Sammendrag
St. Olaf Haraldsson (995-1030), the patron saint of Norway, was a Viking king baptized in Rouen in 1012. King Olaf was settling Christian laws, bringing English clergy in Norway in 1016. In 1028 he was forced in exile in Russia. Two years later he returned, but was slain in the battle of Stiklestad. The cult of St. Olaf spread in Scandinavia and England, and pilgrimage started to his reliquary in Nidaros Cathedral (Trondheim). He was canonized in 1164. The Divine Office for St. Olaf presents him as a martyr, Christian model and perpetual King of Norway. St. Olaf was likened to Christ, who attained victory through his death. The kings of Western Europe considered Charlemagne as an emperor in the image of Constantine, so also King Olaf. Charlemagne's princely ideal regained its popularity. The later Cluny-reform was an important part of the spreading of Jewish-Christian values and Greek-Roman culture. Olaf's host in Normandy, Richard II, and the clergy in his principality were zealous supporters of reform. The same was true of the clergy that Olaf took with him from England to Norway. Charlemagne was the decisive model for Olaf Haraldsson's work of restoration in Norway.
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