102 A RIVER OF NORWAY 



A thousand years ago the Vikings dwellers 

 in viks, or fjords overran half Europe, carved 

 their way to kingdoms, and founded great 

 families. Rolf the Ganger came from this 

 coast ; his great-grandson was Duke of Nor- 

 mandy and King of England. A humble 

 peasant, dwelling on the land his fathers have 

 cultivated for centuries, may represent the elder 

 line of a family whose younger branch is some 

 great house in France or England. But the 

 connections are lost in the mists of antiquity. 

 To-day great Norwegian communities are being 

 founded in America, a land which there is 

 little doubt the Norsemen discovered centuries 

 before Columbus. A few of these emigrants 

 return, not always with dollars. Some settle 

 on the paternal lands, others find a lucrative 

 occupation in catering for tourists. I have 

 heard that quite a large number come over 

 every spring to act as servants, &c., in con- 

 nection with the tourist hotels, and return to 

 America in the autumn. It cannot be said 

 that these returned emigrants are, as a rule, 

 pleasant people. The dignified reserve of the 

 Norwegian peasant is often replaced by a very 

 objectionable self-assertiveness. 



