Norway actually has a pretty turbulent history, ranging from the Ice Age to female Viking warriors to the discovery of the liquid gold. It contains a lot of bloodshed, death and oppression – and through it all an obstinate will to fight and resist injustice.
Norway is a pretty unique country. I can honestly say when I was here the first time in 2017 I was blown away by all this beauty. I did the 7 hour ride with the famous “Bergenbahn” from Oslo to Bergen and my face was pretty much glued to the window the entire time. I imagine New Zealand is pretty high up on the “most mesmerizing landscape” list, but one thing that sets Norway apart is how dramatic and intense the landscape is. Ever since I am here, I have those very frequent surreal moments when I feel like I am in the middle of a postcard. Or a painting.
The landscape of Norway was formed after the last Ice Age around 12,000 BC. Hence, Norway was pretty much created by ice. Giant glacier tongues formed the dramatic fjords in Norway: A fjord is a deep, narrow and elongated sea or lakedrain, with steep land on three sides (often surrounded by dramatic mountain scenery). The longest fjord is actually 350 km long (located in Greenland though).
When the ice retreated, it became possible to settle the land from the South and the North-East (Norway actually directly borders Russia in the north).Well, then it is a lot of what we already know about the early history of people and early migration, settlements were created, there was a lot of fishing and hunting, complex tools created, clans evolved, nothing really out of the ordinary…until: The vikings came.
It all started one fateful summer day in 793 – or at least that’s when the world outside of Norway became aware of this new threat – when a group of Nothernmen attacked the island of Lindisfarne in England, just off the Northumbrian coast. This place bore some significance, because it was the seat of the bishop Saint Cuthbert who evangelized Northumbria. After his death his body was even revered as a saint. Thus, the Vikings desecrated “the very place where the Christian religion began in our nation”, states the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Only one Christian community survived and lived to tell the fateful events of the famous “Domesday stone”: “In this year fierce, foreboding omens came over the land of the Northumbrians, and the wretched people shook; there were excessive whirlwinds, lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky. These signs were followed by great famine, and a little after those, that same year on 6th ides of January, the ravaging of wretched heathen people destroyed God’s church at Lindisfarne.”
Quite an entrance.
The attack sent shockwaves through Europe and was a harbinger of what was about to come. Viking raids increased in frequency around the coast of Britain, Ireland and Francia.
There were several characteristics about the Vikings that gave them an advantage: First, they were excellent shipbuilders. They developed the so-called lomgships, suitable for travel across the sea. Those ships had exceptional qualities compared to other ships at the time (the “Vikingskip” museum in Oslo dives deeper into the subject and exhibits the world’s best preserved viking ships). In addition, the Vikings were excellent navigators which enabled them to spread all over Europe and even North America: The Icelandic Viking Leif Eriksson reached the American continent around 1000 (500 years before Christoph Columbus) and is therefore considered the first European to have set foot on continental America. Take that, Columbus!
The Vikings were also very well equipped and well trained in fighting. And they were fearless: Since according to Viking beliefs a man that was killed in battle ended up in Valhalla (from Old Norse Valhöll “hall of the slain”), a majestic hall that was ruled by the Norse God Odin where the men could battle each other all day long and in the evening have a delicious abundant meal while being served by valkyries, beautiful elegant maidens. So it really did make no big difference to them if they survived or died and this fearlessness of death can, well, definitely be seen as a psychological advantage in battle.
Although many women stayed to look after the household during Viking raids, some women and children travelled with the men. One of the most fearsome Viking commanders was a woman: Rusla, also called “the red maiden”, was the daughter of a 5th or 6th century king of Telemark, and sister of Tesandus (Thrond), who was dispossessed of his throne by a Danish king named Omund. Rusla formed a pirate fleet to attack all Danish ships as revenge for the affront to her brother. Rusla was always accompanied by another woman (some sources cite her as sister) Stikla, who was her deputy in all raids. Stikla turned to piracy to avoid marriage (I can relate – the life of a pirate does sound more exciting than the life of a housewife), and her name is the origin of the Norwegian city Stiklestad (more about Rusla can be found here.)
The raids produced riches and slaves, which the Vikings brought back to Scandinavia to work the farms. As farmland grew scarce and resistance against the invasions grew in England, the Vikings began to look at targets further afield, such as Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. During the 9th-century, the largest chieftains began a long period of civil war until King Harald Fairhair was able to unite the country and create the first Norwegian state. Yay!
And then Christianity came and messed it all up. I’m kidding. Well, sort of. The belief system of the Church was fundamentally different from the beliefs and traditions of the Vikings (for example in terms of the role of women) and while old temples were destroyed, Church laws were passed and priests were appointed, resistance against Christianity was fierce. In fact, it took centuries of adjustment. For many years people even adopted both faiths as an insurance policy in case one didn’t work out. Evidence of this can be seen today in the carvings on some of Norway’s oldest stave churches, which feature figures from Norse mythology.
The end of the Viking Age is commonly considered to be that fateful year of 1066 (interestingly enough, that date was hammered into our brains as students of Anglo Saxon history at university – and the only thing I remembered was that some important Norman invasion happened in that year, but not from whence or who was part of it or what it meant exactly – so much for substantial college education and the whole Bachelor/Master system (“bulimia learning” as we liked to call it: Cram as much information as possible into your brain for the test and then just immediately forget it again); but hey, at least that number remained firmly rooted in my long-term memory). So, yeah, what happened. In September 1066 a Norwegian force invaded Stamford Bridge and was defeated by the English army. (The same troops were then defeated three weeks later by the Normans at Hastings – it was just a lot of bloodshed going on in these times, much like today). So, the reason 1066 was hammered into our young student brains was that it was also the year of the Battle of Hastings where the British forces were defeated by an invasion army of William, Duke of Normandy, which led to the Norman conquest of England. I guess that had severe consequences for Britain (I’m guessing my Dad could probably tell us more about this, or Wikipedia), but since this post is actually about Norway, I can’t delve into this now and we have to get back to the topic at hand: The utter and devastating decline of the Vikings. In fact, the losses the Norwegians had suffered were so severe that only 24 ships from the fleet of over 300 were needed to carry the survivors away – supposedly that put a little bit of a damper to the Viking’s manpower and also to their morale.
The Middle Ages witnessed a dramatic rise in population (from about 150.000 to 400.000 within 300 years) – only to experience an equally dramatic decrease when the Black Death arrived in Norway and wiped out half of Norway’s population.
The bubonic plague befell Norway in the midst of its Golden Age in the late 13th and early 14th-century, a time of peace and growing international trade with Germany and Britain – most notably the Hanseatic League who took control of trade through Bergen. But much like today with globalization and international travel, these trade routes made the arrival of the Black Death possible. The bubonic plague arrived in Bergen in 1349 on a plague ship from England. Before that, it had already wreaked havoc in half of Europe. Although the exact number of deaths remains unknown, it changed Norway’s demographics drastically (especially because Norway’s nobility was so greatly diminished) and the population didn’t recover to pre-pandemic levels until the 17th century. Many see this as a major causing factor for the subsequent deterioration of Norway from an independent nation to its loss of political economic independence in the late 14th century to Denmark. To make matters worse, the Hanseatic merchants formed their own state within the city of Bergen, further weakening Norway’s status. (Side note: When I went to Bergen in 2017, I actually learned a lot about this, since much of the Hanseatic period is still preserved or recovered and you can visit many informative museums and houses. In fact, Bergen was pretty much ruled by Germans at that time, while Norwegians were discriminated against and treated as second-class citizens).
In that time Copenhagen was the common capital of a the combined Norway-Denmark nation. (The old name for Norway’s capital was actually Christiania. And that is also the name of the free-state Christiania in Copenhagen, where people have formed an entirely independent and alternative community which is pretty much exempt from Danish law – I went to Christiania in 2019 and it is a buzzing place of music, art, Marihuana and creative living spaces surrounded by nature. As far as I know though it is practically impossible to “get a foot in the door” and the waiting list for living in the community is closed for years to come.)
The following centuries witnessed a lot of different unions and quarrels between the different states of Scandinavia, which I am not going into detail here, because I personally don’t find it as interesting as the Viking Age and also because this overview has to find an end at some point in time. The long-standing union with Denmark (or oppression, depending on how you see it) does however explain the existence of two different written dialects in Norway: Bokmål (‘Book language’) and Nynorsk (‘New Norwegian’). Bokmål is what became of the Norwegian language through Danish and other influences and is used by 90 per cent of the population whereas Nynorsk was created in an attempt to preserve the original Norwegian language and is only used by a minority in western Norway. If you want to know what the original Norwegian language, or Old Norse, sounded like, go to Iceland – that is pretty close. Also, there are some similarities between Old Norse and Old English, for example the letter “thorn”. When I read Icelandic letters or names today, I am very much reminded of Old English, which I studied at university. If you are a language nerd like me and want to know more about it, go here.
On May 17, 1814 Norway adopted a constitution (still celebrated as the Norwegian Constitution day) and was on its way to become an independent nation again, only to be invaded and ruled over by Sweden shortly thereafter. In search of a better life, Norwegians began leaving rural Norway for North America in 1825, with mass emigration occurring over the following 100 years. By 1930, approximately 800,000 people had left Norway with the majority settling in the American Midwest. In 1913 Norway became only the second country in Europe after Finland to give women the vote (and thereby 58 years earlier before Switzerland gave the vote to women by the way). (Actually, Norway takes equal rights between men and women, or “likestilling” pretty seriously up until today.)
Then of course there is this bleak episode in history, the Second World War. German forces invaded this invasion-stricken land and occupied it in order to gain access to the North Sea and the Atlantic, and to station air and naval forces to prevent convoys traveling between Britain and the USSR. Then again, Norwegians are descendants of Vikings – and so the invading Germans were met by many heroic acts of resistance and successful sabotage against their infrastructure and supply chains – for example the heavy water sabotage, which crippled the German nuclear energy project. The exiled Norwegian government in London organized and supervised the resistance within Norway, which numbered 40,000 by the end of the war. The home front relied on sabotage, raids, clandestine operations and intelligence gathering to hinder German operations. However, when the Germans retreated, Hitler’s scorched earth policy meant that transport infrastructure as well as uncounted homes were burnt to the ground and the post-war years were characterized by hunger and hardship.
Luckily, Norway was rewarded with a second Golden Age when in 1969 oil was discovered in the Ekofisk field, which would eventually become one of the largest oil fields in the world, thereby earning the government significant revenues until today. By 1990 Norway was Europe’s largest oil producer. But since Norwegians like to go their own way and enjoy their freedom, they voted against becoming part of the European Union in 1994 (they were a founding member of the NATO, though). Up to this day this northern land continues to go its own way, far away from the rumblings and worries of us ordinary mortals whilst enjoying its independence and peace as well as a very high standard of living.