The Battle of Stiklestad

By Shade McCurdy, Lawspeaker

In 872CE, Harald Fairhair became the first man to unite the many petty kingdoms of Norway and rule over all of them. After his death, the great kingdom fell apart to feuds and infighting among his descendants—over both politics and religion. Some of his later descendants include Haakon the Good and the infamous Olaf Tryggvason, who both made efforts to Christianize Norway at the end of the 10th Century.

Olaf Haraldsson II was also among the descendants of Harald Fairhair, who wanted to unite Norway into a single kingdom, as his legendary ancestor had once done. In 1015, after years of traveling and fighting in other lands in the North Atlantic, Olaf II returned to Norway. With the support of five petty kings in the north, Olaf II defeated the other petty kingdoms in the south and saw his victory achieved.

Olaf II also wanted Norway to be a Christian nation. Though the brutal reign of Olaf Tryggvason had largely driven the Old Customs underground, small pockets of Heathens still practiced our faith in secret. One of our heroes, Ólvir of Egg, was one of the devout Heathens who Olaf II had executed for leading his village in observing the ancient holidays.

By 1028, many Norwegian nobles had become hostile to their king. Some say that Olaf had a habit of accusing chieftains’ wives of sorcery to have them punished. Others were disgruntled about Olaf’s heavy taxation and centralization of power at the expense of their regional autonomy. These nobles supported the invasion of Cnut the Great, king of both England and Denmark, who went on to take the Norwegian throne and create the North Sea Empire.

Cnut was also a Christian, but unlike Olaf, he appeared to have sympathy for the Old Customs and Heathen lore, even including pagan themes in his praise poetry.

Olaf II was exiled to Kievan Rus. The exile did not last long, however. Less than two years later, Olaf was able to amass over 6,000 men, many of them being Swedish mercenaries, and made a plan to retake his throne... On July 29th, 1030, Olaf and his men arrived in the village of Stiklestad, where they thought they would have an easy time getting support from the locals. However, they were met by an army of over 14,000 rival jarls, farmers, villagers, and other men loyal to Cnut the Great. This “farmer army” was composed of both Heathens and Christians who were united in their opposition to Olaf’s return to power.

Among the leaders of the farmer army, two are notable.

First is Thorir Hund, who was a devout Heathen and a powerful chieftain in Halogaland. He had long opposed Olaf’s plans to unify and Christianize Norway. His nephew had been killed by one of Olaf’s sheriffs, for which Thorir took revenge, and was sentenced a heavy fine. He was later made a representative of Norway by Cnut.

Kálfr Árnason, a chieftain who was once Olaf’s close ally. He was married to Thorir’s sister, Sigrid, who was previously married to Ólvir of Egg until Olaf had him killed. After Olaf’s exile, Kálfr became one of his most outspoken opponents.

Olaf was slain by Thorir during the Battle of Stiklestad, with Kálfr’s help.

Ironically, Olaf’s death was a cause for the solidification of Christianity in Norway, as the Catholic Church canonized him as a saint and a martyr in the name of their faith. Cnut’s son, Svein, was put in charge of the Norwegian territories, and it’s said that he abused the local leadership even more greatly than Olaf had, spurring the Norwegians to throw off the rule of a foreign king just five years later.

As always, history is full of lessons for us to examine and apply to the modern day. Our folk always rise to combat the unjust rule of tyranny, even setting aside differences with other tribes to focus on a common cause—and sometimes the first few attempts have unforeseen consequences, but our folk persevere.

Remember the Battle of Stiklestad!