| September 9 |  |
Editor says, what if the Danes had failed to gain control of Norway? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the August 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 999, on this day King Olaf Tryggvason consolidated the unification of Norway into a single state by defeating an alliance of enemies at a naval battle fought in the western Baltic Sea.
Glorious Norwegian Victory at the Naval Battle of SvolderSvein Forkbeard, King of Denmark, Olof Skötkonung, King of Sweden, and Eirik H´konarson, Jarl of Lade had ambushed the Norwegians at they sailed home from an expedition to Wendland. Although heavily outnumbered, the un-coordinated commands of the allies had caused confusion and Olaf managed to exploit this weakness, taking a fast moving offensive approach1 to inflict significant damage before pulling off a masterful escape. This tactic was a complete break with the traditional system of thinking; the allies had expected him to adopt a defensive posture, lashing his ships together to form a floating fort.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Svolder, Olaf Tryggvason, Norway, Denmark, Viking. Editor says, in reality he did adopt a defensive approach [1], they were defeated and the victorious leaders split Norway into areas of control. In authoring this post, we have repurposed content from Wikipedia.
~ I always thought "lash the ships together" was insane. A longship's strengths were speed and agility.
~ A whole shift in the formation of northern Europe. Who knows how it could impact the formation of England 67 years later?
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
