Magnus Olafsson (Old Norse: Magnús Ólafsson; c. 1024 – 25 October 1047), better known as Magnus the Good (Old Norse: Magnús góði, Norwegian and Danish: Magnus den gode), was the King of Norway from 1035 to 1047, and King of Denmark from 1042 to 1047, today counted as Magnus I (in both countries). He was an illegitimate son of Olaf II of Norway, but fled with his mother when his father was dethroned in 1028. He returned to Norway in 1035 and was crowned king at the age of 11. In 1042, he was also crowned king of Denmark. Magnus ruled the two countries until 1047, when he died under unclear circumstances. After his death, his kingdom was split between Harald Hardrada in Norway and Sweyn Estridsson in Denmark.
Read more about Magnus The Good: Early Life, King of Norway and Denmark, Death, Physical Appearance, Descendants, Ancestry
Famous quotes containing the words the good and/or magnus:
“Softly sweet in Lydian measures
Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.
‘War’, he sung, ‘is toil and trouble;
Honour but an empty bubble.
Never ending, still beginning,
Fighting still, and still destroying;
If the world be worth thy winning,
Think, O think it worth enjoying.
Lovely Thais sits beside thee,
Take the good the Gods provide thee.’”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“A pathological business, writing, don’t you think? Just look what a writer actually does: all that unnatural tense squatting and hunching, all those rituals: pathological!”
—Hans Magnus Enzensberger (b. 1929)