Olaf the White (Old Norse:Óláfr hinn Hvíti) was avikingsea-king who lived in the latter half of the 9th century.

Olaf was born around 820, inIreland. His father was theHiberno-Norse warlordIngjald Helgasson. Some traditional sources portray Olaf as a descendant ofRagnar Lodbrok – for instance, theEyrbyggja Saga, claims that Olaf's paternal grandmother (Thora) was a daughter of Ragnar's sonSigurd Snake-in-the-Eye. However, this connection seems unlikely, given that Sigurd appears to have lived in the mid-9th Century and Ragnar himself may have lived until the 860s. Irish fragments provide a different genealogy, suggesting that Olaf's father was Godfred, son of Ragnall, son of Godfred, son of Godfred.^[1]

He was namedKing of Dublin around 853. According to Irish sources, Olaf ruled jointly with his kinsmanÍmar. Olaf marriedAud the Deep-minded (Auðr), daughter ofKetil Flatnose, the ruler of theHebrides, according to Icelandic traditions (Landnámabók,Laxdæla saga). The Irish sources name Olaf's wife only as the daughter of a "King Aedh".^[2]

Olaf and Auðr had a son,Thorstein the Red (Þorsteinn rauðr), who attempted to conquerScotland in the 870s. At some point Olaf had a falling-out with the clan of Ketil and sent Auðr and their son back to her father's house. According toLandnámabók, Olaf and Þorsteinn Rauðr were both killed in the British Isles.

Thorstein the Red was married to Þuriðr Eyvindardóttir Austmann, and they had several children: Gróa, Álof, Þorgerðr, Þórhildr, Vigdís, Ósk, Ólafr feilan, ancestor of Ari Fróði, author of Landnámabók.^[3] The family was related to theVinland explorers and the Sturlung family.^[4]

Olaf may be identical with the Viking warlordAmlaíb Conung, who according toIrish sources was killed in 871/2 byCausantín mac Cináeda, king ofAlba. However, bothGwyn Jones and Peter Hunter Blair dispute this identification.

Old Norse sources mention two Olafs belonging to the ninth-century house ofVestfold. The first of these, Olaf the White, because of his connections with Dublin and with Ketil Flatnose, must be identified with Olaf king of Dublin, as described in early Irish and Scottish chronicles. We are also told in theHeimskringla ofOlaf Guthfrithsson of Vestfold who on good archaeological evidence can be identified with the king buried in theGokstad ship. It is possible that there was only one such king, Olaf Guthfrisson of Vestfold, who in his earlier days ruled from Dublin and raided in Scotland and who later in 871 returned to claim his Vestfold kingdom. The Irish Three Fragments of Annals, while not actually proving such a theory, do support the case for regarding Olaf Guthfrithsson of Vestfold as being the same as Olaf the White of Dublin and the Scottish Isles. The Fragments claim that Olaf of Dublin ended his reign there when c. 871 he returned to Norway to support his father Guthfrith in a struggle for a kingdom. This passage, then, would identify Olaf of Dublin, alias Olaf the White of Landnamabok withOlaf Guthfrithsson of Norway.^[5]

• Steenstrup, Johannes C.H.R. Normannerne, vol. 2. Kjøbenhavn, 1878: Vikingetogene mod Vest. pp. 119 ff.
• Forte, Angelo, Richard Oram and Frederik Pedersen.Viking Empires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005ISBN 0-521-82992-5.
• Jones, Gwyn.A History of the Vikings. 2nd ed. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1984.
• Gísli Sigurðsson.The Medieval Icelandic Saga and Oral Tradition: A Discourse on Method. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U.P., 2004.
• Bilbao, Jon. “Sobre la leyenda de Jaun Zuria, primer señor de Vizcaya” in Amigos del País, hoy, Real Sociedad Vascongada de Amigos del País (Comisión de Vizcaya), Bilbao, 1982, pp. 235–263.
• Warlords and Holy Men, by Alfred P. Smith, Edinburgh University Press 2010, first published in 1984 by Edward Arnold Publishers, Ltd.

• Stirnet: Viking03(subscription required) (mentions Olaf)

• 820s births
• 870s deaths
• Monarchs of Dublin
• 9th-century Irish monarchs
• 9th-century rulers of the Kingdom of the Isles

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