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Peeps at Many Lands
Norway
By
Lieut.-Col. A. F. Mockler-Ferryman, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S.
With twelve full page illustrations in colour
By
A. Heaton Cooper & Nico Jungman
London
Adam and Charles Black
1911
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. The Land of the Vikings 1
II. Modern Norway 5
III. The People and Their Industries 9
IV. On the Farm 15
V. Manners and Customs 20
VI. School and Play 25
VII. Some Fairy Tales 32
VIII. The Hardanger Fjord 37
IX. A Glimpse of the Fjelds 43
X. Wild Nature--Beasts 48
XI. Wild Nature--Birds 54
XII. Waterfalls, Snowfields, and Glaciers 60
XIII. Driving in Norway 66
XIV. Arctic Days and Nights 70
XV. Laplanders at Home 78
XVI. Winter in Christiania 84
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Skjæggedalsfos, Hardanger Fjord frontispiece
Facing Page
Nærodal, from Stalheim, Sogne Fjord viii
Fishing Through the Ice on Christiania Fjord 9
Making "Fladbröd"--A Cottage Interior 16
A Hardanger Bride 25
A Baby of Telemarken 32
Godösund, Hardanger Fjord 41
A Sæter 48
Bondhus Glacier, Hardanger Fjord 57
Lærdalsören 64
A Lapp Mother and Child 73
Skiers Drinking Goosewine 80
Sætersdalen Girl In National Costume on the cover
Sketch-Map of Norway on page vii.
NORWAY
CHAPTER I
THE LAND OF THE VIKINGS
Who has not heard of the Vikings--the dauntless sea-rovers, who in the
days of long ago were the dread of Northern Europe? We English should
know something of them, for Viking blood flowed in the veins of many
of our ancestors. And these fierce fighting men came in their ships
across the North Sea from Norway on more than one occasion to invade
England. But they came once too often, and were thoroughly defeated at
the Battle of Stamford Bridge, when, as will be remembered, Harald the
Hard, King of Norway, was killed in attempting to turn his namesake,
King Harold of England, off his throne.
Norwegian historians, however, do not say very much about this
particular invasion. They prefer to dwell on the great deeds of
another King Harald, who was called "Fairhair," and who began his
reign some two hundred years earlier. This Harald was only a boy
of ten years of age when he came to the throne, but he determined
to increase the size of his kingdom, which was then but a small one,
so he trained his men to fight, built grand new ships, and then began
his conquests. Norway was at that time divided up into a number of
districts or small kingdoms, each of which was ruled over by an Earl
or petty King, and it was these rulers whom Harald set to work to
subdue. He intended to make one united kingdom of all Norway, and
he eventually succeeded in doing so. But he had many a hard fight;
and if the Sagas, as the historical records of the North are called,
speak truly, he fought almost continuously during twelve long years
before he had accomplished his task, and even then he was only just
twenty-one years of age.
They say that he did all these wonderful things because a girl, named
Gyda, whom he wanted to marry, refused to have anything to say to him
until he had made himself King of a really big kingdom. He made a vow
that he would not comb or cut his hair until he had conquered the whole
country. He led his men to victory after victory, and at length fought
his last great battle at Hafrsfjord (to the south of Stavanger). The
sea-fight was desperate and long, but Harald's fleet succeeded in
overpowering that of the enemy, and Sulki, King of Rogaland, as well
as Erik, King of Hardanger, were slain. Then Harald cut and dressed
his hair, the skalds composed poems in honour of the event, and for
ever after he was known as Fairhair. He was truly a great Viking,
and he did not rest content with the conquest of Norway alone; for
he brought his ships across the North Sea and conquered the Isle of
Man, the Hebrides, the Shetlands, and the Orkneys, and he lived to
the age of eighty-three.
Then there are the stories of the two Olafs--Olaf Tryggvasson and
Olaf the Saint, each of whom took part in many a fight on British
soil, each of whom was the champion of Christianity in Norway
and fought his way to the throne, and each of whom fell in battle
under heroic circumstances, the one at Svold (A.D. 1000), the other
at Sticklestad (A.D. 1030). To us it is interesting to know that
King Olaf Tryggvasson, on one of his early Viking expeditions, was
baptized in the Scilly Isles, that as his second wife he married an
Irish Princess, and that for some time he lived in Dublin. To the
Norwegians he is a Norse hero of the greatest renown, who during his
short reign of barely five years never ceased to force Christianity
on the heathen population, and who, at the age of thirty-one, came to
an untimely end. His fleet was ambuscaded and surrounded, and when
his men had made their last stand he refused to surrender. Neither
would he suffer the ignominy of capture or death at the hands of
his enemies; so, with shield and sword in hand, and in full armour,
he leaped overboard, and immediately sank. For years afterwards his
faithful people believed that he would appear again, and many fancied
that, on occasions, their hero's spirit visited them.
Everyone knows the old triumphant line, "London Bridge is broken
down," yet few are aware that the words are translated from an old
Norse song, and fewer still could say who broke down the bridge. The
story goes that this was accomplished by the other Olaf, afterwards
known as St. Olaf. He and his Vikings had allied themselves with
Etheldred the Unready against the Danes, who held the Thames above
London Bridge. The bridge itself, which in those days was a rough
wooden structure, was densely packed with armed men, prepared to
resist the advance of the combined fleets. But Olaf drove his stout
ships against it, made them fast to the piers, hoisted all his sail
and got out his oars, and succeeded in upsetting the bridge into
the river, thus securing victory for Etheldred. But that was before
Olaf gained the throne of Norway. What he did as King of that country
would take too long to tell here. Every district of Norway possesses
legends bearing on his visits when engaged in converting the people to
Christianity, and describing his powers of working miracles. Everywhere
the name of St. Olaf still remains engraven on the country. His death,
however, was that of a soldier--on the battle-field; and the lance
which Norway's patron saint carried in his last fight may even now
be seen by the altar in Trondhjem Cathedral.
It was St. Olaf's half-brother, Harald the Hard, who fell, as we have
said, at Stamford Bridge, when attempting the invasion of England in
1066. But all this is history nearly a thousand years old, and the
stirring tales of the Vikings are fully recorded, and may be read
in the Sagas. Ten centuries have changed the order of things. To-day
we have, in our turn, become the invaders, albeit full of peace and
good-will; and over the same seas upon which once danced Long Ship,
Serpent, and Dragon, our great ugly, smoky steamers now plough
their way.