Saint Olav

We are now following in the footsteps of Olav the Saint – Norway’s eternal king and a central figure in the Christianization of the country. In the year 1028, just two years before he was killed in the Battle of Stiklestad, Olav Haraldsson sailed into the Storfjord where we are now, on his way to bring Christianity to the fjord villages of Sunnmøre. We can find traces of him in several places, especially in Vegsund. Here is Olavskilden – what was once the most famous Olav tradition in outer Sunnmøre. A little up the hill from the sea we find the spring where Olav, according to tradition, drank and washed during his stay in the area. The water here was seen as holy and healing, a clear sign of the advance of Christianity. In Valldal, the legend of the “Serpent in the Mountain” also lives – a monster that, according to legend, was petrified after Olav’s blessing, as a symbolic victory over old pagan forces. Two years after this journey, in 1030, Olav fell at Stiklestad. When his grave was opened shortly afterwards, angels were said to have sung, and his hair and nails had grown. He was quickly declared a saint – and his name lives on in sagas, landscapes and beliefs.