship ever built in Norway after the Sagas. On the way back there was a sea battle with a Swedish-Danish fleet near Svolder on September 9, 1000 , in which Olav was killed. You don't know where 'Svolder' is. According to the Icelandic sagas , it is said to have been near Rügen , Adam von Bremen takes a job on Øresund . However, the latest research is considering the Greifswalder Bodden and the island of Vilm in its northern part, called Rügischer Bodden , as a lake and combat area.

According to another account, his wife Tyra Haraldsdatter , daughter of the Danish King Harald Blauzahn , is said to have ordered him to take the trip so that she could ask for her dowry from Boleslav, with whom she was previously married. There are many different versions.

See also:

List of wives and children

  • Geira daughter of the Wendish duke Boleslav
  • Gyda of Ireland , daughter of the Viking king Olaf Cuaran
    • Tryggve († 1030)
  • Gudrun, daughter of Skegge Asbjörnsson
  • Tyra of Denmark (suicide † September 18, 1000), daughter of King Harald I. Blue Tooth , sister of Sven Gabelbart .
    • Harald (999–1000)

reception

  • Of Theodor Fontane 's poem comes Olaf Kragebeen , in which the author discusses the last battle and the death of Olav Tryggvasons.
  • Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote, among other things, the poems Olav Trygvason and Landkjending (German: land detection / And that was Olav Tryggvason ). The latter was set to music by Edvard Grieg in 1872 (op. 31).
  • The Norwegian mine-layer Olav Tryggvason , launched in 1932 , was named after him.

Notes and individual references

  1. "OOVRU REX NOR - Olav, King of the Norwegians" at: dokpro.uio.no
  2. "OOVRU REX NOR - Olav, King of the Norwegians" at: dokpro.uio.no
  3. Anglo-Saxon text excerpt: “ / is synd ða friðmal / ok / ða forword, ðe Æthelred cyng / ok / ealle his witan wið ðone here gedon habbað, ðe Anlaf / ok / Iustin / ok / Guðmund Stegitan sunu mid wæron. ". Latin translation: "Hec sunt uerba pacis et prolocutiones, quas Æþelredus rex et omnes sapientes eius cum exercitu firmauerunt, qui cum Analauo et Iustino et Guðmundo Stegitam filio uenit." "Diplomatarium Norvegicum (volumes I-XXI)" at: dokpro.uio. no
  4. Volker Scior: The own and the foreign - identity and foreignness in the Chronicles of Adam von Bremen, Helmolds von Bosau and Arnolds von Lübeck , page 127f . Akademie Verlag , Berlin 2002
  5. Ekkehard Eickhoff: Emperor Otto III., The first turn of the millennium and the development of Europe , page 142 . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1999
  6. Anton Tappehorn: Life of St. Ansgar, the apostle of Denmark and Sweden, and the history of the preparation of Christianity in North skandinanischen , page 258f . Theissing'schen Buchhandlung, Münster 1863
  7. According to Snorri, he is said to have been married to his daughter Geira.
  8. Nils Petter Tuesen: "Gudrun Jarnskjeddedatter og Harald Tyra Datter" in: Norges dronninger gjennom tusen år. Oslo 1991. p. 18.
  9. ^ Olav I. Tryggvason . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg, Eugen Fahlstedt (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 30 : Tromsdalstind – Urakami . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1920, Sp. 536 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

literature

  • Walter Baetke : The Svoldr problem . In: Reports on the negotiations of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig . Phil.-hist. Klasse, vol. 58, Berlin 1951, pp. 59-135
  • Johannes Bröndsted: The great time of the Vikings . Translated from the Danish v. Karl Kersten. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1964
  • Claus Krag: Olav 1 Tryggvason . In: Norsk biografisk leksikon
  • Lutz Mohr : About the Viking King's Battle on the Pomeranian coast on September 9, 1000 . In: Heimathefte für Mecklenburg-Vorpommern , Vol. 3, Schwerin 1993, pp. 31–39
  • Lutz Mohr: The Jomswikinger and their Jomsburg in Gau Jom. The military and maritime pillars of power in Denmark and centers of aggression in early medieval Pomerania . In: Karin Orth, Eberhard Kliem (Hrsg.): Yearbook 2012 of the German Society for Shipping and Marine History e. V. Isensee Verlag, Schleswig 2012, pp. 73-89
  • Lutz Mohr: Dragon ships in the Pomeranian Bay. The Jomswikinger, their Jomsburg and the Gau Jom . Series: edition rostock maritim, ed. by Robert Rosentreter . Ingo Koch Verlag, Rostock 2013, ISBN 978-3-86436-069-5

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Sven Gabelbart King of Norway
995–1000
Sven Gabelbart