59 Reassessing Óláfr Tryggvason in the Insular World REASSESSING THE CAREER OF ÓLÁFR TRYGGVASON IN THE INSULAR WORLD By CAITLIN ELLIS University of Oxford D ESPITE HIS SHORT REIGN OVER NORWAY (995–1000), Óláfr Tryggvason looms large both in medieval sources and in contemporary scholarship. This article focuses on his career in the Insular world (that is, Britain, Ireland and the associated islands), as presented in the twelfth- century synoptic histories (Historia Norwegiae, Theodoricus monachus and Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum) and in the late twelfth- and thirteenth- century sagas, particularly Oddr Snorrason’s saga and Snorri Sturluson’s Heimskringla. 1 It has long been noted that the depiction of Óláfr Tryggva- son in these sources is as ‘a crossbreed between a Christian martyr and a Germanic folk hero’ (Lönnroth 1975, 36). This combination presented a literary challenge for his biographers, as is recognised by recent work on these texts, particularly Oddr’s semi-hagiographical biography (Phelpstead 2012; Grønlie 2017, x, 39–78, 76; Haki Antonsson 2017, 2, 64–82). These works have not, though, dealt with the Insular sections pertaining to Óláfr at any great length. It is illuminating to look at these particular sections of the synoptics and sagas as they have the potential to be corroborated by other historical sources, both written and archaeological, from the Insular world. Óláfr’s presence in the Insular world, or at least in England, is indeed apparently corroborated by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which records an Anlaf. In particular, his likely involvement in the Battle of Maldon in 991 is generally accepted (ASC A 991; see Whitelock 1979, 234, n. 1; Roach 2016, 121). He was certainly in England in 994. The Scandinavian and Icelandic accounts also relate that Óláfr raided extensively abroad before he returned to Norway to claim the throne. They presumably drew on the skaldic poem Óláfsdrápa by Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld, which lists the future king’s campaigns against various groups of people. This article will examine the three main, comparatively lengthy episodes in the prose sources concerning Óláfr which are set in the Insular world: 1 The author would particularly like to thank Alex Woolf for discussion of the Gyða episode and Jon Wright for his palaeographical insights, and is also grateful to Siân Grønlie, Paul Gazzoli, Elizabeth Ashman Rowe and Andy Woods.