Olaf Trygveson

Olaf Tryggvason
Only known type of coin of Olaf Tryggvason, in four known specimens. Imitation of the Crux-type coin of Æthelred the Unready.
King of Norway
Reign	995 – 1000
Predecessor	Sweyn Forkbeard
Successor	Sweyn Forkbeard
Born	960s Norway
Died	9 September 1000 Svolder, Norway
Spouse	Geira of Wendland Gyda of Dublin Gudrun Skeggesdatter Tyra of Denmark
Issue	Tryggvi the Pretender (possibly)
Father	Tryggve Olafsson
Mother	Astrid Eiriksdatter

Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken (Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of Norway.

Olaf had an important part in the conversion of the Norse to Christianity, often by compulsion. He is said to have built the first Christian church in Norway, in 995, and to have founded the city of Trondheim in 997. A statue of Olaf Tryggvason is located in the city's central plaza.

Historical information on Olaf is sparse. He is mentioned in some contemporary English sources, and some skaldic poems. The oldest narrative source mentioning him briefly is Adam of Bremen's Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum of circa 1070. In the 1190s, two sagas of Olaf Tryggvason were written in Iceland, by Oddr Snorrason and Gunnlaugr Leifsson. Snorri Sturluson gives an extensive account of Olaf in the Heimskringla saga of circa 1230, using Oddr Snorrason's saga as his primary source. Modern historians do not assume that these late sources are accurate, and their credibility is debated. The account in this article is primarily based on the late sagas.

There is uncertainty of both the date and the place of Olaf's birth. The earliest Norwegian written source, the Historia Norwegiæ of the late twelfth century, states that Olaf was born in the Orkney Islands after his mother fled there to escape the killers of Olaf's father. Another late 12th-century source, Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum, states that Olaf's mother fled to Orkney with Olaf when he was three years old for the same reason. All the sagas agree that Olaf eventually came to Kievan Rus', specifically the court of Vladimir I of Kiev.