Bjørn Bandlien Chapter 4 and the of

The Christianization of Norway spanned over centuries and covered much of what is now known as the Age (late eighth to early eleventh centuries). At the turn of the first millennium, this process was in the phase of institutionalization: churches were built, and church laws were introduced. People who failed to meet basic regulations concerning food and fasting, baptism of children, exogamous marriages, etc., were sanctioned with outlawry. This punishment was also found before Christianization, banishing those who violated the balance in the farming society based on notions of honour. In spatial terms, the new church legislation challenged the farm as the focal point in society and world view, but at the same time used established terminology and conceptions.

The opening of the Christian law section for the district Borgarting in states that: “This is the foundation of our law; that we shall bow to the east and give ourselves to Christ, and venerate churches and clerics.”1 This constructs an orienta- tion and a physical posture of humility (luta) of Christians towards the “east,” i.e. to the . The spatial orientation is moved from the traditional centres of the (chieftains’) households and the assemblies to churches and Jerusalem. In this passage, the community in the Norwegian kingdom appropriated the geographical orientation of European ; seeing itself as part of the west that directs it devotion to east. In its most concrete form, this orientation was expressed through the attendance of mass in the Church, as well as the west-east orientation of burials. The altars became compasses of religious geography and bestow authority on the Church’s servant as they were positioned in the east, representing Jerusalem. For the conversion kings, Olav Tryggvason (r. 995–1000) and Olav Haraldsson (r. 1015–1028), Christianity would imply potential new ways of legitimizing power, connecting themselves to a new centre of devotion and authority. On the other hand, Viking-Age may have shared – and in some cases integrated into – many aspects of the political culture with kingdoms elsewhere in Christian , such as the importance of building network through gift-exchange, feasts, oaths, and using

1 De eldste østlandske kristenrettene, ed. Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen and Magnus Rindal, Norrøne tekster, 7, : Riksarkivet, 2008,122: Þet er uphaf lagha uarra. at austr skulum luta oc gevaz Kristi røkia kir- kiur oc kenne men.(Mytranslation.)

Bjørn Bandlien, Professor of Medieval History, University of South-Eastern Norway

Open Access. © 2021 Bjørn Bandlien, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110639438-005 60 Bjørn Bandlien

rituals as displays of power. These traits of early medieval rulership crossed confes- sional borders and did not necessarily disappear with the conversion of society. Here, I will discuss the importance of Jerusalem in spatial, ritual and ideological contexts in Norway during the conversion, especially during the reign of King Olav Haraldsson. Olav had spent much of his youth on the continent and in , at a time when Europe was giving increased attention to Jerusalem as the pivotal centre. Three elements in contemporary European theology, rituals and politics can be inter- preted as distinctly related to the new awareness of Jerusalem at this time. First, the adventus of a ruler was an important pre-crusade reference to Jerusalem modelled on the entry of Christ into the Holy City on Palm Sunday. Second, eschatological ideas on the second coming of Christ to the earthly Jerusalem, with central roles played by and St , became widespread in Europe at the turn of the millen- nium. To what extent and in what contexts do such motives appear in Norway? Contemporary sources that narrate the travels and the reign of Olav Haraldsson are few, scattered and often difficult to interpret. The point of departure is the skaldic poetry related to King Olav Haraldsson, and then comparing these to the use of the Jerusalem code among the rulers Olav visited and served during his travels in 1007–1015, mainly in England and . Thus, we may at least catch some glimpses of the impact contemporary European ideas of Jerusalem had on Olav’s legi- timation of authority in Norway.

The Adventus of Olav Haraldsson

In the late summer of 1015, Olav Haraldsson returned to Norway after spending eight years of his youth abroad.2 The rulers of Norway were at this time the of Lade in Trøndelag, foremost among them Eirik and Svein, sons of Haakon Sigurdsson (d. 995). At the arrival of Olav in Norway, Eirik had recently gone to England in the company of Knud the Great (d. 1035). Olav surprised Eirik’s son

2 Due to the lack of contemporary sources and the differences in later accounts, many aspects of Olav’sjourneys– concerning both place names and chronology – are much disputed. These details do not concern the analyses or conclusions in this study, but it is presumed that Olav took part in warfare and met rulers in the area (probably including visits to , Gotland and Novgorod), Holland, Normandy, England, and Iberia before his return in 1015. A fundamental study of the itinerary of Olav Haraldsson before he became king is Oscar Albert Johnsen, Olav Haraldssons ungdom indtil slaget ved Nesjar 25. mars 1016: En kritisk undersøkelse, vol. 2, Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter. II. Hist.-Filos. Klasse (Kristiania: Videnskapsselskapet, 1916), but some aspects of his conclu- sions have been criticized and modified in for example Judith Jesch, “Viking on the European Continent,” in Scandinavia and Europe 800–1350: Contact, Conflict, and Coexistence, ed. Jonathan and Katherine Holman (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004) and Helio Pires, “Nem Tui, nem Gibraltar: Óláfr Haraldsson e a Península Ibérica,” En la España Medieval 38 (2015) (see further below). Chapter 4 Jerusalem and the Christianization of Norway 61

Fig. 4.1: Mølen, a portion of the coastline in Vestfold, South-Eastern Norway, identified with Nesjar, site of the battle between King Olav Haraldsson and Svein Haakonson at Palm Sunday 1016. The beach of rolling stones has large cairns raised centuries before Olav Haraldsson was victorious here.

Haakon and sent him in exile to England. Olav then met Svein in a large sea battle outside Nesjar, probably close to Helgeroa and Mølen in Vestfold, at Palm Sunday (25 ) 1016 (Fig. 4.1). Olav won the battle and secured his rule of Norway for the next decade, while Svein fled to and died shortly after. This battle of Nesjar was commemorated by the Icelander Sigvat Thordsson, who probably was an eyewitness, in his poem Nesjavísur. Sigvat had travelled from Iceland to Norway in 1015, and soon became the chief