Olaf Tryggvason: life of the week
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He was a major figure in the Christianisation of the Vikings, and a towering figure in the second half of the Viking Age. But what do we really know about the life of Olaf Trygverson? In this episode of the History Extra podcast, Don Holway guides James Osborne through the thrilling story of the Norse warlord and asks, where does he sit among the Vikings' most legendary figures? Today I'm joined by Don Holloway, author and historian whose new book, Hammer of the Gods, King Olaf's Viking Conquest, pulls together the story of Olaf Tryggverson from across multiple sources. Don, I feel like every time I speak to a historian about the Viking Age, the conversation at some point ends up on Olaf Tryggverson.
Can you explain for listeners why he's such an important figure within the broader Viking story? He's what I would call sort of the instigator of the Second Viking Age. If you look at the Viking Age in total, you have this prelude to it from the raid on Lindisfarne up in Northumbria, starts up there, goes into the great pagan conquests and, you know, where the Vikings b came up against Alfred the Great, and that went on until ultimately the Vikings were pushed out of pushed out of England.
Eric Bloodaxe was killed and all his, you know, Vikings retreated. Now some of the Danes lived on, stayed as English subjects, but, you know, they weren't totally Viking anymore. They were English subjects. So there was a kind of pause where the Anglo-Saxons were ruling England and the Vikings were over in Denmark and Norway. basically fighting among themselves and everything and not mounting any real challenge to England again.
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