Norwegian soccer star Erling Haaland recently made news not for his playing or pseudo-Viking antics, but for his record-breaking purchase of a 1594 printed edition of the Heimskringla – the lives of the Norwegian kings from legendary beginnings to the death of Magnus V in 1184. Haaland and his father donated the volume to his hometown library to promote reading: “I want the book always to lie open so that people can read about those who came from where I come from. It’s easier to feel drawn to reading when you can recognize yourself in the people and places being written about.”
His father concurred: “roots are important. . .deep roots that can be found in the stories of Snorre’s kings’ sagas.”
Nearly one-third of the volume recounts the life of King Olav Haraldsson (c.995-1030), now known as St. Olav, whose feast day is July 29, the date he fell at the Battle of Stiklestad in his attempt to unite the region’s fractious and petty kingdoms under a single political structure grounded in Christian law.
Almost immediately after his death, rancor and division quieted, and Olav’s holiness was confirmed through countless miracles. He was canonized locally by Bishop Grimkell of
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