IT WAS A short period of time— from the autumn of 1029 to the spring of 1030— that Óláfr Haraldsson (ca. 995– 1030), the Norwegian king from 1014 to 1028, the unifier and Christianizer of Norway, spent, according to the Old Norse sources, in Old Rus’. More decisive and consistent than that of his predecessors’ struggle against paganism, the reduction of traditional “freedoms” with the aim of strengthening the king's power, such as changes in the veizla system, led to a rupture between him and a large part of the old nobility, as well as the landowners who joined them. Óláfr's opponents inside the country took the side of the king of England and Denmark, Cnut the Great (990– 1035), who had laid claim to the throne of Norway. His defeat in the war against Denmark forced Óláfr to leave Norway, to flee to Sweden and further to Rus’. An attempt to regain power in Norway ended with his fall in the Battle of Stiklestad (Stiklastaðir) on 29 July 1030. Cnut the Great (sagas call him Knútr inn ríki) became the king of Norway and appointed Sven (Sveinn), his son from a concubine named Ælfgifu (Álfífa), to rule the country (see Bagge 1991, 34– 43, 181– 86).

The process of Óláfr's sanctification began almost immediately after the battle, and according to Adam of Bremen (II:61) St. Óláfr's feast had by ca. 1070 been “worthily recalled with eternal veneration on the part of all the peoples of the Northern Ocean, the Norwegians, Swedes, Goths, Sembi, Danes, and Slavs” (“Agitur festivitas eius IIIIo kal. Augusti, omnibus septentrionalis occeani populis Nortmannorum, Sueonum, Gothorum, Semborum, Danorum atque Sclavorum aeterno cultu memorabilis”) (Adam 1917, 122; Adam 2002, 97). The establishment of St. Óláfr's cult resulted not only in the local production of liturgical books, but also in the appearance of his Life (vita) and a collection of his miracles (cf. Holtsmark 1937). The miracles performed by Óláfr are mentioned already in skaldic poems composed soon after his death. These are Glælognskviða (Sea-calm Poem) by Þórarinn loftunga (“praise-tongue”) dated to 1031– 1035, Þórðr Sjóreksson's Róðudrápa (Rood-poem), and Sigvatr Þórðarson's Erfidrápa (Memorial Poem) dated to the early 1040s.