There is no general agreement on where
the ancestors of today's Norwegians came from, or on the
routes they took on their journey north, but one of these
routes certainly passed through Ostfold. Artifacts found
at settlements there are of the same type that have been
discovered in southern Sweden and in Denmark. A further
possible route may have led from the so-called North Sea
continent to southwest Norway.
These first Norwegians were hunters who, wherever nature
permitted, settled in small groups. They left proof of
their existence in flint tools, clay vessels, and not
least, rock carvings. In every part of Norway remain
specimens of their art, hewn or ground into the rock. The
carvings depict their prey: reindeer, moose, deer, bears
and fish. People or boats appear only seldom.
The transition to agriculture started in Norway
approximately 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, initially in the
area around the Oslofjord. By the Bronze Age (1500-500
BC) it is the farmers' cultural relics that dominate the
archeological finds, particularly in south Norway. Finds
from this same period in north Norway show that the
people were hunters. At many locations in far north
Finnmark there were sizable settlements of hunters, clear
proof of seasonable cooperation between many people.
From the Roman Age (0-400 AD), grave finds show that
there were links with the civilized countries to the
south. Utensils of bronze and glass were discovered, as
well as weapons. The art of writing in the form of runic
letters also became known in the Nordic lands at this
time.
The migrations of 400-550 AD were a restless period of
continental Europe's history, and relics found in Norway
indicate that the same conditions prevailed there too.
The existence of farms in marginal areas indicates that
settlement had reached saturation point. Pollen analyses
reveal that at this time the coastal areas to the west
were deforested. The troubled times led tribes to
establish defense systems such as forts, and on the
eastern banks of Norway's largest lake, MjF8sa, the
remains of these are evident over a stretch of 30 miles.
The Age of the Vikings
(circa 800-1050 AD)
The Viking era marks the termination of the prehistoric
period in Norway. There were still no written sources of
knowledge, and what is known about this period is largely
based on archaeological remains. Nevertheless, the Sagas
shed some light on this age, although they were written
down later, The Sagas were based on word of mouth tales
passed down from one generation to the next. In synthesis
they reveal that the Viking age must without comparison
have been the richest of all the prehistoric periods in
the north.
Many scholars regard the looting of the monastery of
Lindisfarne, off England's northeast coast, in the year
793 as the beginning of the Viking Age. Over extensive
parts of west and southwest Europe they are still
regarded as cruel brigands who wrought havoc on their
victims with fire and sword. This is only partially true.
The Vikings also came on peaceful errands, to trade and
to colonize. Norwegian Vikings settled in the Orkney
Isles, the Shetlands, the Hebrides, and on the Isle of
Man. The mainland of northern Scotland and Ireland also
became their home, and Dublin, founded by the Vikings in
the 840s, was under Nordic rule right up to 1171.
In Iceland and Greenland the Norwegian Vikings found
uninhabited land. There they settled and built
communities. Present-day Iceland is a direct consequence
of Viking colonization. On Greenland, however, the Norse
communities, for reasons unknown, died out some few
centuries later.
The Norwegian Vikings came mostly from the south and west
of the country, where the land had been utilized to the
maximum it could tolerate. In southeast and northern
Norway, on the other hand, settlement based on
agriculture and other activities spread to previously
uninhabited areas, particularly in the mountains and
valleys.
For their many expeditions the Vikings needed fast and
seaworthy ships, and men with the skill to navigate them
over open seas. The fact that these hardy men repeatedly
voyaged to America and back is evidence enough of their
mastery of the longships. The Sagas relate that it was
Leif Eiriksson who discovered "Wineland the
Good" in the year 1001, but present-day scholars
claim that other Vikings had reached America before him.
The Viking Age finally culminated in 1066 when the
Norwegian King Harald HardrE5de and his men were defeated
at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in England.A United Kingdom
Up to the 800s the regions that later
became Norway were not unified, but both groups and
individuals attempted to bring them together. Two main
types of community were formed:
- assemblies or "tings" organized around a
central "ting" and
- petty kingships.
There must have been several reasons for this. Not least
of them was the farmers' need for peace and continuity,
particularly in the coastal areas that were repeatedly
troubled by robber bands and the harryings of the
homecoming Vikings. The coastal areas possessed at this
time substantial riches in the shape of stolen and traded
goods. Safe on their "thrones" sat the petty
kings, who thanks to the kinships created by
intermarriage, were a tight-knit group with considerable
power.
The petty kings in the Viken - the areas surrounding the
Oslofjord - played a major role in this process. Their
might increased steadily as district after district was
brought under their rule. After a battle at Hafrsfjord
near Stavanger, believably fought in the year 872, King
Harald Fairhair strengthened his position as ruler of
large areas of the country. This unifying process,
however, continued for several more decades, bringing
harsh struggles between warring Norwegian chieftains, and
between Norwegian and other peoples of the north. By 1060
the unifying process appears to have been completed.
The Advent of Christianity
Christianity was introduced into Norway
over a lengthy period of time, possibly 200 years. It was
a natural result of the Norwegians' contact with
Christian Europe through trading connections and Viking
raids. Missions from the churches of England, Germany and
Denmark had also contributed to a weakening of
traditional belief in the Nordic gods. This development
culminated with the three missionary kings, HE5kon the
Good, Olaf Trygvasson, and Olaf the Stout. The latter's
martyr death at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 gave him
saint's status. The Church had won the final victory.
From the middle of the 11th century the legislation that
was enacted, the songs that were sung, and the monuments
that were erected demonstrated the firm establishment of
Christianity in Norway. Shortly before the year 1100 the
first bishoprics appeared, among them the see of Nidaros,
later Trondheim, where the archbishop held office from
1152. The Norwegian archbishop also played a political
role. In 1537 the Reformation was enforced in Norway by
royal decree. At this time the country was under Danish
rule, and the Reformation was enforced simply by making
the so-called Danish/Norwegian church ordinance
applicable in Norway too. From the early 1600s the
Lutheran creed was the sole creed of Norway.
The Middle Ages
The year 1130 was a watershed in
Norwegian history. A period of peace was disrupted by
conflicts - the civil wars that lasted right up to 1277.
But 1130 was a special year in other ways too. It is
regarded as the start of the so-called High Middle Ages,
a period of population growth, consolidation within the
Church, and the rise and development of the towns. As
Crown and Church brought district after district under
their rule the degree of public administration and
authority increased. Historians say that only then could
Norway be termed one realm.
The power of the monarchy increased in the 1100s and
1200s, ending in victory both over the Church and the
nobles. The traditional secular aristocracy was replaced
by a serving aristocracy. The status of the farmers
changed in this period, from that of free-holder to that
of tenant. However, the farmer, who usually rented his
lands on a lifetime basis, enjoyed a free status that was
rare indeed in most of contemporary Europe. The slaves of
the Viking age also disappeared in the High Middle Ages.
During this period the political center of gravity in
Norway moved from the southwest to the districts
surrounding the Oslofjord. During the reign of King
HE5kon V, in the 1200s, Oslo became Norway's capital.
Prior to this it had been an insignificant clutch of
houses in the innermost reaches of the Oslofjord. When
the Black Death reached Norway in 1350, the town
allegedly housed no more than 2,000 people. At that time
Bergen had a population of 7,000 and Trondheim 3,000.
The state revenues in the High Middle Ages were extremely
modest by European standards. Toward the end of the
period they were scarcely adequate to finance any
expansion of the administrative apparatus of Crown and
State. The Black Death had raged with terrible effect,
reducing the population to one-half or possibly only
one-third of its pre-1350 level. This development
prompted the King and the nobility to seek revenues from
lands and feudal estates, regardless of national
boundaries. This contributed toward the growth of the
political unions in the Nordic lands.
Right from the 1319-1343 period, Norway and Sweden had a
joint monarchy, an institution later expanded through the
arrangement of inter-Scandinavian royal marriages. HE5kon
VI (1340-80) - son of the Swedish King Magnus Eriksson
and HE5kon V's daughter IngebjF8rg - was lawful heir to
the throne of Norway. He married Margrete, daughter of
the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag. Their son, Olav, was
chosen to be Danish king on the death of Valdemar in
1375. He inherited the throne of Norway after his father
in 1380, thus bringing Norway into a union with Denmark
that lasted right up to 1814.
Union with Denmark
The late Middle Ages were a period of
marked economic deterioration in Norway. The population
had been drastically reduced by the ravages of the Black
Death and other plagues during the 14th Century. Many
farms in the marginal areas were deserted, and incomes
sank. Some claim that a worsening of the climate and the
grip of the Hanseatic League on Norwegian economy were
the cause of the decline. Others believe that a steady
impoverishment of the soil contributed to the
deterioration.
The economic depression brought political consequences in
its wake. Denmark assumed increasing importance as the
major Nordic land. Danish and German nobles were
appointed to the highest official offices. Lands and
episcopal residences passed into foreign hands. The
Norwegian nobility dwindled. Thus was the will and the
ability for national self-assertion gradually sapped.
From 1450 the union with Denmark was established by
treaty - a treaty supposedly meant to ensure the power of
the Norwegian Council of the Realm when a monarch was
being selected, through this stipulation was never
respected. The treaty was also to serve as a guarantee of
the equality of the two realms. This was the theory;
practice proved otherwise.
In 1536 Norway ceased to be an independent kingdom. This
came about at a national assembly in Copenhagen, where
King Christian III pledged to the Danish noblemen that
Norway was henceforth to be subservient to the Danish
Crown, like any other Danish possession. Norway's Council
of the Realm was disbanded and the Norwegian church lost
its autonomy. The Danish noblemen could from then on
freely take over positions as officers of the law in
Norway, and could earn their incomes from Norway too.
This close political link with Denmark drew Norway
unavoidably into the wars that Denmark waged with Sweden
and the Baltic Sea powers. It led the Danish king to
surrender Norwegian land to Sweden; Jemtland and
Herjedalen in 1645, Båhuslen and the fief of Trondheim
in 1658; the latter, however, was returned to Norway two
years later.
An assembly of the states' delegates at Copenhagen in
1660 acclaimed Fredrik III as heir to the throne and
assigned him the task of giving the kingdoms a new
constitution. In this way the two kingdoms were subject
to an absolute monarchy, a factor which affected Norway's
position throughout the remaining period of the union of
the two lands.
Although Norway was governed from Copenhagen, the monarch
was often in no position to rule. The real power laying
the hands of the state officials. By and large, Norway
profited from this, as it led to state officials
understanding the Norwegian viewpoint. On issues relating
to Norway in particular, the views of high-ranking
Norwegian officials were often respected.
In this period of absolute rule a policy was formulated
whereby Denmark and Norway were to be treated as a single
economic unit. Thus Denmark was accorded sole rights to
the sales of grain in southeast Norway (1737) while a
corresponding monopoly on sales of iron from Norway was
introduced in Denmark. Through the so-called town
privileges in 1662, all trade in timber was concentrated
in the towns, where the inhabitants were granted
exclusive rights to purchase timber from the farmers and
sawmill owners. The intention was to create a wealthy
middle class in the town - and this goal was achieved.
The middle class that emerged in the wake of economic
developments bore the seeds of a certain national
awareness. This was especially marked in the 1700s. It
could have resulted from the strong economic growth of
this social class, but probably the decisive factor was
the growing resistance to the rulers' efforts to make
Copenhagen the economic hub of the tow lands. Norwegian
traders could not compete with the mighty trading houses
of the Danish capital.
In the late 1700s most imports were shipped thorough
Copenhagen. The timber retailers of southeast Norway made
a concerted demand for a national Norwegian bank and at
the same time supported the demands of the senior
officials for a Norwegian University. Those demands were
denied, as the government feared any move that might give
Norway a more autonomous position and impair the strength
of the union. The concept of a Norwegian University and a
national bank gradually came to symbolize the growing
national consciousness.
The trend accelerated during the Napoleonic Wars of
1807-1814. Denmark/Norway were allied with France, and
the resulting blockade isolated Norway both from Denmark
and from the market. Shipping and timber exports came to
a halt, and famine and hunger spread through the land. As
Norway could no longer be administered from Copenhagen, a
government commission of senior officials was appointed
to carry out this task. The King, Frederik VI, submitted
to demands for a national university, which was
consequently established in 1811. All these events formed
the backdrop for what was to take place on Syttende may,
17 May 1814, Norway's Constitution Day.
The writer of this article, Tor Dagre, is former
editor in chief of Nytt fra Norge. Produced for the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Nytt fra Norge. The author
is responsible for the contents of the article.
Reproduction is permitted. Printed in January 1996.
The Norwegian Government's WWW server, ODIN, contains
official documents and information about Norway:
http://odin.dep.no/. This page was last updated 29
February 1996 by the editors.
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