He was son of Herald Grenscius, prince of Westfold in Norway, by
his wife Asta, daughter of Gulbrand Kuta, governor of Gulbrand’s
Dale or Valley. He delivered his country from the tyranny under
which the Swedes and Danes had for some time held it, whilst Norway
was divided between Sweno, king of Denmark, Olave Scot-Konung, son
of Eric, king of Sweden, and Eric, son of Hacon earl of Norway. In
1013, he sailed to England, and successfully assisted king Ethelred
against the Danes after the death of Sueno or Swayn their king. He
afterward waged war against Olaus Scot-Konung, king of Sweden, till,
making an advantageous peace, he took to wife the daughter of that
king.[340] These two princes about that time introduced the Romescot,
a small annual tribute yearly to be paid to the apostolic see.[341]
St. Olave brought over from England several pious and learned
priests and monks, one of whom, named Grimkele, was chosen bishop of
Drontheim, his capital. The holy king did nothing without the advice
of this prelate, and by his counsels published many wholesome laws,
and abolished such ancient laws and customs as were contrary to
the Gospel; which he did not only in Norway, but also in the isles
of Orkney and of Iceland; though the entire conquest of Orkney was
reserved to his son Magnus, who also subdued the isle of Man, as
Camden relates from the ancient Chronicle of Man.
Our religious king having settled his dominions in peace, set himself
to extirpate out of them the abominable superstitions of idolatry. He
travelled in person from town to town, exhorting his subjects to open
the eyes of their souls to the bright light of faith. A company of
zealous preachers attended him, and he demolished in many places the
idolatrous temples. The heathens rebelled, and with the assistance
of Canutus the Great, defeated and expelled him. St. Olave fled into
Russia, whence he soon after returned, and raised an army in order
to recover his kingdom, but was slain by his rebellious and infidel
subjects in a battle fought at Stichstadt, north of Drontheim, on
the 29th of July, 1030, having reigned sixteen years. These rebels
seem to have been in the interest of Canute the Great, who arrived
from England in Norway, took possession of that kingdom, and left
his nephew Hackin viceroy, but he being soon after drowned at sea,
Canute made his son Sweno viceroy of Norway. Saint Olave’s body was
honorably buried at Drontheim, and the year following bishop Grimkele
commanded him to be honored in that church among the saints with
the title of martyr. His son Magnus was called home from Russia in
1035, and restored to the throne. Sweno, who saw himself entirely
abandoned, fled into Sweden. Magnus exceedingly promoted the devotion
of the people to the memory of his father, the martyr, who was chosen
titular saint of the cathedral of Drontheim. This church was rebuilt
with such splendor and magnificence, as to have been the glory and
pride of all the North. Munster has given us a minute description of
it, after Lutheranism was introduced; but it was soon after burnt by
lightning. The body of St. Olave was found incorrupt in 1098; and
again when the Lutherans, in 1541, plundered the shrine, which was
adorned with gold and jewels of an immense value, a treasure nowhere
equalled in the North. The ship which carried the greatest part of
this sacrilegious booty perished at sea in the road to Denmark;
the rest was robbed at land, so that nothing of it came into the
king of Denmark’s hands. The Lutherans treated the saint’s body
with respect, and left it in the same place where the shrine had
stood, in the inner wooden case, till in 1568 they decently buried
it in the same cathedral. A shirt or inner garment of St. Olave’s
is shown at St. Victor’s in Paris. His shrine became famous by many
miracles, and he was honored with extraordinary devotion throughout
all the northern kingdoms, and was titular saint of several churches
in England and Scotland. He was called by our ancestors St. Olave,
and more frequently St. Tooley; but in the Norway Chronicles Olaf
Haraldson, and Olaf Helge or the Holy. See Saxo-Grammaticus, Hist.
Dan. l. 10, fol. 94, 95, 96. Adam Brem, Hist. Eccl. l. 2, c. 43. And
the Iceland historians whom Mallet regards as far more accurate,
especially Torfæus, in the last century, in his Series regum Daniæ;
Snorro Sturleson, &c. See also Bosch the Bollandist, t. 7, Jul. p.
87. Mallet, Hist. de Dannemarc, &c.