for the earls since they were allied with the Christian rulers of Sweden and Denmark. Instituting freedom of religion was also a shrewd political move after Óláfr Tryggvason's violent missionary activity. Eric's religious conviction as a Christian was probably not strong. While the court poets of Eric's rivals, Óláfr Tryggvason and Óláfr Haraldsson, censored heathen kennings from their poetry and praised their lord as a Christian ruler, all surviving court poetry devoted to Eric is entirely traditional. The Bandadrápa, composed sometime after 1000, is explicitly pagan - its refrain says that Eric conquers lands according to the will of the heathen gods. Even the poetry of Þórðr Kolbeinsson, composed no earlier than 1016, has no indication of Christian influence. According to Historia Norwegiae and Ágrip, Eiríkr actively worked to uproot Christianity in Norway but this is not corroborated by other sources. Works that mention Eric The most important historical sources on Eric are the 12th and 13th century Kings' Sagas, including the Heimskringla, Fagrskinna, Ágrip, Knýtlinga saga, Historia Norvegiæ, the Legendary Saga of St. Olaf and the works of Oddr Snorrason and Theodoricus monachus. The Anglo-Saxon sources are scant but valuable as they represent contemporary evidence. The most important are the 11th-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Encomium Emmae but Eric is also mentioned by the 12th-century historians Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon. A significant amount of poetry by Eric's skalds is preserved in the Kings' Sagas and represents contemporary evidence. The most important are the Bandadrápa of Eyjólfr dáðaskáld and the works of Halldórr ókristni and Þórðr Kolbeinsson. Other skalds known to have composed on Eric are Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld, Gunnlaugr ormstunga, Hrafn Önundarson, Skúli Þorsteinsson and Þórðr Sjáreksson. Citations Sources Campbell, Alistar (editor and translator) and Simon Keynes (supplementary introduction) (1998). Encomium Emmae Reginae. Cambridge University Press. Christiansen, Eric (2002). The Norsemen in the Viking Age. Blackwell Publishing. Driscoll, M. J. (editor) (1995). Ágrip af Nóregskonungasǫgum. Viking Society for Northern Research. Ekrem, Inger (editor), Lars Boje Mortensen (editor) and Peter Fisher (translator) (2003). Historia Norwegie. Museum Tusculanum Press. Faulkes, Anthony (editor) (1978). Two Icelandic Stories : Hreiðars þáttr : Orms þáttr. Viking Society for Northern Research. Finlay, Alison (editor and translator) (2004). Fagrskinna, a Catalogue of the Kings of Norway. Brill Academic Publishers. Fox, Denton and Hermann Pálsson (translators) (2001). Grettir's Saga. University of Toronto Press. Henry of Huntingdon (translated by Diana Greenway) (2002). The