Translating Saint as (Vi)King: St. Olaf in the Heimskringla

Abstract

Olaf Haraldsson, the sainted king of Norway, strikes a vivid contrast to the usual image of a humble and modest saint. The version of his life that appears in the Heimskringla, composed in the early thirteenth century by Snorri Sturluson, describes the saintly king in a somewhat unexpected light as a ruthless viking and a harsh king. Even the more conventional Legendary Saga portrays the saint as more like a viking, despite the saint’s strong alliance with the Christian god. While Snorri’s interest seems to focus on portraying the admirable man, the Legendary Saga’s writer molds a larger than life hero, using both Christian and pagan tropes. Translating the hagiographic model into a king’s saga becomes complicated by the linguistic clash between Latin and Norse, and by the difficulty of reconciling the viking ethos with Christian humility, but also by the strong native tradition of saga writing, which creates expectations of ruthless heroes, bloody battles, and sea adventures.