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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
Norwalk (Ohio)
1911
Encyclopædia Britannica
Volume 19
Norway
by
Philip Lake
Osbert J. R. Howarth
Bertha S. Phillpotts
Hans L. Brækstad
, and
Edmund Gosse
Norwegian Sea
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1721901
1911
Encyclopædia Britannica
Volume 19
— Norway
Philip Lake
Osbert J. R. Howarth
Bertha S. Phillpotts
Hans L. Brækstad
, and
Edmund Gosse
NORWAY
Norge
), a kingdom of northern Europe, occupying
the W. and smaller part of the Scandinavian peninsula. Its
E. frontier marches with that of Sweden, except in the extreme
N., where Norway is bounded by Russian territory. On the
N., W., S. and S.E. the boundary is the sea—the Arctic Ocean,
that part of the Atlantic which is called the Norwegian Sea,
the North Sea and the Skagerrack successively. The S. extremity
of the country is the island of Slettingen in 57° 58′ N., and the
N. that of Knivskjærodden, off the North Cape in 71° 11′ N.
Of the mainland, the southernmost promontory is Lindesnæs,
in 57° 59′ N., while the northernmost is Nordkyn, in 71° 7′ N.
The S. of the country, that is to say, the projection between the
Skagerrack and the North Sea proper, lies in the same latitude
as the N. of Scotland and Labrador, and the midland of Kamchatka.
The most western island, Utvær, lies off the mouth
of the Sogne Fjord (4° 30′ E.), and the easternmost point of the
country is within the Arctic lands, near Vardö (31° 11′ E
). The
direct length of Norway (S.W. to N.E.) is about 1100 m. The
extreme breadth in the S. (about 61° N.) is 270 m., but in the
N. it is much less—about 60 m. on the average, though the
Swedish frontier approaches within 6 m. of a head-branch of
Ofoten Fjord, and the Russian within 19 m. of Lyngen Fjord.
The length of the coast line is difficult to estimate; measured
as an unbroken line it is nearly 1700 m., but including the fjords
and greater islands it is set down as 12,000. The area is estimated
at 124,495 sq. m.
Physical Features. Relief.
—The main mountain system
of the Scandinavian peninsula hardly deserves its name of
Kjölen
(the keel). It may rather be described as a plateau
deprived of the appearance of a plateau, being on the one hand
grooved by deep valleys, while on the other many salient peaks
tower above its average level. Such peaks, during the later
Glacial period, stood above the ice-field. Peaks and ridges
were formed by the action of small glaciers cutting out each
its circular hollow (
botn
) just as they still work on the remaining
snow-fields. But where the power of the main ice-mass was at
work, the characteristic rounded forms of base rock are seen,
close above the sea along the coast, but even as high as 5000 ft.
in some inland localities. The high plateau lies along the W.
side of the peninsula, so that except in the S.E. Norway is
mountainous throughout. Even the part excepted is hilly,
but it partakes of the character of the long eastern or Swedish
slope of the peninsula. Beyond the coast line their floors sink
far below sea-level, and thus are formed the fjords and the belt
of rugged islands which characterize almost the entire seaboard
of Norway. Where Norway marches with Russia, a few heights
exceed 3000 or even 4000 ft., but the land is not generally of
great elevation. But from the point of junction with Swedish
territory the mountains increase considerably in height. For a
short distance, as far south as Lake Torne, the loftiest points
lie within Norwegian territory, such as Jæggevarre (6283 ft.),
between Lyngen and Ulfs fjords, and Kiste Fjeld (5653 ft.)
farther inland. Thereafter the principal heights lie approximately
along the crest-line of the plateau and within Swedish
territory. Sulitelma, however (6158 ft.), lies on the frontier.
Southward again the higher summits fall to Norway. S. of
Bodö, Svartisen (“the black ice”), a magnificent snow-field
bordering the coast, and feeding many glaciers, culminates at
5246 ft. Thereafter, Okstinderne or Oxtinderne (6273 ft.),
and the Store Börge Fjeld (5587 ft.) are the principal elevations
as far as 64° N. A little S. of this latitude the so-called
Trondhjem depression is well marked right across the central
upland, the height of the mountains not often exceeding 4000
ft., while the peaked form characteristic of the heights which
rose clear of the glaciers of the later Glacial period is wanting.
It is from this point too that Norwegian territory broadens
so as to include not only the highest land in the peninsula,
but a considerable part of the general E. and S.E. slope. The
high plateau broadens and follows the S.W. sweep of the coast.
Pursuing it S. the Dovre Fjeld is marked off by the valleys of
the rivers Driva and Sundal, Laagen (or Laugen) and Rauma,
and the fjords of the coastland of Nordmöre. Here Snehætta
reaches a height of 7615 ft., and the Romsdal (the name under
which the Rauma valley is famous among tourists) is flanked
by many abrupt jagged peaks up to 6000 ft. high. The valley
of the Laagen forms the upper part of Gudbrandsdal. East of
this and S.E. of the Dovre is another fjeld, Rondane, in which
Högronden rises to 6929 ft. South of the Otta valley is Jotunheim
or Jötun Fjeld, a sparsely peopled, in parts almost inaccessible,
district, containing the highest mountains in Scandinavia,
Galdhöpiggen reaching 8399 ft. On the seaward side of
Jotunheim is Jostedalsbræ, a great snow-field in which Lodalskaupen
reaches a height of 6795 ft. South of Sogne Fjord
(61° N.) mountains between 5000 and 6000 ft. are rare; but in
Hallingskarvet there are points about 6500 ft. high, and in the
Hardanger Vidda (waste), a broad wild upland E. of Hardanger
Fjord, Haarteigen reaches 6063 ft. The highland finally sinks
towards the S. extremity of Norway in broken masses and short
ranges of hills, separated by valleys radiating S.E., S. and W.
Glaciers.
—The largest glacier in continental Europe is Jostedalsbræ,
with an area of 580 sq. m., the snow-cap descending to
4000 or 4500 ft. Several of its branches fall nearly to the sea,
as the Böiumsbræ above the Fjærland branch of Sogne Fjord.
The largest branch is the Nigardsbræ. Skirting Hardanger
Fjord, and nearly isolated by its main channel and two arms,
is the great glacier of Folgefond (108 sq. m.). Two branches
descending from the main mass are visited by many who penetrate
the Hardanger—Buarbræ on the E., falling towards Lake
Sandven above Odde, and Bondhusbræ on the W. The extreme
elevation of the Folgefond in 5270 ft. Continuing N. other
considerable snow-fields are those of Hallingskarvet, the Jotunheim,
Snehætta in Dovre Fjeld, and Store Börge Fjeld at the
head of the Namsen valley. Next follow Svartisen, second in
extent to Jostedalsbræ (nearly 400 sq. m.), the Sulitelma snowfield
and Jökel Fjeld, between Kvænang and Öxfjords. One
glacier actually reaches the edge of Jökel Fjord, a branch of
Kvænang Fjord, so that detached fragments of ice float away
on the water. This is the only instance of the kind in Norway.
The Seiland snow-field, on Seiland island near Hammerfest,
is the most northerly
névé
in Europe. The snow-line in Norway
is estimated at 3080 ft. in Seiland, 5150 ft. on Dovre Fjeld,
and from 4100 to 4900 ft. in Jotunheim. The lowness of the
snow-line adds to the grandeur of Norwegian mountains.
Coast
.—The flanks of the plateau fall abruptly to the sea
almost throughout the coast-line, and its isolated fragments
appear in the innumerable islands which fringe the
mainland. This island fringe, which has its counterpart
in a modified form along the Swedish coast, is
called in Norwegian the
skjærgaard
(skerry-fence,
Skjærgaard or island-fence.
pronounced shārgoord). This fringe and the fjord-coast are most
fully developed from Stavanger nearly as far as the North Cape.
The channels within the islands are of incalculable value to
coastwise navigation, which is the principal means of communication
in Norway. The voyage northward from Stavanger may be
made in quiet waters almost throughout. Only at rare intervals
vessels must enter the open sea for a short distance, as off the
port of Haugesund, or when rounding the promontory of the
Stat or Statland, S. of Aalesund, passing the coast of Hustadviken,
S. of Christiansund, or crossing the mouth of some large
fjord. At some points large steamers, following the carefully
marked channel, pass in deep water between rocks within a
few yards on either hand. Small ships and boats, fishing or
trading between the fjord-side villages, navigate the ramifying
“leads” (
leder
) in security. In some narrow sounds, however,
the tidal current is often exceedingly strong. The largest island
of the skjærgaard is Hindö of the Lofoten and Vesteraalen group.
Its area is 860 sq. m. The number of islands is estimated at
150,000 and their area at 8500 sq. m. Many of them are of
great elevation, especially the more northerly; thus the jagged
peaks characteristic of Lofoten culminate at about 4000 ft.
Hornelen, near the mouth of Nordfjord, 3000 ft. high, rises
nearly sheer above the Fröjfjord, and vessels pass close under the
towering cliff. Torghatten (“the market hat”), N. of Namsos,
is pierced through by a vast natural tunnel 400 ft. above the sea;
and Hestmandö (“horseman island”), on the Arctic circle, is
justly named from its form. The dark blue waters of the inner
leads and fjords are clouded, and show a milky tinge on the surface
imparted by the glacier-fed rivers. Bare rock is the dominant
feature of the coast and islands, save where a few green fields
surround a farmstead. In the N., where the snow-line sinks low,
the scenery at all seasons has an Arctic character.
Christiania Fjord, opening from the N. angle of the Cattegat
and Skagerrack, differs from the great fjords of the W. Its
shores are neither so high nor so precipitous as theirs;
it is shallower, and contains a great number of little
islands. From its mouth, round Lindesnæs, and as far as the
Bukken Fjord (Stavanger) there are many small fjords, while
Fjords.
the skjærgaard provides an inner lead only intermittently.
Immediately S. of Bukken Fjord, from a point N. of Egersund,
the flat open coast of Jæderen, dangerous to shipping, fringing
a narrow lowland abundant in peat-bogs for some 30 m., forms
an unusual feature. Bukken Fjord is broad and island-studded,
but throws off several inner arms, of which Lyse Fjord, near
Stavanger, is remarkable for its extreme narrowness, and the
steepness of its lofty shores. The Hardanger Fjord, penetrating
the land for 114 m., is known to more visitors than any other
owing to its southerly position; but its beauty is exceeded by
that of Sogne Fjord and Nord Fjord farther N. Sogne is the
largest and deepest fjord of all; its head is 136 m. from the sea,
and its extreme depth approaches 700 fathoms. Stor Fjord
opens inland from Aalesund, and one of its head branches,
Geiranger Fjord, is among the most celebrated in Norway.
Trondhjem Fjord, the next great fjord northward, which broadens
inland from a narrow entrance, lacks grandeur, as the elevation
of the land is reduced where the Trondhjem depression interrupts
the average height of the plateau. The coast N. of Trondhjem,
though far from losing its beauty, has not at first the grandeur
of that to the south, nor are the fjords so extensive. The principal
of these are Namsen, Folden and Vefsen, at the mouth of which
is Alsten Island, with the mountains called Syv Söstre (Seven
Sisters), and Ranen, not far S. of the Arctic circle. Svartisen
sends its glaciers seaward, and the scenery increases in magnificence.
Salten Fjord, to the N. of the great snow-field, is connected
with Skjerstad Fjord by three narrow channels, where
the water, at ebb and flow, forms powerful rapids. The scenery
N. of Salten is unsurpassed. The Lofoten and Vesteraalen
islands are separated from the mainland by the Vest Fjord, which
is continued inland by Ofoten Fjord. If these two be considered
as one fjord, its length is about 175 m., but the actual penetration
of the mainland is little more than a fifth of this distance. The
main fjords N. of Vesteraalen have a general northerly direction;
among them is Lyngen Fjord near Tromsö, with high flanking
cliffs and glaciers falling nearly to the sea. Alten Fjord is remarkable
for the vegetation on its shores. From Lofoten N.
there is a chain of larger islands, Senjen, Kvalö, Ringvadsö, Sorö,
Stjernö, Seiland, Ingö and Magerö. These extend to the North
Cape, but hereafter the skjærgaard ends abruptly. The coast to the
E. is of widely different character; flat mountain wastes descend
precipitously to the sea without any islands beyond, save Vardö,
with two low islets at the E. extremity of Norway. The fjords are
broader in proportion to their length. The chief are Porsanger,
Laxe and Tana, opening N., and Varanger opening E. N. of this
fjord the land is low and the landscape monotonous; on the
S. a few island and branch fjords break the line of the shore.
Stavanger Fjord has an extreme depth of 380 fathoms;
Hardanger Fjord 355, Sogne Fjord 670, Nordfjord 340, Trondhjem
Fjord 300, Ranen Fjord 235, Vestfjord 340, Alten Fjord 225,
and Varanger Fjord 230. Marine terraces are met with in the
E. of the country, and near Trondhjem, at 600 ft. above sea-level;
and they are also seen at a slighter elevation at the heads
of some western fjords. Moreover, at some points (as on the
Jæderen coast) “giant kettles” may be observed close to sea-level,
even below the level of high tide; and these glacial formations
indicate the greater elevation of the land towards the close
of the Glacial epoch. Former beach-lines are most commonly
to be observed in northern Norway (
e.g.
in Alten Fjord), and
in some cases there are two lines at different altitudes. The land
above the raised beach is generally bare and unproductive,
and human habitation tends to confine itself in consequence to
the lower levels.
Hydrography
.—In S.E. Norway there are long valleys, carrying
rivers of considerable size, flowing roughly parallel but sometimes
uniting as they approach the sea. The Glommen, rising N. of Röros
in Aursund Lake, and flowing with a southerly curve parallel with the
frontier for 350 m. to the Skagerrack, is the largest river in the
Scandinavian peninsula. Its upper middle valley is called Österdal,
the richest timber district in Norway. Its drainage area is 16,000
sq. m. Seven miles above its mouth it forms the fine Sarpsfos, and
not far above this it traverses the large lake Öieren. A right bank
tributary, the Vormen, has one of its sources (under the name of
Laagen) in Lake Lesjekogen, which also drains in the opposite direction
by the Rauma. The stream, after watering Gudbrandsdal,
enters Mjösen, the largest lake in Norway. It is 60 m. long, but,
like most of the greater Norwegian lakes, has no great breadth. It
has, however, an extreme depth of 1500 ft. The Drammen river,
which enters a western arm of Christiania Fjord below the town
of Drammen, is the common outlet of several large rivers. The
Hallingdal river drains the valley of that name, and forms Lake
Kröderen, which is connected with the Drammen river by the
Snarum. A short distance above the junction the Drammen flows
out of Lake Tyrifjord, 50 sq. m. in area, into which flow the united
waters of the Rand, from the valley district of Valdres, and the
Bægna. The whole basin of the Drammen has an area of 6600 sq. m.
The rivers between Christiania Fjord and Lindesnæs preserve the
characteristics of those of the Glommen and Drammen systems.
They rise on the Hardanger Vidda or adjacent uplands. The most
important are the Laagen (to be distinguished from the river of that
name in Gudbrandsdal), draining the Numedal; the Skien, the
Nid and the Otter. Lakes are very numerous, the chief, beyond
those already named, being Nordsjö on the Skien river, Tinsjö in the
same system, which receives the river Maan, famous as forming the
Rjukanfos (smoking fall) of 415 ft., and Nisservand on the Nid.
The larger lakes lie, with a certain regularity, at elevations about
400 ft. above the sea, and it is considered that their basins were the
heads of fjords when the land lay at a lower level, and were formed
during an earlier glacial period than the present fjords. The great
Lake Fæmund, lying E. of the Glommen valley and drained by the
river of the same name, which becomes the Klar in Sweden, to which
country it mainly belongs, is similar in type to the lakes of the
northern highlands of Sweden. The streams of the coast of Jæderen
reach the sea through sluggish channels, brown with peat.
Not only do the valleys of the W. far surpass in beauty those of
the S. and E., but they carry streams of much greater volume in
proportion, owing to the heavier average rainfall of the W. slope.
The first to be noted is that of the Sand or Logen river, a brilliant,
rapid stream, famous for its salmon-fishing, which debouches at
Sand into Sands fjord. The valley which opens from Odde at the
head of a branch (Sör fjord) of Hardanger Fjord, is noted as containing
two of the finest waterfalls in Norway. The one, Lotefos
(which is joined by the smaller Skarsfos), is a powerful cataract
following a tortuous cleft. The other, Espelandsfos, is formed by a
very small stream; it falls quite sheer and spreads out like a fine
veil. The only other considerable river entering Hardanger Fjord
is the Bjoreia, with its mouth at Vik in Eidfjord. On this stream is
the magnificent Vöringsfos. Lesser streams within the basin of the
Hardanger form the Skjæggedal and several other beautiful falls.
From Hardanger N. to Romsdal the streams of the W. slope are
insignificant, but there are several splendid valleys, such as the
sombre Nærödal, which descends to the Næro branch of Sogne
Fjord, or the valleys which sink S. and N. from the Jostedalsbræ to
the head branches of Sogne Fjord and Nordfjord respectively.
Above those of Nordfjord is a series of lakes, Olden, Loen and
Stryn, whose milky waters are supplied almost directly from the
Jostedal glaciers, while above Eidsfjord a corresponding trough
contains Lake Hornindal. The next important valley is the Romsdal,
the stream of which, the Rauma, forms the W. outlet of Lake
Lesjekogen, as the Laagen forms the E. This lake, which lies 2011 ft.
above sea-level, is the most remarkable example of an indefinite
watershed to be found in S. Norway. N. from Romsdal the Driva
debouches into Sundals Fjord, while the Orkla, draining Orkedal, the
Gula draining Guldal, and the Nea or Nid, draining Lake Selbu, and
forming the Lerfos, enter Trondhjem Fjord from the S., and range in
length from 70 to 100 m. The Stjördal, a beautiful wooded valley,
leads up from the fjord to the lowest pass over the Trondhjem
depression (at Storlien), and is followed by the railway from
Trondhjem into Sweden.
N. of Trondhjem Fjord, in spite of the close proximity of the
mountains to the W. coast, several considerable rivers are found,
flowing generally about N.E. or S.W. in valleys nearly parallel to the
coast. Such are the Namsen (85 m. in length) and the Vefsen, discharging
into Namsen Fjord and Vefsen Fjord respectively, and the
Dunderland, flowing into Ranen Fjord. In the basin of the same
fjord is the short Rös river, which drains Rös Vand, second in extent
of the Norwegian lakes. In the extreme N., where the coastward
slope is longer, there are such large rivers as the Alten, 98 m. long,
discharging into the fjord of that name, and the Tana, also giving
name to the fjord into which it flows, and forming a great part of the
Russo-Norwegian frontier. It is 180 m. long, and drains an area of
4000 sq. m.
Though the lakes of Norway are not comparable with those of
Sweden as regards either number or size, they are very numerous and
are estimated to cover somewhat less than one-fortieth of the total
area.
Glacial Action
.—While the coast is considered to owe its fjords and
islands to the work of former great glaciers, the results are even more
patent inland. The actual tracks of the old glaciers are constantly to
be traced. Nowhere are the evidences of glacial action better
illustrated than in the barren tract behind the low coastal belt of
Jæderen. Here are vast expanses of almost naked rock, often riven
and piled up in fantastic forms; numerous small lakes or bogs occupy
the rock basins, and vast numbers of perched blocks are seen,
frequently poised in remarkable positions. The great valleys of
Norway are of
-section and exhibit the irregular erosive action of
the glaciers, as distinct from the regular action of the rivers. If a
main glacier, after working steadily in the formation of its trough for
a considerable distance, be imagined to receive an accretion of power
at a certain point, it will begin from that point to erode more deeply.
The result of such action is seen in the series of ledges over which the
main rivers of Norway plunge in falls or rapids.
Geology
.—Norway consists almost entirely of Archaean and Lower
Palaeozoic rocks, imperfectly covered by glacial and other recent
deposits. The whole of the interval between the Devonian and the
Glacial periods is represented, so far as is known, only by a small
patch of Jurassic beds upon the island of Andö. An archaean zone
stretches along the W. coast from Bergen to Hammerfest, interrupted
towards the N., by overlying patches of Palaeozoic deposits. Gneiss
predominates, but other crystalline rocks occur subordinately.
The Lofoten Islands consist chiefly of eruptive granite, syenite and
gabbro. S. of a line drawn from the head of the Hardanger Fjord to
Lake Mjösen is another great Archaean area. Here again gneiss and
granite form the greater part of the mass, but in Telemarken there are
also conglomerates, sandstones and clay-slates which are believed to
be Archaean. Between these two Archaean areas the Lower Palaeozoic
rocks form a nearly continuous belt which follows approximately
the watershed of the peninsula and extends from Bergen and
Stavanger on the S. to the North Cape and Vardo in the N. They
occur also as a broad strip inlaid in the Archaean floor, from the
Christiania Fjord northward to Lake Mjösen. A line drawn from the
Nase to the North Cape coincides roughly with a marked change in
the character and structure of the Palaeozoic beds. East of this line
even the Cambrian beds are free from overfolding, overthrusting
regional metamorphism. They lie flat upon the Archaean floor, or
have been faulted into it in strips, and they are little altered except
in the neighbourhood of igneous intrusions. W. of the line
rocks have been folded and metamorphosed to such an extent
that it is often difficult to distinguish the Palaeozoic rocks from the
Archaean. They form in fact a mountain chain of ancient date
similar in structure to the Alps or the Himalayas. The relations of
the two areas have been studied by A. E. Törnebohm in the Trondhjem
region, and he has shown that the western mass has been pushed over
the eastern upon a great thrust-plane. The relations, in fact, are
similar to those between the Dalradian schists of the Scottish
Highlands and the Cambrian beds of the W. coast of Sutherland.
In Scotland, however, it is the eastern rocks which have been pushed
over the western. Corresponding with the difference in structure
between the E. and the W. regions there is a certain difference in the
nature of the deposits themselves. In the Christiania district the
Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian beds consist chiefly of shales and
limestones. Farther north sandstones predominate, and especially
the Sparagmite, a felspathic sandstone or arkose at the base of the
Cambrian; but the deposits are still sedimentary. In the Trondhjem
district, on the other hand, belonging to the folded belt, basic tuffs
and lavas are interstratified with the normal deposits, showing that
in this region there was great volcanic activity during the early
part of the Palaeozoic era. In both the E. and the W. region the
Devonian is probably represented by a few patches of red sandstone,
in which none but obscure remains of fossils have yet been found.
It may be noted here that in the extreme N. of Norway, E. of the
North Cape, there is a sandstone not unlike the Sparagmite of the S.,
which is said by Reusch to contain ice-worn pebbles and to rest upon
a striated pavement of Archaean rocks.
The Mesozoic era is represented only by the sandy deposits with
seams of lignite which occur on the island of Andoën in the Vesteraalen.
They contain remains of plants and have been correlated
with the Lower Oolite of Great Britain. No Tertiary beds have been
found, but Pleistocene deposits of various kinds are met with. The
evidences of ice action during the Glacial Period are conspicuous
over the whole country and are similar to those in other glaciated
regions. But the most remarkable features produced in recent
geological times are the terraces which appear as if ruled on the sides
of the valleys and fjords. They are partly platforms cut in the solid
rock and partly accumulations of gravel and sand like a modern
beach, and they were evidently formed by the action of waves.
Some of them contain marine shells of living species and mark the
former position of the sea-level; but others are of more doubtful
origin and may indicate the shores of lakes formed by the damming
of the lower part of the fjords by means of glaciers, as in the case
of the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy. They occur at various levels,
and have been observed as high as 3000 ft. above the sea.
Emery Walker sc.
No volcanic rocks of modern date are known in Norway, but great
intrusions of igneous rock took place in early geological times.
Amongst them may be mentioned the gabbro of the Jotunfjeld, and
the elaeolite syenites and associated rocks of the Christiania region.
The latter form the subject of a valuable series of memoirs by
Brögger, who shows that they have all been derived from a single
magma, and that the differentiation of this magma led to the production
of several different types of rock.
P. La.
Meteorology
.—The most powerful influence on the climate of
Norway is that of the warm drift across the Atlantic Ocean from the
S.W. The highest mean annual temperature in Norway
is found on the S. and W. coasts, where it ranges from
44·5° to 45·5° F., and the lowest is found at Karasjok and
Kautokeino, lying at elevations of 430 and 866 ft. respectively in
Temperature.
Finmarken, near the Russian frontier. Here the mean temperature
is 26·4°, while at Vardö, on the north coast, it is 33°. At Röros
(2067 ft.) at the head of the Glommen valley, and at Fjeldberg
(3268 ft.) in the upper Hallingdal, the mean annual temperature is
31°. The longest winter is found in the interior of Finmarken, 243
days with a mean temperature below 32° being recorded at
Kautokeino, contrasted with 205 at Vardö. In the S. uplands (as at
Fjeldberg) there is an average of 200 such days, and at Christiania
about 120. On the S.W. coast there is no day of which the mean
temperature falls below 32°; the most westerly insular stations,
however, such as Utsire and Skudeness off Bukken Fjord, record frost
during some part of 60 days. The lowest winter average temperature
is found in a centre of cold in the N. which extends over Swedish and
Russian territory as well as Norwegian. The Norwegian station
of Karasjok, within it, records 4° during December, January and
February, and in this area there have also been observed the extreme
minima of temperature in the country,
e.g.
60·5° below zero at
Karasjok. The contrast with the S.W. coast may be continued.
Here at some of the island stations, the coldest month, February,
has an average about 35°, and the lowest temperature recorded at
Ona near Christiansund is 10·5°. It may be noted here that in several
cases the lower-lying inland stations in the south show a distinctly
lower winter temperature than the higher in the immediate vicinity.
Thus the average for Röros (2067 ft.), 13°, contrasts with 11° for
Tönset; at Listad in Gudbrandsdal (909 ft.) it is 16·5°, but at Jerkin
in the Dovre Fjeld (3160 ft.) it is 17·5°. The summer is hottest in
S.E. Norway (Christiania, July, 62·5°). On the other hand, the lowest
summer average in the interior of Finmarken is not less than 53·5°
in July; but at Vardö it is only 48° in August, usually the warmest
month on this coast. In the lofty inland tracts of the S.E. the July
temperature ranges, from 59° in the valleys, to as low as 49° at the
high station of Jerkin. The interior having a warm summer and a
cold winter, and the coast a cool summer and a mild winter, the
annual range of temperature is remarkably greater inland than on the
coast.
An important result of the warm Atlantic drift is that the fjords
are not penetrated by the cold water from the lower depths of the
outer ocean, and in consequence are always ice-free, except in
winters of exceptional severity in the innermost parts of fjords, and
along shallow stretches of coast.
The sun is above the horizon at the North Cape continuously from
the 12th of May to the 29th of July, and at Bodö, not far from the
The “midnight sun.”
Arctic circle, from the 3rd of June to the 7th of July.
Even at Trondhjem there is practically full daylight from
the 23rd of May to the 20th of July. Even in the extreme
S. of Norway there is no darkness from the end of April
to the middle of August. In winter, on the other hand, the sun does
not rise above the horizon at the North Cape from the 18th of
November. to the 23rd of January, and at Bodö from the 15th to the
27th of December. There is only a twilight at midday. In the
extreme S. the sun is above the horizon for 6
hours at mid-winter.
The prevailing winter winds are from the land seaward, while the
system is reversed in summer. The winds in Norway
may therefore be roughly classified according to locality
thus:—
Winds.
South-east Coast
(Skagerrack).
West Coast.
North.
Winter
N.E.
S.
S.W.
Summer
S.W. to W.
N.
N.
The force of the wind is greater in winter on the coast; inland, on
the contrary, the winter is normally calm; and at all seasons, on the
average, the periods of calm are longer inland than on the coast.
The average annual number of stormy days, however, ranges from
ten to twenty on the S. coast, from forty-five to sixty-two on the
coast of Finmarken, and sixty to seventy at Ona; whereas in the
interior of Finmarken the average number is four, while in the S.
inland districts stormy days are rare. December and January are
the stormiest months. Hailstones are rare and seldom destructive.
Thunderstorms are not frequent. They reach a maximum average
of ten annually in the Christiania district.
The number of days on which rain or snow falls is greatest on the
coast from Jæderen to Vardö, least in the S.E. districts and the
interior of Finmarken. At the North Cape, in Lofoten, and along
the W. coast between the Stad and Sogne Fjord, precipitation occurs
on about 200 days in the year, although by contrast in the inner part
of Sogne Fjord there is precipitation only on 121 days. On Dovre
Fjeld and the SE; coast the average is about 100 days. Snowfall
occurs least frequently in the S. (
e.g.
at Mandal, 25 snowy days out
of 116 on which precipitation occurs), increasing to 50 at Christiania,
or Dovre Fjeld, and about the mouth of Trondhjem Fjord, to 90 at
Vardö, and to 100 at the North Cape. From Vardö to the Dovre
Fjeld and in the upland tracts, snow occurs at least as frequently as
rain. Snowfall has been recorded in all months on the coast as far
S. as Lofoten. The amount of precipitation is greatest on the coast,
where, at certain points on the mainland between Bukken Fjord and
Nordfjord, an annual average of 83 in. is reached or even exceeded.
On the outer islands there is a slight decrease; inland the decrease is
rapid and great. In Dovre Fjeld a minimum of 12 in. is found.
In the extreme S. of the country the average is 39 in., N. of Trondhjem
Fjord 53 in. are recorded, and there is a well-marked maximum of
59 in. at Svolvær in Lofoten, N. of which there is a diminution along
the coast to 26 in. at the North Cape. In the northern interior a
minimum of 16 in. is recorded. Strongly marked local variations are
observed.
The amount of cloudiness is on the whole great. The coast of
Finmarken has over three cloudy days to one clear day; in the
interior of the country clear and cloudy days are about equally
divided. Fog is most frequent on the W. and N.W. coasts in summer;
on the S.E. coast in winter. In winter a frosty fog often occurs about
the heads of the fjords during severe cold or with a breeze from the
land.
Flora
.—The forests of Norway consist chiefly of conifers. The
principal forest regions are the S.E. and S. Here, in the Trondhjem
district, and in Nordland there are extensive forests of pine and fir.
In the coastal and fjord region of the W. the pine is the only coniferous
forest tree, and forests are of insignificant extent. In S. Norway
the highest limit of conifers is from 2500 to 3000 ft. above sea-level;
in the inland parts of the Trondhjem region it is from 1600 to
2000 ft. (though on the coast only from 600 to 1200); farther N. it
falls to 700 ft. about 70° N. The birch belt reaches 3,000 to 3500 ft.
Next follow various species of willows, and the dwarf birch (
betula
nana
), and last of all, before the snow-line, the lichen belt, in which
the reindeer moss (
cladonia rangiferina
) is always conspicuous. A
few trees of the willow belt sometimes extend close up to the snow-line.
In the S. and less elevated districts the lowest zone of forests
includes the ash, elm, lime, oak, beech and black alder; but the
beech is rare, flourishing only in the Laurvik district. The snow
ranunculus and the Alpine heather are abundant. The Dovre Fjeld
is noted as the district in which the Arctic flora may be studied in
greatest variety and within comparatively narrow limits. On the
coastal banks the marine flora is very finely developed.
Fauna
.—The great forests are still the haunt of the bear, the
lynx, and the wolf. Bears are found chiefly in the uplands N. of
Trondhjem, in the Telemark and the W. highlands, but the cutting
of forests has limited their range. The wolves decreased very
suddenly in S. Norway about the middle of the 19th century,
probably owing to disease, but are still abundant in Finmarken, and
the worst enemy of the herds of tame reindeer. The elk occurs in the
eastern forests, and northward to Namdal and the Vefsen district.
The red deer is confined chiefly to the W. coast districts; its principal
haunt is the island of Hitteren, off the Trondhjem Fjord. On the
high fjelds are found the wild reindeer, glutton, lemming and the fox
(which is of wide distribution). The wild reindeer has decreased,
though large tame herds are kept in some parts, especially in the N.
The lemming is noted for its curious periodic migrations; at such
times vast numbers of these small animals spread over the country
from their upland homes, even swimming lakes and fjords in their
journeys. They are pursued by beasts and birds of prey, and even
the reindeer kill them for the sake of the vegetable matter they
contain. Hares are very common all over Norway up to the snow-line.
The beaver still occurs in the Christiansand district.
Game birds are fairly abundant in most districts. The most
notable are the two sorts of
rype
, the
skov
or
dal rype
(willow grouse,
lagopus albus
) and the
fjeld rype
lagopus alpina
). Black
grouse are widely distributed; hazel grouse are found
mainly in the pine forests of the E. and N., as are capercailzie.
Woodcock and snipe are fairly common. The partridge is an
Avifauna.
immigrant from Sweden, and occurs principally in the E. and S.E.
A severe winter occasionally almost exterminates it. A very large
proportion of the Norwegian avifauna consists of geese and ducks,
various birds of prey, golden plover, &c. These birds, at the autumn
migration, leave by three well-defined routes—one from Finmarken
into Finland, one by the Christiania valley, and one by the W. coast,
where they congregate in large numbers on the lowlands of Jæderen.
The Lapland bunting and snow bunting (
plectrophanes laponica
and
nivalis
), the snowy owl (
mgetea scandiaca
) and rough-legged buzzard
archibuteo lagopus
) and sea-birds are exceedingly numerous. In
some localities such birds as the puffin and kittiwake form great
colonies (
fugleberge
, bird cliffs).
The common seal is very frequent; and arctic seals and occasionally
the Walrus visit the northern coasts; among these the harp seal
phoca groenlandica
) is believed to be particularly destructive
to the fisheries. These last are of great importance;
a large number of the best food-fisheries occur
along the coasts, including cod, herring, mackerel, coal-fish, &c.
Marine fauna.
The basking shark was formerly of some economic importance; the
Japanese shark, a strictly local variety, also occurs in the neighbourhood
of Vardö. Various small species of whales visit the coast;
among these the lesser rorqual may be mentioned, as an antique
method of hunting it with bow and arrows is still practised in the
neighbourhood of Bergen. In the fjords many invertebrates as well
as fish are found. Of fresh-water fish the
salmonidae
are by far the
most important. Next to these, perch, pike, gwyniad and eel are
most common.
As regards insect life, Norway may be divided into three areas, the
S. being richer than the W., while the N. is distinct from either in the
number of peculiarly arctic insects.
Sport
.—Norway is much frequented by British anglers. Moderate
rod-fishing for trout is to be obtained in many parts. But most of
the owners of water rights have a full appreciation of the value of
good fishing to sportsmen, especially when netting rights are given
up for the sake of rod-fishing. The same applies to good shooting.
Foreigners may not shoot without a licence, the cost of which is 100
kroner (£5 : 11 : 0) whether on crown lands or on private properties,
whose owners always possess the shooting rights.
Population
.—The resident population of Norway in 1900
was 2,221,477. The Table shows the area and population of
each of the administrative divisions (
amt
, commonly translated
“county”). Norway is, as a whole, the most thinly populated
of the political divisions of Europe. It may be noted for the
sake of comparison that the density of population in the most
sparsely populated English county, Westmorland, is about
equalled by that in Smaalenene amt (85 per sq. m.), and considerably
exceeded in Jarlsberg and Laurvik amt (112·7 per
sq. m.), but is not nearly approached in any other Norwegian
county. The two counties named are small and lie almost
wholly within the coastal strip along the Skagerrack, which,
with the coast-lands about Stavanger, Haugesund, Bergen
and Trondhjem, the outer Lofoten Islands and the land about
Lake Mjösen, are the most thickly populated portions of the
country, the density exceeding 50 persons per sq. m. A vast
area practically uninhabited, save in the N. by nomadic Lapps,
reaches from the northmost point of the Norwegian frontier as
far S. as the middle of Hedemarken, excepting a markedly more
populous belt across the Trondhjem depression. Thus of the
counties, Finmarken is the least thickly populated (1·8 per
sq. m.). In such highland regions as Jotunheim and Hardanger
Vidda habitations are hardly less scanty than in the N. About
two-thirds of the population, then, dwell by the coast and
fjords, and about one-quarter in the inland lowlands, leaving
a very small upland population. The rural and urban populations
form respectively about 76 and 24% of the whole. Of the
chief towns of Norway, Christiania, the capital, had a population
in 1900 of 229,101, Bergen of 72,179, Trondhjem of 38,156,
Stavanger of 30,541, Drammen of 23,093. The towns with
populations between 15,000 and 10,000 are Christiansand,
Fredrikstad, Christiansund, Fredrikshald, Aalesund, Skien,
Arendal and Laurvik. All these are ports.
Amter.
Population
1900.
Area in
sq. m.
Southern—
Smaalenene
136,167
1,600
Akershus
116,896
2,054
Christiania (city)
229,101
6·5
Buskerud
112,743
5,789
Jarlsberg and Laurvik
101,003
896
Bratsberg
98,298
5,863
Nedenes
75,925
3,608·5
Lister and Mandal
78,259
2,804
South-eastern (inland)—
Hedemarken
126,703
10,618
Christians
116,280
9,790
Western—
Stavanger
125,658
3,530·5
South Bergenhus
132,687
6,024·5
Bergen (city)
72,179
5·5
North Bergenhus
88,214
7,130
Romsdal
136,519
5,786
South Trondhjem
134,718
7,182
Northern—
North Trondhjem
83,449
8,788·5
Nordland
150,637
14,513
Tromsö
72,966
10,131
Finmarken
33,387
18,291
The population of Norway in 1801 was returned as 883,038.
A rapid increase obtained from 1815 to 1835, a lesser increase
thereafter till 1865, and a very slight increase till 1890. The
second half of the 19th century, down to 1890, was the period
of heaviest emigration from Norway. The vast majority of
Norwegian emigrants go to the United States of America. But
emigration slackened in the last decade of the 19th century,
during which period the movement from rural districts to towns,
which had decreased from about the middle of the century,
revived. The number of Norwegians abroad may be taken at
350,000. The Lapps, commonly called Finns by the Norwegians,
and confined especially to Finmarken (which is named from
them), are estimated at 1% of the population. There are
also a few Finns (about half the number of Lapps), whom the
Norwegians call
Kvæner
, a name of early origin. The excess
of births over deaths, about as 1·4 to 1, is much above the
European average; the death-rate is also unusually low. The
number of marriages is rather low, and the average age of
marriage is high. The percentage of illegitimacy has shown
some increase, but is not so high as in Sweden or Denmark.
The percentage of longevity is high. The preponderance of
females over males (about 1073 to 1000) is partly accounted
for by the number of males who emigrate. The higher mortality
of males is traced in part to the dangers of a seafaring life.
Down to the middle of the 19th century drunkenness was a
strongly-marked characteristic of Norwegians. A strict licensing
system was then introduced with success. Local boards were
given a wide control over the issue of licences, and in 1871
companies (
samlag
) were introduced to monopolize and control
the retail trade in spirits. Their profits do not, as in the Gothenburg
system, go to the municipal funds, but are applied directly
to objects of public utility. In 1894 a general referendum
resulted in the entire prohibition of the sale of spirits in some
towns for five years. The control of retail trade in beer and
wine by the
samlag
has been introduced to some extent.
In Norway a strongly individual national character is to be
expected, combined with conservatism of ancient customs
and practices. The one finds no better illustration than the
individuality of modern Norwegian music and painting. The
other is still strong. Such customs as the lighting of the midsummer
fires and the attendant celebrations still survive.
Peculiar local costumes are still met with, such as those associated
with weddings. In the coastwise shipping trade and the fisheries
of the north, high-prowed square-sailed boats are frequently
employed which are the direct descendants of the vessels of
the early Vikings. Some examples of the ancient farmstead,
composed of a group of wooden buildings each of a single
chamber, are preserved, and medieval ornamental woodwork
is met with. Wood is the principal building material except in
some larger towns where brick and stone have superseded it.
Where this is not the case, fires have left few, if any, ancient
domestic buildings, but the preservation of ancient models in
wooden houses makes Norwegian towns peculiarly picturesque.
Norway retains a few highly interesting examples of ecclesiastical
architecture. There are the peculiar small wooden churches
stavekirke
) dating from the 11th to the 14th century, with
high-pitched roofs rising in tiers so as to give the building something
of the form of a pyramid. The roofs are beautifully shingled
in wood. The wall timbers are vertical. To protect them from
the weather, the roofs overhang deeply, and the lowest sometimes
covers a species of external colonnade. The carving is often
very rich. The most famous of these churches is that of Borgund
near Laerdalsören; another fine example is at Hitterdal on
the Kongsberg-Telemark road. On the other hand there are a
few Romanesque and Gothic stone churches. In some of these
the influence of English architecture is clear, as in the metropolitan
cathedral of Trondhjem and the nave of Stavanger cathedral.
St Mary’s Church at Bergen, however, tends towards the French
models. A good example of the smaller stone church is at
Vossevangen, and there are several of Late Romanesque character
in the Trondhjem district. There are ruins of a cathedral at
Hamar, and a few monastic remains, as at Utstein, north of
Stavanger, and on the island of Selje off Statland. Remains
of pure Early English work are occasionally found, as at Ogne
in Jæderen, but the later Gothic styles were not developed
in Norway.
Tourist Traffic and Communications
.—During the later decades of
the 19th century Norway was rapidly opened up to British, American
and German visitors. Passenger communications from
Great Britain are maintained chiefly between Hull and
Stavanger, Bergen, Aalesund, Christiansund and Trondhjem; Hull,
Christiansand and Christiania; Newcastle and Stavanger, Bergen
Routes.
and the North; London and Christiania, &c, and there are also
passenger services from Grimsby, Grangemouth and other ports.
Yachting cruises to the great fjords and the North Cape are also
provided. A daily service of mail steamers works between Christiania
and all ports to Bergen; thence the summer service is hardly
less frequent to Trondhjem. From each large port small steamers
serve the fjords and inner waters in the vicinity, and there are also
steamers on several of the larger lakes. The season lasts from June
to the middle of September. The voyage to the North Cape is taken
Roads.
by many in order to see the “midnight sun” in June and
July. Among the land-routes connecting the great fjords
of the west the following may be mentioned. (1) The road from Sand
on Sandsfjord (a branch of Bukken Fjord), which follows the Sand
river up to the foot of Lake Suldal, near the head of which is Næs.
From here a finely engineered road runs up the Bratlandsdal, crosses
the Horrebrække and descends past Seljestad to Odde at the head
of a branch of Hardanger Fjord. (2) From Eide on another branch
of the same fjord a road runs to Vossevangen (which is connected by
rail with Bergen) and continues N. to Stalheim, where it descends
through the Nærödal to Gudvangen on a branch of Sogne Fjord.
(3) From Vadheim on this fjord a road runs N. to Sandene and
Utvik on Nordfjord. Routes N. from this fjord are (4) that from
Faleide by Grodaas on Lake Hornindal to Hellesylt on Sunelv Fjord
and Öje on Norangs Fjord, and (5) that from the same station or
from Visnæs, by way of Lake Stryn, to Grotlid, and Merok on
Geiranger Fjord. All these routes pass through magnificent scenery.
For the same reason there should also be mentioned (6) the road
through the Telemark, which branches from the Bratlandsdal road
at Breifond, mounts the Haukelidsæter and descends to Dalen, from
which the Bandaks canal route gives access to Skien on the S.E.
coast, the road continuing from Dalen E. to Kongsberg; also those
running E. from the great fjords—from Lærdalsören on Sogne Fjord,
branching (7) through Hallingdal, and (8) through Valdres; (9) the
road from Grotlid to Otta in Gudbrandsdal, running N. of the
Jotunheim; (10) the road from Veblungsnæs on a branch of Molde
Fjord, running through the Romsdal and over to Domaas; (11) the
N. road across Dovre Fjeld from Domaas to Stören on the railway to
Trondhjem. Beyond the districts thus indicated, the Sætersdal, a
southern valley, is visited by many, and in the far N. the Lofoten
Islands and some of the fjords, as Lyngen and Alten, are very fine.
The mountains of Jotunheim have attracted several well-known
mountaineers.
The main roads of Norway, the construction of which has demanded
the highest engineering skill, were not brought into existence
until the last half of the 19th century. A Highways Act of 1851
placed the roads under the immediate control of local authorities,
but government grants are made for the construction not only of
main roads, but in many cases of cross-roads also. In a country
where railways are few, posting is of prime importance, and in
Norway the system is well developed and regulated. Along all main
roads there are posting stations (
skydsstationer
, pronounced shüssstashöner),
hotels, inns or farms, whose owners are bound to have
horses always in readiness; at some stations on less frequented
roads time is allowed for them to be procured. Posting stations are
under strict control and the tariff is fixed. The vehicles are the
stolkjærre
(pronounced approximately stolchārer) for two passengers,
and the
kariol
or
carriole
for one. A similar posting system obtains
by rowing-boats on lakes and fjords.
The first railway, that between Christiania and Eidsvold, was
constructed by agreement between British capitalists and the
Norwegian government, and opened in 1854. The total
length of railways is only about 1600 m., Norway having
the lowest railway mileage in proportion to area of any European
state, though in proportion to population the length of lines is comparatively
Railways.
great. Almost the whole are state lines. Railways are
most fully developed in the S.E., both N. and S. of Christiania.
The principal trunk line connects Christiania with Trondhjem by
way of Hamar and the Osterdal, Röros and Stören. Four lines cross
the frontier into Sweden—from Christiania by Kongsvinger (Kongsvinger
railway) and by Fredrikshald (Smaalenenes railway), from
Trondhjem by Storlien (Meraker railway), and from Narvik on
Ofoten Fjord, the most northerly line in the world. Among other
important lines may be mentioned that serving Lillehammer, Otta,
&c., in Gudbrandsdal, that running S.W. from Christiania to Drammen,
Skien and Laurvik; the Sætersdal line N. from Christiansand;
the Jæderen line from Stavanger to Egersund and
Flekkefjord; the Bergen-Vossevangen line; and the branch from
Hell on the Meraker railway northward to Levanger. These local
lines form links in important schemes for trunk lines. Norwegian
railways are divided between the standard gauge and one of 3 ft.
6 in.; on the N. line a change of gauge is made at Hamar.
Some of the large lakes form important channels for inland
navigation; the rivers, however, are not navigable for
any considerable distance. A canal from Fredrikshald
gives access N. to Skellerud, and the Bandaks canal connects Dalen
in the Telemark with Skien.
Canals.
The post-office is well administered, and both telegraph and
telephone systems are exceptionally extensive.
Industries
Agriculture
.—About 70% of the total area of Norway
is barren, and about 21% is forest land, but the small agricultural
area employs, directly or indirectly, about 40% of the population.
The great majority of the peasantry are freeholders. Legislation has
provided for the retention of landed property by families to which
it has belonged for any considerable period—thus, under certain
conditions, a family which has parted with land can reacquire it at an
appraisement—or land alienated by its owner may on his death be
acquired by his next of kin. The chief crops are oats barley, potatoes,
mangcorn
(a mixed crop of oats and barley), rye and wheat, the last
being little cultivated. Cattle and sheep are kept in large numbers.
Farmers commonly hold upland summer pastures together with
their lowland farms, and in the open season frequently occupy a
sæter
(upland farmstead) and devote themselves to dairy work.
Norwegian horses are small and thick-set, and remarkably surefooted.
In the north large herds of reindeer are kept by Lapps.
There is an agricultural college and model farm at Aas near
Christiania.
Forestry
.—Forest industries are confined chiefly to the S.E. and
to the Trondhjem-Namsen district. Lumbering is an important
industry. Forestry is controlled by the Department of Agriculture,
and its higher branches are taught at the Aas college.
Fisheries
.—The sea fisheries are of high economic importance.
The principal are the cod fisheries. In March and April the cod
shoal on the coastal banks for the purpose of spawning, and this gives
rise to the well-known fishery for which the Lofoten Islands are the
principal base. In April and May shoals of capelan appear off
Finmarken, followed by cod and other fish, small whales, &c., which
prey upon them; this affords a second fishery. For herring there is
a spring fishery off Stavanger and Haugesund, and one in November
and December off Nordland. Mackerel fisheries are important
from Trondhjem Fjord S. to the Skagerrack. Salmon and sea-trout
fisheries are important in the rivers and still more off the coast.
Fishermen from Tönsberg, Tromsö, Hammerfest, Vardö, Vadsö,
&c., work with the arctic fisheries, sealing, whaling, &c., from Greenland
to Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya. A fishery board at Bergen
administers the Norwegian fisheries. The annual value of the coast
fisheries ranges from £1,000,000 to £1,500,000.
Mining
.—Norway is not rich in minerals. Coal occurs only on
Andö, an island in Vesteraalen. Silver is mined at Kongsberg;
copper at Röros, Sulitelma, and Aamdal in Telemarken; iron at
Klodeberg near Arendal and in the Dunderlandsdal (developed early
in the 20th century). Granite is quarried near Fredrikstad,
Fredrikshald and Sarpsborg, and exported as paving setts and kerbstones,
mostly to Great Britain and Germany. Good marble is
found near Fredrikshald, and also in the Salten and Ranen districts.
Manufacturing Industries
.—The most important are works connected
with the timber trade, foundries and engineering shops,
spinning and weaving mills, brick and tile works, breweries, paper-mills,
tobacco factories, flour-mills, glass works, and potteries,
nail works, shipbuilding yards, rope works, factories for preserved
food (especially fish), margarine, matches, fish guano, boots, and
hosiery, distilleries and tanneries. The chief industrial centres are
Christiania, Bergen, Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg, Drammen, Skien
and Porsgrund, Trondhjem, Fredrikshald and Stavanger. Large
water-power is available in many districts. A powerful impulse was
given to industrial enterprise by the non-renewal of the customs
treaty with Sweden in 1897, which established a protective system
against that country.
Shipping and Commerce
.—The Norwegians, in proportion to their
numbers, are the first nation in the world in the mercantile marine
industry. Actually their mercantile marine is only exceeded by
those of Great Britain, Germany and the United States. From 1850
to 1880 the tonnage increased from 28,000 to more than 1,500,000.
The tonnage now exceeds the latter figure, but steam has greatly
increased the carrying power. In 1880 Norwegian steam vessels had
a tonnage of about 52,000; they now exceed 640,000 tons. The
annual value of imports is about £16,500,000, and of exports about
£10,000,000. The growth of both may be judged from periodic
averages—
1851–1855.
1866–1870.
1886–1890.
Imports
£2,800,000
£5,600,000
£9,200,000
Exports
2,400,000
3,000,000
6,600,000
Great Britain and Germany are the countries principally trading with
Norway. Great Britain takes about 40% (by value) of Norwegian
exports, and sends about 26% of the total imports into Norway;
Germany takes 14% of the exports, and sends 28% of the imports.
The chief articles of export are timber, wooden wares and wood pulp,
principally to Great Britain, and fish products, principally to
Germany, Sweden and Spain. These make 65% of the exports—others
of importance are paper, ships, ice, stone and nails. Of the
imports about 58% by value are for consumption, 42% material
for production. Among the first are cereals (principally from
Russia), groceries (from Germany), and clothing (from Germany and
Great Britain). Among the second are coal (chiefly from Great
Britain), hides and skins, cotton and wool, oil and machinery,
steamships, and metal goods (from Great Britain, Germany and
Sweden).
Government
.—Norway is an independent, constitutional and
hereditary monarchy, the union with Sweden having been dissolved
on the 7th of June 1905, after lasting 91 years. The
constitution rests on the fundamental law (
grundlov
) promulgated
at Eidsvold on the 17th of May 1814, and altered in detail
at various times. The executive is vested in the king, who
comes of age at eighteen. His authority is exercised through,
and responsibility for his official acts rests with, a council of
state consisting of a minister and councillors, who are the heads
of finance, public accounts, church and education, defence,
public works, agriculture, commerce, navigation and industry
and foreign affairs. The king appoints these councillors and high
officials generally in the state, church, army, navy, &c. He can
issue provisional ordinances pending a meeting of parliament,
can declare war (if a war of offence, only with the consent of
parliament) and conclude peace, and has supreme command of
the army and navy. The legislative body is the parliament
storthing
), the members of which are elected directly by the
people divided into electoral divisions, each returning one member.
Until the election of 1906 the members were chosen by electors
nominated by the voters. Elections take place every three
years. The franchise is extended to every Norwegian male who
has passed his twenty-fifth year, has resided five years in the
country, and fulfils the legal conditions of citizenship. Under
the same conditions, and if they or their husbands have paid
taxes for the past year, the franchise is extended to women
under a measure adopted by the Storthing in June 1907.
Members of parliament must possess the franchise in their constituency,
and must have resided ten years in the country;
their age must not be less than thirty. The Storthing meets at
Christiania, normally for two months in each year; it must
receive royal assent to the prolongation of a session. After the
opening of parliament the assembly divides itself into two sections,
the upper (
lagthing
) consisting of one-quarter of the total number
of members, and the lower (
odelsthing
) of the remainder. Every
bill must be introduced in the Odelsthing; if passed there it is
sent to the Lagthing, and if carried there also the royal assent
gives it the force of law. If a measure is twice passed by the
Odelsthing and rejected by the Lagthing, it is decided by a
majority of two-thirds of the combined sections. The king has a
veto, but if a measure once or twice vetoed is passed by three
successive parliaments it becomes law
ipso facto
. This occurred
when in 1899 the Norwegians insisted on removing the sign of
union with Sweden from the flag of the mercantile marine.
Members of parliament are paid 13s. 4d. a day during
session and their travelling expenses. Parliament fixes taxation,
and has control of the members of the council of state,
who are not allowed to vote in either house, though they may
speak.
Finance
&c
.—The annual revenue and expenditure are each about
millions sterling. Considerable sums, however, have been raised
by loans, principally for railways. These amounted, between 1900
and 1906 (the financial year ending the 31st of March) to nearly
£4,500,000. The principal sources of revenue are customs, railways,
post office and telegraphs, the income tax (which is graduated and
not levied on incomes below 1000 kroner or £55, 6s. 8d.), and excise.
The principal items of expenditure are railways, defence (principally
the army), the post office, interest on debt, the church and education,
and justice. The Bank of Norway is a private joint-stock corporation,
in which the state has large interests. It is governed by special
acts of parliament, and its chief officials are publicly appointed. It
alone has the right to issue notes, which are in wide circulation.
The Mortgage Bank (
Norges Hypothekbank
) was established by the
state to grant loans on real estate. The currency of Norway is based
on a gold standard; but the monetary unit is the
krone
(crown),
of
1s. 1
d.
value, divided into 100
öre
. The metric system is in use.
Army and Navy.
—The army consists of the line, the militia or
reserve (
landværn
), and the second reserve (
landstorm
). All capable
men of twenty-two years of age and upwards are liable for conscription
(except the clergy and pilots), and when called they serve
6 years in the line, 6 years with the reserve and 4 years with the
second reserve. In war, men are liable to service from the 18th to the
50th year of age. Only the line can be sent out of the country. The
men only meet for military training from 18 to 102 days in each year.
The peace establishment of the line is 12,000 men, with 750 officers;
its war footing 26,000, or more, but may not exceed 18,000 without
the authority of parliament. Of enlisted troops there are only
fortress garrisons, and the Christiania garrison of Norwegian Guards;
The principal fortresses are Oscarsborg on Christiania Fjord, Agdenes
(Trondhjem Fjord), Bergen, Tönsberg and Christiansand. A number
of Norwegian forts along the S. Swedish frontier were dismantled
under the convention with Sweden of 1905, when a neutral zone was
established on either side of the frontier southward from 61° N. The
navy consists of about 1200 officers and men on permanent service;
but all seafaring men between twenty-two and thirty-eight are liable
for maritime conscription, and are put through some preliminary
training. The war vessels include four battleships of 3500 to 4000
tons each, and about 16 other vessels, besides a torpedo flotilla—intended
for coast defence only. The chief naval station is at Karljohansværn
(Horten).
Justice.
—Civil cases are usually brought first before a commission
of mediation (
forligelseskommission
), from which an appeal lies to
the local inferior courts, which are also tribunals of first instance,
and are worked by judges on circuit and assessors. There are
three superior courts of appeal (
overretter
), at Christiania, Bergen
and Trondhjem, and one supreme court (
höiesteret
). Criminal cases
are tried either in jury courts (
lagmandsret
) or courts of assize
meddomsret
). The first is for more serious offences; the second deals
with minor offences and is a court of first instance. Military crimes
are dealt with by a military judicial organization. Finally there is
a high court of impeachment (
rigsret
), before which members of
parliament, the government, &c., are tried for misdemeanours committed
in their public capacity.
Local Government.
—The country is divided into twenty counties
amter
) (see population), the cities of Christiania and Bergen being
included in these. Other towns are formed into communes, governed
by representatives, from whom a council (
formænd
) is elected by
themselves. Rural communes (
herreder
) are similarly administered,
and their chairmen form a county council (
amtsthing
) for each county.
At the head is the
amtmand
, the county governor. The electoral
franchise for local council election is for men the same as the parliamentary
franchise, and, like it, is extended in a limited degree to
women.
Religion and Education.
—The state religion, to which the king
must conform, is Evangelical Lutheran. Only about 2·4% of the
population are dissenters. All Christian sects except Jesuits are
tolerated. The king nominates the clergy of the established church.
Norway is divided into six bishoprics (
stifter
), Christiania, Hamar,
Christiansand, Bergen, Trondhjem, Tromsö; and these into deaneries
provstier
), with subdivisions into clerical districts (
præstegjeld
),
parishes and sub-parishes. The clergy take a leading part in primary
education, which, in spite of the difficulties arising in a sparsely
populated country, reaches a high standard. Education is compulsory,
the school-going age being from 6
to 14 years in towns and
7 to 14 years in the country. About 94% of the children of school-going
age attend the primary schools, which are administered by
school boards in the municipalities and the counties. Teachers must
belong to the established church. Their training colleges include
one free public college in each diocese. The municipalities and
counties bear the cost of primary education with a state grant.
There are continuation schools, evening schools, &c., and for secondary
education, communal middle schools, and state
gymnasier
. There is
a state-aided university at Christiania.
Authorities
.—See
Norway
(official publication for the Paris
Exhibition) (Eng. trans., Christiania, 1900, dealing with the land and
its inhabitants in every aspect, and giving Norwegian bibliographies
for each subject); A. N. Kiær and others,
Norges Land og Folk
(Christiania, 1884 seq.); N. Rolfsen,
Norge i det Nittende Aarhundrede
(Christiania, 1900 seq.); Y. Nielsen,
Reisehaandbog over
Norge
(10th ed., Christiania, 1903); various guidebooks in English;
P. B. du Chaillu,
The Land of the Midnight Sun
(London, 1881); and
The Land of the Long Night
(London, 1900); C. F. Keary,
Norway
and the Norwegians
(London, 1892); A. F. Mockler-Ferryman,
In the
Northman’s Land
(London, 1896); J. Bradshaw,
Norway, its Fjords,
Fields and Fosses
(London, 1896); A. Chapman,
Wild Norway
(London, 1897); E. B. Kennedy,
Thirty Seasons in Scandinavia
(London, 1903); E. C. Oppenheim,
New Climbs in Norway
(London,
1898); W. C. Slingsby,
Norway, The Northern Playground
(on
mountaineering) (Edinburgh, 1904); H. H. Reusch,
Det Nordlige
Norges Geologi
(Christiania, 1892); T. Kjerulf,
Udsigt over det
sydlige Norges geologi
(Christiania, 1879; a German translation
was published at Bonn, 1880); W. C. Brögger,
Die Silurischen
Etagen 2 und 3
(Christiania, 1882); see also a series of memoirs on
the eruptive rocks of the Christiania region in
Videnskabsselskabets
Skrifter
(Christiania); A. E. Törnebohm,
Grunddragen af det centrala
Skandinaviensbergbyggnad, Kongl. Svenska Vetensk. Akad. Handl.
vol. xxvii. No. 5 (1896);
Jahrbuch des Norwegischen Meteorologischen
Instituts
(Christiania); H. Mohn, “Klima Tabeller for Norge,” in
Videnskabsselsk. Skrifter
(1895 seq.); M. N. and A. Blytt,
Norges
Flora
(Christiania, 1861–1877); C. Hartman,
Handbok i Scandinaviens
Flora
(Stockholm, 1879); J. M. Norman,
Norges Arktiske Flora
(Christiania, 1894 seq.);
Statistisk Aarbog for Kongeriget Norge
(Christiania, annual); H. L. Brækstad,
Constitution of the Kingdom
of Norway
(London, 1905); F. Nansen,
Norway and the Union with
Sweden
, and Supplementary Chapter, separate (London, 1905).
On the licensing system in Norway—
Foreign Office Report
, Misc.
series, 279 (London, 1893);
Board of Trade Rep. on Production and
Consumption of Alcoholic Liquors
(London, 1899); H. E. Berner,
“Braendevinsbolagene i Norge,” in
Nordisk Tidskrift
(1891).
O. J. R. H.
History
Early History
.—Archaeological and geological researches have
revealed a fishing and hunting population in Norway, possibly
as far back as
c.
6000
B.C.
Until lately this aboriginal people,
which was certainly non-Aryan, was held to be Lappish, but
recent investigations seem to show that the Lapps only entered
Norway about
A.D.
900–1000, and that the original population
was probably of Finnish race, though only distantly allied to the
Ugro-Finns now inhabiting Finland. To them belong perhaps
certain non-Aryan names for natural features of the country,
such as Toten, Vefsen, Bukn.
The time of the immigration of a Teutonic element is far from
certain. It did not extend N. beyond the Trondhjem district
until about the beginning of our era, but there can be
little doubt that the immigrants’ advance was
extremely slow, and it is suggested, on the evidence of
archaeology, that the Teutonic element entered S.
Teutonic immigration.
Norway towards the end of the (Scandinavian) later Stone age,
. 1700
B.C.
(see
Scandinavian Civilization
). But whatever
were the stages of the process, the language of the older race
was superseded by Teutonic, and those aborigines who were not
incorporated (probably most often as slaves) were driven into
the mountains or the islands that fringe the coast. In the highlands
the “Finns” maintained some independence down to
historical times. The old English poem
Beowulf
mentions a
“Finnaland” which should perhaps be located in S. Norway
in about the 6th century, and later on the ancient laws of this
region forbid the practice of visiting the “Finns” to obtain
knowledge of the future. But only in Finmark, which even in
the 13th century stretched far into Sweden and included the
Norwegian district of Tromsö, could the earlier inhabitants live
their old life, and here they finally fell into the utmost want and
misery. Their existence is mentioned as a thing of the past by
a North Trondhjem writer in 1689.
The new Teutonic element of population seems to have
flowed into Norway from two centres; one western, probably
from Jutland, the other eastern, from the W. coast of Sweden.
The western stream covered Agder, Rogaland and Hordaland (the
modern districts of Christiansand and Söndre Bergenhus), and
finally extended N. as far as Söndmöre, while the eastern stream
flowed across Romerike and Hadeland through the Dales to the
Trondhjem district, where it divided, one stream flowing down
the W. coast till it met the western settlements, another penetrating
N. into Haalogaland (which included the modern Nordland
as well as Helgeland), and a third E. into the N. Swedish
districts of Jämtland and Helsingland. The bodies of immigrants
were no doubt more or less independent, and each was probably
under a king. It is probable that the Horder, who gave their
name to Hordaland and Hardanger, were a branch of the Harudes
whom Ptolemy in the 2nd century mentions as living in Jutland,
where their name remains in the present Hardesyssel. The
Ryger, who gave their name to Rogaland, and the modern
Ryfylke, are probably akin to the Rugii, an E. Germanic tribe
at one time settled in N.E. Pomerania, where we have a reminiscence
of their name in Rügenwalde. The first mention of
any tribe settled in Norway is by Ptolemy, who speaks of the
Chaidenoi or Heiner, inhabiting the W. of his island Scandia.
The system of settlement in Norway appears to have been
different from that adopted by the same race in other lands.
In Denmark, for instance, a group of as many as twenty settlers
held land more or less in common, but this system, which
demanded that a considerable extent of land should be readily
accessible, was not feasible in the greater part of Norway, and
except in one or two flatter districts each farm was owned, or at
least worked, by a single family.
When history first sheds a faint light over Norway we find each
small district or “fylke” (Old Norse
fylkir
, from
folk
, army)
settled under its own king, and about twenty-nine
fylker
in the country. At times a king would win an
overlordship over the neighbouring tribes, but the
character of the country hindered permanent assimilation.
Early kingship.
The king always possessed a
hird
, or company of warriors
sworn to his service, and indeed royal birth and the possession of
such a
hird
, and not land or subjects, were the essential attributes
of a king. There was no law of primogeniture, and on the death
of a king some of his heirs would take their share of the patrimony
in valuables, gather a
hird
, and spend their lives in warlike
expeditions (see
Viking
s), while one would settle down and
become king of the fylke. There are indications that these
conditions were fostered by a matriarchal system, and that it
would often occur that a wandering king would marry the
daughter of a fylkes-king and become his heir. Probably the
king’s power was only absolute over his own
hird
. He was
certainly commander-in-chief and perhaps chief priest of the
fylke, but the administrative power was chiefly in the hands of
the
herser
and possibly of an earl. The position of earls is vague,
but it is noticeable that both those of whom we hear in Harald
Haarfager’s time take the opposite side to their king. The
herser
(Old Norse
hersir
), of whom there were several in each
fylke, united high birth with wealth and political power, and with
the
holder
, the class of privileged hereditary landowners from
which they sprang, formed an aristocracy of which there seems
little trace in the other Scandinavian countries at this period.
Its rise in Norway is perhaps due to the fact that the nature of
the country, as well as the individualistic system of settlement,
left more scope for inequalities of wealth than in Denmark or
Sweden. Once a family had become wealthy enough to fit out
Viking ships, it must have added wealth to wealth, besides
enormously raising its prestige. The lands of almost all the
most powerful families were on islands, whence it was easy to
set forth on roving expeditions. The family property of the
earls of Lade, for instance, whose representative in the latter
half of the 9th century was the most powerful man of the district,
was on the island of Nærö. These islands had been the refuge
of the aborigines, and it is possible that, as A. Hansen has
suggested, the rise of the aristocracy depends here, as elsewhere,
on a subject population. Among the proper names of thralls
in a poem in the Elder Edda are several which can only be
explained on the hypothesis that they are Finnish,
e.g.
Klums,
Lasmer, Drumba. Harald Haarfager’s decree concerning “those
who clear forests and burn salt, fishermen and hunters” probably
refers to the Finns as a class apart. There can be no
doubt that, in Haalogaland for instance, the aristocracy gained
its wealth not only from the tribute extorted from the Finns in
Finmark, but also from slave labour.
The eight Trondhjem
fylker
had a common
Thing
or assembly
very early, but these districts were remote, while the wealthy
western districts were too much cut off from each other to unite
effectively, though here also a common Thing was early established.
The first successful attempt at unification originated
round Vestfold, the modern Jarlsberg and Laurvik Amt on the
Christiania fjord. Here also there was a certain degree of union
very early, and it is possible that national feeling was fostered
by proximity to the Danish and Swedish kingdoms. The
district was thickly populated, and a centre of commerce.
Tradition made the royal family a branch of the great Yngling
dynasty of Upsala, which claimed descent from the god Frey.
Through several generations this family had extended its
kingdom by marriage, conquest and inheritance, and by the end
of the reign of Halfdan the Black, it included the greater part
of Hamar and Oslo Stift, and the fylke of Sogn, the district round
the modern Sognefjord.
Halfdan’s son, Harald Haarfager, having no brothers, succeeded
to the whole kingdom, and was further fortunate in that
an uncle helped him to maintain his rights. By
866 his power was so well established in S. Norway
that he contemplated the conquest of the whole land.
The chief obstacle appears to have been the resistance,
Harald Haarfager.
not only of the petty kings, but also of the aristocratic families,
who dreaded the power of a monarchy established by force, and
consequently supported the vaguer authority of their own
kinglets. There can be no doubt that Harald introduced a
feudal view of obligations towards the king, and landowning
families, who had regarded their
odel
, or inherited property, as
absolutely their own, resented being forced to pay dues on it.
In each district Harald offered the
herser
the opportunity of
becoming his vassals, answerable to him for the government of
the district. The increased dues and the grants of land made by
Harald rendered the position of one of his earls more lucrative
than that of king under the older system; and it shows to what
a paramount position the old aristocracy must have attained,
that numbers of the
herser
and
holder
could not reconcile themselves
to the limitation of their independence, but quitted the
lands which were their real title to influence, rather than submit
to the new order. But the little kingdoms only made futile
attempts at combination, except in the western districts of Agde
(comprising the modern Lister and Mandal and Nedenæs),
Rogaland and Hordaland. Here was the home of the “western
Vikings” who for nearly a century had owed wealth and fame
to their raids on the British Isles. Attack by land was impossible,
and Harald had to gather men and ships for three years before he
could meet the fleet of the allied kings at Hafsfjord. The
battle (872) resulted in a victory to him, and with it all opposition
in Norway was at an end. An expedition to Scotland and the
Scottish isles (
. 891) dispersed enemies who could harry the
Norwegian coast, many of them taking refuge in Iceland; and
the earldom of the Orkneys and Shetlands became an appanage
of the Norwegian Crown. For the moment the whole country
was under a single king, but Harald himself destroyed his work,
in accordance with old custom, by giving about twenty of his
sons the title of king, and dividing the country among them, only
qualifying this retrograde step by installing his favourite son
Erik Blodöxe as over-king (930). Moreover, Harald had established
no common Thing for the whole of his kingdom. Norway is
naturally divided into three parts, and each of these remained
more or less separate for centuries, even having separate laws
until the second half of the 13th century. The Frostathing
district (so called from Frosta near Trondhjem) included the
eight Trondhjem
fylker
, and also Naumdal, Nordmöre and
Raumsdal. The Gulathing district consisted of Söndmöre,
Firdafylke, Sogn, Valdres, Hallingdal, Hordaland and Agde,
and met at Gula in Hordaland. The third, the Eidsivathing, met
on the shores of Lake Mjösen, and included the Uplands and also
the “Vik,”
i.e.
all the districts round Christiania fjord, until St
Olaf established the Borgarthing at Sarpsborg as a centre for
these latter. The king’s council was composed of the local
lendermænd
, and thus varied with the district he happened
to be visiting, an arrangement that had its advantages, since
the local chiefs were acquainted with the laws of their district,
though it was another hindrance to unification. It was
only in 1319 that a permanent council was formed, the
Rigets
Raad
Harald died in 933. Erik Blodöxe (Bloody-axe) only managed
to rid himself of two rival over-kings, Olaf and Sigfred, his
half-brothers, for on hearing of his father’s death,
another son,
Haakon
q.v.
), called the Good, who had
been brought up at Æthelstan’s court, came to Norway
with a small force and succeeded in ejecting Erik (934),
Haakon the Good.
After Haakon’s death in 961 at the battle of Fitje, where his
long struggle against Erik’s sons and their Danish allies terminated,
these brothers, headed by Harald Graafeld (grey-cloak)
became masters of the W. districts, though the ruling spirit
appears to have been their mother Gunhild. Earl Sigurd of
Lade ruled the N., and the S. was held by vassal kings whom
Haakon had left undisturbed. By 969 the brothers had succeeded
in ridding themselves of Sigurd and two other rivals, but the
following year Harald Graafeld was lured to Denmark and
treacherously killed at the instigation of Earl Haakon, son of
Sigurd, who had allied himself with the Danish king Harald
Gormssön. With the latter’s support Earl Haakon won Norway,
but threw off his yoke on defeating Ragnfred Erikssön at
Tingenes in 972. The S.E. districts were, however, still held by
Harald Grenske, whose father had been slain by the sons of
Erik. Haakon ruled ably though tyrannically, and his prestige
was greatly increased by his victory over the Jomsvikings, a
band of pirates inhabiting the island of Wollin at the mouth of the
Oder, who had collected a large fleet to attack Norway. The
date of their defeat at Hjörungavaag, now Lidvaag, is uncertain.
But finally the earl’s disregard of the feelings of the most
powerful
“bonder,” or landed proprietors, worked them up to
revolt, and, in 995, there landed in Norway Olaf, great-grandson
of Harald Haarfager and son of the king Tryggve
of the Vik whom Gudröd Eriksson had slain, and whose father
Olaf had been slain by Erik Blodöxe.
The earl was treacherously killed by his thrall while in hiding,
and Olaf entered unopposed upon his short and brilliant reign.
His great work was the enforced conversion to
Christianity of Norway, Iceland and Greenland. In this
undertaking both Olaf and his successor and namesake
looked for help to England, whence they obtained a
Introduction of Christianity by Olaf.
bishop and priests; hence it comes that the organization
of the early church in Norway resembles that of England.
No more than England did Norway escape the struggle between
Church and State, but the hierarchical party in Norway only rose
to power after the establishment of an archiepiscopal see at
Trondhjem in 1152, after which the quarrel raged for over a
century. Until the year 1100, when tithes were imposed, the
priests depended for their livelihood on their dues, and Adam of
Bremen informs us that this made them very avaricious.
In the year 1000 Olaf fell at the battle of Svolder off Rügen,
fighting against the combined Danish and Swedish fleets. The
allies shared Norway between them, but the real
power lay in the hands of Erik and Svein, sons of
Earl Haakon. In 1015, when Erik was absent in
England, another descendant of Harald Haarfager
Relations with Denmark.
appeared, Olaf, the son of Harald Grenske, a great-grandson
of Harald Haarfager (see
Olaf II. Haraldssön
). He defeated
Svein at Nesje in 1016, which left him free to work towards a
united and Christian Norway. For some years he was successful,
but he strained the loyalty of his subjects too far, and on the
appearance of Knut the Great in 1029 he fled to Russia. His
death at the battle of Stiklestad on his return in 1030 was
followed by a few years of Danish rule under Svein Knutssön,
which rendered Olaf’s memory sweet by contrast, and
soon the name of St Olaf came to stand for internal union and
freedom from external oppression. In 1035 his young son
Magnus, afterwards called the Good, was summoned from
Russia, and was readily accepted as king. A treaty was made
with Hardeknut which provided that whichever king survived
should inherit the other’s crown. Hardeknut died in 1042,
and Magnus became king of Denmark, but a nephew of Knut
the Great, Svein Estridssön, entered into league with Harald
Haardraade (see
Harald III.
), the half-brother of St Olaf,
who had just returned from the East. As soon, however, as
overtures were made to him by Magnus, he forsook the cause
of Svein, and in 1046 agreed to become joint king of Norway
with Magnus. The difficulties arising out of this situation were
solved by Magnus’s death in 1047.
Harald’s attempts to win Denmark were vain, and in 1066
he set about a yet more formidable task in attacking England,
which ended with his death at Stamford Bridge in
1066. His son Olaf Kyrre (the Quiet) shared the
kingdom with his brother Magnus until the latter’s
death in 1069, after which the country enjoyed a period
End of Harald Haarfager’s line.
of peace. A feature of this reign is the increasing importance
of the towns, including Bergen, which was founded by Olaf.
In 1093 Olaf was succeeded by his turbulent son Magnus Barfod
(barefoot) and by Haakon, son of Magnus the Good. The
latter died in 1095. Besides engaging in an unsuccessful war
against the Swedish king Inge, in which he was defeated at
Foxerne in 1101, Magnus undertook three warlike expeditions
to the Scottish isles. It was on the last of these expeditions,
in 1103, that he met his death. He was succeeded by his three
sons, Eystein, Sigurd and Olaf. Olaf died young. Sigurd undertook
a pilgrimage, from which he gained the name of Jorsalfar
(traveller to Jerusalem). He won much booty from the Moors
in Spain, from pirates in the Mediterranean, and finally at Sidon,
which he and his ally Baldwin I. of Jerusalem took and sacked.
Eystein died in 1122. Sigurd lived till 1130, but was subject
to fits of insanity in his later years. He was the last undoubted
representative of Harald Haarfager’s race, for on his death
his son Magnus was ousted by Harald Gille, or Gilchrist, who
professed to be a natural son of Magnus Barfod.
Harald Gille was slain in 1136 by another pretender, and
anarchy ruled during the reign of his sons Eystein, Inge and
Sigurd Mund. At last Inge’s party attacked and
killed first Sigurd (1155) and then Eystein (1157).
Inge fell in a fight against Sigurd’s son Haakon Herdebred
in 1161, but a powerful baron, Erling, succeeded
Disputed successions.
in getting his son Magnus made king, on the plea that the boy’s
maternal grandfather was King Sigurd Jorsalfar. Descent
through females was not valid in succession to the throne, and
to render his son’s position more secure, Erling obtained the
support of the Church. In 1164 the archbishop of Trondhjem
crowned Magnus, demanding that the crown should be held
as a fief of the Norwegian Church. Owing to such concessions
the Church was gaining a paramount position, when a new
pretender appeared. Sverre (O.N. Sverrir) claimed to be the
son of Sigurd Mund, and was adopted as leader by a party
known as the Birkebeiner or Birchlegs. He possessed military
genius of a rare order, and in spite of help from Denmark, the
support of the Church and of the majority of barons, Magnus
was defeated time after time, till he met his death at the battle
of Nordnes in 1184. The aristocracy could offer little further
opposition. In joining hands with the Church against Sverre,
the local chiefs had got out of touch with the small landowners,
with whose support Sverre was able to build up a powerful
monarchy. Sverre’s most dangerous opponent was the Church,
which offered the most strenuous resistance to his efforts to
cut down its prerogatives. The archbishop found support in
Denmark, whence he laid his whole see under an interdict, but
Sverre’s counter-claim of his own divine right as king had much
more influence in Norway.
Sverre died in 1202, his last years harassed by the rise of
the Baglers, or “crozier-men,” with a new claimant at their
head. His son Haakon III. died two years later,
perhaps of poison, but the Birkebeiner party in 1217
succeeded in placing Haakon’s son and namesake on the throne
(see
Haakon IV.
). In 1240 the last of the rival claimants fell,
Magnus.
and the country began to regain prosperity. The acquisition
of Iceland was at length realized. Haakon’s death occurred
after the battle of Largs in the Orkneys in 1263. The war
with Scotland was soon terminated by his son Magnus, who
surrendered the Hebrides and the Isle of Man at the treaty of
Perth in 1268. Magnus saw the worthlessness of a doubtful
suzerainty over islands which had lost their value to Norway
since the decay of Viking enterprise. He gained his title of Law-Mender
from the revision of the laws, which had remained very
much as in heathen days, and which were still different for the
four different districts. By 1274 Magnus had secured the acceptance
of a revised compilation of the older law-books. The new
code repealed all the old wergild laws, and provided that the
major part of the fine for manslaughter should be paid to the
victim’s heir, the remainder to the king. Henceforward the
council comes more and more to be composed of the king’s
court officials, instead of a gathering of the
lendermænd
or
barons of the district in which the king happened to be. During
Magnus’s reign we hear of a larger council, occasionally called
palliment
(parliament), which is summoned at the king’s wish.
The old landed aristocracy had lost its power so completely
that even after Magnus’s death in 1280 it was unable to reinstate
itself during the minority of his son Erik.
Erik was succeeded in 1299 by his brother Haakon V., who in
1308 felt himself strong enough to abolish the dignity of the
lendermænd
. This paralysis of the aristocracy is
no doubt partly to be ascribed to the civil wars, but
in part also to the gradual impoverishment of the
country, which told especially upon this class. Russia
Paralysis of the aristocracy.
had long eclipsed Norway as the centre of the fur trade, and other
industries must have suffered, not only from the civil wars,
but also from the supremacy of the Hanseatic towns, which
dominated the North, and could dictate their own terms. In
earlier times the aristocratic families had owed their wealth
to three main sources: commerce, Viking expeditions and
slave labour. Trade had been a favourite means of enrichment
among the aristocracy up to the middle of the 13th
century, but now it was almost monopolized by Germans, and
Viking enterprise was a thing of the past. The third source of
wealth had also failed, for it is clear from the laws of Magnus
that the class of thralls had practically disappeared. This
must have greatly contributed to shatter the power of the class
which had once been the chief factor in the government of
Norway.
Haakon’s daughter Ingeborg had married Duke Erik of
Sweden, and on Haakon’s death in 1319 their three-year-old
son Magnus succeeded to the Norwegian and Swedish thrones,
the two countries entering into a union which was not definitely
broken till 1371. It was during this reign that Norway was
ravaged by the Black Death. In 1343 Magnus handed over the
greater part of Norway to his son Haakon VI., who married
Margrete, daughter of King Valdemar III. of Denmark. Their
young son Olaf V., already king of Denmark, succeeded to his
father’s throne on Haakon’s death in 1380, but died in 1387,
leaving the royal line extinct, and the nearest successor to the
throne the hostile King Albrecht of Sweden, of the Mecklenburg
family. The difficulty was met by filling the throne by election—an
Union of Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish thrones.
innovation in Norway, though it was the custom
in Sweden and Denmark. The choice fell on King
Haakon’s widow Margrete, but a couple of years
later, chiefly in order to gain German support in
a coming struggle with the Mecklenburgers, the
Norwegians elected as king the young Erik of
Pomerania, great-nephew of the queen, who henceforth acted
as regent. Erik had claims on the Swedish and Danish thrones,
and in 1397, at Kalmar, he was solemnly crowned king over
the three countries, which entered into a union “never to be
dissolved.”
Reigns of the Kings of Norway.
Harald (I.) Haarfager
972–930
(d. 933)
Erik Blodöxe
930–934
Haakon (I.) den Gode
935–961
Harald (II.) Graafeld
961–970
(Earl Haakon of Lade 970–995)
Olaf (I.) Tryggvessön
995–1000
(Earls Erik and Haakon 1000–1016)
Saint Olaf (II.)
1016–1029
(k. 1030)
Svein, son of Knut the Great
1030–1035
Magnus (I.) den Gode
1035–1047
Harald (III.) Haardraade
1046–1066
Olaf (III.) Kyrre
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}}
1066–1093
Magnus (II.)
1066–1069
Magnus (III.) Barfod
1093–1103
Eystein (I.)
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}}
1103–1122
Sigurd (I.) Jorsalfar
1103–1130
Olaf (IV.)
1103–1116
Magnus (IV.)
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}}
1130–1135
Harald Gille
1130–1136
Sigurd (II.) Mund
{\displaystyle \scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}}
1136–1155
Eystein (II.)
1136–1157
Inge
1136–1161
Haakon (II.) Herdebred
1161–1162
Magnus (V.)
1162–1184
Sverre
1184–1202
Haakon (III.)
1202–1204
Haakon (IV.) den gamle
1217–1263
Magnus (VI.)
1263–1280
Erik
1280–1299
Haakon (V.)
1299–1319
Magnus (VII.)
1319–1343
Haakon (VI.)
1343–1380
Olaf (V.)
1381–1387
Margrete
1387–1389
Erik of Pomerania
1389–
Authorities
.—P. A. Munch,
Det norske Folks Historie indtst
1397
(1852–1863); J. E. Sars,
Udsigt over den norske Historie
, Deel
i.-ii. (1873–1877); R. Keyser,
Norges Stats- og Retsforfatning
(1867),
and
Den norske kirke under Katholicismen
(1856); A. Taranger,
Den
Angelsaksiske kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske
(1891); A. C. Bang,
Staat und Kirche in Norwegen bis zum Schlusse des 13ten Jahrhunderts
(Munich, 1875); A. M. Hansen,
Landnam i Norge
(1904); A. Bugge,
Studier over de norske Byers selvstyre og handel för Hanseaternes tid
(1899); F. Bruns,
Die Lübecker Bergenfahrer und ihre Chronistik
(Berlin, 1900); articles by G. Storm, Y. Nielsen, E. Hertzberg and
others in the
Historisk Tidskrift
(Christiania) and other periodicals;
also the articles by K. v. Armira, O. Bremer, K. Kaalund and V.
Gudmundsson in
Pauls Grundriss der germanischen Philologie
(vol.
iii., Strassburg, 1900). The above works are published in Christiania
except where otherwise stated. In English, there is a history of
Norway by H. H. Boyesen in the
Story of the Nations
series (London,
1900), and there are historical notes in G. Vigfússon and F. Y.
Powell’s
Corpus poëticum Boreale
(Oxford, 1883). The most important
original sources are: Snorre Sturlasson’s
Heimskringla
, or
Lives of the Kings of Norway (up to 1177), of which there is an
English translation by W. Morris and E. Magnússon, with a valuable
index volume compiled by the latter, in the
Saga Library
, vols. iii.-vi.
(London, 1893–1905). The original Icelandic text is edited by
F. Jónsson (Copenhagen, 1893–1901). For a critical investigation
into the sources of Snorri and the contemporary historians, see G.
Storm,
Snorre Sturlasson’s Historieskrivning
(Copenhagen, 1873,
with map of ancient Norway), and F. Jónsson,
Den oldnorske og
oldislandske Litteraturs Historie
(Bd. ii. Del. ii., Copenhagen, 1901).
Of later sagas, Sverre’s Saga (
Fornmanna Sögur
, vol. viii., Copenhagen)
is translated by J. Sephton,
Northern Library
(vol. iv.,
London, 1899), and
Haakon’s Saga
is given with a translation by
G. W. Dasent in vols. ii. (text) and iv. (translation) of the
Chronicles
and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland
(London, 1894). Other
important sources are:
Diplomatarium Norvegicum
, ed. C. Unger,
Christiania, and
Norges Gamle Love indtil 1397
, ed. R. Keyser and
P. A. Munch (5 vols., Christiania, 1846–1895).
B. S. P.
1397
1814
.—The history of Norway from 1397 down to the
union with Sweden in 1814 falls naturally into four divisions.
First, in 1450, the triple bond gave place to a union in
which Norway became more firmly joined to Denmark. Next,
in 1536, as the result of the Reformation, Norway sank
almost to the level of a province. After 1660 she gained
something in status from the establishment of autocracy in
Denmark, and at the close of the period she became a constitutional
kingdom on a footing of approximate equality with
Sweden. But for the convulsions to which some of these changes
gave rise, Norway possesses during this period but little history
of her own, and she sank from her former position as a considerable
and independent nation. The kings dwelt outside her
borders, her fleet and army decayed, and her language gradually
15th century.
gave place to Danish. Germans plundered her coasts
and monopolized her commerce, and after 1450 Danes
began to appropriate the higher posts in her administration.
When in 1448 Karl Knutsson was chosen king by the
Swedes, and Christian of Oldenburg by the Danes, it was by
force that Norway fell to the latter. On the 24th of November
1449 the Norwegians protested against Christian’s assumption
of sovereignty over them, and against separation from the
Swedes. Next year, however, the Swedes assented to the
separation. Christian I. (1450–1481) gave estates and offices
in Norway to his Danish subjects and raised money by pawning
her ancient possessions, the Orkneys and Shetland islands, to
the king of Scotland. His son Hans (1482–1513) purchased the
obedience of the Norwegian nobles by concessions to their power.
The imposing union continued in name, but the weakness of the
nation and its government was strikingly illustrated when the
Germans in Bergen besieged a monastery in which their enemy
Olaf Nilsson, a high official, had taken refuge.
After the downfall of Christian II. (1513–1524) the position of
Norway in relation to Denmark was changed for the worse.
She was ruled for a century and a quarter by Danish
officials; the churches and monasteries of Norway
were sacked by Danes, and Danes were installed as
pastors under the Lutheran system, which the Norwegians were
16th century.
compelled to accept in 1539. Soon Norway was dragged by
Denmark into the so-called Seven Years’ War of the North
(1563–70). However, the power of the Hanse League in Bergen
was broken. The rule of the Oldenburg dynasty proved neglectful
rather than tyrannical, and under it the mass of the peasants
was not flagrantly oppressed. Christian IV. (1588–1648), who
founded Christiania, may almost be said to have discovered
Norway anew. He reformed its government and strove to
develop its resources, but his policy involved Norway in the loss
17th century.
of the provinces of Jemtland and Herjedalen, which
were ceded to the Swedes by the peace of Brömsebro
(1645). The Danish war of revenge against Carl X.
of Sweden resulted in further territorial loss by Norway. By the
peace of Roskilde (1658) she was compelled to renounce the
counties of Trondhjem and Baahus, and although the former
was restored by the peace of Copenhagen, two years later, her
population fell below half a million. The Swedes had now
acquired the rich provinces in the south and south-west of the
Scandinavian peninsula, and their ambition to extend their
frontiers to the North Sea became more pronounced and more
possible of accomplishment. From the middle of the 17th
century, however, the Dutch and English made their influence
felt, and the political status of Norway could no longer be
regarded as a purely Scandinavian affair. The establishment
of hereditary autocracy in Denmark by Frederick III. in 1660
conferred many benefits upon Norway. Personal liberty perhaps
suffered, but the Norwegian peasant remained a freeman while
his counterpart in Denmark was a serf. Norwegian law was
revised and codified under Christian V. (1670–1699), who was
well served by the Norwegians in his attempt to regain the lost
provinces.
Under the sons of these monarchs, Frederick IV. and Carl XII.,
Norway was once more compelled to pay for Danish
aggression. Her shipping was destroyed, and in 1716,
when driven from continental Europe, the Swedish
hosts fell upon her. Two years later, however, the
death of Carl XII. at the border fortress of Frederikshald
18th century.
averted the danger. During this war Peter Tordenskjold, the
greatest among a long series of Norwegian heroes who served in
the Danish fleet, won undying fame. Before the close of the 18th
century something had been done towards dispelling the intellectual
darkness. Holberg, though he flourished outside
Norway, was at least born there, and by stemming the tide of
German influence he made the future of Norwegian literature
possible. At the close of the century Hans Nielson Hauge, the
Wesley of Norway, appeared, while the growth of the timber
trade with England gave rise to a great increase in wealth and
population. In a century and a half the number of the
Norwegian people was doubled, so that by 1814 Norway
comprised some 900,000 souls. In 1788 the oppressive law
that grain should be imported into Norway only from
Denmark was repealed, and thanks to Danish policy Norway
actually drew financial profit from the wars of the French
Revolution.
The Norwegian national movement was to render a decade at
the beginning of the 19th century more memorable in Norwegian
history than any century which had passed since the
Calmar Union. In 1800 the Danish government
committed the Norwegians to the second Armed Neutrality,
and therefore to a share in the battle of Copenhagen,
Beginning of Norwegian national movement.
by which it was broken up. It was not until 1807,
however, that Norway was fully involved in the Napoleonic wars.
Then, after the bombardment of Copenhagen, she was compelled
by Danish policy to embrace the cause of Napoleon against both
England and Sweden. Commerce was annihilated, and the
supply of food failed. The national distress brought into the
forefront of politics national leaders, among whom Count
Hermann Jasper von Wedel-Jarlsberg was the most conspicuous.
As yet, however, patriotism went no further than a demand for
an administration distinct from that of Denmark, which was
conceded in 1807, and for a university nearer home than Copenhagen.
In 1811 the government assented to the foundation of
the university of Christiania.
W. F. R.
1814
1907
.—After a union of nearly 400 years between
Norway and Denmark, the Danish king, Frederick VI., without
consulting the Norwegians, ceded Norway to Sweden
by the treaty of Kiel (January 14, 1814). Some
time previously Sweden had joined the allies in their
struggle against Napoleon, while Denmark had,
Events leading to the union with Sweden.
unwisely, sided with the French. In 1813 the Swedish
crown prince, Bernadotte, afterwards King Carl XIV.,
proceeded
to Germany and took command of one of the armies
of the allies. After the power of Napoleon had been broken at
the battle of Leipzig, he advanced against Denmark, and King
Frederick soon saw himself compelled to accede to the cession of
Norway, which had long been the aspiration of the Swedes,
especially after the loss of Finland in 1809. In the treaty of Kiel
Frederick VI. absolved the Norwegians from their oath of
allegiance, and called upon them to become the loyal subjects
of the Swedish king. But the Norwegians, who had not been
consulted in the matter, refused to acknowledge the treaty,
declaring that, while the Danish king might renounce his right
to the Norwegian crown, it was contrary to international law
to dispose of an entire kingdom without the consent of its people.
A meeting of delegates was convened at Eidsvold, not far from the
Norwegian capital, where, on the 17th of May 1814, a constitution,
framed upon the constitutions of America, of France (1791),
and of Spain (1812), was adopted. Among its most important
features are that the Storthing, or National Assembly, is a
single-chamber institution, and that the king is not given an
absolute veto, or the right to dissolve the Storthing. The
Danish governor of Norway, Prince Christian Frederick, was
unanimously elected king. Soon afterwards the Swedes, under
the crown prince, invaded Norway. The hostilities lasted
only a fortnight, when Bernadotte opened negotiations with
the Norwegians. A convention was held at Moss, where it was
proposed that the Norwegians should accept the Swedish king
as their sovereign, on the condition that their constitution of the
17th of May should remain intact, except with such alterations
as the union might render necessary. An extraordinary Storthing
was then summoned at Christiania, and on the 4th of November
1814 Norway was declared to be “a free, independent, and
indivisible kingdom, united with Sweden under one king.” A
month previously Prince Christian Frederick had laid down
his crown and left the country.
The union was more fully defined by the “Act of Union,”
which was accepted by the national assemblies of both countries
in the following year. In the preamble to the act it is clearly
stated that the union between the two peoples was accomplished
“not by force of arms, but by free conviction,” and the Swedish
foreign minister declared to the European Powers, on behalf
of Sweden, that the treaty of Kiel had been abandoned, and that
it was not to this treaty, but to the confidence of the Norwegian
people in the Swedish, that the latter owed the union with
Norway. The constitution framed at Eidsvold was retained,
and formed the
Grundlov
, or fundamental law of the kingdom.
The union thus concluded between the two countries was really
an offensive and defensive alliance under a common king, each
country retaining its own government, parliament, army, navy
and customs.
In Sweden the people received only an imperfect and erroneous
insight into the nature of the union, and for a long time believed
it to be an achievement of the Swedish arms. They had hoped
to make Norway a province of Sweden, and now they had entered
into a union in which both countries were equally independent.
During the first fifteen years the king was represented in Norway
by a Swedish Viceroy, while the government was, of course,
composed only of Norwegians. Count Wedel Jarlsberg was the
first to be entrusted with the important office of head of the
Norwegian government, while several of Prince Christian
Frederick’s councillors of state were retained, or replaced by
others holding their political views. The Swedish Count von
Essen was appointed the first viceroy of Norway, and was
succeeded two years afterwards by his countryman Count von
Mörner, over both of whom Count Wedel exercised considerable
influence.
During the first years of the union the country suffered from
poverty and depression of trade, and the finances were in a
deplorable condition. The first Storthing was chiefly
occupied with financial and other practical measures.
In order to improve the finances of the country a bank
of Norway was founded, and the army was reduced to
Strained relations between king and Storthing.
one half. The paid-up capital of the bank was procured
by an extraordinary tax, and this, together with the growing
discontent among the peasantry, brought about a rising in
Hedemarken, the object of which was to dissolve the Storthing and
to obtain a reduction in the taxation. The rising, however, soon
subsided, and the bountiful harvest of 1819 brought more prosperous
times to the peasantry. Meanwhile, however, the financial
position of the country had nearly endangered its independence.
The settlement with Denmark with regard to Norway’s share of
the national debt common to both, assumed threatening proportions.
In the interest of Denmark, the allied powers asked for a
speedy settlement, and in order to escape their collective intervention,
Bernadotte, who had now succeeded to the throne of
Sweden and Norway, on the death (February 5, 1818) of the old
king Carl XIII., accepted England’s mediation, and was enabled
in September 1819 to conclude a convention with Denmark,
according to which Norway was held liable for only 3,000,000
specie dollars (nearly £700,000). But the Norwegians considered
that this was still too much, and the attitude of the Storthing
in 1821 nearly occasioned a fresh interference of the powers.
The Storthing, however, yielded at last, and agreed to raise a
loan and pay the amount stipulated in the convention, but the
king evidently had his doubts as to whether the Norwegians
really intended to fulfil their obligations. As his relations with
the Storthing had already become strained, and as he was
occupied at that time with plans, which it is now known meant
nothing less than a
coup d’état
in connexion with the revision
of the Norwegian constitution, he decided to adopt military
preparations, and in July 1821 he collected a force of 3000
Swedish and 3000 Norwegian troops in the neighbourhood of
Christiania, ostensibly for the mere purpose of holding some
manœuvres. In a circular note (June 1) to the European
powers, signed by the Swedish foreign minister, Engström—but
it is not difficult to recognize the hand of the king as the
real author—the minister complained bitterly of the treatment
the king had met with at the hands of the Storthing, and represented
the Norwegians in anything but a favourable light to the
powers, the intention being to obtain their sympathy for any
attempt that might be made to revise the Norwegian constitution.
About this time another important question had to be settled
by the Storthing. The Storthings of 1815 and 1818 had already
passed a bill for the abolition of nobility, but the king had on
both occasions refused his sanction. The Norwegians maintained
that the few counts and barons still to be found in Norway were
all Danish and of very recent origin, while the really true and
ancient nobility of the country were the Norwegian peasants,
descendants of the old jarls and chieftains. According to the
constitution, any bill which has been passed by three successively
elected Storthings, elections being held every third year, becomes
law without the king’s sanction. When the third reading of the
bill came on, the king did everything in his power to obstruct
it, but in spite of his opposition the bill was eventually carried
and became law.
In 1822 Count Wedel Jarlsberg retired from the government.
He had become unpopular through his financial policy, and
was also at issue with the king on vital matters. In
1821 he had been impeached before the Rigsret, the
supreme court of the realm, for having caused the
state considerable losses. Jonas Collett (1772–1851) was
Royal proposals for constitutional revision.
appointed as his successor to the post of minister of
finance. The king had by this time apparently abandoned his
plan of a
coup d’état
, for in the following August he submitted
to the Storthing several proposals for fundamental changes
in the constitution, all of which aimed at removing all that was
at variance with a monarchical form of government. The
changes, in fact, were the same as he had suggested in his circular
note to the Powers, and which he knew would be hailed with
approval by his Swedish subjects. When the Storthing met
again in 1824 the royal proposals for the constitutional changes
came on for discussion. The Storthing unanimously rejected
not only the king’s proposals, but also several others by private
members for changes in the constitution. The king submitted
his proposals again in the following session of the Storthing, and
again later on, but they were always unanimously rejected. In
1830 they were discussed for the last time, with the same result.
The king’s insistence was viewed by the people as a sign of
absolutist tendencies, and naturally excited fresh alarm. In the
eyes of the people the members of the opposition in the Storthing
were the true champions of the rights and the independence which
they had gained in 1814.
For several years the Norwegians had been celebrating the
17th of May as their day of independence, it being the anniversary
of the adoption of the constitution of 1814; but as the
tension between the Norwegians and the king increased,
the latter began to look upon the celebration in the
light of a demonstration directed against himself,
The king’s absolutist tendencies.
and when Collett, the minister of finance, was impeached
before the supreme court of the realm for having made certain
payments without the sanction of the Storthing, he also considered
this as an attack upon his royal prerogatives. His
irritation knew no bounds, and although Collett was acquitted
by the supreme court, the king, in order to express his irritation
with the Storthing and the action they had taken against one of
his ministers, dissolved the national assembly with every sign
of displeasure. The Swedish Viceroy at the time, Count Sandels,
had tried to convince him that his prejudice against the celebration
of the 17th of May was groundless, and for some years the
king had made no objection to the celebration. In 1827 it was,
however, celebrated in a very marked manner, and later in the
same year there was a demonstration against a foolish political
play called
The Union
, and this being privately reported to the
king in as bad a light as possible, he thought that Count Sandels,
who had not considered it worth while to report the occurrence,
was not fitted for his post, and had him replaced by Count Beltzar
Bojilaus Platen (1766–1829), an upright but narrow-minded
statesman. Count Platen’s first act was to issue a proclamation
warning the people against celebrating the day of independence;
and in April 1828 the king, against the advice of his ministers,
summoned an extraordinary Storthing, his intention being to
wrest from the Storthing the supremacy it had gained in 1827.
He also intended to take steps to prevent the celebration of the
17th of May, and assembled a force of 2000 Norwegian soldiers in
the neighbourhood of the capital. The king arrived in Christiania
soon after the opening of the extraordinary Storthing. He did
not succeed, however, in his attempt to make any constitutional
changes, but the Storthing met the king’s wishes with regard to
the celebration of the 17th of May by deciding not to continue
the celebration, and the people all over the country quietly
acquiesced. The following year trouble broke out again. The
students had decided to celebrate the 17th of May with a festive
gathering, which, however, passed off quietly. But large masses
of the people paraded the streets, singing and shouting, and
gathered finally in the market-place. There was a little rioting,
The “battle of the market-place.”
and the police and the military eventually dispersed
the people and drove them to their homes with sword
and musket. This episode has become known as the
“battle of the market-place,” and did much to
increase the general ill-feeling against Count Platen.
His health eventually broke down from disappointment and
vexation at the indignities and abuse heaped upon him. He
died in Christiania at the end of the year, and his post remained
vacant for several years, the presidency of the Norwegian
government in the meantime being taken by Collett, its oldest
member.
By the July Revolution of 1830 the political situation in
Europe became completely changed, and the lessons derived
from that great movement reached also to Norway.
The representatives of the peasantry, for whom the
constitution had paved the way to become the ruling
element in political life, were also beginning to
Increased political power of the peasantry.
distinguish themselves in the national assembly, where
they now had taken up an independent position against the
representatives of the official classes, who in 1814 and afterwards
had played the leading and most influential part in politics. This
party was now under the leadership of the able and gifted Ole
Ueland, who remained a member of every Storthing from 1833 to
1869. The Storthing of 1833 was the first of the so-called
“peasant Storthings.” Hitherto the peasantry had never been
represented by more than twenty members, but the elections in
1833 brought their number up to forty-five, nearly half of the
total representation. The attention of this new party was
especially directed to the finances of the country, in the administration
of which they demanded the strictest economy. They
often went too far in their zeal, and thereby incurred considerable
ridicule.
About this time the peasant party found a champion in the
youthful poet Henrik Wergeland, who soon became one of the
leaders of the “Young Norway” party. He was a
republican in politics, and the most zealous upholder
of the national independence of Norway and of her
full equality with Sweden in the union. A strong
Wergeland opposed by Welhaven.
opposition to Wergeland and the peasant party was formed by
the upper classes under the leadership of another rising poet and
writer, Johan Sebastian Welhaven, and other talented men, who
wished to retain the literary and linguistic relationship with
Denmark, while Wergeland and his party wished to make the
separation from Denmark as complete as possible, and in every
way to encourage the growth of the national characteristics and
feeling among the people. He devoted much of his time, by
writing and other means, to promote the education of the people;
but although he was most popular with the working and poorer
classes, he was not able to form any political party around him,
and at the time of his death he stood almost isolated. He died
in 1845, and his opponents became now the leaders in the field
of literature, and carried on the work of national reconstruction
in a more restrained and quiet manner. The peasant party still
continued to exist, but restricted itself principally to the assertion
of local interests and the maintenance of strict economy in
finance.
The violent agitation that began in 1830 died away. The
tension between the king and the legislature, however, still
continued, and reached its height during the session of 1836,
when all the royal proposals for changes in the constitution were
laid aside, without even passing through committee, and when
various other steps towards upholding the independence of the
country were taken. The king, in his displeasure, decided to
dissolve the Storthing; but before it dispersed it proceeded to
impeach Lövenskiold, one of the ministers, before the supreme
court of the realm, for having advised the king to dissolve the
Storthing. He was eventually sentenced to pay a fine of 10,000
kroner (about £550), but he retained his post. Collett, another
minister who had greatly displeased the king by his conduct,
was dismissed; but unity in the government was brought about
by the appointment of Count Wedel Jarlsberg as viceroy of
Norway. From this time the relations between the king and the
Norwegian people began to improve, whereas in Sweden he was,
in his later years, not a little disliked.
When the king’s anger had subsided, he summoned the Storthing
to an extraordinary session, during which several important
bills were passed. Towards the close of the session an
address to the king was agreed to, in which the
Storthing urged that steps should be taken to place Norway
in political respects upon an equal footing with Sweden,
The national flag question.
especially in the conduct of diplomatic affairs with foreign
countries. The same address contained a petition for the use
of the national or merchant flag in all waters. According to
the constitution, Norway was to have her own merchant flag,
and in 1821 the Storthing had passed a resolution that the flag
should be scarlet, divided into four by a blue cross with white
borders. The king, however, refused his sanction to the resolution,
but gave permission to use the flag in waters nearer home;
but beyond Cape Finisterre the naval flag, which was really the
Swedish flag, with a white cross on a red ground in the upper
square, must be carried. In reply to the Storthing’s address the
king in 1838 conceded the right to all merchant ships to carry the
national flag in all waters. This was hailed with great rejoicings
all over the country; but the question of the national flag for
general use had yet to be settled. With regard to the question
raised in the address of the Storthing about the conduct of
diplomatic affairs, and other matters concerning the equality of
Norway in the union, the king in 1839 appointed a committee of
four Norwegians and four Swedes, who were to consider and
report upon the questions thus raised.
During the sitting of this first “Union Committee” its powers
were extended to consider a comprehensive revision of the Act
of Union, with the limitation that the fundamental
conditions of the union must in no way be interfered
with. But before the committee had finished their
report the king died (March 8th 1844), and was
Death of King Carl Johan; succeeded by Oscar I.
succeeded by his son Oscar I. According to the constitution
the Norwegian kings must be crowned in Throndhjem
cathedral, but the bishop of Throndhjem was in doubt whether
the queen, who was a Roman Catholic, could be crowned, and
the king decided to forego the coronation both of himself and his
queen. The new king soon showed his desire to meet the wishes
of the Norwegian people. Thus he decided that in all documents
concerning the internal government of the country Norway
should stand first where reference was made to the king as
sovereign of the two kingdoms. After having received the report
of the committee concerning the flag question, he resolved (June
20th, 1844) that Norway and Sweden should each carry its own
national flag as the naval flag, with the mark of union in the upper
corner; and it was also decided that the merchant flag of the
two kingdoms should bear the same mark of union, and that only
ships sailing under these flags could claim the protection of the
state.
The financial and material condition of the country had now
considerably improved, and King Oscar’s reign was marked by
the carrying out of important legislative work and reforms,
especially in local government. New roads were planned and
built all over the country, the first railway was built, steamship
routes along the coast were established, lighthouses were erected
and trade and shipping made great progress. The king’s reign
was not disturbed by any serious conflicts between the two
countries. No change took place in the ministry under the
presidency of the Viceroy Lövenskiold upon King Oscar’s
accession to the throne, but on the death or retirement of some
of its members the vacant places were filled by younger and
talented men, among whom was Fredrik Stang, who in 1845
took over the newly established ministry of the interior. During
the Schleswig-Holstein rebellion (1848–1850) and the Crimean
War King Oscar succeeded in maintaining the neutrality of
Norway and Sweden, by which Norwegian shipping especially
benefited. The abolition of the English navigation acts in 1850
was of great importance to Norway, and opened up a great future
for its merchant fleet.
In 1826 a treaty had been concluded with Russia, by which
the frontier between that country and the adjoining strip of
Norwegian territory in the Polar region was definitely
delimited; but in spite of this treaty Russia in 1851
demanded that the Russian Lapps on the Norwegian
frontier should have the right to fish on the Norwegian
Relations with Russia.
coast, and have a portion of the coast on the Varanger fjord
allotted to them to settle upon. The Norwegian government
refused to accede to the Russian demands, and serious complications
might have ensued if the attention of Russia had not been
turned in another direction. While his father had looked
to Russia for support, King Oscar was more inclined to secure
western powers as his allies, and during the Crimean War he
concluded a treaty with England and France, according to
which these countries promised their assistance in the event of
any fresh attempts at encroachment on Norwegian or Swedish
territory by Russia. In consequence of this treaty the relations
between Norway and Sweden and Russia became somewhat
strained; but after the peace of Paris in 1856, and the accession
of Alexander II., whose government was in favour of a peaceful
policy, the Russian ambassador at Stockholm succeeded in
bringing about more friendly relations.
Owing to the king’s ill-health, his son, the crown prince Carl,
was appointed regent in 1857, and two years later, when King
Oscar died, he succeeded to the thrones of the two countries as
Carl XV. He was a gifted, genial and noble personality, and
desired to inaugurate his reign by giving the
Norwegians a proof of his willingness to acknowledge the
Death of Oscar I.; accession of
Carl XV.
claims of Norway, but he did not live to see his wishes
in this respect carried out. According to the constitution,
the king had the power to appoint a viceroy for
Norway, who might be either a Norwegian or Swede. Since 1829
no Swede had held the post, and since 1859 no appointment of a
viceroy had been made. But the paragraph in the constitution
still existed, and the Norwegians naturally wished to have this
stamp of “provinciality” obliterated. A proposal for the
abolishment of the office of viceroy was laid before the
Storthing in 1859, and passed by it. The king, whose
sympathies on this question were known, had been
appealed to, and had privately promised that he would
sanction the proposed change in the constitution; but as soon
as the resolution of the Storthing became known in Sweden, a
Question of Norwegian viceroy.
violent outcry arose both in the Swedish press and the Swedish
estates. Under the pressure that was brought to bear upon the
king in Sweden, he eventually refused to sanction the resolution
of the Storthing; but he added that he shared the views of his
Norwegian counsellors, and would, when “the convenient
moment” came, himself propose the abolition of the office of
viceroy.
In the following year the Swedish government again pressed the
demands of the Swedish estates for a revision of the Act of Union,
which this time included the establishment of a
union or common parliament for the two countries, on
the basis that, according to the population, there
should be two Swedish members to every Norwegian.
Swedish proposals for revision of Act
of Union.
The proposal was sent to the Norwegian government,
which did not seem at all disposed to entertain it; but
some dissensions arose with regard to the form in which its reply
was to be laid before the king. The more obstinate members
of the ministry resigned, and others, of a more pliable nature,
were appointed under the presidency of Fredrik Stang, who
had already been minister of the interior from 1845 to 1856.
The reconstructed government was, however, in accord with the
retiring one, that no proposal for the revision of the Act of Union
could then be entertained. The king, however, advocated the
desirability of a revision, but insisted that this would have to
be based upon the full equality of both countries. In 1863 the
Storthing assented to the appointment by the king of a Union
committee, the second time that such a committee had been
called upon to consider this vexatious question. It was not
until 1867 that its report was made public, but it could not
come on for discussion in the Storthing till it met again in 1871.
During this period the differences between the two countries
were somewhat thrust into the background by the Danish
complications in 1863–1864, which threatened to draw the two
kingdoms into war. King Carl was himself in favour of a
defensive alliance with Denmark, but the Norwegian Storthing
would only consent to this if an alliance could also be effected
with at least one of the western powers.
In 1869 the Storthing passed a resolution by which its sessions
were made annual instead of triennial according to the constitution
of 1814. The first important question which the first yearly
Storthing which met in 1871 had to consider was once more the
proposed revision of the Act of Union. The Norwegians had
persistently maintained that in any discussion on this question
the basis for the negotiations should be (1) the full equality of the
two kingdoms, and (2) no extension of the bonds of the union
beyond the line originally defined in the act of 1815. However,
the draft of the new act contained terms in which the supremacy
of Sweden was presupposed and which introduced important
extensions of the bonds of the union; and, strangely enough, the
report of the Union committee was adopted by the new Stang
ministry, and even supported by some of the most influential
newspapers under the plausible garb of “Scandinavianism.”
In these circumstances the “lawyers’ party,” under the leadership
of Johan Sverdrup, who was to play such a prominent part
in Norwegian politics, and the “peasant party,” led by Sören
Jaabœk, a gifted peasant proprietor, who was also destined to
become a prominent figure in the political history of the country,
Foundation of
the Norwegian national party.
formed an alliance, with the object of guarding against
any encroachment upon the liberty and independence
which the country had secured by the constitution of
1814. This was the foundation of the great national
party, which became known as the “Venstre” (the
left), and which before long became powerful enough to exert
the most decisive influence upon the political affairs of the
country. When, therefore, the proposed revision of the Act of
Union eventually came before the Storthing in 1871, it was rejected
by an overwhelming majority. The position which the
government had taken up on this question helped to open the
eyes of the Norwegians to some defects in the constitution, which
had proved obstacles to the development and strengthening of
the parliamentary system.
In 1872 a private bill came before the Storthing, proposing that
the ministers should be admitted to the Storthing and take part
in its proceedings. After a number of stormy debates
the bill was successfully carried under the leadership
of Johan Sverdrup by a large majority, but the government,
evidently jealous of the growing powers and
Question of admittance of ministers to seats in the Storthing.
influence of the new liberal party in the Storthing,
advised the king to refuse his sanction, although the
government party itself had several times in the
preceding half-century introduced a similar bill for admitting the
ministers to the Storthing. At that time, however, the opposition
had looked with suspicion on the presence of the ministers in the
national assembly, lest their superior skill in debate and political
experience should turn the scale too readily in favour of government
measures. Now, on the contrary, the opposition had
gained more experience and had confidence in its own strength,
and no doubt found that the legislative work could better be
carried on if the ministers were present to explain and defend
their views; but the government saw in the proposed reform the
threatened introduction of full parliamentary government, by
which the ministry could not remain in office unless supported by
a majority in the Storthing. Before the Storthing separated the
liberals carried a vote of censure against the government; but
the king declared that the ministers enjoyed his confidence
and took no further notice of the vote. Two of the ministers,
who had advised the ratification of the bill, resigned, however;
and a third minister, who had been in the government since
1848, resigned also, and retired from public life, foreseeing the
storm that was brewing on the political horizon. Numerous
public meetings were held all over the country in support of the
proposed reform, and among the speakers was Johan Sverdrup,
now the acknowledged leader of the liberal party, who was hailed
with great enthusiasm as the champion of the proposed reform.
This was the political situation when King Carl died (18th
September 1872). He was succeeded by his brother who ascended
the throne as Oscar II. In the following year he
gave his sanction to the bill for the abolition of the
office of viceroy, which the Storthing had again
passed, and the president of the ministry was afterwards
Death of Carl XV.; accession of Oscar II.
recognized as the prime minister and head of the
government in Christiania. Fredrik Stang, who was the president
of the ministry at the time, was the first to fill this office.
In the same year Norway celebrated its existence for a thousand
years as a kingdom, with great festivities.
In 1874 the government, in order to show the people that they
to some extent were willing to meet their wishes with regard to
the great question before the country, laid before the
Storthing a royal proposition for the admittance of the
ministers to the national assembly. But this was to
be accompanied by certain other constitutional changes,
Proposals by the Storthing for full popular control.
such as giving the king the right of dissolving the Storthing
at his pleasure and providing fixed pensions for
ex-ministers, which was regarded as a guarantee against the majority
of the assembly misusing its new power. The bill which the
government brought in was unanimously rejected by the Storthing,
the conservatives also voting against it, as they considered
the guarantees insufficient. The same year, and again in 1877,
the Storthing passed the bill, but in a somewhat different form
from that of 1872. On both occasions the king refused his
sanction.
The Storthing then resorted to the procedure provided by the
constitution to carry out the people’s will. In 1880 the bill was
passed for the third time, and on this occasion by the
overwhelming majority of 93 out of 113. Three
Storthings after three successive elections had now
carried the bill, and it was generally expected that the king and
The king’s veto.
his government would at length comply with the wishes of the
people, but the king on this occasion also refused his sanction,
declaring at the same time that his right to the absolute veto
was “above all doubt.” Johan Sverdrup, the leader of the
liberal party and president of the Storthing, brought the question
to a prompt issue by proposing to the Storthing that the bill,
which had been passed three times, should be declared to be the
law of the land without the king’s sanction. This proposal was
carried by a large majority on the 9th of June 1880, but the
king and his ministers in reply declared that they would not
recognize the validity of the resolution.
From this moment the struggle may be said to have centred
itself upon the existence or non-existence of an absolute veto on
the part of the crown. The king requested the faculty
of law at the Christiania university to give its opinion
on the question at issue, and with one dissentient the
Struggle between the king and the Storthing.
learned doctors upheld the king’s right to the absolute
veto in questions concerning amendments of the
constitution, although they could not find that it was expressly
stated in the fundamental law of the country. The ministry also
advised the king to claim a veto in questions of supply, which
still further increased the ill-feeling in the country against the
government, and the conflict in consequence grew more and more
violent.
In the midst of the struggle between the king and the Storthing,
the prime minister, Fredrik Stang, resigned, and Christian
August Selmer (1816–1889) became his successor;
and this, together with the appointment of another
member to the ministry, K. H. Schweigaard, plainly
indicated that the conflict with the Storthing was to be continued.
Elections of 1882.
In June 1882 the king arrived in Christiania to dissolve the
Storthing, and on this occasion delivered a speech from the
throne, in which he openly censured the representatives of the
people for their attitude in legislative work and on the question
of the absolute veto, the speech creating considerable surprise
throughout the country. Johan Sverdrup and Björnstjerne
Björnson, the popular poet and dramatist, called upon the
people to support the Storthing in upholding the resolution of
the 9th of June, and to rouse themselves to a sense of their
political rights. The elections resulted in a great victory for the
liberal party, which returned stronger than ever to the Storthing,
numbering 83 and the conservatives only 31. The ministry,
however, showed no sign of yielding, and, when the new Storthing
met in February 1883, the Odelsthing (the lower division of the
Impeachment of ministers by the Storthing, 1883.
national assembly) decided upon having the question
finally settled by impeaching the whole of the ministry
before the Rigsret or the supreme court of the realm.
The jurisdiction of the Rigsret is limited to the trial
of offences against the state, and there is no appeal
against its decisions. The charges against the ministers
were for having acted contrary to the interests of the country by
advising the king to refuse his sanction—first, to the amendment
of the law for admitting the ministers to the Storthing; secondly,
to a bill involving a question of supply; and thirdly, to a bill
by which the Storthing could appoint additional directors on the
state railways.
The trial of the eleven ministers of the Selmer cabinet began in
May 1883 and lasted over ten months. In the end the
Rigsret sentenced the prime minister and seven of his
ministers to be deprived of their offices, while three,
who had either recommended the king to sanction
the bill for admitting the ministers to the Storthing, or had
The ministry sentenced by
the Rigsret.
entered the cabinet at a later date, were heavily fined. The
excitement in the country rose to feverish anxiety. Rumours of
all kinds were afloat, and it was generally believed that the king
would attempt a
coup d’état
. Fortunately the king after some hesitation
issued (11th March 1884) an order in council announcing
that the judgment of the supreme court would be carried into
effect, and Selmer was then called upon to resign his position as
Acquiescence
by the king.
prime minister. King Oscar, however, in his declaration
upheld the constitutional prerogative of the
crown, which, he maintained, was not impaired by
the judgment of the Rigsret. The following month the
king, regardless of the large liberal majority in the Storthing,
asked Schweigaard, one of the late ministers, whose punishment
consisted in a fine, to form a ministry, and the so-called “April
ministry” was then appointed, but sent in its resignation in
the following month. Professor Broch, a former minister, next
failed to form a ministry, and the king was at last compelled to
appoint a ministry in accordance with the majority in the
First Liberal ministry 1884.
Storthing. In June 1884 Johan Sverdrup was asked
to form one. He selected for his ministers leading
men on the liberal side in the Storthing, and the first
liberal ministry that Norway had was at length
appointed. The Storthing, in order to satisfy the king, passed
a new resolution admitting the ministers to the national assembly,
and this received formal sanction.
During the following years a series of important reforms was
carried through. Thus in 1887 the jury system in criminal
matters was introduced into the country after violent opposition
from the conservatives. A bill intended to give parishioners
greater influence in church matters, and introduced by Jakob
Sverdrup, the minister of education, and a nephew of the prime
minister, met, however, with strong opposition, and was eventually
rejected by the Storthing, the result being a break-up of the
ministry and a disorganization of the liberal party. In June 1889
the Sverdrup ministry resigned, and a conservative one was
formed by Emil Stang, the leader of the conservatives in the
Storthing, and during the next two years the Storthing passed
various useful measures; but the ministry was eventually
wrecked on the rock of the great national question which about
this time came to the front—that of Norway’s share in the
transaction of diplomatic affairs. At the time of the union in
1814 nothing had been settled as to how these were to be conducted,
but in 1835 a resolution was issued, that when the
The question of diplomatic representation.
Swedish foreign minister was transacting diplomatic
matters with the king which concerned both countries,
or Norway only, the Norwegian minister of state in
attendance upon the king at Stockholm should be
present. This arrangement did not always prove
satisfactory to the Norwegians, especially as the Swedish
foreign minister could not be held responsible to the Norwegian
government or parliament.
By a change in the Swedish constitution in 1885 the ministerial
council, in which diplomatic matters are discussed, came to
consist of the Swedish foreign minister and two other
members of the cabinet on behalf of Sweden, and of
the Norwegian minister at Stockholm on behalf of
Norway. The king, wishing to remedy this disparity,
The Norwegian claim.
proposed that the composition of the council should be determined
by an additional paragraph in the Act of Union. The representatives
of the Norwegian government in Stockholm proposed that
three members of the cabinet of each country should constitute
the ministerial council. To this the Swedish government was
willing to agree, but on the assumption that the minister of foreign
affairs should continue to be a Swede as before, and this the
Norwegians, of course, would not accept. At the king’s instigation
the negotiations with the Swedish government were resumed
at the beginning of 1891, but the Swedish Riksdag rejected
the proposals, while the Norwegian Storthing insisted upon
“Norway’s right, as an independent kingdom, to full equality
in the union, and therewith her right to watch over her foreign
affairs in a constitutional manner.” The Stang ministry then
resigned, and a liberal ministry, with Steen, the recognized
leader of the liberal party after Sverdrup’s withdrawal from
politics, as prime minister, was appointed.
The new ministry had placed the question of a separate minister
of foreign affairs for Norway prominently in their programme, but
little progress was made during the next few years.
Another and more important question for the country,
as far as its shipping and commerce are concerned,
now came to the front. The Storthing had in 1891
Question of separate consular service.
appointed a committee to inquire into the practicability of
establishing a separate Norwegian consular service, and in 1892
the Storthing, acting upon the committee’s report, determined
to establish a consular service. The king, influenced by public
opinion in Sweden, refused his sanction, and the Norwegian
government in consequence sent in their resignation, whereupon
a complete deadlock ensued. This was terminated by a compromise
to the effect that the ministry would return to office on
the understanding that the question was postponed by common
consent. The following year the Storthing again passed a
resolution calling upon the Norwegian government to proceed
with the necessary measures for establishing the proposed
consular service for Norway, but the king again refused to take
any action in the matter. Upon this the liberal ministry resigned
(May 1893), and the king appointed a conservative government,
with Emil Stang as its chief. Thus matters went on till the end
of 1894, when the triennial elections took place, with the result
that the majority of the electors declared in favour of national
independence on the great question then before the country.
The ministry did not at once resign, but waited till the king
arrived in Christiania to open the Storthing (January 1895). The
king kept the country for over four months without a responsible
government, during which time the crisis had become more acute
than ever. A coalition ministry was at last formed, with
Professor G. F. Hagerup as prime minister. A new committee,
consisting of an equal number of Norwegians and Swedes, was
appointed to consider the question of separate diplomatic
representation; but after sitting for over two years the committee
separated without being able to come to any agreement.
The elections in 1897 proved again a great victory for the liberal
party, 79 liberals and 35 conservatives being returned, and in
February 1898 the Hagerup ministry was replaced by a liberal,
once more under the premiership of Steen. Soon afterwards the
bill for the general adoption of the national or “pure” flag, as
it was called, was carried for the third time, and became law
without the king’s sanction. In 1898 universal political suffrage
for men was passed by a large majority, but the proposal to
include women received the support of only 33 votes.
In January 1902, on the initiative of the Swedish foreign
minister, another committee, consisting of an equal number of
leading Norwegians and Swedes, was appointed by
the king to investigate the consular question. The
unanimous report of the committee was to the effect
that “it was possible to appoint separate Norwegian
The crisis of
1902–1905.
consuls exclusively responsible to Norwegian authority and
separate Swedish consuls exclusively responsible to Swedish
authority.” The further negotiations between the two governments
resulted in the so-called
communiqué
of the 24th of March
1903, which announced the conclusion of an agreement between
the representatives of the two countries for the establishment
of the separate consular service. The terms of the
communiqué
were submitted to a combined Norwegian and Swedish council
of state on the 21st of December 1903, when they were unanimously
agreed to and were signed by the king, who commissioned
the Norwegian and the Swedish governments to proceed with the
drafting of the laws and regulations for the separate consular
services. In due course the Norwegian government submitted
to the Swedish government their draft of the proposed laws and
regulations, but no reply was forthcoming for several months.
About this time the Swedish foreign minister, Mr Lagerheim,
who had zealously worked for a friendly solution of the consular
question, resigned, and in November the same year Boström, the
Swedish prime minister, suddenly submitted to the Norwegian
government a number of new conditions under which the Swedish
government was prepared to agree to the establishment of separate
consuls. This came as a surprise to the Norwegians in view
of the fact that the basis for the establishment of separate
consuls had already been agreed upon and confirmed by the
king in December 1903. According to Boström’s proposals the
Norwegian consuls were to be placed under the control of the
Swedish foreign minister, who was to have the power to remove
any Norwegian consul. The Norwegians felt it would be beneath
the dignity of a self-governing country to agree to the Swedish
proposals, and that these new demands were nothing less than
a breach of faith with regard to the terms of agreement arrived
at two years before by both governments and approved and
signed by the king. The Norwegian government would have
been perfectly justified if, after this, they had withdrawn from
the negotiations, but they did not wish to jeopardize the opportunity
of arriving at a friendly settlement, and Hagerup, the
Norwegian prime minister, proceeded to Stockholm to confer
with Boström; but no satisfactory agreement could be arrived
at. There was therefore nothing left but for the Norwegians
to take matters into their own hands.
On the 8th of February 1905 Hagerup announced to the
Norwegian Storthing that the negotiations had fallen through,
and on the 17th the Storthing decided unanimously to refer
the matter to a special committee. Owing to some difference of
opinion between the members of his ministry, Hagerup resigned
on the 1st of March and was succeeded by Christian Michelsen,
who formed a ministry composed of members of both political
parties. The special committee decided that a bill should be
immediately submitted to the Storthing for the establishment of
a Norwegian consular service and that the measure should come
into force not later than the 1st of April 1906. An attempt was
made by the Swedish crown prince, acting as Prince Regent
during the king’s illness, to enter into new negotiations with the
Norwegian government, but the proposals were not favourably
received in Norway. In April 1905 Boström resigned, which
was considered to be a move on the part of Sweden to facilitate
negotiations with Norway. The bill for the establishment of
Norwegian consuls was passed by the Storthing without a
dissentient voice on the 23rd of May, and it was generally
expected that the king, who again had assumed the reins of
government, would sanction the bill, but on the 27th of May,
in spite of the earnest entreaties of his Norwegian ministers,
the king formally refused to do so. The Norwegian Ministry
immediately resigned, but the king informed the ministers that
Declaration of Independence.
he could not accept their resignation. They, however,
declined to withdraw it. A few days afterwards the
Norwegian government informed the Storthing of the
king’s refusal, whereupon the assembly unanimously
agreed to refer the matter to the special committee. On the
7th of June the Storthing met to hear the final decision of
the government. Michelsen, the prime minister, informed the
Storthing that all the members of the government had resigned
in consequence of the king’s refusal to sanction the consular
law, that the king had declined to accept the resignation, and
that, as an alternative government could not be formed, the
union with Sweden, based upon a king in common, was consequently
dissolved. The president of the Storthing submitted
a resolution that the resigning ministry should be authorized to
exercise the authority vested in the king in accordance with the
constitution of the country. The resolution was unanimously
adopted.
King Oscar, on receiving the news of the action of the Norwegian
Storthing, sent a telegraphic protest to the Norwegian
prime minister and to the president of the Storthing.
The Swedish government immediately decided to
summon an extraordinary session of the Swedish
parliament for the 20th of June, when a special committee
Separation
from Sweden.
was appointed to consider what steps should be taken by
Sweden. On the 25th of July the report of the committee was
laid before the Riksdag, in which it was stated that Sweden
could have no objection to enter into negotiations about the
severance of the union, when a vote to that effect had been
given by a newly-elected Storthing or by a national vote in the
form of a referendum by the Norwegian people. The report
was unanimously adopted by the Swedish Riksdag on the 27th
of July, and on the following day the Norwegian Storthing
decided that a general plebiscite should be taken on the 13th
of August, when 368,211 voted in favour of the dissolution and
only 184 against it. It was thereupon agreed that representatives
of Norway and of Sweden should meet at Karlstad in Sweden
on the 31st of August to discuss and arrange for the severance of
the union. The negotiations lasted till the 23rd of September,
though more than once they were on the point of being broken
off. The agreement stipulated a neutral zone on both sides of the
southern border between the two countries, the Norwegians
undertaking to dismantle some fortifications within that zone.
The agreement was to remain in force for ten years, and could
be renewed for a similar period, unless one of the countries gave
Election of
Haakon VII.
notice to the contrary. The Karlstad agreement was
ratified by the Norwegian Storthing on the 9th of
October and by the Swedish Riksdag on the 16th of the
same month. On the 27th of October King Oscar
issued a proclamation to the Norwegian Storthing, in which he
relinquished the crown of Norway. The Norwegian government
was thereupon authorized by the Storthing to negotiate with
Prince Charles of Denmark and to arrange for a national vote as
to whether or no the country would approve of his election for the
Norwegian throne. The plebiscite resulted in 259,563 votes
for his election and 69,264 against. On the 18th of November
the Storthing unanimously elected Prince Charles as king of
Norway, he taking the name of Haakon VII. On the 25th of
November the king and his consort, Queen Maud, the youngest
daughter of King Edward VII. of England, entered the Norwegian
capital. Their coronation took place in the Trondhjem cathedral
the following year.
In 1907 parliamentary suffrage was granted to women with
the same limitation as in the municipal suffrage granted to them
in 1901, viz. to all unmarried women over 25 years, who pay
taxes on an income of 300 kroner (about £16) in the country
districts and on 400 kroner (about £22) in the towns, as well as to
all married women, whose husbands pay taxes on similar incomes.
Norway was thus the first sovereign country in Europe where
the parliamentary vote was granted to women.
H. L. B.
Norwegian Literature
Early Norse literature is inextricably bound up with Icelandic
literature. Iceland was colonized from Norway in the 9th
century, and the colonists were drawn chiefly from the upper and
cultured classes. They took with them their poetry and literary
traditions. Old Norse literature is therefore dealt with under
Iceland
q.v.
). (See also
Edda
Saga
Runes
.)
The modern literature of Norway bears something of the same
relation to that of Denmark that American literature bears
to English. In each case the development and separation of
a dependency have produced a desire on the part of persons
speaking the mother-tongue for a literature that shall express
the local emotions and conditions of the new nation. Two notable
events led to the foundation of a separate Norwegian literature:
the one was the creation of the university of Christiania in 1811,
and the other was the separation of Norway from Denmark
in 1814. Before this time Norwegian writers had been content, as
a rule, to publish their works at Copenhagen. The first name
on the annals of Danish literature, Peder Clausen, is that of a
Norwegian; and if all Norse writers were removed from that
roll, the list would be poorer by some of its most illustrious names,
by Holberg, Tullin, Wessel, Treschow, Steffens and Hauch.
The first book printed in Norway was an almanac, brought
out in Christiania in 1643 by a wandering printer named Tyge
Nielsen, who brought his types from Copenhagen. But the first
press set up definitely in Norway was that of Valentin Kuhn,
brought over from Germany in 1650 by the theologian Christian
Stephensen Bang (1580–1678) to help in the circulation of his
numerous tracts. Bang’s
Christianiae Stads Beskrifuelse
(1651),
is the first book published in Norway. Christen Jensen (d. 1653)
was a priest who collected a small glossary or
glosebog
of the local
dialects, published in 1656. Gerhard Milzow (1629–1688), the
author of a
Presbyterologia Norwegica
(1679), was also a Norse
priest. The earliest Norwegian writer of any original merit was
Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter (1634–1716), afterwards the wife of
the pastor Ambrosius Hardenbech. She is the author of several
volumes of religious poetry which have enjoyed great popularity.
The hymn-writer Johan Brunsmann (1637–1707), though a
Norseman by birth, belongs by education and temper entirely
to Denmark. Not so
Petter Dass
(1647–1708) (
q.v.
), the most
original writer whom Norway produced and retained at home
during the period of annexation. Another priest, Jonas Ramus
(1649–1718), wrote
Norriges Kongers Historie
(History of the
Norse Kings) in 1719, and
Norriges Beskrivelse
(1735). The
celebrated missionary to Greenland, Hans Egede (1686–1758),
wrote several works on his experiences in that country. Peder
Hersleb (1689–1757) was the compiler of some popular treatises
of Lutheran theology. Frederik Nannestad, bishop of Trondhjem
(1693–1774), started a weekly gazette in 1760. The
missionary Knud Leem (1697–1774) published a number of
works on the Lapps of Finmark, one at least of which, his
Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper
(1767), still possesses considerable
interest. The famous Erik Pontoppidan (1698–1764)
cannot be regarded as a Norwegian, for he did not leave Denmark
until he was made bishop of Bergen, at the age of forty-nine. On
the other hand the far more famous Baron Ludvig Holberg
(1684–1754), belongs to Denmark by everything but birth,
having left Norway in childhood.
A few Norsemen of the beginning of the 18th century distinguished
themselves chiefly in science. Of these Johan Ernst
Gunnerus (1718–1773), bishop of Trondhjem, was the first man
who gave close attention to the Norwegian flora. He founded
the Norwegian Royal Society of Sciences in 1760, with Gerhard
Schöning (1722–1780) the historian and Hans Strom (1726–1797)
the zoologist. Peder Christofer Stenersen (1723–1776), a writer
of occasional verses, merely led the way for Christian Braumann
Tullin (1728–1765), a lyrical poet of exquisite genius, who is
claimed by Denmark but who must be mentioned here, because
his poetry was not only mainly composed in Christiania, but
breathes a local spirit. Danish literature between the great
names of Evald and Baggesen presents us with hardly a single
figure which is not that of a Norseman. The director of the
Danish national theatre in 1771 was a Norwegian, Niels Krog
Bredal (1733–1778), who was the first to write lyrical dramas
in Danish. A Norwegian, Johan Nordahl Brun (1745–1816),
was the principal tragedian of the time, in the French taste.
It was a Norwegian, J. H. Wessel (1742–1785), who laughed this
taste out of fashion. In 1772 the Norwegian poets were so
strong in Copenhagen that they formed a
Norske Selskab
(Norwegian
Society), which exercised a tyranny over contemporary
letters which was only shaken when Baggesen appeared. Among
the leading writers of this period are Claus Frimann (1746–1829),
Peter Harboe Frimann (1752–1839), Claus Fasting (1746–1791),
Johan Wibe (1748–1782), Edvard Storm (1749–1794), C. H. Pram
(1756–1821), Jonas Rein (1760–1821), Jens Zetlitz (1761–1821),
and Lyder Christian Sagen (1771–1850), all of whom, though
Norwegians by birth, find their place in the annals of Danish
literature. To these poets must be added the philosophers Niels
Treschow (1751–1833) and Henrik Steffens (1773–1845), and in
later times the poet Johannes Carsten Hauch (1790–1872).
The first form which Norwegian literature took as an independent
thing was what was called “Syttendemai-Poesi,” or
poetry of the 17th of May, that being the day on which
Norway obtained her independence and proclaimed
her king. Three poets, called the “Trefoil,” came
forward as the inaugurators of Norwegian thought in 1814.
The “Trefoil.”
Of these Conrad Nicolai Schwach (1793–1860) was the least
remarkable. Henrik Anker Bjerregaard (1792–1842), born in
the same hamlet of Ringsaker as Schwach, had a much brighter
and more varied talent. His
Miscellaneous Poems
, collected at
Christiania in 1829, contain some charming studies from nature,
and admirable patriotic songs. He brought out a tragedy of
Magnus Barfods Sönner
(Magnus Barefoot’s Sons) and a lyrical
drama,
Fjeldeventyret
(The Adventure in the Mountains) (1828).
He became judge of the supreme court of the diocese of Christiania.
The third member of the Trefoil, Mauritz Kristoffer
Hansen (1794–1842), was a schoolmaster. His novels, of which
Ottar de Bretagne
(1819) was the earliest, were much esteemed in
their day, and after his death were collected and edited (8 vols.,
1855–1858), with a memoir by Schwach. Hansen’s
Poems
printed at Christiania in 1816, were among the earliest publications
of a liberated Norway, but were preceded by a volume
of
Smaadigte
(Short Poems) by all three poets, edited by Schwach
in 1815, as a semi-political manifesto. These writers, of no great
genius in themselves, did much by their industry and patriotism
to form a basis for Norwegian literature.
The creator of Norwegian literature, however, was the poet
Henrik Arnold Wergeland
(1808–1845) (
q.v.
), a man of great
genius and enthusiasm, who contrived within the limits
of a life as short as Byron’s to concentrate the labours
of a dozen ordinary men of letters. He held views in
most respects similar to those pronounced by Rousseau
Wergeland, Welhaven.
and Shelley. His obscurity and extravagance stood in the way
of his teaching, and his only disciples in poetry were Sylvester
Sivertson (1809–1847), a journalist of talent whose verses were
collected in 1848, and Christian Monsen (1815–1852).
A far more wholesome and constructive influence was that of
Johann Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven
(1807–1873) (
q.v.
),
who was first brought to the surface by the conservative reaction
in 1830 against the extravagance of the radical party. A savage
attack on
Henrik Wergeland’s Poetry
, published in 1832, caused
a great sensation, and produced an angry pamphlet in reply
from the father, Nikolai Wergeland. The controversy became
the main topic of the day, and in 1834 Welhaven pushed it into
a wider arena by the publication of his beautiful cycle of satirical
sonnets called
Norges Dæmring
(The Dawn of Norway), in which
he preached a full conservative gospel. He was assisted in his
controversy with Wergeland by Henrik Hermann Foss (1790–1853),
author of
Tidsnornerne
(The Norns of the Age) (1835)
and other verses.
Andreas Munch (1811–1884) took no part in the feud between
Wergeland and Welhaven, but addicted himself to the study of
Danish models independently of either. He published a
series of poems and dramas, one of which latter,
Kong
Sverres Ungdom
(1837), attracted some notice. His popularity commenced
with the appearance of his
Poems Old and New
in 1848.
Munch.
His highest level as a poet was reached by his epic called
Kongedatterens
Brudefart
(The Bridal Journey of the King’s Daughter)
(1861). Two of his historical dramas have enjoyed popularity greatly
in excess of their merit; these are
Solomon de Caus
(1854) and
Lord
William Russell
(1857).
A group of minor poetical writers may now be considered. Magnus
Brostrup Landstad (1802–1880) was born on Maasö, an island in the
vicinity of the North Cape, and, therefore, in higher latitudes
than any other man of letters. He was a hymn-writer
of merit, and he was the first to collect, in 1853, the
Norske
Folkeviser
or Norwegian folk-songs. Landstad was ordered by the
Minor poets.
government to prepare an official national hymn-book, which was
brought out in 1861; Peter Andreas Jensen (1812–1867) published
volumes of lyrical poetry in 1838, 1849, 1855 and 1861, and two
dramas. He was also the author of a novel,
En Erindring
(A
Souvenir), in 1857. Aasmund Olafsen Vinje (1818–1870) was a
peasant of remarkable talent, who was the principal leader of the
movement known as the “maalstræv,” an effort to distinguish
Norwegian from Danish literature by the adoption of a peasant
dialect, or rather a new language arbitrarily formed on a collation
of the various dialects. Vinje wrote a volume of lyrics, which he
published in 1864, and a narrative poem,
Storegut
(Big Lad) (1866),
entirely in this fictitious language, and he even went so far as to
issue in it a newspaper,
Dölen
(The Dalesman), which appeared from
1858 to Vinje’s death in 1870. In these efforts he was supported by
Ivar Aasen and by Kristoffer Janson (b. 1841) the philologist,
the author of an historical tragedy,
Jon Arason
(1867); several
novels:
Fraa Bygdom
(1865);
Torgrim
(1872);
Fra Dansketidi
(1875);
Han og Ho
(1878); and
Austanfyre Sol og Vestanfyre
Maane
(East of the Sun and West of the Moon) (1879); besides a
powerful but morbid drama in the ordinary language of Norway,
En Kvindeskjebne
(A Woman’s Fate) (1879). In 1882 he left Norway
for America as a Unitarian minister, and from this exile he sent home
in 1885 what is perhaps the best of his books,
The Saga of the Prairie
Superior to all the preceding in the quality of his lyrical writing was
the bishop of Christiansand, Jörgen Moe (1813–1882). He is,
however, better known by his labours in comparative mythology, in
conjunction with P. C. Asbjörnsen (see
Asbjörnsen and Moe
).
The names of the Norwegians
Ibsen
q.v.
) and
Björnson
q.v.
), in
the two fields of the drama and the novel, stand out prominently in
the European literature of the later 19th century; and
two writers of novels who owe much to their example are
Jonas Lie
q.v.
), and Alexander Kielland (1849–1906).
Nicolai Ramm Östgaard (1812–1872) to some extent
Modern novelists and dramatists.
preceded Björnson in his graceful romance
En Fjeldbygd
(A
Mountain Parish), in 1852. Frithjof Foss (1830–1899), who
wrote under the pseudonym of Israél Dehn, attracted notice by seven
separate stories published between 1862 and 1864. Jacobine Camilla
Collett (1813—1895), sister of the poet Wergeland, wrote
Amtmandens
Döttre
(The Governor’s Daughters) (1855), an excellent novel, and the
first in Norwegian literature which attempted the truthful description
of ordinary life. She was a pioneer in the movement for the emancipation
of women in Norway. Anne Magdalene Thoresen (1819–1903),
a Dane by birth, wrote a series of novels of peasant life in the
manner of Björnson, of whom she was no unworthy pupil. One of
her best novels is
Signes Historie
(1864). She also wrote some lyrical
poetry and successful dramas. The principal historian of Norway is
Peter Andreas Munch (1810–1863), whose multifarious
History, etc.
writings include a grammar of Old Norse (1847); a
collection of Norwegian laws until the year 1387 (1846–1849);
a study of Runic inscriptions (1848); a history and description
of Norway during the middle ages (1849); and a history of the
Norwegian people in 8 vols. (1852–1863); Jakob Aall (1773–1844)
was associated with Munch in this work. Christian Berg (1775–1852)
was another worker in the same field. Jakob Rudolf Keyser
(1803–1864) printed and annotated the most important documents
dealing with the medieval history of Norway. Carl Richard Unger
(b. 1817) took part in the same work and edited
Morkinskinna
in
1867. His edition of the elder Edda (1867) forms a landmark in the
study of Scandinavian antiquities. Oluf Rygh (1833–1899) contributed
to the archaeological part of history. The modern language of
Norway found an admirable grammarian in Jakob Olaus Lökke
(1829–1881). A careful historian and ethnographer was Ludvig
Kristensen Daa (1809–1877). Ludvig Daae (b. 1834) has written
the history of Christiania, and has traced the chronicles of Norway
during the Danish possession. Bernt Moe (1814–1850) was a careful
biographer of the heroes of Eidsvold. Eilert Lund Sundt (1817–1875)
published some very curious and valuable works on the
condition of the poorer classes in Norway. Professor J. A. Friis
(b. 1821) published the folk-lore of the Lapps in a series of valuable
volumes. The German orientalist, Christian Lassen (1800–1876)
was a Norwegian by birth. Lorentz Dietrichson (b. 1834) wrote
voluminously both on Swedish and Norwegian, chiefly on Norwegian
art and literature. In jurisprudence the principal Norwegian
authorities are Anton Martin Schweigaard (1808–1870) and Frederik
Stang (1808–1884). Peter Carl Lasson (1798–1873) and Ulrik Anton
Motzfelt (1807–1865) were the lights of an earlier generation. In
medical science, the great writer of the beginning of the 19th century
was Michael Skjelderup (1769–1852), who was succeeded by Frederik
Holst (1791–1871). Daniel Cornelius Danielsen (b. 1815) was a
prominent dermatologist; but probably the most eminent of
modern physiologists in Norway is Carl Wilhelm Boeck (1808–1875).
The elder brother of the last-mentioned, Christian Peter Bianco
Boeck (1798–1877), also demands recognition as a medical writer.
Christopher Hansteen (1784–1873) was professor of mathematics at
the university for nearly sixty years. Michael Sars (1805–1869)
obtained a European reputation through his investigations in
invertebrate zoology. He was assisted by his son Georg Ossian Sars
(b. 1837). Baltazar Matthias Keilhau (1797–1858) and Theodor
Kjerulf (1825–1888) have been the leading Norwegian geologists.
Mathias Numsen Blytt (1789–1862) represents botany. His
Norges
Flora
, part of which was published in 1861, was left incomplete at
his death.
Niels Henrik Abel
(1802–1829) (
q.v.
) was a mathematician
of extraordinary promise; Ole Jakob Broch (1818–1889)
must be mentioned in the same connexion. Among theological
writers may be mentioned Hans Nielsen Hauge (1771–1824), author
of the sect which bears his name; Svend Borchman Hersleb (1784–1836);
Stener Johannes Stenersen (1789–1835); Wilhelm Andreas
Wexels (1797–1866); a writer of extraordinary popularity; and
Carl Paul Caspari (1814–1892), a German of Jewish birth, who
adopted Christianity and became professor of theology in the
university of Christiania.
The political crisis of 1884–1885, which produced so remarkable
an effect upon the material and social life of Norway, was not
without its influence upon literature. There had
followed to the great generation of the ’sixties, led by
Ibsen and Björnson, a race of entirely prosaic writers,
of no great talent, much exercised with “problems.” The
The new movement.
movement which began in 1885 brought back the fine masters
of a previous imaginative age, silenced the problem-setters, and
encouraged a whole generation of new men, realists of a healthier
sort. In 1885 the field was still held by the three main names of
modern Norse literature—Ibsen, Björnson and Lie. Henrik
Ibsen proceeded deliberately with his labours, and his name at the
same time grew in reputation and influence. The advance of
Björnstjerne Björnson was not so regular, because it was disturbed
by political issues. Moreover, his early peasant tales
once more, after having suffered great neglect, grew to be a force,
and Björnson’s example has done much to revive an interest
in the art of verse in Norway. Jonas Lie, the most popular
novelist of Norway, continued to publish his pure, fresh and
eminently characteristic stories. His style, colloquial almost to
a fault, has neither the charm of Björnson nor the art of some
of the latest generation. Ibsen, Björnson and Lie continued,
however, to be the three representative authors of their country.
Kristian Elster (1841–1881) showed great talent in his pessimistic
novels
Tora Trondal
(1879) and
Dangerous People
(1881).
Kristian Glöersen (b. 1838) had many affinities with Elster.
Arne Garborg (1851) was brought up under sternly pietistic
influences in a remote country parish, the child of peasant
parents, in the south-west corner of Norway, and the gloom
of these early surroundings has tinged all his writings. The
early novels of Garborg were written in the peasant dialect,
and for that reason, perhaps, attracted little attention. It was
not until 1890 that he addressed the public in ordinary language,
in his extraordinary novel,
Tired Men
, which produced a deep
sensation. Subsequently Gar
org returned, with violence, to
the cultivation of the peasant language, and took a foremost
part in the
maalstræv
. A novelist of considerable crude force
was Amalie Skram (1847–1905), wife of the Danish novelist,
Erik Skram. Her novels are destitute of literary beauty, but
excellent in their local colour, dealing with life in Bergen and the
west coast. But the most extravagant product of the prosaic
period was Hans Jæger (b. 1854), a sailor by profession, who
left the sea, obtained some instruction and embarked on literature.
Jæger accepted the naturalistic formulas wholesale, and outdid
Zola himself in the harshness of his pictures of life. Several of
Jæger’s books, and in particular his novel
Morbid Love
(1893),
were immediately suppressed, and can with great difficulty be
referred to. Knud Hamsun (b. 1860) has been noted for his
egotism, and for the bitterness of his attacks upon his fellow-writers
and the great names of literature. Hamsun is seen at
his best in the powerful romance called
Hunger
(1888). A writer
of a much more pleasing, and in its quiet way of a much more
original order, is Hans Aanrud (b. 1863). His humour, applied
to the observation of the Ostland peasants—Aanrud himself
comes from the Gulbrandsdal—is exquisite; he is by far the
most amusing of recent Norwegian writers, a race whose fault it
is to take life too seriously. His story,
How Our Lord made Hay
at Asmund Bergemellum’s
(1887), is a little masterpiece. Peter
Egge (b. 1869), a young novelist and playwright from Trondhjem,
came to the front with careful studies of types of Norwegian
temperament. In his
Jacob and Christopher
(1900) Egge also
proved himself a successful writer of comedy. Gunnar Heiberg
(b. 1857), although older than most of the young generation,
has but lately come into prominence. His poetical drama,
The
Balcony
, made a sensation in 1894, but ten years earlier his
comedy of
Aunt Ulrica
should have awakened anticipation.
His strongest work is
Love’s Tragedy
(1904). Two young writers
of great promise were removed in the very heyday of success,
Gabriel Finne (1866–1899) and Sigbjörn Obstfelder (1866–1900).
The last mentioned, in
The Red Drops
and
The Cross
, published
in 1897, gave promise of something new in Norwegian literature.
Obstfelder, who died in a hospital in Copenhagen in August 1900,
left an important book in MS.,
A Priest’s Diary
(1901).
Verse was banished from Norwegian literature, during the
years that immediately preceded 1885. The credit of restoring
it belongs to Sigurd Bödtker, who wrote an extremely naturalistic
piece called
Love
, in the manner of Heine. The earliest real
poet of the new generation is, however, Niels Collett Vogt (b.
1864), who published a little volume of
Poems
in 1887. Arne
Dybfest (1868–1892), a young anarchist who committed suicide,
was a decadent egotist of the most pronounced type, but a
poet of unquestionable talent, and the writer of a remarkably
melodious prose. In 1891 was printed in a magazine Vilhelm
Krag’s (b. 1871) very remarkable poem called
Fandango
, and
shortly afterwards a collection of his lyrics. Vogt and V. Krag
continued to be the leading lyrical writers of the period, and
although they have many imitators, they cannot be said to have
found any rivals. Vilhelm Krag turned to prose fiction, and
his novels
Isaac Seehuusen
(1900) and
Isaac Kapergast
(1901)
are excellent studies of Westland life. More distinguished as
a novelist, however, is his brother, Thomas P. Krag (b. 1868),
who published a series of romantic novels, of which
Ada Wilde
(1897) is the most powerful. His short stories are full of delicate
charm. Hans E. Kinck (b. 1865) is an accomplished writer of
short stories from peasant life, written in dialect. Bernt Lie
(b. 1868) is the author of popular works of fiction, mainly for
the young. Sven Nilssen (b. 1864) is the author of a very successful
novel,
The Barque Franciska
(1901). With him may be
mentioned the popular dramatist and memoir-writer, John
Paulsen (b. 1851), author of
The Widow’s Son
. Johan Bojer
(b. 1872) has written satirical romances, of which the most
powerful is
The Power of Faith
(1903). Jakob Hilditch (b.
1864) has written many stories and sketches of a purely national
kind, and is the anonymous author of a most diverting parody
of banal provincial journalism,
Tranviksposten
(1900–1901).
The leading critics are Carl Nærup (b. 1864) and Hjalmar
Christensen (b. 1869), each of whom has published collections
of essays dealing with the aspects of recent Norwegian literature.
The death of the leading bibliographer and lexicographer of
Norway, Jens Braage Halvorsen (1845–1900), inflicted a blow
upon the literary history of his country; his
Dictionary of
Norwegian Authors
(1885–1900)—left for completion by Halfdan
Koht—is one of the most elaborate works of its kind ever
undertaken. Among recent historians of Norway much activity
has been shown by Ernst Sars (b. 1835) and Yngvar Nielsen
(b. 1843). The great historian of northern jurisprudence was
L. M. B. Aubert (1838–1896), and in this connexion T. H.
Aschehoug (b. 1822) must also be mentioned. The leading
philosopher of Norway in those years was the Hegelian Marcus
Jakob Monrad (b. 1816), whose
Aesthetics
of 1889 is his
masterpiece.
The close of 1899 and the beginning of 1900 were occupied
by a discussion, in which every Norwegian author took part,
as to the adoption of the
landsmaal
, or composite
dialect of the peasants, in place of the
rigsmaal
or
Dano-Norwegian. Political prejudice greatly
embittered the controversy, but the proposition that the
The “maal” controversy.
landsmaal
, which dates from the exertions of
Ivar Aasen
q.v.
in 1850, should oust the language in which all the classics of
Norway are written, was opposed by almost every philologist
and writer in the country, particularly by Björnson and Sophus
Bugge (b. 1833). On the other side, Arne Garborg’s was almost
the only name which carried any literary weight. The
maal
has no doubt enriched the literary tongue of the country with
many valuable words and turns of expression, but there the
advantage of it ends, and it is difficult to feel the slightest
sympathy with a movement in favour of suppressing the language
in which every one has hitherto expressed himself, in order to
adopt an artificial dialect which exists mainly on paper, and
which is not the natural speech of any one body of persons
throughout the whole of Norway.
Authorities
.—
La Norvège littéraire
, by Paul Botten-Hansen
(1824–1869), is an admirable piece of bibliography, but comes down
no farther than 1866. Jens Braage Halvorsen (1845–1900) left
his admirable and exhaustive
Norsk Forfatter-Lexikon
, 1814–1880
(Norwegian Dictionary of Authors) incomplete; but the work was
continued by Halfdan Koht. See also Henrik Jæger,
Illustreret
norsk literaturhistorie
(Christiania, 1892–1896); to which an appendix
Siste Tidsrum 1890–1904
was added by Carl Nærup in 1905; Ph.
Schweitzer,
Geschichte der skandinavischen Literatur
(Leipzig, 1889);
F. W. Horn,
History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North
(Eng.
trans., Chicago, 1884); Edmund Gosse,
Northern Studies
(2nd ed.,
1882).
E. G.
Emery Walker sc.
In Norwegian the definite article (when there is no epithet) is
added as a suffix to the substantive (masc. and fem.
en
, neuter
et
).
Geographical terms are similarly suffixed to names, thus
Suldalsvandet
the lake Suldal. The commonest geographical terms are:
elv
, river;
vand
, lake;
fjeld
, mountain or highland;
, island;
dal
, valley;
næs
, cape;
fos
, waterfall;
bræ
, glacier;
vik
vig
, bay;
eide
, isthmus;
fjord
Aa
is pronounced aw.
The middle and upper parts of many yalleys in Norway are
known by different names from those of the rivers which water them,
and such names may extend in common usage over the district on
either side of the valley.
In 1810 he was elected heir to the Swedish throne, in succession
to the childless king Carl XIII., who died in 1818.
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