Norway

Sovereign: King Harald V

Prime Minister: Erna Solberg

Population (2014 census): 5,147,792; life expectancy: 81.6

Capital and largest city: Oslo (915,000)

Other large cities: Bergen (270,600); Stavanger (197,852); Trondheim (170,242)

Monetary unit: Norwegian krone

Geography:

Norway is situated in the western part of the Scandinavian peninsula. It extends about

1,770 km from the North Sea along the Norwegian Sea to more than 483 km above the

Arctic Circle. It is slightly larger than New Mexico. Nearly 70% of Norway is uninhabitable

and covered by mountains, glaciers, moors, and rivers.

Government:

Constitutional monarchy.

Symbolism:

The flag, folk costumes, the land (or landscape), and the home are the major symbols of

national unity. The flag (a red background with blue stripes outlined in white) is owned

and flown not only by public agencies but by many private individuals.

On Constitution Day (17 May), citizens appear at public celebrations carrying small flags

and wearing red, white, and blue streamers pinned to their clothing. Folk or national

costumes (bunad) are owned by large numbers of both men and women. Based on local

traditional peasant apparel, women's costumes include elaborate skirts, blouses,

jackets, stockings, and shoes adorned with silver pins and decorations. The design and

colors of the costumes vary according to locality so that each large fjord or valley has a

distinctive costume.

The national anthem affirms a love for the land and the importance of the home as

symbols of nationhood. Festive days in this home-centered society often feature a public

celebration followed by gatherings of families and relatives in people's homes.

Homes are comfortable refuges and are decorated to express the identity of the family.

This attachment to place is also apparent in people's relationship to nature. Half the

nation's families have access to nearby ski huts, cabins, or boats, and virtually everyone

engages in outdoor pursuits such as skiing, hiking, and boating. In a variety of ways,

Norwegians aim to preserve rather than transform the local natural landscape.

Food in Daily Life:

The food considered by many to be most typically Norwegian is brown cheese that is

thinly sliced with a cheese plane (a Norwegian invention) and eaten on bread.

Breakfasts(frokost) usually consists of coffee, breads (including flatbread or crisp bread),

pickled or smoked fish, cold meats, perhaps boiled eggs, and milk products such as

cheese, butter, yogurt, and varieties of sour milk. Breakfast may be more substantial

than the noon meal (lunsj) which may consist of an open-faced sandwich of bread,

cheese, paté, or cold meat, perhaps accompanied by a piece of fruit and coffee. Fish and

meat (pork, beef, lamb, chicken, and whale) and boiled potatoes, usually served with

gravy or melted butter, traditionally have defined the late afternoon meal

(middag).Root vegetables such as carrots often supplement potatoes. Beer or wine is

drunk occasionally in the evening. Pizza and hamburgers are popular occasional meals

and often are served at fast-food restaurants. Cafés and cafeterias serve open-faced

sandwiches with cold meats, smoked fish, or cheese as well as simple but substantial

meals of meat or fish and boiled potatoes.

Otta

Situated 110 kilometers North from Lillehammer, it spans the valley floor where

Ottadalen branches of Gudbrandsdal and the largely glacial fed, most of its 4000 km^2

watershed being in a very arid region, the river Otta merges into Gudbrandsdalslågen

North-east lies the massif Rondane, which areas became the first national park in

Norway in 1962, and has several mountains over 2000 metres.

Otta’s Curiosities:

Pillar-Guri or Pillarguri is a semi legendary figure who, according to oral tradition, was a

woman from Sel, Norway, who played a key role in the Battle of Kringen in August 1612.

Sweden and Denmark-Norway were actively engaged in the Kalmar War. Hence a

peasant militia force of around 500 decided to ambush the Scots at Kringen (the

narrowest part of the valley). The terrain chosen by the Norwegians made that ambush

very effective.

The Scottish force was soundly beaten in a manner that took the character of a

massacre. The fact that about half the Scots were executed by the Norwegian peasants

the day after the battle took place can be a reason why the tradition tries to "smooth

over" the grim events. A reason for this reaction may have been rumours of the looting

and harrowing done by the Scottish mercenaries during their trip from Romsdalen.

Another reason is that the municipalities in the area did not have any capacity to

harbour prisoners of war, and the fear of more looting from escaped mercenaries can

have given the farmers just reason to kill the soldiers on the spot. 14 Scotsmen were

sent to trial in Denmark, among them Alexander Ramsay. Some of those were eventually

sent home to Scotland.

The Norwegian victory over the Scots is celebrated in Otta and Dovre to this day.

Guri is a common Norwegian woman's name which has origins in the Old Norse word

for good. Prillar refers to the horn Guri was supposed to have used. There is an old

instrument in Norway named Prillarhorn which was a cow-horn which could be

played. Prille is a Norwegian term for musical articulation or fingering, especially on

the hardanger fiddle.

According to the oral tradition, Pillarguri placed herself on a promontory on the other

side of the river to the advancing Scottish troops. Today the height is called

Pillarguritoppen (852 m). She either played her horn to distract them and then moved a

piece of clothing to signal the ambush; or else she commenced playing as the signal.

The official reports and documents describing the Battle of Kringen do not mention

Pillarguri. She appears in the oral tradition and in heroic lyrics written as much as 200

years after the event. However females seldom found their way into official documents

in the early 17th century.

In modern illustrations Pillarguri has taken on the form of a young lady with long fair

hair, and she is shown playing a lur, a long natural blowing horn historically common

in Scandinavia. There are no descriptions whatsoever to support this image, and it can

only serve as an example of romanticised national imagination.

The story of Pillarguri has been popularized in poems and songs, including a traditional

song from the area. Her name was also remembered in a number of Hardanger

fiddle dance tunes, mostly in old tunings. The fact that the fiddle tunes in question seem

to be fairly old, most of them not younger than 1750, should strengthen the theory of

existence prior to the romantic nationalist era in Norway.

A statue depicting Pillarguri is located in the community of Otta, Norway. The Pillarguri

prize is awarded in conjunction with the annual Pillarguri Festival at Otta. She was also

reproduced on a memorial erected in 1912 in connection with the 300-year anniversary

of the battle. Pillarguri is also depicted on the municipal coat of arms

of Sel in Oppland county, Norway.

Maria Monteiro

A brief summary of the Viking age

The Viking age is the name given to the Scandinavian pre-history, followed by the Middle

age. Even though, people sometimes associate all inhabitants of the Scandinavian

Peninsula to the Vikings, in fact, the term Viking only refers to those who were dedicated

to military activities, piracy and to trading activities.

The Viking Age was characterized by emigration to other lands by the Viking sailors.

According to tradition, Harald Hårfagre unified the Vikings in 872 (BC), after the Battle

of Hafrsfjord in Stavanger, becoming the first king of the united Norway.

According to some historical records, many Norwegians left the country to live in

Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and parts of Britain and Ireland. Modern Irish cities

of Dublin, Limerick and Waterford were founded by Norwegian settlers.

Later, Nordic mythology was replaced by Christianity in the tenth and eleventh

centuries. This is largely attributed to the missionary kings Olav Tryggvasson and Olav,

the Holy. In the mid-tenth century, Haquino, the Good, became the first Christian king

of Norway, marking the end of the Viking age.

The Kalmar Union

The Kalmar Union or Union of Kalmaris was a state that brought together the

Scandinavian nations from 1397 to 1523. It was a personal union that joined, under a

single monarch, the three kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden (then including Finland),

and Norway (including Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Northern Isles, all

Norwegian overseas territories).

This alliance was not continuous; there were several short interruptions. Legally, the

countries remained separate sovereign states, but with their domestic and foreign

policies being organised by the same monarch. The main reason for its formation was

to block German expansion into the Baltic region.

The main reason for its failure was the struggle between the monarch and the Swedish

and Danish nobility. Diverging interests gave rise to a conflict that would split the union

in several intervals from the 1430s until its definitive breakup in 1523 when Gustav

Vasa became king of Sweden.

Norway continued to remain a part of the realm of Denmark-Norway under

the Oldenburg dynasty for nearly three centuries until its dissolution in 1814.

Diogo Vidas