Editing Olaf Tryggvason (section)

===Birth and early life===

There is uncertainty about both the date and the place of Olaf's birth. The earliest Norwegian written source, the ''[[Historia Norwegiæ]]'' of the late twelfth century, states that Olaf was born in the [[Orkney Islands]] after his mother fled there to escape the killers of Olaf's father. Another late 12th-century source, ''[[Ágrip af Nóregskonungasögum]]'', states that Olaf's mother fled to Orkney with Olaf when he was three years old for the same reason. All the sagas agree that Olaf eventually came to [[Kievan Rus']], specifically the court of [[Vladimir the Great of Kiev]].<ref>{{Citation
| last = Bagge
| first = Sverre
| title = The Making of a Missionary King: The Medieval Accounts of Olaf Tryggvason and the Conversion of Norway
| journal = The Journal of English and Germanic Philology
| volume = 105
| issue = 4
| year = 2006
| pages = 486–487
| doi = 10.2307/27712621
| jstor = 27712621
| s2cid = 204765432
}}</ref>

The version in ''Heimskringla'' is the most elaborate, but also the latest, and introduces elements to the story that are not found in earlier sources. It states that Olaf was born shortly after the murder of his father in 963, while other sources suggest a date between 964 and 969. The later dates cast doubt over Olaf's claim to be of Harald Fairhair's kin, and the legitimacy of his claim to the throne. Snorri Sturluson claims in ''Olaf Tryggvson's saga'' that Olaf was born on an islet in Fjærlandsvatnet, where his mother Astrid Eiriksdottir, daughter of Eirik Bjodaskalle, was hiding from her husband's killers, led by [[Harald Greycloak]], the son of [[Eirik Bloodaxe]]. Greycloak and his brothers had seized the throne from [[Haakon I of Norway|Haakon the Good]]. Astrid fled to her father's home in Oppland, then went on to Sweden where she thought she and Olaf would be safe. Greycloak sent emissaries to the king of Sweden, and asked for permission to take the boy back to Norway, where he would be raised by Greycloak's mother Gunhild. The Swedish king gave them men to help them claim the young boy, but to no avail. After a short scuffle Astrid (with her son) fled again. This time their destination was [[Garðaríki|Gardarike]] ([[Kiev]]), where Astrid's brother Sigurd was in the service of [[Vladimir the Great]]. Olaf was three years old when they set sail on a merchant ship for [[Novgorod]]. The journey was not successful: in the [[Baltic Sea]] they were captured by [[Estonian vikings]], and the people aboard were either killed or taken as slaves. Olaf became the possession of a man named Klerkon, together with his foster father Thorolf and his son Thorgils. Klerkon considered Thorolf too old to be useful as a slave and killed him, and then sold the two boys to a man named Klerk for a ram. Olaf was then sold to a man called Reas for a fine cloak.<ref>''Heimskringla'' saga.</ref> Six years later, Sigurd Eirikson traveled to [[Ancient Estonia|Estonia]] to collect taxes for King Vladimir. He saw a boy who did not appear to be a native. He asked the boy about his family, and the boy told him he was Olaf, son of Tryggve Olafson and Astrid Eiriksdattir. Sigurd then went to Reas and bought Olaf and Thorgils out from slavery, and took the boys with him to Novgorod to live under the protection of Vladimir.

Still according to ''Heimskringla'', one day in the Novgorod marketplace Olaf encountered Klerkon, his enslaver and the murderer of his foster father. Olaf killed Klerkon with an axe blow to the head. A mob followed the young boy as he fled to his protector [[Family life and children of Vladimir I|Queen Allogia]], with the intent of killing him for his misdeed. Only after Allogia had paid [[Weregild|blood money]] for Olaf did the mob calm down. As Olaf grew older, Vladimir made him chief over his men-at-arms, but after a couple years the king became wary of Olaf and his popularity with his soldiers. Fearing he might be a threat to the safety of his reign, Vladimir stopped treating Olaf as a friend. Olaf decided that it was better for him to seek his fortune elsewhere, and set out for the Baltic.