The Saga of King Olaf

"The Saga of King Olaf" is a poetic sequence by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1863 as part of his book Tales of a Wayside Inn.

[2] Before 1850, Longfellow had also written a poem in imitation of Icelandic poetic form called "The Challenge of Thor", which was repurposed as an introductory to the sequence.

[2] The content of the poems draws heavily from the Heimskringla and ultimately implies little difference between the symbols of Thor's hammer and Christ's cross.

He wrote to him specifically of the segment of "The Building of the Long Serpent": "By some inscrutable magic you contrive to suggest a parallel picture of a modern frigate.

"[8] Composer Dudley Buck created two musical adaptations of portions of the poem, the cantatas The Nun of Nidaros in 1879 and King Olaf's Christmas in 1891.