Sihtric III Olafsson
- Born
- 0970-01-01 12:00:00
- Died
- 1042-01-01 12:00:00
- Gender
- Male
Sigtrygg III Silkbeard Olafsson (also Sihtric, Sitric and Sitrick in Irish texts; or Sigtryg and Sigtryggr in Scandinavian texts) was a Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin.
Sihtric was of Norse and Irish ancestry.
- His mother, Gormflaith, was a beautiful, powerful and intriguing Irish woman, who according to the 13th-century Icelandic Njál’s saga, was “the fairest of all women, and best gifted in everything that was not in her own power, but it was the talk of men that she did all things ill over which she had any power”. Gormflaith had previously been married to the King of Meath and High King of Ireland, Máel Sechnaill — the ‘first’ of her three husbands. She later became the wife of Brian Boru.
- His father, Olaf Cuarán (also called Kváran) was the King of York, Northumbria & Dublin.
He established a bishopric at Dublin and in 1028 he made a pilgrimage to Rome. (The establishment of territorial bishoprics in Ireland on the Roman model, are attributed to Sigtrygg.
He went on to found Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin.
