When Christians made their theological push into Europe, suppressing native religions and supplanting them with a foreign God, some pagans resisted by secretly practicing their old religion, while others resisted by meeting force with force. One such case of forceful resistance was by Tore Hund or Thorir the Hound, a powerful Viking born around 990 AD, during the first incursions of Christianity into Norway.

Today, many people around the world still resort to violence over religion, more than 1,000 years after Tore Hund killed King Olaf II or Saint Olaf, who reportedly made a deal to impose Christianity on Norway in exchange for the help of other European powers. Tore killed Olaf at the battle of Stiklestad. There, an army of farmers and laborers overwhelmed the king’s army.

One person’s hero, another persons’ villain

To Christians, Olaf is a martyr and literally a saint to whom miracles have been attributed. However, to the modern Asatruar (worshipers of the old Norse gods), neo-pagans, and the pagans of his own time, Tore Hund is a hero. Tore is remembered not only for fiercely protecting his religion, but for being a leader of the common people, who bravely stood against the powerful nobility that throughout history has taken so much and given so little.