In collaboration with Museum Publishers, Nidaros Cathedral Restoration Workshop welcomes to the launching of Passio Olavi. Olav den hellige og hans mirakler on Saturday 3. August.
Passio Olavi is one of the three oldest books in Norway, and contains entertaining stories of the miracles of the protagonist, St. Olav. The editor of the collection of texts was the Trønder Archbishop Øystein, who in the 1170s wanted to promote St. Olav and the new archbishopric Nidaros. Passio Olavi is now available in a new translation from Latin and decorated with Håkon Gullvåg's lost travel alter.
The original and most copies of the manuscript were lost during the Reformation, but in just a few places they are still originals. The first Norwegian edition was released for the gbig Olav anniversary in 1930. The edition launched during Olav's Festival 2019 contains more miracles than the 1930 edition and is thus the first complete version of the stories of the St. Olav miracles.
Passio Olavi is an important part of the earliest Norwegian literature, and it also provides us with a glimpse of the lives of many ordinary people who are otherwise unknown. It is not strange that these exciting real life stories, which were read out in the churches, were retold and formed the foundation for a rich flora of myths, legends and adventures which survice to this day. In the legends, St. Olav fought trolls and evil powers, and no other saint has left such traces in Norwegian life and folklore. 850 years on, the St. Olav stories are still a good read.
Nidaros Cathedral Restoration Workshop (NDR) invites the public to the book launch with Øystein Ekroll, archaeologist and researcher at NDR, who has written the introduction. The launch opens Saturday's Western Front Meeting, where the theme is miracles.
Saturday 12.15, The West Front Square
Free
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