Insight Guides Norway (Travel Guide eBook)

By Insight Guides

This Insight Guide is a lavishly illustrated inspirational travel guide to Norway and a beautiful souvenir of your trip. Perfect for travellers looking for a deeper dive into the destination's history and culture, it's ideal to inspire and help you plan your travels. With its great selection of places to see and colourful magazine-style layout, this Norway guidebook is just the tool you need to accompany you before or during your trip. Whether it's deciding when to go, choosing what to see or creating a travel plan to cover key places like Preikestolen, Hardangervidda National Park and Bergen, it will answer all the questions you might have along the way. It will also help guide you when you'll be exploring Tromsø or discovering Røros on the ground. Our Norway travel guide was fully-updated post-COVID-19.

The Insight Guide Norway covers: Oslo, the heart of Norway, western central Norway, Telemark and the south, Rogaland, Stavanger, Hordaland, Bergen, Sogn to Nordfjord, Møre og Romsdal, Trondheim, the far North, Svalbard.

In this travel guide you will find:

IN-DEPTH CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL FEATURES  
Created to explore the culture and the history of Norway to get a greater understanding of its modern-day life, people and politics.

BEST OF
The top attractions and Editor's Choice highlighting the most special places to visit around Norway.

CURATED PLACES, HIGH-QUALITY MAPS
Geographically organised text cross-referenced against full-colour, high-quality travel maps for quick orientation in Oslo, Bergen and many more locations in Norway.

COLOUR-CODED CHAPTERS
Every part of Norway, from Stavanger to Svalbard has its own colour assigned for easy navigation.

TIPS AND FACTS
Up-to-date historical timeline and in-depth cultural background to Norway as well as an introduction to Norway's food and drink and fun destination-specific features.  

PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION
A-Z of useful advice on everything from when to go to Norway, how to get there and how to get around, as well as Norway's climate, advice on tipping, etiquette and more.  

STRIKING PICTURES
Features inspirational colour photography, including the stunning Geirangerfjord and the spectacular Lindesnes Lighthouse.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Jun 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781839053108

Insight Guides

Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book

This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to Norway, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editor’s Choice categories of activities and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in Norway. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, activities from culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in Norway are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Norway. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

© 2023 Apa Digital AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

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Table of Contents

Norway’s Top 10 Attractions

Editor’s Choice

Northern Contrasts

An Untamed Land

Decisive Dates

Beginnings

Kings and Christianity

The 400-Year Sleep

Union with Sweden

An Independent, Modern Country

Who Are The Norwegians?

Epic Explorers

The Sami: People of Four Nations

Insight: Folklore: Sagas and Folktales

Wild Norway

An Outdoor Life

Sporting Passions

Fishing: Sport and Sustenance

Insight: Nature’s Larder

The Traditional Arts

Art and Culture

Insight: Architecture

Why Does Everything Cost So Much?

Places

Oslo, Nordic City Of Light

Around Oslo And Its Fjord

The Heart Of Norway

Western Central Norway

Telemark And The South

Rogaland

Stavanger

Hordaland

Bergen

The Most Beautiful Voyage

From Sogn To Nordfjord

Møre Og Romsdal

Trondheim

Into The Arctic

Insight: Land of the Midnight Sun

The Far North

Svalbard

Transport

A-Z: A Handy Summary of Practical Information

Language

Further Reading

NORWAY’S TOP 10 ATTRACTIONS

Top Attraction 1

Tromsø. The gateway to the far north, Tromsø has great museums and a beautiful cathedral, and appeals to adventurous types curious about the Arctic. For more information, click here.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 2

Preikestolen. The route up to Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock, is Norway’s most popular hike, and with good reason. The views are stunning, but vertigo-sufferers should steer clear. For more information, click here.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 3

Oslo. Norway’s capital is a vibrant city, with child-friendly museums, great dining and shopping, and a stunning opera house. For more information, click here.

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Top Attraction 4

Hardangervidda National Park. Europe’s largest mountainous plateau and a popular hiking destination in summer. For more information, click here.

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Top Attraction 5

Bergen. Norway’s second city sits on a craggy shoreline on the west coast surrounded by islands. It’s rich in history and sights, so allow a couple of days to make the most of its museums, galleries and restaurants. For more information, click here.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 6

Trondheim. Norway’s third-largest city is still its historical and religious capital. Seen here is a monument to Olav Tryggvason, the city’s founder. For more information, click here.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 7

The fjords. Norway’s most spectacular attraction: each has its own character and appeal – this is Geirangerfjord, to many the most beautiful. For more information, click here.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 8

Lofoten. Its dramatic island scenery with rugged peaks and white sand beaches, and its traditional fishing industry make Lofoten well worth the trip north. For more information, click here.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 9

North Cape. This is Continental Europe’s northernmost tip and the last frontier. For more information, click here.

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Top Attraction 10

Røros. The Unesco World Heritage Site is a beautifully preserved old mining town famed for its turf-roofed wooden buildings and its church. For more information, click here.

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EDITOR’S CHOICE

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Lysefjord, Rogaland.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

BEST FJORDS (FROM NORTH TO SOUTH)

Geirangerfjord. A Unesco World Heritage Site, Geirangerfjord is famous for its emerald waters and stunning waterfalls; it is arguably the most beautiful of the Norwegian fjords. For more information, click here.

Sognefjord. Norway’s deepest and longest fjord, and one of its most spectacular. Here you’ll find the Urnes stave church and the Norwegian Glacier Museum. The spectacular Flåm railway ends in Aurland on Sognefjord, and is a must too. For more information, click here.

Nærøyfjord. An arm of Sognefjord, and only 250 metres (820ft) across at its narrowest, the peaceful Narrow fjord is another Unesco World Heritage Site. The fjord, which sometimes freezes over in winter, is popular with kayakers in summer. For more information, click here.

Hardangerfjord. Visit this fjord in spring, when the many orchards are in full bloom, or in summer to gorge on the delicious moreller (black cherries), then call by the manor house of Baroniet Rosendal, and the excellent folk museum at Utne. For more information, click here.

Lysefjord. Barren and windswept, Lysefjord is home to Preikestolen, a huge block of granite jutting out 600 metres (2,000ft) above sea level, and Kjerag, a mighty boulder precariously stuck between two mountain walls. A popular destination for extreme-sport enthusiasts and hikers. For more information, click here.

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Hallingdal stave church.

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BEST ARCHITECTURE

Oslo Opera House. This striking building in white granite and glass has made its mark on the Oslo waterfront since opening in 2008, and is now one of the capital’s top attrac­tions. For more information, click here.

Ålesund. When this town burned to the ground in January 1904 it was rebuilt in the Jugendstil style and today hosts a superb concentration of Art Nouveau buildings. For more information, click here.

Stave churches. There are 28 stave churches in Norway, two of the most striking being the church at Urnes, which is on the Unesco World Heritage list, and the Heddal stave church in Telemark, the largest. For more information, click here and For more information, click here.

Hamsun Centre, Nordland. With its grassy roof and black wood exterior, the Hamsun Centre towers over the island of Hamarøy, where the controversial novelist Knut Hamsun spent his childhood. For more information, click here.

Sami Parliament, Finnmark. An outstanding exercise in modern architecture, with a design blending Sami culture and building traditions with modern technology. For more information, click here and For more information, click here.

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Cross-country skiing.

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BEST OUTDOOR PURSUITS

Hiking. Norway is a hikers’ paradise, and opportunities abound all over the country, with Jotunheimen and Hardangervidda among the most popular walking haunts. For more information, click here.

Whale-watching. Between May and September off the coast of Nordland and in the Lofoten Islands, you don’t need too much luck to spot minke whales, orca and even sperm whales. For more information, click here.

Northern lights. There is nothing quite like witnessing the northern lights (aurora borealis), one of nature’s most breathtaking spectacles. Visible almost anywhere north of the Arctic Circle in winter when the skies are clear. For more information, click here.

Hurtigruten. The Norwegian coastal voyage from Bergen to Kirkenes has been recognised as one of the best cruises in the world – it’s an ideal way to experience the drama of Norway’s extraordinary coastline. For more information, click here.

Cross-country skiing. Come winter, Norway becomes one of Europe’s best winter-sport destinations. Cross-country skiing here reigns supreme, with thousands of kilometres of prepared tracks. For more information, click here.

BEST MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

National Museum, Oslo. A great introduction to Norwegian art, focusing on the late 18th century to the early 20th, with works by artists such as Christian Krogh and J.C. Dahl well represented. For more information, click here.

Viking Ship Museum, Oslo. Three carefully restored Viking ships and hundreds of artefacts draw the crowds to this ever-popular museum in Bygdøy. For more information, click here.

Maihaugen, Lillehammer. One of the best folk museums in the country, with 200 buildings, wonderful handicraft and folk art, and activities for children year-round. For more information, click here.

Norwegian Petroleum Museum, Stavanger. A highly interactive, educational museum that will delight both grown-ups and children visiting the oil capital of Norway. For more information, click here.

KODE, Bergen. One of the largest art, craft and design museum complexes in Scandinavia, with a collection of some 50,000 objects spread over four sites. For more information, click here.

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The northern lights over Kvaløya.

Innovation Norway

BEST HISTORIC SIGHTS

Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim. Norway’s oldest cathedral, and the resting place of St Olav, the king who brought Christianity to Norway. For more information, click here.

Old Town, Fredrikstad. Scandinavia’s best-preserved fortress town. Quaint, cobblestoned streets and period wooden buildings. For more information, click here.

Akershus Fortress, Oslo. The pride of Norway’s capital, perched on a bluff overlooking the harbour and fjord, this 1,000-year-old complex is a must. For more information, click here.

Røros. This well-preserved old mining town, with its 300-year-old wooden houses, is a remarkable survivor of the industrial past. Some mines are open for tours. For more information, click here.

Håkonshallen, Bergen. Norway’s royal family still holds events at this legendary spot on the Bergen waterfront. For more information, click here.

Breathtakingly beautiful Geirangerfjord.

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An orca spyhopping in front of a fishing boat off Skjervoy in the Atlantic Ocean.

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West Norway Museum of Decorative Art, Bergen.

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Rorvik, capital of the Vikna island group.

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NORTHERN CONTRASTS

Norway rewards the visitor with a beguiling mix of tradition and modern convenience, spectacular nature and city delights.

Norway is a land of contrasts: majestic mountains tower above mysterious fjords; harsh winters are relieved by often glorious summers; and long polar nights give way to the radiant midnight sun. One of the oldest civilisations in Europe has become one of its youngest nations. The rapacious Vikings have turned into global peacemakers. It is a country where Grieg and Ibsen compete with Eurovision and American sitcoms; where environmental concerns challenge over-consumption. Norway has urban excitement and rural tranquillity: shopping malls and Toyotas rub shoulders with compass and rucksack; high technology parallels tradition.

A thriving offshore oil industry has brought prosperity and, as a consequence, social habits are changing rapidly. Though, in a society where the divorce rate is high and cohabitation the norm, the home and family remain important. Politically, democracy and debate pervade all levels of society. Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Norway described the Norwegians in 1874 thus: Great patriotism and hospitality are two of the leading characteristics of the Norwegians; they are often cold and reserved, and combine great simplicity of manner with firmness and kindness. ‘Deeds, not words’ is their motto – 136 years later, little has changed.

Unexpected pleasures

Most first-time visitors are pleasantly surprised when they arrive in Norway. Not only do most of the population speak fluent – or fluentish – English, but there is a general sense of hospitality, and that’s before you even get to the scenery, which fulfils every expectation in its raw beauty. The architecture too is frequently stunning – from numerous Unesco-listed stave churches and an entire Jugendstil city in Ålesund, through to recent ultramodern, prestige buildings in the likes of Oslo and Bergen. Add to this the fact that communications and services are very efficient, and that it is safe to go out at night, and you have all the ingredients for an enjoyable stay. As for prices, Norway can be eyewateringly expensive, so budgeting for your trip is a must (for more information, click here). But Norway’s spectacular nature is free – another reason to make the most of its best playground: the great outdoors.

Geirangerfjord, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

AN UNTAMED LAND

Throughout history, Norway’s difficult topography has been both a challenge and a blessing for the country’s inhabitants. It has also played a significant part in shaping Norwegian attitudes.

From the thousand islands and skerries of the Skagerrak in the south to the sparsely vegetated Arctic tundra landscapes of the far north, and the dense forests of eastern Norway to the deep fjords in the west of the country, Norway’s landscape is amazingly varied.

Covering the western and some of the northern part of the Scandinavian peninsula, Norway (together with the Svalbard archipelago and Jan Mayen island) spreads over 385,155 sq km (150,000 sq miles), an area almost as big as California. Stretching 1,750km (1,090 miles) from south to north, the country is unevenly distributed in width, with the bulk of the landmass south of Trondheim. At its narrowest point near Narvik, it is only 6km (4 miles) wide.

One of Norway’s remote outposts, and home to the polar bear, is the Svalbard archipelago, 600km (370 miles) north of the mainland. First used as a whaling base, then mined for its coal, Svalbard today lives from tourism and research.

Striking landscapes and seascapes

Peaks and plateaux dominate the landscape in many places. Norway is one of Europe’s most mountainous countries, with four-fifths of the landmass at an altitude over 150 metres (500ft). The highest summit, Galdhøpiggen in Jotunheimen (literally Home of the Giants), culminates at 2,469 metres (8,100ft). The vast majority of Norway’s highest peaks are concentrated in this area. Some of mainland Europe’s largest glaciers can also be found in Norway – at 487 sq km (188 sq miles), Jostedalsbreen is the biggest of them all. Elsewhere, forests cover 23 percent of the territory, and cultivated land a meagre 3 percent, with the rest being lakes, bog, marshes and uncultivated land.

Summer scene in Eidsbugarde, Jotenheimen.

Innovation Norway

The bulk of the population is concentrated along the coast, and inland in the many valleys carved by glaciers during the last Ice Age – the same ones that formed Norway’s many fjords. One of the largest valleys is the 230km- (143-mile) long Gudbrandsdal, which stretches from Lillehammer in the south to Dovre in the north, and is a main traffic axis on the road from Oslo to Trondheim. South of Gudbrandsdal is Mjøsa, Norway’s largest lake.

Another of Norway’s striking features is its coastline, the world’s most rugged, and Europe’s longest, with a length of 25,000km (15,500 miles) – and that’s only taking into account the mainland and fjords. Add in the outlying islands (around 200,000 are scattered along the coast of Norway) and it stretches to over 83,000km (51,500 miles).

Fjords: the soul of Norway

Norway’s long coastline is punctuated by fjords all the way from Oslo in the southeast to the Arctic north. The most dramatic are those found along the west coast, with steep mountain walls rising up from the water, and small farms clinging to every ledge and hectare of green. The fjords are beautiful, timeless, and everyone’s idea of the soul of Norway.

The Lysefjord, to the east of Stavanger.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

VITAL STATISTICS

Highest mountain: Galdhøpiggen

Longest river: Glomma

Largest lake: Mjøsa

Largest glacier (on mainland Norway):

Jostedalsbreen, 487 sq km (188 sq miles)

City receiving the most precipitation: Bergen

Population density: 16 people per sq km

(41 per sq mile)

Natural resources: oil, gas, iron, copper, fish,

timber, hydropower

Land boundaries: Sweden (1,619km/1,006 miles),

Finland (727km/452 miles), Russia (196km/122 miles)

The rugged Lofoten Islands, lying off Norway’s northwest coast, have since pre-Viking times been the centre for the country’s cod-fishing industry, which is still thriving today.

The western fjords begin at Stavanger in the south, now Norway’s oil capital, not far from Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), the great slab of rock standing a dizzying 600 metres (2,000ft) above Lysefjord. They stretch north to Hardangerfjord, one of the largest in the country, where the old traditions of music and storytelling influenced travellers such as the 19th-century composer Edvard Grieg.

Further north along the coast lies the port of Bergen, known as the gateway to the fjords; then Sognefjord (the longest and deepest fjord) and Nordfjord, in an area of glaciers, lakes and mountain massifs; Storfjord, parts of which bite far into the land; and, finally, the calm of the Geiranger, arguably the prettiest fjord of them all.

Human geography

The country’s topography has shaped the Norwegian character: Norwegians have had to adapt to the difficult lay of the land, and have long had to fight the elements to eke out a livelihood.

The fjords gave Norway its great seafaring tradition. For the early Vikings, who travelled to Scotland, Iceland and the rest of Europe, as much as for the modern traveller who chooses a ship as the most comfortable way to experience this magnificent coastline, the sea has provided the link. Today 15 percent of Norwegian households own one or more boats, and sailing is one of the nation’s favourite pastimes.

Climbing the glacier at Jostedal.

Innovation Norway

Hardangervidda, a popular hiking destination in the southwest, is Norway’s largest national park. It is home to wild reindeer, arctic fox and snowy owl. The park doubled as Planet Hoth in the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back.

The proximity of seas teeming with fish has also been a key factor in the development of the local fishing industry, going back 1,200 years to the first exports of stockfish to elsewhere in Europe during the Viking age. More recently, it was the discovery of oil and gas in the North Sea which fuelled (literally) the huge economic boom that has seen Norway change from being a relatively poor country into one of the world’s richest.

On land it was the cold winters with heavy snowfalls and the harsh terrain separating isolated valley communities that led Norwegians to invent skiing, and then to excel at it. To this day the saying goes that Norwegians are born with skis on their feet, and anyone visiting Norway in winter will wonder whether to take this literally, such is the passion of Norwegians for winter sports.

Ski sailing in a storm, Hardangervidda.

Innovation Norway

When the snow melts, the mountains remain, and come summer Norwegians like hiking almost as much as they like cross-country skiing. The Jotunheimen, with its high peaks, has attracted serious mountaineers ever since the first tourists came to Norway in the 19th century, and the Hardangervidda, Europe’s largest mountainous plateau, comes a close second among Norway’s favourite places for hiking. Explorers Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen used the Hardangervidda to plan and prepare their polar expeditions.

Northern lights and midnight sun

Norway’s climate is temperate along the coast, much milder than its latitude would suggest. This is because the country benefits from the influence of the North Atlantic Current, warmed by the Gulf Stream. Inland, winters can be harsh. Røros is one of the coldest places in Norway – record temperatures of –50°C (–58°F) have been registered here in winter, the coldest south of Finnmark. About one-third of Norway lies within the Arctic Circle. During the long winter nights it is not unusual for the northern lights (aurora borealis) to be visible in many places – a beautiful natural phenomenon that brightens up the skies of Northern Norway from October to April.

Reindeer graze by Porsangerfjord.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

GEIRANGERFJORD

The famed Geirangerfjord and its surrounding area were in 2005 added to Unesco’s World Heritage List, which came as no surprise to the locals. It’s a magical place, narrow and far from the open sea, with waterfalls crashing down steep mountain sides. Today, Geirangerfjord is the second-most important cruise centre in the country. Its popularity comes at a price, with up to 100 ships visiting the fjord in summer, causing pollution concerns. Efforts are being made to protect this environmentally sensitive area to prevent it from being damaged by the thousands of visitors arriving by ship and car every year.

In summer, days are noticeably longer throughout the country, but the midnight sun can only be observed above the Arctic Circle. It is a big attraction, drawing many tourists to Arctic Norway and the North Cape every year.

Flowers in the Vesterålen Islands.

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Fauna and flora

The country stretches over many latitudes and, due to its varied topography and climate, it has a greater variety of habitats than almost any other European country. As a result it possesses a very rich fauna and flora – as many as 60,000 species have been registered in Norway and its surrounding waters (for more information, click here).

Vegetation varies considerably, although the most common tree species are pine, spruce and birch. Timber is one of the country’s main resources, providing paper for printing. Mosses and lichens are another component of local forests, and heather and berry bushes, most notably blueberries and cloudberries, are also abundant.

Spectacular northern lights display.

Innovation Norway

DECISIVE DATES

A view of Bergen from 1840.

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Prehistoric Ages

12,000 years ago

The first hunter-gatherers appear in the territory of what is now Norway, following the retreat of the great ice sheets.

5,000–6,000 years ago

Growth of agriculture around Oslofjord.

1500–500 BC

Evidence of Bronze Age burial mounds and Iron Age workings.

Roman Age

AD 1–400

Burial sites indicate links with countries to the south. Latin-based runic letters appear.

Viking Age (AD 750–1030)

AD 793

Norwegian Vikings loot English monastery of Lindisfarne, and raid, trade with and colonise parts of Western Europe.

840–66

Vikings found Dublin (840), sack Paris (861) and control most of England by 866.

872

King Harald Hårfagre wins battle at Hafrsfjord, Stavanger.

1001

Sagas relate that Leiv Eiriksson establishes a colony at Vinland (present-day Newfoundland).

1028

King Canute of Denmark invades Norway.

1030

King Olav killed at the Battle of Stiklestad. Christianity spreads.

1050–66

Harald Hardråda founds Oslo (1048). His defeat at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, England, in 1066, effectively ends the Viking Age.

Middle Ages

1100

The first bishoprics include Nidaros (Trondheim) in 1152.

1130

Civil wars last until 1227. The population grows, towns develop and farmers change from freeholders to tenants.

1299–1343

Oslo becomes capital during the reign of Håkon V. Royal marriages produce a Norwegian-Swedish monarchy.

1349

Black Death reduces the population by 50 percent to about 180,000.

1380

Olav, son of Håkon VI, becomes king of Denmark and Norway.

1397

Trinity Sunday: union of the three crowns is formalised in Kalmar, Sweden.

Union with Denmark

1536

Norway loses its independence to the Danes.

1537

Reformation of the Norwegian Church imposed by Denmark.

1660

Introduction of absolute rule under Frederik III. In the 1660s the population reaches 440,000; 900,000 by 1801.

1807–14

Norway and Denmark ally with France in Napoleonic Wars; resulting blockade causes shipping and timber exports to collapse and famine to spread.

Union with Sweden

1814

January: Secession from Denmark. 17 May: Norwegian constitution is formally adopted at Eidsvoll. 10 October: Treaty of Kiel places Norway in a union with Sweden.

1825

Mass migration to the US begins.

1850–99

The first railway line (1854), the first trade union (1872) and the first political parties (1884) are set up. Norwegian arts flourish with Grieg’s music, Munch’s paintings and Ibsen’s dramas.

1905

August: national referendum ends union with Sweden.

Independence

1905

18 November: Storting (Parliament) elects Prince Carl of Denmark to be King (Haakon VII) of Norway.

1913

Universal suffrage is granted to women.

1920

Norway joins the League of Nations.

1939–45

Norway proclaims neutrality in World War II, but German forces invade in 1940. On 7 June 1945, King Haakon returns from exile. Birth of the social-welfare state.

1957

Haakon VII dies; Olav V is crowned king.

1960s

The start of oil exploration in the North Sea, leading to new-found wealth for Norway over the following decades.

1972 and 1994

Norway votes against EU membership.

1991

King Olav V is succeeded by Harald V.

1994

Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.

2000

Oslo celebrates its 1,000-year anniversary.

2006

Centre-left government led by prime minister Jens Stoltenberg of the Labour Party takes office. It is re-elected in 2009.

2010

New Holmenkollen ski jump opens in Oslo.

2011

Deadly terrorist attacks by right-wing extremist Anders Breivik on government buildings in Oslo and a Labour Party youth camp on the island of Utoya.

2013

The Conservative Party win elections. Erna Solberg becomes Norway’s second woman Prime Minister.

2016

The Norwegian Lutheran Church allows gay couples to marry in church. Construction of the fence along the border with Russia starts. Record number of illegal immigrant deportations.

2020

Covid-19 reaches Norway in late February; about 3,000 will die before a vaccination programme controls the pandemic.

2021

Conservative prime minister Erna Solberg concedes defeat to the Moderate Left in the general election.

2022

The stalemate continues between environmentalists who demand that Norway halts future oil and gas exploration and the governments who enjoy the proceeds.

BEGINNINGS

For over two centuries, the Vikings terrorised large parts of Europe, but they weren’t the first to settle in this harsh and cold land.

Life in Norway has always been influenced to an extraordinary degree by the terrain and the weather. The earliest signs of human habitation date from the end of the last Ice Age, around 10,000 BC. In the Finnmark region of north Norway, the Komsa culture was reliant upon sealing, whereas the people of the Fosna culture, further south, hunted both seals and reindeer. Both these societies were essentially static, sticking close to the coastal areas warmed by the Gulf Stream, avoiding the inhospitable interior, and were dependent upon flint and bone implements. At Alta, the Komsa people left behind hundreds of rock carvings and drawings, naturalistic representations of their way of life dating from the seventh to the third millennium BC.

The Gokstad ship, Viking Ship Museum, Oslo.

Glyn Genin/Apa Publications

Into the Bronze Age

As the edges of the icecap retreated from the western coastline, so new migrants slowly filtered north, bringing with them the Norwegian Bronze Age (1500–500 BC), which also saw a change in burial customs. In the Stone Age, the so-called Battle-Axe peoples had dug shallow earth graves, but these were now supplanted by burial mounds enclosing coffins in which supplies were placed in readiness for the afterlife. Building the mounds involved a substantial amount of effort, suggesting the existence of powerful chieftains who could organize the work, and who may also have been priests. Rock carvings became prevalent in southern Norway during this period too. In general terms, however, the Bronze Age was characterized more by the development of agriculture than by the use of metal, and stone implements remained the norm.

Viking age weapons in the Lofotr Viking Museum at the town of Borg.

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One step forward, two steps back

Around 500 BC Norway was affected by two adverse changes: the climate deteriorated and the westward movement of the Celts across central Europe disrupted trade with the Mediterranean. The former encouraged the development of settled, communal farming in an attempt to improve winter shelter and storage, with each clan resident in a large stone, turf and timber dwelling; the latter cut the supply of tin and copper and subsequently isolated Norway from the early Iron Age. The country’s isolation continued through much of the Classical period, spawning all sorts of odd ideas about the ‘Northmen’.

Odd rumours

The ancient classical world had curious opinions about the northerners: one, advanced by Pomponius Mela, was that, living on birds’ eggs, the people had hoofed feet, and ears so large that they covered their bodies, thereby dispensing with the need for clothing.

Another tale, Greek in origin and containing an element of truth, had the territory populated by Hyperboreans, a jolly race who lived in forests and sang and danced their way to incredible longevity. When tired of life, they feasted, bedecked themselves with flowers and threw themselves off cliffs. The Greek geographer Pytheas of Marseille, who went far enough north to note the short summer nights, probably visited southern Norway, but the regions beyond remained the subject of vague speculation. Pliny the Elder mentions Nerigon as the great island south of the legendary Ultima Thule, the outermost region of the earth; while Tacitus, in his Germania, demonstrated knowledge only of the Danes and Swedes.

Runestone from the Frederiksssund Viking Settlement.

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What’s in a rune?

The expansion of the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries AD revived Norway’s trading links with the Mediterranean. Evidence of these renewed contacts is provided across Scandinavia by runes, carved inscriptions dating from around 200 AD, whose 24-letter alphabet – the futhark – was clearly influenced by Greek and Latin capitals.

Initially, runes were seen as having magical powers and it was to gain their knowledge that the god Odin hung for nine nights on Yggdrasill, the tree of life, with a spear in his side; they also turn up in the sagas with Egil, in Egil’s Saga for instance, destroying a whale bone carved with runes because they contained Ten secret characters, [which] gave the young girl [the daughter of his friend] her grinding pain. But gradually rune carving became more prosaic, and most of the eight hundred or so runic inscriptions extant across Norway commemorate events and individuals: mothers and fathers, sons and slain comrades.

Rock drawings from the Bronze Age show boats that were capable of carrying 30 men (although not yet with sails), warriors on horseback and either two- or four-wheeled carts drawn by horses or oxen.

What we need is iron

In the fifth century AD, Norway’s agriculture was transformed by the importation of iron tools. Clearing the forests with iron axes was relatively easy and, with more land available, the pattern of settlement became less concentrated. Family homesteads leapfrogged up the valleys, and a class of wealthy farmers emerged, their prosperity based on fields and flocks.

Above them in the pecking order were local chieftains, the nature of whose authority varied considerably. Inland, the chieftains’ power was based on landed wealth, whereas the coastal lords, who had often