Norway

Norway (Norweg. Norge), the western division of the Scandinavian peninsula, extends from lat. 57° 59' N. (Lindesnæs) in the south-west to 71° 11' in the north-east, overlapping Sweden and Lapland on the N. and screening them from the Arctic Ocean. Although 1160 miles in length (coast-line 3000 miles), it varies in width from 20 to 100 miles north of 63° N. lat.; below that line it swells out to a club-shaped mass 260 miles in width. It is separated from Sweden by the Kjölen (i.e. Keel) Mountains (3000 to 6000 feet), the backbone of the peninsula, which run parallel to the Norwegian coast from the plateau of Finnmark in the north to 63° in the south, and then bifurcate. The main range proceeds southwards, still marking the boundary between the sister kingdoms, though it decreases greatly in height. The other division continues parallel to the coast, in a south-westerly and then southerly direction, to the extremity of the country. But the mountains in this division no longer form a narrow ridge or 'keel;' they widen out into a broad plateau, undulating between 2000 and 4000 feet and embossed with mountain-knots—Dovre, Jotun, Lang, Fille, Hardanger Fjelde (fells)—the separate peaks of which shoot up to 6000 feet and higher (e.g. Galdhøppigen, 8399 feet; Glittertind, 8379; Snehætten, 7566; Lodalskaupen, 6790 feet). The leveller portions of this plateau region consist of dreary moors, covered in winter with snow and in summer with coarse grass and heather, and studded with numerous tarns and belts of forest (conifers, birches, willows). The grass affords pasturage to the sheep and cattle of the dalesmen; the sætre or huts of the herd-girls and the wood-cutters are the only habitations in these mountain solitudes. But the bear, lynx, wild reindeer, and lemming make their home there; owls, kestrels, and buzzards prey on the smaller animals and birds; snipe, teal, and loon frequent the lakes; and vast numbers of lapwing and plover breed in the tarns. Moreover, in winter the ptarmigan is plentiful on the snows. Besides these creatures, the fox, eagle, sparrow-hawk, raven, crow, and woodcock are common, not only here, but throughout the kingdom. Numerous wild berries—cloudberries, raspberries, bilberries, cranberries, &c.—ripen on these loftier regions in summer.

Norway presents a bold front to the Atlantic. The west side of the peninsular rampart—the 'Westland,' which is nowhere more than 70 miles wide—sinks down abruptly to the ocean, in some cases by steep terraces, in others sheer to the water's edge. On the inner or eastern side—the 'Eastland'—the slope is more gradual; the general versant faces south-east. The greater part of the country lies between the same degrees of latitude as Greenland, and would in all probability be covered with a similar ice-cap to Greenland—as indeed it was in the end of the Tertiary period—were its shores, on west and north, not washed by the Gulf Stream. It is mainly owing to this warm oceanic artery that Norway is habitable; its influence, together with the direction of the parallel mountain rampart, the distribution of the atmospheric pressure, and the presence of deep-sea banks off the coast, determines the predominant climatological features of the country. The isotherms do not run from west to east, but parallel to the coast. Hammerfest, for instance, on the north coast, in 70° 40' N. lat., has a winter mean of 22.6° F., 3° higher than Christiania, which has virtually an inland site, in 59° 55' N. lat. In winter the west coast districts are the warmest, and the cold increases in intensity according to the distance inland; whereas in summer the reverse is the case, though altitude is then a more potent influencing factor than in winter. The places that have the lowest winter mean (11.8°) are all inland, as Elverum and Røros (Röraas), near the Swedish frontier, Kautokeino (in southern Finnmark), and Nyborg (at the head of Varanger Fjord); at all these places the mercury has been known to freeze (- 40° F.). The places which have the highest summer temperature are Christiania, the south-west extremity of the country, the heads of the western fjords, and the interior of Finnmark. The prevalent south-west winds bring considerable rainfall, 40 to 70 inches in the year, to the west coast of southern Norway. In the interior only 12 to 16 inches fall during the year.

The population has doubled since 1820, when it stood at 977,500, the increase having been most rapid since 1850. In 1885 there were only nine towns with populations exceeding 10,000—viz. Christiania, the capital, 128,302; Bergen, 46,552; Trondhjem, 23,753; Stavanger, 22,634; Drammen, 19,391; Christiansand, 12,749; Fredrikstad, 11,239; Fredrikshald, 11,237; and Larvik, 11,084—all sea- port towns. The density of the population over the entire surface is 15.6 per square mile, much the lowest of any country in Europe; but then fully 70 per cent. of the total area is wholly uncultivable, being barren mountain and waste (2 per cent. under glaciers); in addition 24 per cent. is forest. In 1891 the population was 1,999,176; the table shows area and population of districts in 1885.

Finnmark, which is inhabited chiefly by Lapps, about 18,000 in number, whom the Norwegians call Finns, whilst the true Finns they call Kvens, is a monotonous undulating plateau (1000 to 2000 feet). The coast is deeply indented with large fjords (Varanger, Tana, Laxe, Porsanger, Alten), and east of the North Cape (q.v.) is low, bare, and bleak, though the banks of Pasvig, the frontier river with Russian Lapland, are green with patches of firs, pines, and birches. Vegetables, barley, and peas ripen on the shores of the fjords, thanks to the Gulf Stream and the eight weeks of uninterrupted sunlight that prevails in summer. At that season too gnats are a terrible plague to man and beast. The cliffs and islands swarm with wild-fowl, and the sea-waters with fish. The wolf and glutton are common, the former being a dangerous enemy to the Lapps' reindeer herds. West of 22° E. long. the coast breaks rocky, wild, and precipitous, its outline being irregular in the extreme; and these characteristics it preserves right down to below 59° N. lat., to the point nearest Scotland (280 miles distant). From this point up to the North Cape the entire coast is protected from the Atlantic waves by a belt of rocky islands, called the Skjærgaard or 'Skerry Fence,' between which and the coast there are connected navigable roads, sheltered and safe at nearly all seasons. The outermost islands of this belt are the Lofoten and Vesterålen chains; in both groups the mountains (2000 to 3000 feet) rise in extremely fantastic pinnacles and turrets, with razor-backed saddles and gabled roofs. But wherever, on these and all the other islands of the Skjærgaard, there are level patches and ledges of soil touched by the modifying climatic influences grass grows abundantly. The climate of the Lofotens is indeed so mild that rye and barley easily ripen, and large flocks of sheep are left out all winter, whilst from 27,000 to 31,000 fishermen congregate here in the winter to prosecute the herring and cod fisheries. All the islands of the Skjærgaard are frequented by enormous quantities of sea-birds, chiefly of the duck and gull varieties; they are 'fowled' for the sake of their down (from the eider duck), feathers, flesh, and oil. On some of the islands the red deer still lingers. On the mainland the mountains in the north have the same bare, angular outlines as in the Lofotens, but support in many parts large forests of fir and pine; in southern Norway they have rounded, dome-shaped summits, and are, next the sea, only sparsely covered with fir (no pine) and other trees. The peninsular rampart is crowned with several gigantic glaciers—e.g. the shores (6000 feet) of Lyngen Fjord in the north are lined with them; from Jökel Fjeld, on an arm of Kvenang Fjord, large masses of ice drop off the glaciers into the sea and float away as icebergs; just north of 67° N. lat. is the enormous snowfield of Sulitjelma (6168 feet), and just south of the same parallel Svartisen (3600 feet), the second largest glacier in Norway, measuring 44 miles by 12 to 25, and sending down glacier curtains to within a few hundred feet of the sea; south Norway possesses the second largest glacier in Europe (Vatnajökull in Iceland being the largest), the roof-shaped Justedal (4600 to 5400 feet), which has an area of 580 sq. m. (87 miles long by 6 to 22 miles wide), and reaches down its icy polypous arms to within 150 feet of the sea; to the south of it lies the snowfield of Folgefond, 40 miles long and 7 to 15 wide (108 sq. m.), and 3000 to 5000 feet in altitude. Throughout Norway the limit of perpetual snow ranges from 3100 feet on Justedal to 5150 on the Dovre Fjeld.

The lofty west coast region is everywhere cleft by gigantic fissures, very narrow and winding, into which the sea-water flows—the fjords. In some cases they are of great depth, much deeper than the sea outside (200 fathoms): Sogne Fjord, for instance, is 2820 feet deeper; Hardanger Fjord, 930 feet; and Vest and Nord Fjords, 840 feet. Some of them penetrate great distances inland and send off numerous branching arms. Sogne Fjord cuts its way to the foot of the Jotun Fjeld, 106 miles from the ocean, and Hardanger Fjord, which encircles the Folgefond, is 68 miles long. Nord and Sogne Fjords clasp the Justedal between them. These three fjords offer some of the grandest and most accessible scenery in Norway. Their landward continuations either rise rapidly to the plateau region above or form narrow valleys at a slightly higher elevation, and in that case generally contain a deep lake separated from the fjord by a moraine or barrier of glacial deposits. The finest of these valleys is Romsdal, where the rounded, pure gneiss mountains tower up to 6000 feet with almost perpendicular walls. The steep sides and extremities (2000 to 4000 feet) of these fjords and valleys are braided with waterfalls, varying in character from trickling ribbons and veils of white foam to full-volumed streams like Skjæggedal (530 feet), Vöring (475 feet), and Vetti (900 feet). The inner reaches of the fjords have as a rule warm summers and mild winters; all the ordinary cereals and hardy fruits ripen easily, and such trees as fir, birch, hazel, elm, mountain ash, aspen, bird-cherry, oak, ash, lime, and alder grow according to the elevation. The only considerable break in the lofty coast-wall is the basin of Trondhjem, a little north of 63° N. lat. This district was the centre of the ancient national life of the country, and in the cathedral of Trondhjem city (called Nidaros to the middle of the 16th century) the kings of Norway are still crowned. The southern coast-lands, bordering the Skagerrack and the wide Christiania Fjord, are comparatively low and tame.

On the eastern side of the peninsular rampart the valleys trend south and south-east, and converge upon Christiania Fjord. At their upper extremities they are generally narrow and deep; and many are filled with chains of lakes, which make fine waterfalls (Rjinkan, 800 feet, in Thelemarken) as they drop from level to level; their lower reaches get wider and shallower as they proceed south. Most of these valleys are traversed by mountain torrents and streams, the longest being the Glommen (350 miles), Drammen (163), with its tributary the Hallingdal (113), Nummedal Laagen (143), and Otteren (140). Some of these streams in their lower courses expand into long narrow lakes of considerable size: Lake Mjøsen is 60 miles long, and its bottom is 1080 feet below the level of the sea; others are Randsfjord (43 miles long), Tyrifjord (19 miles), and Fæmund (35 miles long and 2300 feet above sea-level). The slopes of these valleys, especially in the southern and eastern parts of the country, are planted for miles upon miles with forests, chiefly fir. In these forest regions the elk is still found, and the blackcock, capercailzie, and hazel-grouse abound. The trees are felled principally in winter, and floated down the streams in early spring to the sawmills at their mouths.

Geology.—The great mass of the Norwegian plateau consists almost entirely of Archæan rocks, chiefly granite and gneiss, with quartz and hornblende schists in a subordinate degree, in very many cases clearly stratified. In central and western Norway (the fjeld region) the primary rocks are covered with layers of metamorphosed clay-slate and quartzite, whilst large masses of eruptive rocks of later date, such as granite, syenite, gabbro (especially in the Jotun Fjeld), porphyry, greenstone, labradorite, serpentine, have pierced through both formations and overspread them in broad sheets or coverlets. The prevailing formation in eastern Norway is called Sparagmite, a loose accretion of conglomerates and breccias, sandstone and quartz. Bands of Silurian rocks extend across the southern part of the country from south-west to north-east, the two most clearly-defined belts stretching from Hardanger Fjord to Trondhjem and from Skien Fjord (on the south coast) to Lake Mjøsen. Most of the rocks of the plateau have been greatly crumpled, folded, twisted, crushed, and dislocated. The prevailing formation throughout northern Norway is granite. Nearly all parts of the country bear conspicuous traces of the scratching, grinding, and polishing to which the structural rocks were subjected during the Glacial age and the period of its departure. Incised and striated lines, and polished surfaces, occur at all altitudes up to 5000 feet, and generally follow directions radiating outwards from the highest mountain-knots of the peninsular rampart. Boulders litter the surface of the country nearly everywhere; moraines are numerous, and transverse ridges of glacial detritus block the mouths of many of the valleys; 'giant kettles,' the basins that received the glacial cataracts, occur in numerous districts near the sea. Moreover, the lines of ancient beaches, whether of the ocean or of glacial lakes, are distinctly traceable at many points along the coast from Bergen to the North Cape; sometimes there are two, or even more, one above another. The coast of northern Norway is estimated by some authorities to have risen between 400 and 600 feet. See UPHEAVAL.

Industries and Occupations.—Norway's natural wealth lies in her fisheries, her forests, and her shipping; her manufactures, her mines, and her agriculture are all unable to meet the home demands.

By far the most important of the fisheries are the cod and herring. Cod are taken by 80,000 to 90,000 men on the west coast from January to April. They are cured chiefly in two ways, being either dried on wooden frames (hence called tørfisk = 'dry fish') or slightly salted, carried to the mainland, split open, and dried on the rocks (hence klippfisk = 'split fish'). The former are exported to Italy to the average annual value of £374,000, the latter to Spain to a value ranging from £599,000 to £981,000 a year. Besides, cod-liver oil is exported to an annual average of £338,000, salted roe to £289,000, and heads and offals, powdered for manure, to £37,000 to £63,000. Herrings are taken all the year round and exported to an annual value varying from £575,000 to £639,000. Mackerel (£83,300) and oysters are taken off the south coast, and salmon and sea-trout (£43,400) and lobsters (£26,200) off the west coast. Off the north coast of Finnmark cod, saithe, flounders, smelt, &c. are taken in summer and bartered to Russian merchants for flour; this fishery engages about 13,000 men. The fishery in the Polar seas for whales, walrus, seals, dog-fish, sharks, &c. is prosecuted by about 1000 men in less than 100 small vessels, sailing from Tromsø and Hammerfest, with a few from Vardø; their total earnings in a season vary between £175,000 and £378,000. The inland lakes and rivers contain an abundance of salmon, trout, and red charr, and some of the southern lakes have also grayling, bream, perch, and pike.

The forests cover about 24 per cent. of the entire surface, though the area has been of late years very greatly diminished. Trees are, however, being systematically planted in several parts. The sawmills (340 in number) give employment to 10,300 men, whilst 1600 more are engaged in the preparation of wood-pulp and cellulose (42 factories in 1885). Timber of all kinds is exported to a total value of £3,257,000 (1898; £1,785,000 in 1888), wood-pulp and cellulose to 950,000 (a steady increase from £130,300 in 1880), matches to £97,400, and articles manufactured from wood to £23,600.

Agriculture is carried on chiefly in the vicinity of Christiania, the lower ends of the eastland valleys, in the level district of Jæderen in the extreme south-west, and around Trondhjem. The farms are mostly small; 94 per cent. of the entire number measure less than 50 acres each, and more than half the farmers own the land they cultivate. Of the total population 53 per cent. are engaged in or connected with agriculture. The rearing of cattle, sheep, and goats—in the north reindeer—are important branches. The area under cultivation is only 2 per cent. of the entire surface of the country, and meadows and grazing land add another 2·8 per cent.

A century ago and down to about 1870 the copper and iron mines of Røros and the silver-mines of Kongsberg yielded considerable outputs; but they have since greatly declined. The only vigorous mine is at Vignæs (on Karmø, at the entrance to Bukken Fjord), which yields £61,000 worth of pyrites in the year. The total mineral output of Norway (iron pyrites, silver, copper, apatite, nickel) was worth £181,300 in 1885, one-half the value of 1882. The silver mined is, however, still worth £57,700 a year. Barely 2000 men are employed in this occupation.

The purely industrial establishments are grouped mainly around Christiania, and do not employ more than 45,500 persons altogether. Besides some already mentioned, the more important are textile manufactures (6037 employees and 143 factories), machine-shops (4282 men in 50 establishments), chemical factories (75 with 3002 men), iron and metal works (67 with 2881 men), brick-works (105 with 2354 men), flour-mills (387 with 1787 men), tobacco-factories (43; 1677), breweries (47; 1411), and in a minor degree tanneries, distilleries, and factories for matches, glass, oil (fish and vegetable), and paper. Water is the favourite motive power, only 502 out of 1925 establishments using steam in 1885.

The Norwegians rank amongst the busiest sea-carriers of the world, close upon nine million tons of merchandise having been carried in Norwegian vessels, in all parts of the world, in 1888, the owners of which earned the aggregate sum of

£5,168,000. Yet the mercantile marine of Norway only embraced in the same year a total of 6697 sailing-vessels of 1,396,998 tons and 536 steam-vessels of 137,542 tons. But, as in nearly all other countries, steam-vessels are supplanting sailing-vessels. Shipbuilding is carried on (1888) in seventy-nine establishments, employing 1846 men, and situated chiefly in the south. Sails are made by 906 men in fifty-eight workshops. The coast fishermen use for the most part heavily-built wooden vessels, of small tonnage, with high, square sterns.

The ports of Norway were entered in 1895 (an average year) by 11,551 vessels, having an aggregate tonnage of 2,846,948, of which 63 per cent. entered under the Norwegian flag and 16 per cent. under the British. The exports in 1894 had a total value of £7,268,447 (more than in 1893); the imports, of £11,373,060 (less than in 1893). The exports during the ten years ending 1888 ranged between £4,957,000 (1879) and £6,831,000 (1882) in value; the imports, between £7,346,000 (1879) and £9,167,000 (1881). The United Kingdom sends 28 per cent. of the imports and receives 32½ per cent. of the exports. Germany comes next with 27 per cent. of the imports and 14 per cent. of the exports, and Sweden third, with 13 and 13½ per cent. respectively. The principal articles of import are rye, barley, and wheat and rye flour (altogether £1,595,000 in 1888), textiles (£1,527,600), bacon, butter, and other provisions (£780,000), iron and other metals, raw and manufactured (£766,300), coffee (£564,600), coals (£473,300), ships (£389,800), sugar and molasses (£293,000), timber from Sweden, in transit (£249,900), oils and glycerine (£236,400), hides (£224,900), wines and spirits (£173,100), and smaller quantities of salt, tobacco, fruits and vegetables, paper, &c. The more important of the exports are fish (£2,559,400 in all in 1888), timber, &c. (£2,415,600), minerals and metal-wares (£414,100), oils, tallow, tar, &c. (£342,900), hides, horns, &c. (£312,400), textiles (£197,400), and paper and dyestuffs. In addition meat, groceries, and timber to the total value of £318,100 pass out of the country in transit. Close upon 64 per cent. of the total foreign trade passes through the three principal ports—Christiania (38½ per cent.), Bergen (17½ per cent.), and Trondhjem (7½ per cent.).

People.—The Norwegians share with the Swiss the honour of being the most democratic people in Europe. They are proud of their freedom and independence, are simple, honest, and straightforward, sober and frugal, and in general unaffectedly pious, though in some districts liable to violent outbursts of passion. Otherwise they are slow of action and take life leisurely. The rural population, embracing five-sixths of the total, are decidedly more democratic than the urban. All titles of nobility were abolished in 1821, and none but townsfolk use the equivalent of our 'Mr.' Owing to the insufficiency of the natural resources of the country to support the people, nearly 20,000 emigrate every year; between 1880 and 1888 inclusive 183,267 persons in all left their country for good, almost all going to settle in the United States. Those who remain behind are fairly prosperous on the whole, for, though £380,000 to £390,000 are distributed every year in poor-relief to between 65,000 and 67,000 persons, there are (1889) 345 savings-banks, holding deposits to the total amount of £10,364,200 in the name and behalf of 452,736 depositors (23 per cent. of the total population), giving an average of £22, 17s. 10d. for each depositor. In the matter of illegitimacy the record is not so good: in the ten years ending 1885 of the total number of children born 8·25 per cent. were illegitimate; the figure stands in England at 4·8; in Scotland, 8·3; in Ireland, 2·9.

Since 1871 earnest endeavours have been made to diminish the consumption of spirituous liquors, the instrument chiefly relied upon being the Gothenburg licensing system. This system was by 1888 established in all but three out of the fifty-four towns of the kingdom. By this means, in spite of the rapid growth of the population, the consumption of spirituous liquors decreased from 2,698,960 gallons in 1876 to 1,325,060 gallons in 1888, a reduction of more than one-half. Moreover, after paying expenses, granting 5 per cent. to the shareholders, and compensating the sellers of spirits whom the system supplants, there remains an annual surplus of £42,800 to £55,500, which is spent in the maintenance of schools, public roads and parks, water-works, poor-relief, and charitable institutions. As road-makers the Norwegians vie with the Swiss; their difficult country has compelled them to perform some feats of engineering skill of no mean order. But the principal means of communication are steamboats, which ply all along the coast, on the fjords, and the inland lakes. There are, however, some 15,000 miles of well-kept national and communal roads, and 970 miles of railway (all but 42 miles managed by the state), and close upon 5000 miles of telegraph lines (not wires). The railway lines radiate chiefly from Christiania. One connects Trondhjem with the capital, and in 1891 there were three built and one building to connect Norway with Sweden. Norway is now visited every summer by great numbers of tourists; the number increased from 13,569 in 1886 to 23,403 in 1890, one-third being British, the rest chiefly Swedes, Danes, and Germans.

The people are on the whole well educated and intelligent. Attendance at school is free, and compulsory upon all children between seven (six and a half in towns) and fourteen. The country is well equipped with primary schools, and for the higher branches there are fifty-four middle-class schools, seventeen lyceums, and the university of Christiania, with five faculties, and (in 1888) 1650 students and fifty-four lecturers. In addition there are numerous excellent private schools. The state contributes about one-third of the total cost of the public educational establishments throughout the country. Except for about 4000 persons, the entire population belong to the Lutheran Church. For purposes of ecclesiastical government the country is divided into six dioceses (stifts), each administered by a bishop—viz. Christiania, Hamar, Christiansand, Bergen, Trondhjem, and Tromsø.

Constitution.—Norway is a free, independent state, nominally a kingdom, but practically to all intents and purposes a republic. The supreme executive rests with the king, who is at the same time king of Sweden; but the responsibility for his acts is borne by a council of state, appointed by himself from Norwegians above thirty years of age, and consisting of two ministers and at least seven councillors. One minister and two councillors must always be in attendance on the king when he is not in Norway. The other minister and the remaining councillors administer the internal affairs of the country, the minister presiding over the deliberations of the council (sometimes also taking a portfolio), and the councillors directing each a special department—at present seven, Religion and Education, Justice, Interior, Public Works, Finance, Defence, Revision of all Public Accounts. As viceroy in Norway the king may appoint his eldest son, or his eldest son, but none other; if there is a viceroy, he presides over the council of state. The king declares war and peace, and makes treaties and agreements on his own initiative, but cannot use the army and fleet for an aggressive war without the consent of the Norwegian parliament. Both countries are represented by one and the same diplomatic corps. The people participate in the government through the Storting or parliament, which consists of 114 members, 76 representing the country districts and 38 the towns. All Norwegians above twenty-five years of age who satisfy certain conditions of residence and property qualification, or station, meet once in every three years in the parish church and choose one man from every hundred of their number to select the members of parliament for the county. Every man so selected, even though it be against his will, is obliged to sit in one parliament (of three years), but not in a second. If a sitting member dies his place is taken by the man who stands next on the list of representatives selected by the electors. As soon as the Storting meets (in February every year in Christiania) one-fourth (29) of the assembled members are chosen to form an upper house (Lagthing); the remainder constitute the lower house (Odalstthing), in which all legislative measures are proposed either by a member of the house or by a member of the government. The upper house may send back a bill twice; but after the second rejection both houses vote together as one, though in that case a majority of two-thirds is necessary. The king's signature makes a bill law. But if he refuses to sign, and the bill is passed by three successive parliaments (not sessions), it becomes law in spite of the king's veto. Every member of the parliament is allowed 13s. 4d. a day with travelling expenses. The affairs of each county are directed by a special administrative officer. Both the counties and the communes enjoy a liberal degree of self-government. Justice is administered locally by sheriffs. Of late relations with Sweden have been strained in various departments, and Norway has demanded representation abroad, other than that of Sweden. The national revenue increased in ten years from about £2,500,000 to £3,702,389 (in 1897-98), and the expenditure, which in 1890-94 exceeded slightly the revenue, was more than covered by it in 1895 and following years. The debt just touched on £10,000,000 in 1897. The monetary unit is the kroner (= 1s. 1½d.), divided into 100 øre. The metric system of weights and measures prevails; and Norway has her own national flag distinct from Sweden. The national defences embrace an army and navy. All men, not incapacitated or specially exempt, above the age of twenty-three serve ten years with the colours, but are only called out for a few weeks' exercise every summer. Close upon 6300 men are drawn by conscription annually. The inhabitants of the counties of Nordland, Tromsø, and Finnmark, with a certain proportion of the coast population farther south, are liable to conscription for the navy, and serve from twenty-two to thirty-five years of age. The naval dockyards are at Horten, on the west side of Christiania Fjord. The fleet consists of about a dozen gunboats (first and second class), four iron-clad monitors, and some thirty other vessels, with a torpedo service.

See Kiær, Norges Land og Folk (1886); Kirchhoff, Länderkunde (pt. ii. 1890); in English, see Du Chaillu, Land of the Midnight Sun (2 vols. 1881); F. Vincent, Norsk, Lapp, and Finn (1881); Mary Godwin, Letters from Norway (1796); J. D. Forbes, Norway and its Glaciers (1853); and numerous modern books of travel, such as C. W. Wood, Round about Norway (1880); Lovett, Norwegian Pictures (1885); Corning, From Aalesund to Tetuan (1889), and others. For the geology, see Kjerulf, various works in Norwegian (1855-79); for the plant-life, Schübeler, Norges Væxtlige (3 vols. 1885-89), and other works; and for the statistics, the publications of the Norwegian statistical department, partly duplicated in French. The best guidebooks to the country are those by Yngvar Nielsen, Baedeker, Tönsberg, Bennett, Jørgensen, and Wilson.

History.—It is not until the 9th century that the story of Norway begins to emerge from the obscurities of myth and legend. At the time the tribes of Gothic descent crossed the Baltic and settled in the southern parts of the Scandinavian peninsula they found the Lapps or Finns in possession. These people they drove north towards the Arctic Ocean. When this immigration took place cannot be determined exactly. Indeed, if, according to one theory, the original home of the Aryans was in Scandinavia, it probably never took place at all. At the dawn of the historical period Norway was parcelled out among the free men of the race (Norroni, Norsemen, Norwegians), whose slaves—prisoners taken in war—tilled the soil, whilst they and their free dependents spent their time in fighting, viking raids, and similar pursuits. The ties that united these free men were personal rather than political or territorial, though for judicial purposes all who dwelt in a well-defined district (fylki) met at stated intervals and at fixed places to adjudicate in common, on terms of strict equality. Several of these districts were associated together in a higher unity—the thing. Of such things or meetings there came to be eventually three, the Frosta for the north, the Gula for the west and south, and the Eidsifia for the east; at a later date the Borgar thing for the south-east was separated from the Eidsifia. Each of these things had its own independent code of purely customary laws. The chief men, calling themselves kings, later jarls (earls), had no official authority; their power was due solely to their personal influence—their character, wealth, warlike renown, and long descent (compare NORTHMEN).

The cradle of the future kingdom of Norway was the district of Vestfold, on the western side of Vik (now Christiania Fjord). There a royal race from Sweden established themselves, seemingly in the 7th century. A descendant of these kings, Black Halfdan (died 860), reduced the petty kings to the north of him, as far as Lake Mjøsen. His greater son, Harold Haarfager or Fairhair (king 863-930), extended his sway as far north as Trondhjem, in which district, as being his first conquest in lands that owed no allegiance to the chief king in Sweden, he established the seat of his power, just as the elector of Brandenburg called himself Frederick I. king of Prussia. After that in three great sea-fights, the last near Stavanger in 883, he conquered the kings of the west and south-west, and proclaimed himself chief king in Norway. But many of the defeated chiefs (kings) refused to submit to Harold, especially when he asserted the right of conquest, seized their odal lands, and introduced a form of feudalism. They sailed across the Western (North) Sea, and colonised the Faroe, Shetland, and Orkney Islands, the Hebrides, Man, Ireland. But they so harassed the men (jarls) to whom Harold had given their lands in Norway that the king, pursuing them, slew many of them and reduced the islands to his sway, and appointed earls over them (Orkneys, Hebrides). Those who were still disaffected escaped his rule by sailing on farther to Iceland. In Harold's reign the skalds or improvisatore court-poets began to compose, and were held in great honour. Harold's son, Erik Blood-axe, was driven from Norway by a younger brother Haco in 935, and for many years the country was distracted by Erik's sons trying to recover their father's power. After Haco died (961) their principal opponent was Earl Haco of Trondhjem, who ruled Norway west of the mountain plateau until he was killed in a revolt (995). Olaf Tryggveson, a descendant of Harold Haarfager, a man who had won great fame as a viking in England (991-994) and elsewhere, stepped into the gap. Like his great-uncle Haco, he was a Christian, and like him he attempted to make his people Christian, and he did make them Christian, at least nominally and superficially. The beau-ideal of a sea-king, and the pride and admiration of his people, Olaf died a hero's death, fighting against a host off the north coast of Prussia (1000). After an interval of fifteen years another Olaf, likewise a descendant of Harold Haarfager, landed and won the kingdom from the sons of Earl Haco. This Olaf, St Olaf, made his people's Christianity more real, first thoroughly welded the kingdom into a united state, made all the western islands tributary, and ruled sternly but well. Ever since the days of Harold Haarfager the king of the Danes had claimed supremacy over at least southern Norway; in 1028 the great Canute came with a large fleet to make good his claim. Olaf fled to Russia, and in attempting to win back his crown perished in battle at Stikklestad near Trondhjem (1030). Five years later the chiefs of the land made Olaf's son Magnus king, and he became king of the Danes also in 1042. But this office he found so difficult that in 1046 he associated with himself as king his uncle Harold Haardraada, who had served in the Væring guard at Constantinople and had fought against the Saracens in Sicily. War between the Danes and Norsemens was almost chronic all through the reigns of Magnus and Harold, who became sole king in 1047. Harold's love of adventure led him to his death at Stamford Bridge in England in 1066. During the peaceful reign of Harold's son, Olaf Kyrre (1067-93), commerce thrived, industrial guilds were formed, and the land prospered greatly. The next king, Olaf's son, Magnus Barefoot, waged war in the Orkneys, Hebrides, and Ireland, till he fell in this last island in 1103. Two sons of Magnus, Eystein (died 1122) and Sigurd (died 1130), then reigned in concert, Eystein being a quiet stay-at-home prince, whilst Sigurd, who had inherited all the adventurous enterprise of his ancestors, sailed to the Levant, and visited Jerusalem and Constantinople (1107-11). After his return he greatly fostered the church. At this period the towns began to be prosperous.

From 1130 to 1240 the country was torn by internal feuds, three predominant parties contesting for power—an oligarchical party amongst the chief men; the bishops' party, who claimed the right to elect the king; and after 1174 the nationalist Birkebeiner (i.e. 'Birch-legs'), who generally had the first two parties allied against them, but who in the long-run got the victory. After defeating the earls and bishops, and slaying their nominee or puppet, King Magnus, in Nord Fjord (1184), they made their leader Sverre (died 1202), a Faroe islander, and a clever man, king. Nevertheless, the civil strife went on until the twenty-third year (1240) of the reign of Sverre's grandson Haco. This king reigned twenty-three years longer, and during that time the land recovered from her distractions. Iceland acknowledged the supremacy of the king in Norway in 1262. Haco died at Kirkwall (1263), shortly after being defeated at Largs in an attack upon Scotland. It was during the first half of the 13th century that the Old Norse literature began to be written down. The laws were put in writing during the reign of Haco's son, Magnus the Law-betterer (1263-80), who, in 1266, gave up the Hebrides to Scotland. The pretensions of the bishops' party were finally crushed by Erik (died 1299), son of Magnus, and father of the little Margaret, Maid of Norway. Erik's successor, his brother Haco, dying (1319) without a son, the throne passed through a daughter to the Swedish royal house, and again through marriage to the Danish (1380). The great Queen Margaret of Denmark united all three kingdoms by the Union of Kalmar (1397).

And now evil days fell upon the land. The extraordinary exertions of Norway's youth seem to have worn her out early; her high spirit and enterprise were gone; her literature died out, and her intelligence burned down to a dull glimmer; her commerce passed into the tyrannical hands of the Hanseatic merchants of Bergen; her old colonies, Orkney and Shetland, were pledged to Scotland for ever in 1468; Denmark, which at first respected her national rights, treated her from 1536 as a conquered province, and forced the Reformation upon her, yet the Norwegians never seriously resented the harsh and oppressive treatment of their rulers. In 1612 some 300 men from Scotland, whilst making their way to join the army of Gustavus Adolphus in Sweden, were cut to pieces by the Norwegian peasantry in the pass of Kringelen in Gudbrandsdal.

The national spirit began to stir again in the awakening of the peoples occasioned by the French Revolution; and the transference of Norway to Sweden in 1814 gave back to the Norwegians their national rights, a liberal constitution, and their sense of national unity. At first they resisted the transference. Prince Christian of Denmark headed the movement for independence, and summoned a national assembly, which at Eidsvold (17th May) drew up a liberal constitution. But Sweden marched her forces into the country, and on 10th October Christian abdicated. Charles XIII. of Sweden, having recognised the constitution, was elected king on 4th November. In 1821 the Norwegians abolished all titles of nobility. The spirit of independence and of nationality has grown stronger as the years have passed, industry has thrived, commerce has prospered and brought wealth, and, intellectually, Norway stands in the van of progress. The principal event since the union with Sweden was the overwhelming protest of the people against the right claimed by the king to veto absolutely bills duly passed by their elected representatives. The 'home rule' struggle has since 1895 been accentuated.

See Munch, Det Norske Folks Historie (7 vols. 1852-63); E. Sars, Udsigt over Norges Historie (1873-77); Keyser, Norges Stats- og Retsforfatning (1867). In English, Heimskringla, trans. by W. Morris and Magnusson (vols. iii.-vi. of Saga Library, 1891) or by Laing (3 vols. 1844; new ed. 1890); Boyesen, History of Norway (new ed. 1890); T. Michell, History of the Scottish Expedition to Norway in 1612 (1886); and Powell and Vigfusson, Corpus Poeticum Boreale (1883). Carlyle's Early Kings of Norway (1878) is adapted from Laing's Heimskringla.

Literature.—Like Germany, Norway has an ancient and a modern period of literary history—the interval between being mostly blank. The ancient period of Norwegian literature is that of the Sagas (q.v.), and see also ICELAND, SNORRO, EDDA. What writers Norway gave birth to between the 13th and the 19th century, except Peder Dass (1647-1708) and Dorothea Engelbrechtsdatter (1634-1716), are counted amongst the Danes, in whose language they wrote. These men, Holberg, Tullin, Wessel, Fasting, Brun, Frimann, and others—some of them the brightest ornaments of Danish literature—have been already mentioned under Denmark (q.v.).

The modern period begins with the re-awakening of the national life; it received its first impulses from the Norwegian Society, a band of patriotic men living in Copenhagen in 1772, from the founding of a native university at Christiania in 1811, and from the recovery of national independence in 1814. The earliest writers of the new era, the poets Bjerregaard (1792-1842), M. C. Hansen (1794-1842), and Schwach (1793-1860), though the ring of patriotism is in their work, possessed little originality. The creator of the modern national literature was Wergeland (1808-45), the Schiller of his country, who believed that in the free peasant proprietor lay the hope of Norway's future, and who laboured earnestly to make him worthy of that high calling. The nebulous thought and disregard of æsthetic law and taste shown in his earlier works provoked the satirical attacks of Welhaven (1807-73), a master of poetic form, and the representative of the intellectual aristocracy of the country, the mercantile and official classes. This gave rise to a keen literary feud. But, apart from Andreas Munch (1811-84), the ladies' poet, who stands by himself, and the poets J. Moe (1813-82), Jensen (1812-67), and Th. Kjerulf (1825-88), who were more or less influenced by Welhaven, nearly all subsequent writers have worked in the spirit of Wergeland, and for the same ends. Monsen (1815-52) penned lyrics which sometimes approach the best of Wergeland's later work in quality. Aasen (born 1813), Vinje (1818-70), K. Janson (1841), Sivle (1857), and Garborg (1851), the Maalstræver, have tried to create a literary language by collating and fusing together the various peasant dialects, the first named more especially in philological works, the others in tales and novels, and even in poetry. Garborg is a writer of striking individuality. Asbjørnsen (1812-85) and Moe, the poet, and Faye collected the folk-tales; Landstad (1802-81), the hymn-writer, and Bugge (1833) collected the popular songs. Daa (1809-77) popularised the history of his country, and Vig (1824-57) laboured in the same direction in various works for the people. Schultze (1823-73), Friis (1821), Østgaard (1812-73), Magdalena Thoresen (1819), and others have described well and lovingly their native land and its people. Björnson (1832), M. Thoresen, and Lie (1833) have written good tales from the life of the provinces; the peasant tales of Björnson are of great merit. Eilert Sundt (1817-75) strove to educate the country-people through his treatises on their social and economic circumstances. The chief writers of the latest phase of Norwegian literature are Ibsen (1823), Björnson, Lie, Kjelland (1849), Garborg, Camilla Collett (1813), Elster (1841-81), M. Thoresen, Jæger (1854), Flood (1837), Gloersen (1838), Amalie Skram (1847), Kristofersen (1851), Krogh, Gunnar Heiberg, Hansun, and others. Speaking generally, these authors, all novelists except Ibsen and Heiberg, show a strenuous desire for truth, great earnestness, a strongly realistic way of looking at things, keen delight in intellectual and moral strife, remarkable directness, vigour, and freshness of style, a decided leaning to satire, and frequently, too, a charming naïveté and striking originality. The socio-satirical plays of Ibsen (q.v.) have attracted notice in all countries, made him a conspicuous personality, roused not a little keen controversy, and affected the history of dramatic literature. Björnson (q.v.), best known abroad by his tales, has, like Kjelland and Lie, also done dramatic work, and produced some admirable poetry. Kjelland satirises the classes of whom Welhaven was the representative; he has strong cosmopolitan, especially French, tendencies. Poulsen (1850), 'Marie,' and Marie Colban (1814-84) must be mentioned as voluminous and popular authors of works of a light character.

In other departments than pure literature the subjoined must be named: in literary history, Botten-Hansen (1824-69), H. Lassen (1824), Jæger, Skavlan (1838), Dietrichson (1834); in history, P. A. Munch (1810-63), Keyser (1803-64), Lange (1810-61), Daae (1834), E. Sars (1835), G. Storm (1845), B. Moe (1814-50), Faye (1802-69), Nielsen (1843); in philosophy, Treschow (1751-1833), Monrad (1816), a Hegelian; in theology, Caspari (1814), Hauge (1771-1824), Wexels (1797-1866), F. W. Bugge (1838); in philology, P. A.

Munch, Keyser, Bugge, Aasen, Unger (1817), Fritzner (1812), Stockfleth (1787-1866); and, as orientalists, Caspari and C. Lassen (1800-76); in archaeology, Rygh (1833); in jurisprudence, Schweigaard (1808-70), Lasson (1798-1873), Aschehoug (1822), Stang (1808), Hallager (1816-76); in mathematics, Hansteen (1784-1873) and Abel (1802-29); in science, Michael Sars (1805-69) and his son, G. O. Sars (1837), as biologists, and Keilhau (1797-1858) and Th. Kjerulf (1825-88) as geologists. The best Norwegian painters have been Tidemand (1814-76), C. F. S. Hansen (1841), Gude (1825), M. Müller (1828), S. Jacobsen (1833), Munthe (1841), and Sinding (1842); the best sculptor, Middeltunn (1820-86); the best musicians, Ole Bull (1810-80), H. Kjerulf (1815-68), Grieg (1843), and Svendsen (1840).

See Schweitzer, Geschichte der Skandinavischen Literatur (3 vols. 1886-90); Gosse, Northern Studies (2d ed. 1882); Halvorsen, Norsk Forfatter-Lexikon, 1814-80 (1881 et seq.); Jæger, Norske Forfattere (1883); and Botten-Hansen's excellent bibliography, La Norvège Littéraire, 1824-66 (1869).

Norway Haddock. See BERGYLT.