Editing Olaf Tryggvason (section)

===Death of Geira and conversion===

After Olaf had spent three years in Wendland, his wife Geira died. He felt so much sorrow from her death that he could no longer bear to stay in Wendland, and set out to plunder in 984. He raided from [[Friesland]] to the [[Hebrides]]. After four years he landed on one of the [[Scilly Isles]]. He heard of a [[fortune teller|seer]] who lived there. Desiring to test the seer, he sent one of his men to pose as Olaf. But the seer was not fooled. So Olaf went to see the hermit, now convinced he was a real fortune teller. And the seer told him:

<blockquote>Thou wilt become a renowned king, and do celebrated deeds. Many men wilt thou bring to faith and baptism, and both to thy own and others' good; and that thou mayst have no doubt of the truth of this answer, listen to these tokens. When thou comest to thy ships many of thy people will conspire against thee, and then a battle will follow in which many of thy men will fall, and thou wilt be wounded almost to death, and carried upon a shield to thy ship; yet after seven days thou shalt be well of thy wounds, and immediately thou shalt let thyself be baptized.</blockquote>

After the meeting mutineers attacked Olaf, and he was wounded but survived, and as a result he converted to Christianity.

David Hugh Farmer, in the [[Oxford Dictionary of Saints]], writes 'it is tempting' to identify the seer with [[Saint Lide]] who lived on the island of [[St Helen's, Isles of Scilly|St Helen's]] in the [[Isles of Scilly]].<ref name="Farmer2011">{{cite book|author=David Farmer|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Fifth Edition Revised|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_zJJtvK2_KsC&pg=PA272|year= 2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199596607|page=272}}</ref>

By another account, [[Ælfheah of Canterbury|Saint Ælfheah of Canterbury]] baptized him near [[Andover, Hampshire|Andover]], [[Hampshire]], England in 994.<ref name=ASE378>Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 378</ref> However, Henrietta Leyser, the author of Ælfheah's entry in the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography|Oxford National Dictionary of Biography]]'', states that Olaf was already baptized and that the 994 event at Andover was a confirmation of his faith, part of a [[Danegeld]] treaty in which he agreed to no longer raid in England.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|id=181|title=Ælfheah (d. 1012)}}</ref>

Following the death of Geira, it states in ''The Saga of Olaf'' that he travelled to Russia. During his stay here, he had a dream in which God spoke to him. The voice he heard said, "Hear me, you who promise to be a good man, for you never worshipped gods or paid them any reverence. But rather you disgraced them, and for that reason your works will be multiplied for good and profitable ends. Still you are very deficient in those qualities that would allow you to be in these regions and make you deserving to live here in eternity, because you do not know your Creator and you do not know who the true God is."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Snorrason |first1=Oddr |title=The Saga of Olaf Tryggvason |date=2003 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=New York |page=54}}</ref>