Kálfr Árnason

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Who is Kálfr Árnason?

Kálfr Árnason was an 11th-century Norwegian chieftain who played a major role both in defeating King Olaf Haraldsson at the Battle of Stiklestad and in bringing back his young son Magnus and raising him to the throne.

Kálfr was a son of Árni Arnmódsson or Armódsson and Þora Þorsteinsdóttir. Finn Árnasson and Þorbergr Árnasson were his brothers.

In the 1020s and 1030s, he was one of the most powerful chieftains in Norway. He was married to Sigrid Toresdatter, daughter of Thorir Hund, and his sister Ragnhild was married to Hárek of Tjøtta. According to the earlier, summary histories of Norway such as the Ágrip, he opposed King Olaf as early as the Battle at Nesjar in 1016; in contrast, Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla depicts him as an early ally of the king, who according to Snorri bestowed on Kálfr both his lands in the Trøndelag and his wife Sigrid after killing the heathen Olvir of Egge, to whom Sigrid had previously been married. According to the one contemporary source which mentions Kálfr, the Kálfsflokkr, by the Icelandic skáld Bjarni gullbrárskáld, he was at Olaf's side in the battle against Erling Skjalgsson. After the latter's death, Olaf was forced to flee Norway in 1028, and Kálfr supposedly went to England and pledged his support to Cnut the Great of Denmark, who became king of Norway that year.

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Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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