Article by Tarald Rasmussen in Teologisk tidsskrift.
‘Olav den hellige etter reformasjonen. Om den norske reformasjonen og omkodingen av Olav til en protestantisk helgen’
In Norway, the reformation came along with Danish political takeover and a loss of political sovereignty. It is a remarkable characteristic of Norwegian reformation history that the country had no reformation hero of its own. In this situation, Norwegian sixteenth century humanists turned to the Old Norse tradition. Here, they found a Norwegian hero who could be reinterpreted in a Protestant context: St. Olaf – Norway’s martyr king. His memory was kept alive during the Protestant centuries. In the era of national consolidation in the nineteenth century, new energy and new perspectives were brought into the Protestant reinterpretation of Olaf.