Øystein Ekroll

ØYSTEIN EKROLL
NIDAROS CATHEDRAL ST. OLAV AND RUSSIA

Special issue. NORWAY–RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

When the thaw of spring in the year 1030 finally broke the grip of the Russian winter, a band of warriors left Novgorod and went west. They were led by Olav Haraldsson, a king without a country since he had fled his Norwegian kingdom two years earlier. The Norwegian noblemen had allied themselves with Canute the Great, king of Denmark and England, who wanted to add a third crown to his head, and they had succeeded in chasing Olav out of the country.