Tore Hund (Old Norse: Þórir hundr, Modern Norwegian: Tore Hund) (ca. 990 - ?) was one of the greatest chiefs in Hålogaland. Tore Hund was one of the leaders of the Stiklestad peasant faction opposing Norwegian King Olaf II of Norway. Tore was reported to have been among the chieftains who killed Norway's Patron Saint in the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. He also served in the forces of King Canute the Great on several occasions.[1]
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Tore Hund was born at the beginning of the Christian era in Norway. Tore was both strongly independent and a devout pagan. Christianization of the country was not only a question of faith. Christianity was also a powerful political tool to subject the old chiefs and for Hålogaland establish rule by a king from the south.
Tore was an influential man in the area of Hålogaland, his home being the island of Bjarkøy in Troms. Tore belonged to the upper echelon among the Norwegian coastal chiefs. He was a member of Bjarkøyætta, one of the more powerful family in Northern Norway during the Viking Age. He was an accomplished Viking, leading several expeditions towards Russia and the White Sea. He traded in Bjarmaland, today the area of Arkhangelsk in northern Russia .[2]
The family of Tore Hund formed alliances with the most powerful chiefs in Norway. His sister Sigrid Toresdatter was married to Olve Grjotgardsson of Egge. His brother, Sigurd Toresson was also an important chief in Trondenes. He was married to Sigrid Skjalgsdatter, a sister of the powerful nobleman, Erling Skjalgsson of Sola in Rogaland. Tore Hund was married to a woman named Ranveig, about whose background little is known. Tore had a son, Sigurd Toresson, with his wife Ranveig. Sigurd later served as a sheriff during the reign of King Harald Hardrade.[3]
Tore opposed the king's attempts to unify and Christianize Norway. He also held personal grudges against the king, after one of the kings the murdered his nephew Asbjørn Selsbane with a javelin. Tore later revenged his nephew, but was sentenced to pay a heavy fine by the king, further contributing to his grudge against the king.
When Erling Skjalgsson was killed in 1028, Tore assumed leadership of the anti-Olaf faction together with Einar Thambarskelfir and Kalv Arnesson, the brother of Finn Arnesson. In 1026, he joined Canute's forces when they drove out Olaf and was named Canute's representative in Norway along with Hårek av Tjøtta.[4][5]
According to Heimskringla, as Olaf arrived during the summer of 1030, Tore was among those rallying against him. Tore and his men led the line against the king's army at the Battle of Stiklestad. The battle site was at Stiklestad, a farm in the lower part of the valley of Verdal 80 km north of the city of Trondheim. According to saga sources, Tore was among those who gave Olaf his lethal wounds, together with Kalv Arnesson and Thorstein Knarresmed from Rovde in Sunnmøre.[6] While earlier reports do not name the kings bane, the Heimskringla by Snorri Sturlason specify Tore as the man delivering the fatal wound, using a spear tipped with the javelin point that killed his nephew to thrust up below the kings mail shirt and into the belly.[1]
After the battle, turning political tides soon went against Tore. As Olaf's son Magnus, backed by some of Tore's former allies, seized power, Tore became a marginalized figure. According to Snorri, Tore may have left Norway for the Holy Lands, or he may have died. He never returned to Bjarkøy.
The Tore Hund Monument, by Norwegian artist Svein Haavardsholm, was erected in 1980 beside the road to the church on Bjarkøy. The memorial honors both the great Viking chieftain Tore Hund and Bjarkøyætta, who had their seat on Bjarkøy.