Norwegian History

NORWEGIAN HISTORY

Norway is a land that was sculpted by the great glaciers of the Ice Age. The rugged mountains are solid rock with rounded peaks that have been ground down by the relentless pressures and passage of glaciers. Deep valleys descend from the mountain tops, which fill with sea water tens and, even hundreds, of kms inland from the coast, the fjords. Its first settlers arrived over 10,000 years ago, at the end of the Ice Age. These people, “hunters and gatherers”, followed the glaciers as they retreated northward, pursuing the migrating reindeer herds The country’s greatest impact on history was during the Viking Age, a period thought to have begun with the plundering of England”s Lindisfarne monastery, by Nordic pirates in 793 AD. Over the next century, the Vikings made raids throughout Europe, establishing settlements along the way. Viking leader Harald Fairhair unified Norway around 900 and King Olaf, adopting the religion of the lands he conquered, converted the people to Christianity a century later. The Vikings were great sailors and became the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Eric the Red, the son of a Norwegian exiled to Iceland, colonized Greenland in 982. In 1001, Eric’s Icelandic son, Leif Eriksson, became possibly the first European to explore the coast of North America when he sailed off course on a voyage from Norway to Greenland. However the Viking Age came to an end in 1066 when the Norwegian king Harald Hardråde was routed at the battle of Stamford Bridge in England.

In the 13^th century Oslo emerged as its center of power. It continued to flourish until the mid-14^th century, when bubonic plague decimated it’s population. In 1380 Norway was absorbed into a union with Denmark, which lasted over 400 years. In 1814, Norway was ceded to Sweden, and that same year, a defiant Norway – fed up with forced unions – adopted its own constitution, but it’s struggle for independence was quelled by a Swedish invasion. In the end, Norwegians were allowed to keep their new constitution, but were forced to accept the Swedish king. Growing nationalism eventually led to Norway’s peaceful secession from Sweden on the 17^th of May 1905. Norwegians subsequently voted in favor of a monarchy over a republic, and selected Prince Carl of Denmark to be king. Upon acceptance, he took the name Håkon VII, and named his son Olav, both prominent names in Norway’s Viking past. Norway remained neutral in both World Wars, but was occupied by the Nazis in 1940. King Håkon set up a government in exile and placed most of Norway’s huge merchant fleet under the command of the allies. An active resistance movement fought tenaciously against the Nazis, who responded by razing nearly every town and village in northern Norway during their retreat. Much of the city of Voss was destroyed by aerial bombings, and a German training camp was set up outside of Voss.