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ed in evangelising Norway, Iceland, the Orkney and Shetland
Islands and the Faroes, partly by persuasion, and partly by
intimidation or by bribery. Iceland, however, had already been partly
converted by Thorvaldr Vidförli, a native missionary, aided by
the German bishop Friedrich.
King Svejn Tveskag (‘double beard’) of Denmark now
attempted to re-establish the Danish supremacy over Norway, and for
this purpose allied himself with his stepson King Olaf,
Skot-konung or tributary king of Sweden, and with Eric, the son of
Haakon, by whose allied fleets Olaf Tryggvason was defeated and
slain in the great naval battle of Svold, on the coast of Pomerania,
about the year 1000. Norway was now partitioned between the
kings of Denmark and Sweden, who ceded most of their rights to
the Jarls Eric and Svejn, sons of Haakon Ladejarl. The kingdom,
however, was soon permanently re-united by St. Olaf, son of
Harald Grenski, and a descendant of Harald Haarfager. After
having been engaged in several warlike expeditions, and having
been baptised either in England or in Normandy, he returned
to Norway in 1014 to assert his claim to the crown. Aided by
his stepfather Sigud Syr, king of Ringerike, and by others of the
minor inland kings, he succeeded in establishing his authority
throughout the whole country, and thereupon went to work
energetically to consolidate and evangelise his kingdom. His
severity, however, caused much discontent, and his adversaries w’ere
supported by Canute, king of England and Denmark, who still
asserted his claim to Norway. Canute at length invaded
Norway and was proclaimed king, while Olaf was compelled to seek an
asylum in Russia (1028). Having returned with a fewT followers to
regain his crown, he was defeated and slain at Stiklestad near
Levanger on 29th July, 1030. Canute’s triumph, however, was
of brief duration. He ceded the reins of government to Haakon
Jarl Erikssen, and after the death of the jarl to his son Svejn and
the English princess Aelgifu, the mother of the latter; but a
reaction speedily set in, stimulated chiefly by the rumour of Olaf’s
sanctity, which found ready credence and was formally declared
by a national assembly. Olaf’s son Magnus, who had been left by
his father in Russia, was now called to the throne, and Svejn was
obliged to flee to Denmark (1035). The sway of Magnus was at
first harsh, but he afterwards succeeded in earning for himself the
title of ‘the good’. In accordance with a treaty with Hardicanute
in 1038, he ascended the throne of Denmark after the Danish
monarch’s death in 1042, but his right was disputed by Svend
Estridssøn. In 1046 he assumed as co-regent the turbulent Harald
Sigurdssøn, step-brother of St. Olaf, who succeeded him on his
death in 1047. After a series of violent conflicts with Svend,
Harald was obliged to renounce his pretensions to the crown of
Denmark, but on Harald’s death at the Battle of Hastings (1066)
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