Peeps at Many Lands: NorwayMockler-Ferryman, A. F. (Augustus Ferryman)
History
Peeps at Many Lands: Norway
Mockler-Ferryman, A. F. (Augustus Ferryman)
Norway -- Description and travel
Then there are the stories of the two Olafs--Olaf Tryggvasson and
Olaf the Saint, each of whom took part in many a fight on British
soil, each of whom was the champion of Christianity in Norway
and fought his way to the throne, and each of whom fell in battle
under heroic circumstances, the one at Svold (A.D. 1000), the other
at Sticklestad (A.D. 1030). To us it is interesting to know that
King Olaf Tryggvasson, on one of his early Viking expeditions, was
baptized in the Scilly Isles, that as his second wife he married an
Irish Princess, and that for some time he lived in Dublin. To the
Norwegians he is a Norse hero of the greatest renown, who during his
short reign of barely five years never ceased to force Christianity
on the heathen population, and who, at the age of thirty-one, came to
an untimely end. His fleet was ambuscaded and surrounded, and when
his men had made their last stand he refused to surrender. Neither
would he suffer the ignominy of capture or death at the hands of
his enemies; so, with shield and sword in hand, and in full armour,
he leaped overboard, and immediately sank. For years afterwards his
faithful people believed that he would appear again, and many fancied
that, on occasions, their hero's spirit visited them.
Everyone knows the old triumphant line, "London Bridge is broken
down," yet few are aware that the words are translated from an old
Norse song, and fewer still could say who broke down the bridge. The
story goes that this was accomplished by the other Olaf, afterwards
known as St. Olaf. He and his Vikings had allied themselves with
Etheldred the Unready against the Danes, who held the Thames above
London Bridge. The bridge itself, which in those days was a rough
wooden structure, was densely packed with armed men, prepared to
resist the advance of the combined fleets. But Olaf drove his stout
ships against it, made them fast to the piers, hoisted all his sail
and got out his oars, and succeeded in upsetting the bridge into
the river, thus securing victory for Etheldred. But that was before
Olaf gained the throne of Norway. What he did as King of that country
would take too long to tell here. Every district of Norway possesses
legends bearing on his visits when engaged in converting the people to
Christianity, and describing his powers of working miracles. Everywhere
the name of St. Olaf still remains engraven on the country. His death,
however, was that of a soldier--on the battle-field; and the lance
which Norway's patron saint carried in his last fight may even now
be seen by the altar in Trondhjem Cathedral.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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