Śmierć Olafa Haraldssona. Rytuał dobrej śmierci w sagach o świętym Olafie
Death of Olaf Haraldsson: The ritual of good death in the sagas of Saint Olaf

Summary/Abstract: King Olaf Haraldsson of Norway died in the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and was soon recognized as a saint and patron of Norway. The earliest literature devoted to him (the so-called synoptic histories and the hagiographic Passio from the 12th century) presents him as a martyr for the faith and interprets his death in this way. The aim of the present article is to analyze the descriptions of Olaf’s death in the later, 13th-century Icelandic sagas dedicated to him, and to compare them with three models of death in medieval literature: the death of a martyr, the heroic death, and the “good Christian death,” accompanied by a specific ritual that prepared the dying person for leaving this world.

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