Saint Olaf and the Sea Serpent of Syltefjellet

Winter, 1028/1029. Olav Haraldsson was a king on the run, fleeing Norway. He would die at Stiklestad on 29 July 1030 and be remembered as Saint Olaf.

Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla, written around 1230, records the stop. Olaf sailed "until he came to Todar fjord, where he brought up at Valdal." He had five ships, "which he drew up upon the shore, and took care of their sails and materials." He pitched a tent at Sult. Today the place is Sylte, in Valldal, on Norddalsfjorden.

Local tradition tells what Snorri does not. During the voyage up the Storfjord, "a monstrous creature rose from the depths, a sea serpent that attacked his ships." One Norwegian telling says the serpent threw itself at the ships to stop Olav reaching land.

"Grabbing the serpent with an oar, he struggled until he overcame it and hurled it against the mountainside, where it stuck fast." Another version says he threw it into the mountain wall so hard that it lodged there. No size, colour or sound is given. No witness is named. It is anonymous oral tradition.

Above Sylte rises the mountain Syltefjellet. On its face is a lighter rock pattern, described as a light spiral or serpent-like drawing in the rock. Visit Norway calls it "a long, snake-like mark on the mountainside." It is clearly visible from the town centre and from the harbour. The mark is known as Sylteormen.

Heimskringla is full of wonders at Valdal. A local farmer named Bruse warned of a scree called Skerfsurd, "not passable for man or beast." After a night of prayer, "twenty men could handle stones which before 100 men could not move." There are blessed cooking kettles, Olaf's Rock and a spring said to cure sick cattle.

A spirit in the haunted Groningar shieling cries that the king's prayers are burning it. A mountain farm is promised that frost will never destroy its crops. There is no serpent. The only supernatural creature on the route is that unnamed spirit.

No geological study of the mark has been found. The story fits a familiar kind of place legend, in which an odd feature of the landscape is tied to the most famous visitor the valley ever had. In Norddal the serpent sits beside other Olaf traditions: the clearing at Skjærsura, the promise to the Grønning farm, the healing spring. Visit Norway and Fjord Norway offer a symbolic reading, in which Olav's encounters with serpents stand for his struggles "for faith, power and the future." When the tale was first written down is unknown. A National Library item dated 11 July 1934 may be the earliest record.

Sylte harbour is now the start of Valldalsleden, a pilgrim route over the mountains toward Lesja and Dovre that joins Gudbrandsdalsleden on the way to Nidaros Cathedral. Olsok, the anniversary of Olaf's death, is marked with the annual Olsok-dagane festival, and an Olsok Mass has been held on Syltefjellet itself. A cross said to have been raised at Sylte was likely lost in the 1679 flood. A cross now stands on Korsbrekka, above the village.

Norway has other serpents. Olaus Magnus placed one outside Bergen in 1555. Erik Pontoppidan described a maned sea serpent in 1755. The Seljord serpent sits on a coat of arms. But only this one is said to hang on a cliff.