Norway

Christianity Introduced in Viken--Erling Skialgson of Sole--Great Opposition to Christianity--Founding of the Town of Nidaros--Olaf woos Queen Sigrid the Haughty--He marries Thy...

Return to Norway--Capture of Earl Haakon--The Earl vows never to fight King Olaf--Olaf's Reception by his Mother and Father-in-law, Sigurd Syr--Meeting of the District Kings--Ol...

Magnus's Birth and Baptism--Agreement with the Danish King, Hardeknut--Magnus and Kalf Arneson on the Battlefield of Stiklestad--Warning to the King--The Gray Goose--Magnus clai...

Harald's Adventures in Southern Cities--Conflicts with Svein Estridson--Quarrels with Einar Thambaskelfer--Murder of Einar and his Son--Agreement with Haakon Ivarson--Treachery...

Haakon Proclaimed King in Throndhjem--Haakon dies on the Dovre Mountain--Rebellion led by Thorer of Steig--Expedition to the Western Isles--War with Sweden--Peace Meeting at Kon...

Division of the Country between the Brothers--Sigurd's Crusade--Visit to Jerusalem--Return to Norway--King Eystein's Peaceful Work at Home--Annexation of Jemteland--King Sigurd...

Harald Gille comes to Norway as a Pretender--Harald and Magnus divide the Kingdom--Battle between the two Kings at Fyrileif--Harald takes Magnus prisoner at Bergen--Magnus maime...

Sigurd and Inge proclaimed Kings--Sigurd Slembe supports Magnus the Blind--Battles at Minne and Krokaskog--Battle at Holmengraa--Magnus and Sigurd Slembe killed--Eystein proclai...

Sigurd Markusfostre--Battle of Ree--Magnus Crowned--Norway attacked by the Danish King--Rebellion of the Hat-Swains--Peace with Denmark--Erling made Earl of Viken--Harald Sigurd...

Sverre appoints Lawmen and Prefects--A new Pretender--The Kuvlung Party--The Varbelgs--Rebellion of the Oyskeggs--Battle of Florevaag--Sverre's Struggle with the Hierarchy--Bish...

Reconciliation with the Church--Inge Magnusson Killed--Death of King Haakon--Election of Guthorm Sigurdson--The Pretender Erling Steinvegg--Death of Guthorm Sigurdson--Inge Baar...

Haakon Proclaimed King--Earl Skule's Demands--Rebellion of the Slitungs--The Ribbungs--Treachery of Earl Skule--State Meeting in Bergen--King Haakon Married--Death of Bishop Nic...

Margaret Acknowledged as Ruler of Norway--Erik of Pomerania Chosen as King--The three Countries United--The Kalmar Union--Death of Queen Margaret--The Victualia Brethren--Bergen...

The Popular King--Frequent Visits to Norway--The Laws Improved--War with Sweden--The Scotch War--Colonel Sinclair Killed--Peace at Knaeröd--The Peace of Lubeck--Second War with...

War with the Duke of Holstein--The Great Northern War (1709-1720)--Naval Battle in Kjögebugt--Charles XII. Invades Norway--The Heroic Anna Kolbjörnsdatter--King Charles at Frede...

Johan Frederick Struensee--Reforms without Preparation--Struensee Executed--The Guldberg Period--Prosperity in Norway--Crown Prince Frederick as Regent--The Bernstorf Ministry--...

War with Sweden--Battles at Lier, Toverud, Trangen, and Prestebakke--Armistice, December, 1808--Gustavus IV. Deposed--Christian August becomes Crown Prince of Sweden--Peace of J...

The Powers demand Acceptance of the Treaty of Kiel--War breaks out--Surrender of Fredericksstad--Siege of Frederickssteen--The Swedes defeated at Lier and Matrand--Convention at...

The Rigsakt of 1815--Charles XIV. John ascends the Throne--Nobility Abolished--The Storthing rejects the King's Propositions--Independence Day--The Storthing Dissolved in 1836--...

Norway (in the old Norse language _Noregr_, or _Nord-vegr_, i.e._, the North Way), according to archæological explorations, appears to have been inhabited long before the histor...

In the beginning of time there were two worlds; in the south was Muspelheim, luminous and flaming, with Surt as a ruler. In the north was Niflheim, cold and dark, with the sprin...

It is but natural that the ancient Norwegians should become warlike and brave men, since their firm religious belief was that those who died of sickness or old age would sink do...

The authentic history begins with Halfdan the Swarthy, or Halfdan the Black, who reigned from about the year 821 to about 860. The Icelander Snorre Sturlason, who, in the twelft...

Harald was only ten years old when he succeeded his father. Many of the chiefs thought that it would be an easy matter now to divide the country between them, but Guthorm, a bro...

When Harald the Fairhaired was nearly seventy years old, he begat a son by Thora Moster-stang (Moster-pole). She was so called because she was tall, and her family came from the...

Haakon did a great deal to improve the internal conditions of the country. He regulated the judicial districts, and gave the Gulathings-law for the western district, with common...

The Gunhild-sons (or Eriks-sons) immediately returned to Norway when they received the message that Haakon the Good had named them as heirs to the throne. The oldest one, Harald...

Earl Haakon subdued all those parts of the country belonging to his dominion, and remained all winter (970) in Throndhjem. As he proceeded along the coast he ordered that in all...

When the Gunhild-sons had killed Trygve Olafson, king in Viken (the grandson of Harald the Fairhaired), in 963, Trygve's widow Astrid fled with her foster-father, Thorolf Lusars...

Olaf Trygvason was twenty-seven years old when he came to Norway. At a general Thing at Throndhjem the people elected him king of all Norway, as Harald the Fairhaired had been,...

During the reign of Earl Haakon a man from Jæderen, called Erik the Red, being obliged to leave Norway because he had killed a man, proceeded to the western part of Iceland. Her...

After the battle of Svolder, the three allied princes divided the kingdom of Norway between them. King Olaf the Swede got four districts in the Throndhjem country, and the distr...

Olaf Haraldson, after his death called Olaf the Saint, was the son of Harald Grenske and Aasta. Harald Grenske, who, as we have seen, at one time governed Viken under the suzera...

Leaving his long-ships (battleships) behind him at Northumberland, Olaf sailed, in the fall of 1015, with two merchant-ships and 120 well-armed men, across the North Sea to Norw...

In the summer of 1029 Earl Haakon went to England to fetch his bride, Gunhild, a daughter of Canute's sister. Everything was satisfactorily arranged, but on his return voyage hi...

When King Canute the Great heard that Earl Haakon had been lost in a shipwreck on his way to Norway, he concluded to put his natural son Svein on the throne of Norway. Svein's m...

Magnus was a natural child of Olaf the Saint, his mother being a girl by the name of Alfhild, who was usually called the king's slave-woman, although she was of good descent. Sh...

Harald, the son of Sigurd Syr and Astrid, now became the sole king of Norway. As we have seen, Harald fled from the country after the battle of Stiklestad (1030). He went to Rus...

The English king permitted King Harald Sigurdson's son Olaf to leave the country with the men he had left. Olaf proceeded to the Orkney Isles, where he remained during the winte...

Immediately after the death of Olaf Kyrre, his son Magnus was proclaimed at Viken king of all Norway; but the Upland people chose his cousin Haakon, the foster-son of Thorer of...

In the autumn the remnants of King Magnus's army and fleet left the island of Man, and with his thirteen year old son, Sigurd, returned to Norway. On their arrival in Norway, Si...

The year before King Sigurd's death a young man named Harald Gille (or Gillekrist, _i.e._, dedicated to Christ) came to Norway from Ireland with his mother, and declared that he...

Queen Ingerid, the widow of Harald Gille, immediately after her husband's death held a consultation with the liegemen and court-men, and they decided to send a fast sailing vess...

From the time of Olaf Kyrre (the Quiet) there were three bishops in Norway; one in Nidaros, one in Bergen, and one in Oslo. During the reign of Kings Eystein and Sigurd the Crus...

After the fall of King Inge in the battle at Oslo, Haakon Herdebred (the Broad-shouldered) took possession of the whole country. He distributed all the offices, in the towns and...

After the battle of Sekken, Erling Skakke proceeded with King Magnus and the whole army up to Nidaros, where the Thing was convened, and Magnus was proclaimed king of all Norway...

After the fall of Magnus Erlingson, King Sverre brought the whole country under his control, and no one dared to refuse him obedience. The same sagacity that he had shown in his...

After Sverre's death his only son, Haakon, who was then twenty-eight or thirty years old, was proclaimed king of Norway. In the letter which Sverre wrote to his son on his death...

After the death of King Inge, the discord which had been fermenting began to show itself. The ambitious Earl Skule, while pretending to favor King Inge's young son, Guthorm, rea...

During the reign of Haakon Haakonson lived the renowned author of sagas, Snorre Sturlason. He was born in the year 1178 at Hvam (or Kvam), in the western province of Iceland. Hi...

Haakon's son Magnus now became king of Norway. He had been crowned six years before his father's death, and there was no one to dispute his right, King Haakon having declared on...

At the death of King Magnus only two of his children were alive, Erik, who had already been proclaimed king, and Haakon, who had been made duke at the same time. Erik was twelve...

At the death of King Erik the throne of Norway was inherited by his brother Haakon, who had, during his brother's reign, under the title of duke, ruled his part of the country w...

Magnus, the son of King Haakon V.'s daughter Ingeborg and Duke Erik of Sweden, was only three years old at the death of his mother's father. While he was in his minority the aff...

Olaf, the only son of King Haakon Magnusson and the Danish Margaret, was, at the death of his maternal grandfather, Valdemar Atterdag (1376), proclaimed king of Denmark under th...

As young Olaf left no offspring, it was quite generally supposed in Norway that the kingdom would be given to his nearest relative, Haakon Jonson, a grandson of King Haakon V.'s...

According to the provisions of the Kalmar Union, a new king was to be elected by the authorized delegates of the three countries; but, instead of that, the Danish Council of Sta...

After the death of King Christopher, the Swedes elected Carl Knutsson Bonde king of Sweden, while the Danes elected Count Christian of Oldenborg, at the age of twenty-two, becau...

Christian's eldest son, Hans, or Johannes, had already as a child been proclaimed as his father's successor in all three countries, but after the death of Christian neither the...

After the death of King Hans, his only son, the cruel Christian, mounted the throne; but the Council of State and the nobility, well knowing that he would be a less compliant mo...

Norway had taken no part in the expulsion of King Christian, and for a time remained loyal to him. The newly-elected archbishop, Olaf Engelbrektson, proceeded to Rome in order t...

At the death of Frederick I. an interregnum occurred, as the Danish estates were unable to agree upon the election of a new king. The nobles favored the late king's oldest son,...

At the great Diet, held in Copenhagen, in 1536, it was decided that the Catholic faith should be abolished, the property of the bishops and the cloisters was confiscated to the...

Christian III. was succeeded by his oldest son, Frederick II., who was then twenty-five years old. This vain and worthless monarch commenced his reign with a successful war on t...

Frederick II. was succeeded by his son, Christian IV., a king who became very popular with the Norwegians. Christian was only eleven years of age at his father's death. Accordin...

After the death of Christian IV. some months elapsed before the Council of State would agree to elect his son, Frederick III., to the throne. He was finally elected toward the e...

Christian V., who succeeded his father, Frederick III., in 1670, was the first Danish-Norwegian king who mounted the throne by hereditary right, and was not obliged to sign a ch...

At the death of Christian V., his oldest son ascended the throne under the title of Frederick IV. His education had been sadly neglected; but, by untiring industry and energy af...

Christian VI., who succeeded his father, Frederick IV., in 1730, commenced his reign by discharging the most of his father's experienced advisers and friends. The very able Bart...

When Christian VI. died, his eldest son, Frederick V., ascended the throne. He was a man of limited intelligence, but of a kindly disposition. By his affability and his taste fo...

At the death of Frederick V., his son Christian, who was hardly seventeen years of age, ascended the throne; and, shortly afterward, married the fifteen year old Caroline Mathil...

When, on the death of his insane father, Frederick VI. changed his title of regent to that of king of Denmark, his domains were in a sad condition. They were at war with England...

The election of a new successor to the Swedish throne was no easy problem. Under the conditions prevailing in Europe it was thought necessary to make a choice that would be appr...

Prince Christian Frederick, a cousin of King Frederick VI. and heir presumptive to the Danish-Norwegian throne, had, in May, 1813, been sent up to Norway as viceroy (_Statholder...

After the final defeat of Napoleon, the allied powers, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and England, granted the request of Charles John and promised to urge Norway to accept the supre...

The first Storthing (Parliament), after the union had been accomplished, remained in session a year, and together with the Swedish Diet adopted the "Act of Union," or Rigsakt (1...

The people who emigrated from Norway and settled in Iceland, after Harald the Fairhaired had subdued the many independent chiefs and established the monarchy (872), for the most...

The following is the Constitution adopted at the Convention at Eidsvold on the 17th day of May, 1814, and amended and ratified by the Storthing on the 4th day of November, 1814,...