The Pilgrim Road to Nidaros - A Trekker's Guidebook

St Olav was the Norwegian king responsible for the conversion of the country to Christianity around 1000AD, and his grave at Nidaros near Trondheim has been a site for pilgrimage ever since. This pilgrim road from Oslo to Nidaros follows a magnificent 643km, one-month trek along the west coast of Norway.

General
Donald Atwood and C.R.John, Penguin dictionary of saints, 3rd ed., Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995.

Simon Coleman and John Elsner, Pilgrimage past and present in the worlds religions, London: British Museum Press, 1995.

J.G.Davies, Pilgrimage yesterday and today: why? where? how? London: SCM Press, 1988.
Studies the nature of pilgrimages and motives behind them from patristic times to the Middles Ages, Protestant condemnation of pilgrimages and the 19th-century revival of pilgrimages amongst Protestants, ending with a review of the devotional aspects of modern pilgrmages.

Nancy Louise Frey, Pilgrim stories, Berkley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998.
This refers specifically to the experiences of modern pilgrims along the road to Santiago de Compostela, before, during and after after making their pilgrimage, but the questions raised confront any modern pilgrim on a route where the journey itself, rather than the destination, is the real issue at stake.

Martin Robinson, Sacred places, pilgrim paths: an anthology of pilgrimage, London: Fount 1997.
An anthology reflecting the experiences of pilgrims through the ages, dealing with places of pilgrimage, preparation for the journey, the journey itself, the inner journey, worship on the way and on arrival and the questions raised once the pilgrimage is over.

Brian Spencer, Pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum medieval Catalogue, Part 2, Salisbury: Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, 1990.
Illustrated catalogue of the museum’s extensive collection of pilgrim badges, the largest in Britain.

Contesting the sacred: the anthropology of Christian pilgrimage, ed. John Eade and Michael J. Sallnow, London: Routledge, 1991.
Contributors examine particular Christian shrines (in France, Italy, Israel, Sri Lanka and Peru), analysing the dynamics of religious expression and belief but also the political and economic processes at local and global levels, emphasising that pilgrimage is primarily an arena for competing religious and secular discourses.

The way of a pilgrim, trans. R.M.French, London: Triangle, 1995.
First published in English in 1930 this book was written by an unknown Russian pilgrim in the 19th century, telling the story of his wanderings from one holy place to another in Russia and Siberia in search of the way of prayer.

Norway
Arne Bakken, Pilgrimages past and present: a journey to Nidaros, trans. Margaret Ellson Davies, Trondheim: Restoration Workshop of Nidaros Cathedral Booklet No. 10, 1994.
Discusses pilgrimage in general, both today and in the Middle Ages, as well as Saint Olav in the context of the pilgrim tradition.

Mari Kollandrud, Pilgrimsleden til Nidaros: en guide til vandringen, Oslo: Gyldendal, 1997.
Guide to the pilgrim route in Norwegian, providing a route description and useful historical material, but less practical help on services and facilities along the way.

Morton Krogstad and Erik Schia, Guide to Gamlebyen: medieval Oslo, Oslo: Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Oslo City Museum and City Conservation Office, 1982.
Describes (in English) the buildings and history of Medieval Oslo.

Lars Roar Langslet, Olav den Hellige, Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1995.
History of the life and activities of King and later Saint Olav, with discussion of his representation in art and architecture.

Eivind Luthen, På Pilegrimsferd, Oslo: Pilegrimskontoret, 1995
Describes (in Norwegian) the history, background, pilgrim routes and practicalities of pilgrimage in the past, with a summary in English.

Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla (The stories of the kings of Norway), 4 vols., trans. William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon, London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1905.
Volume 2 of this collection of the old Icelandic Sagas, ‘The story of Olaf the Holy, the son of Harald’, tells the story of the saint’s life, travels, return to Norway and his death at the Battle of Stiklestad.
For a modern English translation, the only version of the complete sagas, plus 49 connected tales, is the five-volume Complete sagas of Icelanders, ed. Vridar Hreinsson, Leifur Eiríksson Publishing: Iceland, 1997. Penguin Books publish a selection of ten Sagas with seven shorter tales (Sagas of Icelanders, London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 2000) but these do not include the life of St. Olav.

Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy: ‘Bridal Wreath’, ‘Mistress of Husaby’ and ‘The Cross’, London: Abacus 1995.
One of Norway’s most famous novels by Nobel prize-winning author. The saga of Kristin, her husband and seven sons is set in the first half of the 14th century in areas which the pilgrim road passes through. Gives an insight into the harsh life at the time the pilgrimage was still at its height, into the customs and beliefs of the period and the old superstitions that persisted alongside the newer Christian teachings.

On the Pilgrim Way to Trondheim, ed. Stein Thue, Trondheim: Tapir Publishers, 1998.
Collection of short articles (in English) on different aspects of the St. Olav pilgrimage, with bibliography of pilgrim literature (in Norwegian).