The Battle of Svolder (also referred to as Svold or Swold)Old Norse Svǫlðr, later Svǫldr. was a large naval battle during the Viking age, fought in September 1000 in the western Baltic Sea between King Olaf of Norway and an alliance of the Kings of Denmark and Sweden and Olaf's enemies in Norway. The backdrop of the battle was the unification of Norway into a single independent state after longstanding Danish efforts to control the country, combined with the spread of Christianity in Scandinavia.
King Olaf Tryggvason was sailing to, or home from, an expedition in Wendland (Pomerania), when he was ambushed by an alliance of Svein Forkbeard, King of Denmark, Olof Skötkonung (also known as Olaf Eiríksson or Olaf the Swede), King of Sweden, and Eirik Hákonarson, Jarl of Lade. According to the Saga of King Olaf I Tryggvason, he had 60 warships plus the contribution of 11 warships from the Jomvikings.Jones, Vikings, pp. 137–138 His ships were captured one by one, last of all the Ormen Lange, which Jarl Eirik captured as Olaf threw himself into the sea. After the battle, Norway was ruled by the Jarls of Lade allied (as a suzerain) to both the Danish Crown and the Commonwealth of Uppsala, Sweden.
The exact location of the battle is disputed, and depends on which group of sources is preferred: Adam of Bremen places it in Øresund, while Icelandic sources place the battle near an island called Svolder, which is otherwise unknown.
The most detailed sources on the battle, the kings' sagas, were written approximately two centuries after it took place. Historically unreliable, they offer an extended literary account describing the battle and the events leading up to it in vivid detail. The sagas ascribe the causes of the battle to Olaf Tryggvason's ill-fated marriage proposal to Sigrid the Haughty and his problematic marriage to Thyri, sister of Svein Forkbeard. As the battle starts Olaf is shown dismissing the Danish and Swedish fleets with ethnic insults and bravado while admitting that Eirik Hákonarson and his men are dangerous because "they are Norwegians like us". The best known episode in the battle is the breaking of Einarr Þambarskelfir's bow, which heralds Olaf's defeat.
In later centuries, the saga descriptions of the battle, especially that in Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla, have inspired a number of ballads and other works of literature.
Context
In earliest recorded history, Norway was divided into a number of small and sometimes warring petty kingdoms with weak central authority. In traditional historiography the rise of Harald Fairhair in the ninth century started the process of unification of the country and the consolidation of royal power.It has been argued that King Harald Fairhair should be regarded primarily as a legendary character. See Sverrir Jakobsson 2002:230. Harald's descendants, and other claimants to the throne, had to contend with strong regional leaders such as the Jarls of Lade in the north and the rulers of Vingulmark in the east, while the kings of Denmark claimed regions in the south and were eager to acquire Norwegian vassals to increase their influence. The spread of Roman Catholic Christianity had also become an increasingly important political issue in the late tenth century.Midgaard 1963:23.
In the 970s, Haakon Sigurdsson, Jarl of Lade, became the most powerful man in Norway, at first supported by Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and paying tribute to him—though the two later fell out over religious matters. Harald had converted to Christianity and was eager to Christianise Norway, while Haakon remained a staunch pagan. In 995 Haakon was deposed and the young Christian leader Olaf Tryggvason came to the throne.
While rejecting Danish authority, Olaf made it his mission to convert Norway and the Norse colonies in the west as quickly and as completely as possible. Proceeding with threats, torture and executions, Olaf broke down pagan resistance and within a few years Norway was, at least nominally, a Christian country. But King Olaf had acquired several enemies during his meteoric rise to power. The most prominent were Eirik Jarl, son of Haakon Jarl, and Svein Forkbeard, king of Denmark, both of whom felt that Olaf had deprived them of their share of Norway.Midgaard 1963:25–26.
The same interests which clashed in the Battle of Svolder were to divide Norway for decades to come, leading to further major engagements, including the Battle of Nesjar and the Battle of Stiklestad. The resolution came in 1035 with the accession of the Norwegian Magnus the Good to the throne of an independent and Christian Norway.Sawyer 1993:54–58.
Sources
The Battle of Svolder is mentioned in a number of historical sources. The earliest written work is by Adam of Bremen (ca. 1080), who wrote from a Danish point of view as his source was King Svein II of Denmark. The later Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus made use of and expanded Adam of Bremen's account in his Gesta Danorum (ca. 1200).
In Norway the three synoptic histories, Historia de Antiquitate Regum Norwagiensium, Historia Norwegie and Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum (ca. 1190), all give a short account of the battle. The Icelandic kings' sagas offer a much more extensive treatment, starting with Oddr Snorrason's Saga of Olaf Tryggvason (ca. 1190). Working from skaldic poetry, oral history, learned European examples and an uninhibited imagination, Oddr constructed an elaborate account of the battle.Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson 1941:xiv, cxxxvi. This was taken up by the later Icelandic sagas, Fagrskinna and Heimskringla (ca. 1220), both of which add quotations of skaldic verse. Three Icelandic poems from around 1200 also have some historical interest: Nóregs konungatal, Rekstefja and Óláfs drápa Tryggvasonar. The immense Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta (ca. 1300) combines several of the above sources to form the last, longest and least reliable saga account.
Contemporary skaldic poetry which refers to the battle includes a work by Hallfreðr the Troublesome Poet, who was in Olaf Tryggvason's service. Hallfreðr was not present at the battle but gathered information about it afterwards for a eulogy on Olaf. On Jarl Eirik's side, a number of stanzas are preserved by Halldórr the Unchristian, who speaks of the battle as happening "last year" and dwells on the scene of Eirik capturing the Long Serpent. Some verses on the battle are also preserved in Þórðr Kolbeinsson's elegy on Eirik, probably composed around 1015. Finally, Skúli Þórsteinsson fought with Eirik in the battle and spoke of it in verse in his old age.The standard edition of the corpus of skaldic poetry remains Finnur Jónsson:1912–1915. For the careers of Hallfreðr, Halldórr, Þórðr and Skúli see Finnur Jónsson:1923:544–564.
While historians value contemporary skaldic poetry highly as the most accurate source available, it must be remembered that the poems are not preserved independently but as quotations in the kings' sagas. After two centuries of oral preservation, there is often doubt that a verse was accurately remembered and correctly attributed. Furthermore, skaldic poetry did not primarily aim at giving information but at artistically rendering facts already known to the hearers.Campbell 1998:66. Historians frequently fall back on the less reliable but more detailed accounts of the sagas.
Events leading up to the battle
Nothing can be gleaned from the contemporary skaldic poems on the causes of the battle. Adam of Bremen states that Olaf Tryggvason's Danish wife, Thyri, egged him on to make war against Denmark. When Olaf heard that Svein Forkbeard and Olaf the Swede had formed an alliance, he was angered and decided the time had come for an attack.Tschan 2002:81–82. Ágrip and Historia Norwegie have a similar account. Thyri was the sister of Svein Forkbeard, and when Olaf Tryggvason married her, Svein refused to pay her promised dowry. Angered, Olaf launched an expedition to attack Denmark, but he was too impatient to wait for a fleet to assemble from all of Norway, and he set sail for the south with only 11 ships, expecting the rest to follow. When that hope was not realized, he set out for Wendland (Pomerania) to seek allies and on the way was ambushed by Svein and his allies.Driscoll 1995:33; Ekrem 2003:97. These accounts are contradicted by a contemporary verse of Halldórr the Unchristian which states that Olaf Tryggvason was travelling from the south when he came to the battle.Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson 1941:cxxvi.
Oddr Snorrason has an elaborate account of the problems arising from Thyri's marriages. He tells us that she was betrothed and married to the Wendish king Burislav, who received a large dowry for her; but she did not want to be his wife and starved herself after their wedding, so Burislav sent her back to Denmark. She then arranged to have herself married to Olaf Tryggvason, to the displeasure of her brother Svein. Svein's queen, Sigrid the Haughty, a staunch opponent of Olaf, egged Svein to make war on him. Svein then conspired with Jarl Sigvaldi and King Olaf of Sweden to lure Olaf Tryggvason into a trap. Olaf Tryggvason travelled to Wendland to collect Thyri's dowry from King Burislav and while there heard rumours of a planned ambush; but Sigvaldi arrived to tell him these rumours were false. Believing Sigvaldi, Olaf sent most of his fleet home, as his men were impatient. He therefore had only a small fleet left when he was ambushed near Svolder.Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson 1941:cxxxviii–cxxix.
Fagrskinna and Heimskringla largely follow Oddr's account but simplify it and diverge from it in some respects. According to Heimskringla, Sigvaldi sailed from Wendland with Olaf and a fleet of Wendish ships and led him into the ambush.
Whether the above details are accurate or not, it is clear that Svein, Olaf the Swede and Eirik had ample reason to oppose Olaf Tryggvason. Olaf had taken control of Viken in south Norway, an area long under Danish overlordship. Olaf and Svein had been in England together, but Olaf had made peace while Svein kept campaigning. Svein was on friendly terms with Olaf the Swede and connected to him by marriage, so the two were natural allies.Olaf the Swede may also have been Svein's vassal. "Olof's subordination is reflected in his nickname Scotkonungœr (Mod.Swedish Skötkonung). This was first recorded in the thirteenth century but it was probably given at an early date and meant, according to Snorri Snurluson, "tributary king", and was equated by him with jarl." Peter Sawyer, in The New Cambridge Medieval History IV, p 295. Finally, Jarl Eirik had been driven from his patrimony by Olaf Tryggvason, as arguably had his father, Jarl Hakon, whom he may have wished to avenge.
From the conflicting accounts of the sources, historians have tried to reconstruct the most likely sequence of events leading up to the battle. It is probable that Olaf Tryggvason was indeed sailing from Wendland to Norway when he was ambushed, though the kings' sagas probably play up the importance of Thyri and her marriages. While it is possible that Olaf was collecting dowry, it seems more probable that he was expecting war and seeking allies in Wendland, but met with little success. The character of Sigvaldi remains enigmatic, though there is evidence from skaldic poetry that he did indeed betray Olaf.Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson 1941:cxxxiii–iv.
Time and location