This is a walker's guide to the 643 km medieval pilgrim road from Oslo to Nidaros (Trondheim) Cathedral, where Saint Olav (king of Norway, and responsible for much of the conversion of the country to Christianity) was buried. His shrine was the focus not only of many miracles but also of the fourth most important pilgrim route in Europe ......

After Norway's patron saint, Olav Haraldsson, fell at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030, Nidaros (now Trondheim) and the grave of Saint Olav became a destination for people seeking salvation. This updated booklet is a guide for modern pilgrims who want to follow in the footsteps of those earlier wanderers. Today's pilgrim paths give the contemporary wanderer a sense of what pilgrims in the Middle Ages went through on their way to the shrine in Trondheim. All the paths and routes to Trondheim are described with accompanying pictures and maps. The book also contains brief texts about Saint Olav, Stiklestad, Nidaros Cathedral, and the medieval landscape, as well as useful information about today's Trondheim and its many attractions.

NIDAROS - the Jerusalem of the North - was a very important pilgrimage destination for centuries - until the Reformation. For some years now, pilgrims again have been making their way along St. Olav Ways to Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim in Norway.

This book explores cathedrals, past and present, as spaces for religious but also wider cultural practices. Contributors from history, anthropology, sociology, and religious studies trace major continuities and shifts in the location of cathedrals within religious, civic, urban, and economic landscapes of pre- and post-Reformation Christianity. While much of the focus is on England, other European and global contexts are referenced as authors explore ways in which cathedrals have been, and remain, distinctive spaces of adjacent ritual, political and social activity, capable of taking on lives of their own as sites of worship, pilgrimage, and governance. A major theme of the book is that of replication, pointing to the ways in which cathedrals echo each other materially and ritually in processes of mutual borrowing and competition, while a cathedral can also provide a reference point for smaller constituencies of religious practice such as a diocese or parish. As this volume demonstrates, the contemporary resurgence of interest in pilgrimage, the impact of ‘Caminoisation’, and the (re)presentation of cathedrals as cultural heritage further add to the attractions, popularity, and complexities of cathedrals in the 21st century. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Religion.

Guidebook to the Camino Inglés and Ruta do Mar camino routes through north-west Spain to Santiago de Compostela. The 116km Camino Inglés begins in Ferrol in Galicia and takes around a week to complete. It offers reliable waymarking, pilgrim facilities, and the opportunity to earn the Compostela certificate on completion. An alternative start in A Coruña gives a walk of 73km. The Ruta do Mar from Ribadeo provides a 190km coastal link between the Camino del Norte and the Camino Inglés. A newly recovered camino, its pilgrim infrastructure and waymarking is less well developed, but for those seeking solitude it offers striking scenery along a wild coastline. The book also includes an overview of a continuation route from Santiago to 'the end of the world' at Finisterre on the Atlantic coast. The guidebook presents the route in stages of a day's walking. In addition to the route description, there is full information on facilities, food and lodging, 1:100,000 scale maps of the route and town maps for key locations. With notes on preparation and planning, travel and equipment, a list of useful sources of information, and a glossary, the book is an indispensable companion for any one walking these caminos.

Pilgrimage, Landscape, and Identity: Reconstructing Sacred Geographies in Norway explores the ritual geography of a pilgrimage system that arose around medieval saints in Norway, a country now being transformed by petroleum riches, neoliberalism, migration and global warming. What it means to be Norwegian and Christian in this changing context is constantly being renegotiated. The contemporary revival of pilgrimage to the burial site of St. Olav at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim is one site where this negotiation takes place. St. Olav played a major role in the unification of regions of Norway into a nation united by Christian law and faith, though most contemporary pilgrims have only a passing interest in the historical background of the pilgrimage. The pilgrimage network comprises a wide variety of participants: individuals, casual groups, guided group pilgrimages, activist pilgrims raising awareness for causes such as climate change and hospice services, as well as increasing numbers of local and foreign pilgrims of various ages, government officials, pilgrimage activists, and pilgrimage priests supplied by the Church of Norway (Lutheran). Part of the study focuses on the Olavsfest, a cultural and music festival that engages the heritage of St. Olav and the Church of Norway through theater, music, lectures, and discussions, and theological and interreligious conversations. This festival offers an opportunity for creative and critical engagement with a difficult historical figure and his contested, violent heritage and constitutes one of the ways in which this pilgrimage network represents a critical Protestant tradition engaging a legacy through ritual creativity. This study maps how pilgrims, hosts, church officials, and government officials participate in reshaping narratives of landscape, sacrality, and pilgrimage as a symbol of life journey, nation, identity, Christianity, and Protestant reflections on the durability of medieval Catholic saints.

Guidebook to the Camino del Norte (Northern Caminos) pilgrim route through northern Spain to the sacred city of Santiago de Compostela. Includes stage-by-stage descriptions to the Camino del Norte (800km), Camino Primitivo, Camino Ingles (116km route) and the Camino de Finisterre, and provides advice, information on pilgrim hostels and more.