Skjegghaugan – a drama

You are now standing in a landscape for the dead. On the pastures between Austråttlunden and the road, as well as amongst the boulders around you are burial mounds dating from Pre-Christian times. We only know the name of one person who was buried here. The whole burial area is named after the powerful farmer Skjegge Asbjørnsson, known as ‘Iron beard from Opphaug’. After Earl Håkon’s death, Skjegge is said to have emerged as a leader for the ‘great men of Trønderlag’ who opposed Olav Tryggvason’s Christianisation of Norway. Iron beard we killed by the King’s men during a sacrifice at the temple at Mære around the year 1000. Snorre writes about the importance of this event: «...after the fall of Skjegge there was no leader within the peasants’ army to take on King Olav…and thereafter all the people in Trøndelag were baptised» After that King Olav is said to have tried to make the peace with Skjegge’s relations by marrying his daughter Gudrun. But on the wedding night Gudrun tried to stab the King to avenge her father’s death and after that she was sent away. According to the Sagas, Skjegge’s body was buried at Austrått. No one knows which one of the dips in the landscape holds the Chieftain. But maybe, the future will provide answers as to where one of Norway’s last Pagan burials took place.