spread of Christianity 2 1 1 



claims to popularity which his namesake and prede- 

 cessor possessed. He was not, like Olaf Tryggvason, 

 the tallest, handsomest, and strongest man in Norway. 

 His middle-sized, thick-set figure gained this Olaf the 

 name of Digri, or'the stoat.' He was brave enough, 

 and had proved in the thirteen battles fought in foreign 

 lands ^ of what metal he was. But there are no won- 

 derful feats of daring and strength recorded of him. 

 All the more to Olaf's credit, therefore, is it that he 

 accomplished so much, and that he left behind him a 

 reputation great enough to overshadow even that of his 

 great predecessor. He was, our Saga tells us, very 

 gentle in manner and chary of speech. That which 

 gained him his reputation in later centuries was the 

 part which he took in the spread of Christianity, or say, 

 in the confirmation of it throughout his dominions. 

 Norway had been nominally Christian since the days 

 of Olaf Tryggvason. So had Iceland ; so had the 

 Orkneys — the subject colonies of Norway. But no- 

 where since the first Olaf died had any great efforts 

 been made to root out heathenism and its customs. 

 Most of the coastmen had been baptized in Olaf 

 Tryggvason's days : that was about all. The inland 

 men were often not even nominally Cliristians. Olaf 

 Digri caused ' Christian law ' to be proclaimed every- 

 where, first in the Viken country, afterwards in the 

 north. By ' Christian law' is meant the canon law for 

 the due observance of Christian festivals, prohibit- 

 ing customs which partook of heathenism, especially 

 the eating of horse-flesh ; laws, again, forbidding the 

 exposure of infants, and regulating the use of slaves. 



1 Whereof Olaf's court poet, Siglivat, has left the record. 



