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.
