Norwegian Coat of Arms Key Ring

The Coat of Arms of Norway is a crowned, golden lion rampant holding an axe with an argent blade, on a crowned, triangular and red escutcheon. Its elements originate from personal insignias for the royal house in the High Middle Ages, thus being among the oldest in Europe. Magnus the Barefoot (1093-1103) was the first Norwegian king to use an heraldic lion in his standard. Hakon the Old (1217-1263) placed the lion on escutcheon.In 1280 a crown and a silver axe was added to the lion in King Eirik Magnusson's insignia. The axe is the martyr axe of St. Olav, the weapon said to have killed him in the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030.