NORWAY AND THE NORWEGIANS 

 CHAPTEE I 



THE LAND 



The Glacial Era and its remains — Islands — Mountains — Fjords — 

 Valleys — Forests — Conformation of the Country. 



The Scandinavian Peninsula may be called — according 

 to the light in which we choose to regard it — either 

 one of the youngest or one of the oldest lands in Europe. 

 In the lands to the south of it, more especially in 

 what we are wont to speak of as the classical countries, 

 it is almost impossible to dissociate nature from man- 

 kind. The villages which crown the hills of Italy, for 

 example, and which the eye catches sight of one after 

 another nestling among the Apennines, we cannot pos- 

 sibly imagine removed from the scene. If they were 

 not there we should be in a different country. They 

 transport our thoughts back at a bound to the Middle 

 Ages, when they were as numerous, almost, and per- 

 haps more prosperous, than they are to-day. And they 

 may well transport us further back still, — to the days of 

 ancient Eome ; or to yet earlier times before Eome had 

 grown to its full greatness : to a Saturnian age, while 

 yet there was no fear of Jove, while Etruscan and 

 Italic communities lived unthreatened by the increasing 



A 



