Coat of arms of Oslo

The arms

It is featured on the city's flag

The coat of arms of Oslo depicts the city's patron saint, St. Hallvard, with his attributes, the millstone and arrows, with a nude woman by his feet. Hallvard is seated on a throne with lion decorations, which at the time was also commonly used by the Norwegian kings. The oldest known version showed the same composition as today's design, except that instead of a human figure reclining at the feet of St. Hallvard, there was an armed warrior; one of the evil men who killed Hallvard. Due to its bad state of preservation, the image was misinterpreted as the woman whom Hallvard tried to defend. The symbol was probably made around 1300 and was in use for nearly three centuries. After the Reformation, the city continued the use of St. Hallvard in its arms. The second arms of Oslo dates from around 1590. It shows the same basic design, but the saint holds his attributes in the opposite hands. Also the stars and some other smaller details were lost. This arms was used until around 1660.

At that time the Church of St. Hallvard had become a ruin and the legend was no longer well known. The third arms of Oslo, made in 1659, therefore still showed the basic design, but the saint was transformed into a female figure. She still held the arrows and had a dead knight (with harness and helmet) lying at her feet. The millstone had become thinner and looked more like a ring. This image can still be seen on a cast iron stove plate dating from 1770. These plates became very popular in Denmark in the 18th century and the figure was presented as Queen Margaret I, who unified the three Kingdoms of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, which are represented by the ring (union) and the three arrows. The dead knight was to symbolise her opponent, Albrecht of Mecklenburg.

During the 18th and early 19th century, the image kept changing. The ring has been shown as a snake biting its own tail, the throne was replaced by a lion, and the warrior at Hallvard's feet definitely became a woman.

In 1854, A. T. Kaltenborn wrote about the Norwegian municipal arms and also was shown a medieval arms of Oslo. He recognised it as depicting the legend of St. Hallvard, but did not interpret the reclining figure correctly. He persuaded the city to have a new arms made, based on the alleged medieval composition. Finally a new design was made by the German E. Doepler in 1892. His composition was also used on a proper shield, designed in 1899 by Reidar Haavin. In 1924, the present design was made, still with the incorrect woman instead of the original warrior, but now stark naked.

The flag of Oslo includes the arms placed towards the left on a blue background.