A Viking Network Info-sheet

The Viking Age in Trondheim

by Eva Marie Westad and her pupils

A Viking is a Nordic sea warrior, merchant and conqueror, who participated in plundering several countries in the east and the west of Europe in for ex : England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Baltic, Russia and sometimes even all the way down to Constantinople .

Trondheim is known today as the greatest pilgrim city in the north .This because of Olav Haraldssons death in the battle of Stiklestad in the year 1030 A .D. and the fact that he approximately. one year after his death was canonised and declared holy. Because of that he got the "nickname" The Holy Christian pilgrims therefore started to make pilgrimages to his grave in Trondheim. His grave is said to be situated under the alter of Nidarosdomen, Norway's largest cathedral. Due to this, Trondheim's 1000 years anniversary will focus a great deal on the fact that Trondheim is the pilgrim city in the north. Still it's worth mentioning that when King Olav Tryggvasson founded Trondheim in the year 997, he had a background as a Viking , and we can read all about the plunderings done by the Norwegian Kings Olav (The Holy) Haraldsson and Olav Tryggvasson in Snorre Sturlasons saga. Many archaeologists claim that the Norwegian Vikings came from the west-coasts and the eastern parts of Norway, but if you study the old sagas, you will find that a lot of the Norwegian Vikings came from the Trøndelag area and further north as well, both before and after the violent christening in the year 1000 A .D. One must also be familiar with the fact that the Vikings didn't only plunder other countries , but also territories that today belongs to Norway. That goes for Swedish and Danish Viking as well . So you can understand that the national feeling was not as it became after the Christianity and the monarchy had settled in the Nordic countries.