Magnús góði (the Good)

Magnus the Good is the boy fetched home from Kyiv to be king — the gentlest turn in the long story of the Norwegian kings. St Olaf left him, a small child, in the keeping of Yaroslav the Wise at the eastern court; and when Olaf fell at Stiklestad and his killers' cause curdled, the very chiefs who had betrayed his father sailed east to bring the boy home down the river-road to the throne. Magnus began as a harsh young avenger, bent on punishing the men of Stiklestad — until the skald Sigvat's fearless 'Free-speaking Song' shamed him into ruling by mercy and law instead of vengeance, and so earned him his name. He gave Norway its written law, the 'Grey Goose'; won the crown of Denmark; and beat a vast heathen Wendish host at Hlyrskog with his dead father St Olaf appearing in his dream the night before and the saint's own axe in his hand. The road east, which carried the father into exile, carried the son home to be the good king.