Olaf Tryggvason falls at Svolder

1000

Ambushed at sea by a coalition of Danes, Swedes, and rebellious Norwegians, Norway's Christianizing king fought from the deck of his Long Serpent until, his ship taken, he leapt overboard in full mail. Norway would revert to paganism and petty kingship for nearly a decade. Saga poets remembered his leap as the definitive act of defiance, debating for centuries whether he drowned or escaped.