- Government and society
- Cultural life
The Viking chiefs established relations with Christian monarchies and the church, especially in Normandy and England. Thus Olaf I Tryggvason, a descendant of Harald Fairhair, led a Viking expedition to England in 991. He was baptized and returned to Norway in 995, claiming to be king and recognized as such along the coast, where Christianity was already known. These areas were Christianized by Olaf, by peaceful means if possible and by force if necessary; he also sent missionaries to Iceland, where the new religion was adopted by the parliament (Althing) in 999–1000. In the same year, Olaf was killed in the Battle of Svolder. Fifteen years later another descendant of Harald Fairhair, Olaf II Haraldsson—who had returned from England—was acknowledged as king throughout Norway, including the inland areas. Olaf worked to increase royal power and to complete the Christianization of the country. In so doing, he alienated the former chieftains, who called on Canute of Denmark (now ruler of England) for help. Olaf was killed in battle with the Danes and peasant leaders at Stiklestad in 1030.
Canute’s rule in Norway soon proved unpopular with the chieftains, and, with support from the bishops, the deceased king Olaf became St. Olaf, the patron saint of Norway. With the death of Canute in 1035, Olaf’s young son, Magnus, was elected king. He was succeeded in 1047 by his uncle Harald III Sigurdsson (Harald Hardraade), a former commander of the Vikings in the imperial guard in Constantinople. Harald was killed during a vain attempt to conquer England in 1066.
The Olaf (Fairhair) kings firmly established the Norwegian monarchy with the help of English bishops. In return, sees and abbeys received the larger part of the estates that the Fairhair dynasty had confiscated from the Viking chieftains during the unification of Norway.
The 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries
At the end of the Viking Age all royal sons, legitimate or illegitimate, were considered to have equal claims to the crown if they were accepted by a lagting. During the 11th and early 12th centuries it was not unusual for Norway to have two or more joint kings ruling without conflict. Thus, Harald III’s son Olaf III reigned together with his brother Magnus II until the latter died in 1069. Olaf ruled from 1066 to 1093 without being involved in a war; by giving the dioceses (Nidaros [Trondheim], Bergen, and Oslo) permanent areas, he inspired the first Norwegian towns. Olaf’s son, Magnus III, ruled for 10 years, during which he undertook three expeditions to Scotland to establish Norwegian sovereignty over the Orkneys and the Hebrides. He was succeeded by his three sons, Olaf IV (1103–15), Eystein I (1103–22), and Sigurd I Magnusson (1103–30), who ruled jointly and imposed tithes, founded the first Norwegian monasteries, built cathedrals, established the bishopric at Stavanger, and incorporated the clergy of the Scottish isles into the church of Norway.
2Includes Svalbard and Jan Mayen.
|Official name||Kongeriket Norge (Kingdom of Norway)|
|Form of government||constitutional monarchy with one legislative house (Storting, or Parliament )|
|Head of state||Monarch: King Harald V|
|Head of government||Prime Minister: Erna Solberg|
|Official languages||Norwegian; Sami1|
|Official religion||Evangelical Lutheran|
|Monetary unit||Norwegian krone (pl. kroner; NOK)|
|Population||(2013 est.) 5,084,000|
|Total area (sq mi)||148,7212|
|Total area (sq km)||385,1862|
|Urban-rural population||Urban: (2011) 79.4%|
Rural: (2011) 20.6%
|Life expectancy at birth||Male: (2012) 79.2 years|
Female: (2012) 83.5 years
|Literacy: percentage of population age 15 and over literate||Male: 100%|
|GNI per capita (U.S.$)||(2012) 98,860|