Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/750

* NORWAY. 638 NORWAY. cliild that does not receive an education equiva- lent to the primary course by its til'leenth year ujuy be compelled to attend these elementary schools, which in 18US numbered 5971, with 259,400 pupils in the country, and 73,313 in the towns. .Secondary schools numbering 8G, of which 30 are private, give a hi>;her course of instruction, and have about 16.000 pujiils. The lioyal Frederick Lniversity in L'liristiania has 03 professors and 1400 students. Religion. The Evanfielical Lutheran creed is the State religion, and the Churdi is called the Jv'orwegian Kstablished Church, most of the inhabitants being members. All other religions are tolerated. Norway is divided into bisliop- ries, and each diocese into deaneries, which are again subdivided into livings at present num- Ix-ring 47S. The total number of parishes is 950. The dissenters in 1900 numbered 52,0S0, in- cluding 1909 Itoman Catholics and 10.280 ilctho- dists. The poor are provided for by local taxes, though the counties and the State assist. The number of persons receiving relief of an- kind in 1899 was 80,730. Ethnology. Since Neolithic times Norway has been mainly inhabited by tall, blonde longheads, of Teutonic stock, who are believed to have come from the Caucasian steppes during the prehistoric migrations. Because of the great ice cap which lingered on the mountains. Norway was peopled much later than Swe- den, which shows Palcolitliic inhabitation, while the former has ^ revealed only the Neolithic. There were three land bridges by which man may have come to the Scandinavian peninsula, one on the west joining the British Isles to Norway; the second from Riigen in North Ger- many to Scania in Sweden: and a third much later bridge from Finland to East Sweden. By the middle bridge Sweden and Norway received the red deer and the Teutonic longhead popu- lation, which is almost pure in the former country. Whatever Finnic elements are jjrcsent may have come by the Bothnia bridge. On the west there came a dark, short type of probably Hound Barrow or Pictish origin. It would seem that thise people brought the Shet- land pony. The longheads coming in from Swe- den arounil the soutliwest coast lowlands oc- cupied the interior of the country after the melting away of the ice cap. This region was never touched by that tremendous wave of mi- gration of short, dark longheads called "Mediter- raneans' by Sergi, coming, it is conjeetureil. originally from North Africa. Thus there has • lieen forming here for n long period from these light and dark elements a virile race in an environment whose stress was a spur to the edu- ration of manly <|uallti("i for which the Nor- wegians have excelled since they came in the purview of history. The Norwegians prefer a country life, hut little of the modem movement toward cities being noticed until recently. They are of tall stature (5 ft. 8 in.), with strong, well-knit frames, and good muscular development. Fair skin, blue eyes, and light flaxen hair char- acterize the hulk of the population, but the dark type is often recognized. .Among the chil- dren flaxen hair is almost universal, but with de- velopment the hair, eyes, and skin become darker in a majority of cases. As a people the Norwe- gians arc remarkably hardy and show a preference ' for athletic sports which ictpiirc great endurance. For this reason tlicy are typical exjjlorcrs. In jj character they are frank, yet cautious and re- « served, honest, and religious. While modified i Danish is the literary language, the old Norse I siirvives in a few districts, as it does in Iceland, b Since the peasants speak various dialects of Old Norse, and many of the educated consider the presence of the Danish language an anomaly, etl'orts to revive Norse have been zealously prose- cuted for many years. Hlstohy. The early history of Norway is pre- served only in the legendary sagas. The most recent archicological researches show that the Scandinavian people were ])rol)abIy the autoch- i thonous inhabitants of the i)eninsula. The histor- S ical period of Norway rca<-hes no further back J than the ninth century. The petty tribal king- doms which existed here as in all northern coun- 'i tries were united under Ilarald llaarfagr or Fair- i hair (died c,933), who in the last third of that! century estaldishcd the seat of government at I Trondhjem in the north. At this time the Danes f, and Norwegians (see Nokm.vns) were the terror i of Europe through their plundering expeditions'* and invasions., "^ The introduction of Christianity, the result J of the intercourse which the Norwegians had 1 with the more civilized jiarls of Europe through 1 their maritime ex])editions. was gradually ef- 1 fected in the hunclred years that followed (lie l| death of Ilarald llaarfagr. Haakon the (Jood. ^ son of Harald llaarfagr, attempted vainly to j establish it: but this result was bnmght about! by Olaf Trygasson (995-1000) and Olaf the j Saint (e.1015-1030), wild northern missionaries! who bore the cross in one hand and the sword ! in the other. Olaf the Saint zealously ])rose- cuted the conversi(m of his countrymen and raised ■ himself to suiireme power in the hind by the ' subjection of the small kings or chieftains who j in the times of heathenism had subdivided the ■ Kingdom among them. In 1028 Olaf was driven ' out by Canute the Oreat of Denmark, and. having attempted to recover his throne, was defeated | and slain in 1030. On the death of Canute in 1035, Olaf's son, Magnus I., recovered pos-ces- I sion of the throne, and thenceforth, till 1319, ] Norway continued to be governed by native « kings. Of these the most nolew(n'tliy were Sverre ' Sigurdson (1184-1202). a statesman of eonsid- ^ crable ability who was put in power by the na- ' tionnlist democrat party, who after years of bitter strife had overcome the party of the nobles and clerg>-. and Haakon the Old (1217- 03). in whose reign independent Norway reached the height of its prosperity. During these een- J turies the Norse adventurers had established per- in.inent colonies in Iceland and (Jrepiihind. and ^ for a time the Orkney and Shetland islands and' the Hebrides were in the ])ossession of the Nor- wegian kings, whose last inroad into Scotland was re|)elled in 1203. The thirteenth century saw the beginning of written Noise literature and law. The death of Haakon V. without male heirs, ill 1319. threw the election of a new king into the hands of the national assenddy. who made choice of Mnginis of Sweden, surnamed Smek, the son of Haakon's daughter. He was in (urn succeeded by his son. Haakon, and the hitter's son. Olaf, after having been elected King of Denmark in ',j 1370, became ruler of both Scandinavian king- j ■ I 1