Olaf I of Norway - Death of Geira and Conversion

Death of Geira and Conversion

After Olaf had spent three years in Vendland, his wife, Geira, fell sick and died. He felt so much sorrow from her death that he could no longer bear to stay in Vendland, and set out to plunder in 984. He raided from Frisland to the Hebrides, until after four years he landed on one of the Scilly Isles. He heard of a seer who lived there. Desiring to test the seer, he sent one of his men to pose as Olaf. But the seer was not fooled. So Olaf went to see the hermit, now convinced he was a real fortune teller. And the seer told him:

Thou wilt become a renowned king, and do celebrated deeds. Many men wilt thou bring to faith and baptism, and both to thy own and others' good; and that thou mayst have no doubt of the truth of this answer, listen to these tokens. When thou comest to thy ships many of thy people will conspire against thee, and then a battle will follow in which many of thy men will fall, and thou wilt be wounded almost to death, and carried upon a shield to thy ship; yet after seven days thou shalt be well of thy wounds, and immediately thou shalt let thyself be baptized.

After the meeting Olaf was attacked by a group of mutineers, and what the seer had foretold happened. So Olaf let himself be baptised by St. Ælfheah of Canterbury in 994. After his conversion Olaf stopped looting in England.