Olaf One-Eye

King Olaf One-Eye was a Jarl of Whiterun who rose to become High King during the First Era after defeating the dragon Numinex atop Mount Anthor. During the festival Burning of King Olaf, an effigy of Olaf is burned, depicting him as a tyrant.

Background
According to Adonato Leotelli's account, Olaf and the Dragon, Olaf One-Eye fought the dragon Numinex with the aid of Thu'um in the presence of several witnesses. Drawing the battle toward Whiterun, Olaf contained the dragon within a prison in the Cloud District. The people of Whiterun renamed the keep Dragonsreach in honor of this task. Numinex resided there, trapped in a cell until his death.

Olaf became High King of Skyrim, after the battle, facing mixed opinions from his peers. Because many of the witnesses of Olaf's victory against Numinex became extremely wealthy after Olaf became High King, many believe they were paid to provide false testimony to the events that took place atop Mount Athor.

The poet Svaknir wrote a heretical elegy, defaming Olaf and labeling him a traitor of Skyrim. Copies of Svaknir's script were burned, until none remained, save the one buried with Olaf in his tomb.

Tending the Flames
Viarmo employs the Dragonborn with recovering Svaknir's lost verse, said to still reside in Olaf's tomb. The verse is need to convince Jarl Elisif the Fair of the legitimacy of the Burning of Olaf festival the Bards College wishes to perform. Recovering the manuscript, Olaf, in the form of a Draugr attacks and is defeated by the Dragonborn, allowing the festival to continue.

Tactics for lower levels
Olaf has the Disarm shout, so it is hard to fight him with weapons. Learn Firebreath and pull the king back to the pool at the beginning of the dungeon. He cannot swim, so hit him with firebreath until he is dead.

Sovngarde
The Dragonborn encounters Olaf One-Eye in the Hall of Valor at Sovngarde, implying that he did indeed legitimately slay Numinex, for he probably would not have been allowed entry had he not. The two versions of King Olaf, as honored dead and as Draugr, are quite dissimilar in many ways. They have different hair colors, with Olaf's spirit having black hair and the Draugr having brownish. The style of their facial hair is also different, the Draugr version sporting a braided beard and the spirit Olaf bearing long mustaches. And lastly, their armor is different, the Draugr Olaf wearing customary ancient Nord armor, while the spirit form is clad in steel plate armor. Additionally, the Draugr version has two fully intact, identical eyes, albeit one being lit like standard Draugr and the other being unlit like dead Draugr. This might simply be due to lack of creating a separate Draugr model for Olaf One-Eye

Quests

 * Tending the Flames

Behind the scenes

 * In Tending the Flames the Dragonborn can pass a persuade test to change Olaf's history, where it is rewritten as Olaf was actually a dragon in human form.