"Þáttr Ólafs Geirstaða Alfs" is a ''
þáttr
The ''þættir'' (Old Norse singular ''þáttr'', literally meaning a "strand" of rope or yarn)O'Donoghue (2004:226). are short stories written mostly in Iceland during the 13th and 14th centuries.
The majority of ''þættir'' occur in two compend ...
'', a short
anecdotal story, about the semi-legendary Norse king
Olaf Geirstad-Alf Olaf Gudrødsson (c. 810 – c. 860), known after his death as Olaf Geirstad-Alf "Olaf, Elf of Geirstad" (Old Norse Ólafr Geirstaðaalfr), was a semi-legendary petty king in Norway. A member of the House of Yngling, he was the son of Gudrød the Hu ...
. It is preserved in ''
Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey") is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes ...
'', a saga collection that was written at the end of the 14th century. Olaf Geirstad Alf, who is also one of the kings who appear in the poem ''
Ynglingatal
''Ynglingatal'' or ''Ynglinga tal'' (Old Norse: 'Enumeration of the Ynglingar') is a Skaldic poem cited by Snorri Sturluson in the ''Ynglinga saga'', the first saga of Snorri's ''Heimskringla''. Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (Thjodolf), who was a poe ...
'', is said to have been king of
Vestfold
Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered th ...
or
Grenland
Grenland is a traditional district in the county of Vestfold og Telemark, in the south-east of Norway. Located in the southeastern part of the county, Grenland is composed of the municipalities Skien, Porsgrunn, Bamble, and Siljan. Sometimes the ...
in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
in the late 9th century.
Content
"Þáttr Ólafs Geirstaða Alfs" consists of four short chapters. The first is about Olaf's family background and the farm of Geirstad where he reportedly lived. A verse from ''Ynglingatal'' is also reproduced here. The second chapter is about Olaf's dream. The author recounts that Olaf called a
thing
Thing or The Thing may refer to:
Philosophy
* An object
* Broadly, an entity
* Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant
* Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...
on his farm to tell people about a dream he had had, in which a black bull that came through the country, killing a lot of people, and at last it killed Olaf's
hird
The hird (also named "HÃ¥ndgangne Menn" in Norwegian), in Scandinavian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus ('Guards') of the royal army, but also d ...
. Olaf thought that this dream was a warning of disease and famine coming. He therefore asked the people at the thing to make a great
mound
A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher el ...
, where they could bury him after his death. Everything happened as Olaf had said: sickness and mass death happened, and his hird died and finally himself, and he was buried in a mound on Geirstad.
The rest of the þáttr is about a man named Hrani, a foster brother of
Harald Grenske Harald Grenske (10th century) was a petty king in Vestfold in Norway.
Harald Grenske was the son of Gudrød Bjørnsson. Gudrød is claimed to have been grandson of Harald Fairhair and the king of Vestfold. Harald's cognomen ''Grenske'' is due to h ...
, who was the father of
St. Olaf. The events are supposed to have happened during the reign of
Olaf Tryggvasson
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 N ...
(ca. 995–1000). Hrani had a dream where Olaf Geirstad-Alf came to him and told him that he should break into the mound and find a sword, a belt and a ring; he should bring these to a farm in Grenland in
Viken
Viken may refer to:
*Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region
*Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020
*Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden
*Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...
, where Harald Grenske's wife,
Ã…sta Gudbrandsdatter
Ã…sta Gudbrandsdatter (c. 975/980 – c. 1020/1030) was the mother of two Norwegian kings, King Olaf II of Norway and King Harald III of Norway. The primary source for the life of Ã…sta is Snorri Sturluson's saga Heimskringla, a 13th-century ...
, was giving birth. Hrani was told that he should put the belt on Ã…sta to ease her labour. The sword and ring he should give to the newborn boy, and he should name him Olaf after Olaf Geirstad-Alf. The last chapter is about how Hrani carried out the instructions he had received in the dream: he broke into the mound, took out the three objects and went to the farm where his foster brother Harald and Ã…sta lived. When Hrani laid the belt on Asta, the child was delivered. This boy later became
Saint Olaf
Olaf II Haraldsson ( – 29 July 1030), later known as Saint Olaf (and traditionally as St. Olave), was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. Son of Harald Grenske, a petty king in Vestfold, Norway, he was posthumously given the title ''Rex Perpet ...
.
["Þáttr Ólafs Geirstaða Alfs", ch. 4.]
References
Sources
* Þáttr Ólafs Geirstaða Alfs. In: ''Fornmanna sögur, Volume I''. Copenhagen:
Royal Nordic Society of Antiquaries, 1835
External links
"Þáttr Ólafs Geirstaða Alfs"in Old Norse at
Heimskringla.no
Sagas
Norwegian literature
{{saga-stub