NORWAY 



533 



and like him lie 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 

 art 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, tirst 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 10+2. 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 Vivring guard at Constantinople and 

 had fought against the Saracens in Sicily. War 

 between the Danes and Norsemen 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 Kvrre (1067-93), com- 

 merce thrived, industrial guilds were formed, and 

 the land prospered greatly. The next king, Olaf's 

 Ron, Magnus Barefoot, waged war in the Orkneys, 

 Hebrides, and Ireland, till lie fell in this last island 

 in 1 103. 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 hoc! 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 contest- 

 ing 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 shiying 

 their nominee or pup|>et. King Magnus, in Nord 

 Fjord (11H4), 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 acknow- 

 leilged the supremacy of the king in Norway in 

 l-Jii-J. Haco died at kirkwall (1263), shortly after 

 lieing defeated at Largs in an attack upon Scot- 

 land. It was during the first half of the 13th 

 century that the Old Norse literature l>egan to l>e 

 written down. The laws were put in writing din ing 

 the reign of Haco's son, Magnus the Law-bettcrer 

 (1263-80), who, in I2G6, gave up the Hebrides to 

 Scotland. The pretensions of tne 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 MMMn 

 through a daughter to the Swedish royal house, 

 ami 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 extra- 

 ordinary 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 intelli- 

 gence ourned 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 con- 

 quered 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 peas- 

 antry 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 Nor- 

 way to Sweden in 1814 gave back to the Nor- 

 wegians their national rights, a liberal constitu- 

 tion, 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 lil>eral constitu- 

 tion. But Sweden marched her forces into the 

 country, and on 10th October Christian abdicated. 

 Charles XIII. of Sweden, having recognised tho 

 constitution, was elected king on 4th November. 

 In 1821 the Norwegians ai>olishcd all titles of no- 

 bility. The spirit or independence and of nationality 

 has grown stronger as the years have passed, in- 

 dustry 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 lv.i.~> Keen accentuated. 



See Munch, Del Nvrtke Folia Hittorie (7 vols. 1852- 

 63); E. Sure, Vdtiyt ortr Norget Hutnrie (1873-77); 

 Keyner, fforiiei >Utlj- off Rttsforfatnimi (1867). In Eng- 

 lish, Heimihringla, trans, by W. Morris and Magnnsson 

 (vols. iii.-vi. of Saga Library, 1891 ) or by Laing (3 vols. 

 1844; new ed. 1890); Boyegen. Histiiry of Norway (new 

 ed. 1890) ; T. Michell, Hittory of the Scottak Expedition 

 to Norway in 76/(18H6) ; and Powell and Vigfusson, 

 Corput J'octicnm Boreale (1883). Carlyle's Early Kiny$ 

 of Aoricay (1878) ia adapted from Laing's hcimskrimjla. 



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 (see SAGA), and see also ICELAND, 

 SNORRI STURLASON, EDDA. What writers Nor- 

 way gave birth to between the 13th and the 19th 

 century, except Peder Dass (1647-1708) and Doro- 

 thea Engelbretsdatter (1634-1716), are counted 

 amongst the Danes, in WHOM 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 witli 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 independ- 

 ence 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 



