Some lose a battle and thereby win everything. On 29 July 1030 the Norwegian king Olav Haraldsson fell at Stiklestad, fighting against a peasant army. In life he had Christianised the land only with a hard hand; only his death made him Saint Olav – the “eternal king of Norway.” A look at a defeat that became a victory.
Olav Haraldsson wanted to unite Norway and make it Christian. But his harshness against the old customs and powerful chieftains made him enemies; supported by the mighty Cnut the Great, he was driven from the land. From the east he returned in 1030 with an army to win back his crown. At Stiklestad in Trøndelag a great host of farmers and opponents faced him.
Snorri Sturluson tells the battle at length in his Heimskringla: the clash of the hosts, Olav's last words, the deadly wounds. The king fell, his army was defeated. It was a clear defeat. Yet soon something happened that reversed the matter.
After Olav's death, reports of miracles at his body multiplied. Only a year later he was raised to sainthood. His grave in Nidaros (today's Trondheim) became the most important place of pilgrimage in the North; Olav was henceforth regarded as rex perpetuus Norvegiae, the “eternal king of Norway.” What failed him in life – truly winning the land for the new faith – his saint's cult achieved with ease.
He fell as a king and rose as a saint – and only then did Norway truly become Christian. Paraphrase of the tradition of the Olav cult (Heimskringla, Óláfs saga helga)
Stiklestad marks the turn: not through force but through veneration did Christianity prevail in Norway. From the contested king came a figure the whole land could gather behind. More about the other great age of upheaval in the North is in our pieces on Thyra Danebod and Harald Bluetooth's ring fortresses.
The Battle of Stiklestad (Trøndelag) took place on 29 July 1030; King Olav Haraldsson (Olav II) fell against an army of farmers and opponents, partly in the orbit of Cnut the Great. After his death a saint's cult arose quickly; canonisation followed as early as 1031, with Nidaros/Trondheim as its centre. Olav is regarded as the “eternal king of Norway.” The main source for the course of events is Snorri's Heimskringla (Óláfs saga helga), about 200 years later.
Snorri's detailed account is literature, not a protocol: it arose around 1230, a good two centuries after the battle. The famous “solar eclipse over Stiklestad,” too, is problematic – the astronomical eclipse of 31 August 1030 does NOT match the battle date of 29 July. What is certain are the date, Olav's death and the rapid saint's cult; many details of the saga are embellishment.
Thyra Danebod – Denmark's mightiest woman · Trelleborg – Harald's ring fortresses · Ribe & the North's first coins · Ragnar's sons.