The Story of Norway

The indignation which the Peace of Kiel aroused in Norway was evidence that the Norsemen had awakened from their long hibernating torpor and meant to assert their rights. They w...

We have seen that Christianity did not advance in Norway during the mild and lax government of the earls. Olaf Tryggvesson, with all his zeal and vigor, could not in the short s...

The first act of the Birchlegs, after the death of King Inge, was to give Haakon a body-guard, which was to follow him night and day. Earl Skule, on his side, opened a campaign...

It was a dangerous precedent Sverre established when, without any other proof of his royal birth than his own assertion, he ascended the throne of Norway. The prospect was thus...

King Olaf's first endeavor, after having ascended the throne, was to Christianize the country. He was by nature well adapted for this task, being zealous in the faith, resolute,...

Erling Skakke had effectually cleared the way to the throne for his son, by killing every descendant of the royal house whom he could lay hands on. There was, however, another u...

Harold was only ten years old when his father died, and the kings whom Halfdan had conquered thought that the chance was now favorable for recovering what they had lost. But Har...

As Magnus the Good left no sons behind him, Harold Sigurdsson was the only remaining descendant in the male line of Harold the Fairhaired, and therefore undisputed heir to the t...

During the reign of Christian III. the Lutheran faith was introduced into Denmark, and its introduction into Norway followed as a matter of course. The new Danish ecclesiastical...

MAGNUS OLAFSSON was an illegitimate child, his mother, Alfhild, being, according to one report, an Englishwoman of high birth; according to another, the queen's laundress. When...

By his daring intrigue Earl Haakon had attained the goal of his desires. He had avenged his father's death, humiliated his enemies, and gained a power far beyond that of any of...

The Norsemen had up to the middle of the eighth century played no part in the world's history. Their very existence had been unknown or but vaguely known to the rest of Europe....

In accordance with established custom, the three sons of Magnus Barefoot were proclaimed kings, and the land was divided between them. There is, however, a probability that this...

The legitimate heir to the throne after Haakon's death was his nephew, Guttorm Sigurdsson, a son of his brother, Sigurd Lavard. In spite of his tender age, the Birchlegs made ha...

Haakon, though he was outwardly his father's image, did not resemble him in spirit. He was of a conciliatory nature, amiable, and endowed with a charm of manner which won him al...

It has been said that, during the union with Denmark, Norway had no history, and this is partly true. The history of the Oldenborg kings, with their wars, and court intrigues an...

The sons of Gunhild lost no time in taking possession of the kingdom of their fathers. It was not, however, the entire Norway to which they succeeded, but only the middle distri...

While Harold's despotism had been civilizing and, on the whole, beneficent, that of Erik Blood-Axe was disorganizing and destructive. With him the old turbulent viking spirit as...

On his return to Norway, Olaf Haroldsson found his elder brother Magnus, who had already been acknowledged as king before his father's death, in possession of the government. Af...

The Icelander Snorre Sturlasson wrote in the thirteenth century a very remarkable book, called the Heimskringla, or the Sagas of the Kings of Norway. In this book he says that O...

Queen Ingerid, the widow of Harold Gille, availed herself of the general indignation against Sigurd Slembedegn, to have her own two-year-old son, Inge, proclaimed king. She also...

With the death of Haakon Haakonsson, the continuous story of the sagas ceases. A fragment of the life of his son, Magnus Law-Mender (Lagaboeter), written by Sturla Thordsson, is...

After King Olaf's death at Svolder, the allied princes divided his kingdom between them. To Earl Erik were given all the shires along the western coast from Finmark to Lindesnes...

The Norsemen are a Germanic race, and belong, accordingly, to the great Aryan family. Their next of kin are the Swedes and Danes. Their original home was Asia, and probably that...

The story of Olaf Tryggvesson's youth, as related in the sagas, is so marvellous that it can scarcely claim absolute credibility. The wonder-loving tradition seized upon him fro...

Olaf was succeeded both in Denmark and Norway by his mother, Margaret, who became reigning queen. The real heir to the Norwegian throne was, in accordance with the law of succes...

The Yngling race traced its ancestry from the god Frey. Snorre Sturlasson, in his famous work, "The Sagas of the Kings of Norway,"[A] mentions a long line of kings who were desc...

During the reign of Haakon Haakonsson lived the renowned Icelandic historian, Snorre Sturlasson. It is due to him that the ancient history of Norway has been saved from oblivion...

The barons, who had acquired extensive privileges during the reign of King Magnus, had a chance to establish their power still more securely during the minority of his son Erik,...

Magnus Eriksson, the son of Duke Erik and Ingeborg, was only three years old when his grandfather died, and the government therefore fell into the hands of a regency, the member...

In his dying message to his son Sverre advised him to make peace with the Church. He foresaw that the interdict which was weighing heavily upon the land would be an increasingly...

When the tidings of King Olaf's death had gone abroad, the inhabitants of Viken acknowledged his son, Magnus, as king, while the Troenders made haste to proclaim his nephew, Haa...

King Knut could not, with his extensive possessions, devote much time to the government of Norway. He therefore had his son Sweyn proclaimed King of Norway in his stead. Sweyn's...

When the tidings of his father's death reached him, Magnus hastened to summon a _thing_ in Oslo and have himself proclaimed king of the whole country. Harold, who had been waiti...

Duke Haakon, the second son of Magnus Law-Mender, succeeded his brother without opposition. He was then twenty-nine years old, tall and of stately appearance. He had not been lo...

Haakon Sigurdsson lost no time in proclaiming himself king of all Norway, though he dispensed preliminarily with the ceremony of a formal proclamation at Oere-_thing_. As he was...