Åsmund Bøyum, April 2003
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There are many groundwater springs in Scandinavia with the
name of the holy king Olav (U
1030). Among all, the spring in the city of Trondheim is of particular
importance. It is more close to king Olav than any other of the holy springs.
The spring in Trondheim is localised on the picture 1 by
an arrow.
At Marinen, between Pope Hadrian’s monument and the
Elgeseter Bridge pier a wood pole is hammered into the ground. It has an
inscription: OLAVSKILDEN, which means THE St. OLAV’S SPRING.
About 7 meters behind the pole the spring appears as a
small fountain. This fountain, however, is not the true St. Olav’s spring. We
have to look up on the hill behind the fountain, to a circular iron lid which
can be seen in the grass, picture 2. It is the cover of a manhole. Five meters
under the lid a small chamber makes the foundation of the manhole and collects
groundwater. That water source is the original St. Olav’s spring.
The manhole consists of circular concrete elements with a
diameter of 1 m. One must imagine that the holy spring is collected at the
bottom of the manhole.
The reason why the spring is lying so deep is that a lot
of soil had to be removed to give space for the pier of Elgeseter Bridge when it
was built in 1951. That soil was deposited on the springs’ area.
The chamber is connected to the fountains console by a 13
m long, small cupper pipe. Unfortunately the pipe was broken in 1988 and the
fountain stopped, only a small part of the holy water passed through the pipe to
a chamber under the console.
In 1999 a new plastic pipe was pressed through the old
pipe to the upper chamber - and connected to the fountains pipe in the chamber
below. At present the fountain contains holy water.
One day in 1996 the newspaper Adresseavisen had a picture
of two Italian ladies who were drinking holy water, as they said, from St.
Olav’s spring. They belonged to a group of correspondents who visited
Trondheim before the 1000-years celebration of the city in 1997.
I thought - what kind of water can that be, coming from a densely populated
city? It may be heavily polluted! I contacted the division of Environment
protection at the municipality of Trondheim, the chief of which was Geirmund
Lykke. At first we studied previous water tests, and we found it necessary to
test the water more continuously.
Six samples for bacteriological and six for chemical
investigations were analysed in 1998.
All parameters except of the one, mercury, in one sample
were acceptable in respect of the drinking water standards. At spring 1999 the
Health authority of the municipality gave permission to go on with
rehabilitation of the spring system that already is mentioned. What they
didn’t say: the spring is not only acceptable for drinking; it has also a
certain good health effect due to the high content of minerals, particularly the
calcium and magnesium components. I have red about a man who got rid of his
stomach plague by drinking water from the St. Olav’s spring for some months.
Another and rather peculiar cure has also been talked about.
In late summer we can observe a green organic cover on the
top of the console. It indicates a nutritious water (high content of phosphorous
and nitrogen). The water is clear,
cooling and good to drink in the summer when you take a walk at Marinen.
All the tests are available for study.
Normal flow is to day just 1.0 to 1.5 liters a minute.
There-fore the spring has never been used as houshold water in spite of its good
quality, except for a period when nuns filled their bottles with water from the
spring for drinking. This went on until the beginning of the 1970th .
St. Olav¢s
spring is drawn on a map from 1842. Hence, the spring has existed for at least
160 years. In this period the surface of the spring¢s
catchments has got still more impervious (asphalt, stones, concrete paving and
so on), reducing constantly the infiltration rate of precipitation until to day.
This is also a reason why the fountain is small.
Before 1842 the surface was more pervious, causing a still
higher flow as further back in time we go.
If we had been living in Nidaros, the name of Trondheim in
ancient times, at the year 1031 we could have seen a beautiful spring coming out
of the grave of the holy king Olav when the coffin with his body was taken up
again after one year in the ground.
This is what Snorre tells. Therefore, a legend has lived for some hundred years
about a connection between the two springs.
Myth or fact - a question that still will be discussed.