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82-452: Western Norway ( Bokmål : Vestlandet, Vest-Norge ; Nynorsk : Vestlandet, Vest-Noreg ) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway . It consists of the counties Rogaland , Vestland , and Møre og Romsdal . The region has no official or political-administrative function. The region has a population of approximately 1.4 million people. The largest city is Bergen and

164-517: A great escarpment . The main differences is that in Norway valley and fjord bottoms have been widened by glacier erosion, valley sides steepened, and the outer regions of valleys straightened, also by glacier erosion. The deglaciation patterns of the Bergen and Nordfjord – Sunnmøre areas in western Norway are described and correlated. In the Bergen area the coast was first deglaciated at 12,600 B.P., with

246-505: A central aspect of Norwegian history and more than 800,000 Norwegians emigrated to the United States. The first organized group of emigrants left Stavanger on the sloop Restoration on 4 July 1825. In 1837, Ægir left Bergen as the first ship with emigrants from Hordaland . The Emigration Center of Western Norway is a memorial to those who left and to their descendants. The emigrant archives now include 96,000 names of emigrants from

328-510: A co-official language. The term Riksmål ( Rigsmaal ), meaning National Language , was first proposed by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson in 1899 as a name for the Norwegian variety of written Danish as well as spoken Dano-Norwegian. It was borrowed from Denmark where it denoted standard written and spoken Danish. The same year the Riksmål movement became organised under his leadership in order to fight against

410-715: A language form regulated by the non-governmental organisation The Norwegian Academy of Language and Literature. It is based on pre-1938 Bokmål and has been regulated by The Academy as a private alternative to the official Bokmål spelling standard since the 1950s. Over time it has accepted widespread "radical" spellings into the Riksmål standard. Since the official Samnorsk policy was abolished, Riksmål and Bokmål have converged, and The Academy currently edits an online dictionary that covers both. The differences have diminished (now being comparable to American and British English differences ), but The Academy still upholds its own standard. Norway's most popular daily newspaper, Aftenposten ,

492-419: A large fish-processing industry and offers seasonal employment for many farmers. Of all fishermen only half fish as their sole occupation. Most vessels are owned by the fishermen themselves, the necessary crew members being paid by shares of gross income in a continuation of a centuries-old tradition of the sea. A critical problem is how to avoid depleting the fish resources while maintaining the volume. About half

574-504: A major retreat. No large re-advance of the inland ice occurred during the Younger Dryas . However, in the Sunnmøre – Nordfjord area many local glaciers formed outside the inland ice during the Younger Dryas . Limnic sediments outside one such cirque glacier have been cored and dated, proving that the glacier did not exist at 12,300–11,000 B.P., and that it was formed and disappeared in

656-464: A rich agricultural area. The inland fjord areas of Hardanger are sheltered, with rich fruit districts specializing in apples and cherries. Stavanger is a leading industrial area in Western Norway. Ålesund contains many engineering firms, and the bulk of Norway's furniture industry. Along the coast fishing plays the same role that forestry does elsewhere. At the same time, it forms the basis of

738-498: A subsequent reform in 1917, so much so that he is now often called the "father of Bokmål". Since the creation of Landsmål , the Danish written in Norway was referred to as (det almindelige) Bogmaal , etc. ("(The ordinary) book language"), e.g. in Den norske Literatur fra 1814 indtil vore Dage (Hans Olaf Hansen, 1862), or the synonym Bogsprog , e.g. in the 1885 decision that adopted Landsmål as

820-628: A succeeding re-advance into the North Sea around 12,200 B.P. Later, during the Allerød, the inland ice retreated at least 50 km, but nearly reached the sea again during the Younger Dryas re-advance, ending at 10,000 B.P. Sunnmøre was ice-free during an interstadial 28,000–38,000 B.P. Later the inland ice reached the sea. The final deglaciation is poorly dated in Sunnmøre , while further south in Nordfjord , it started slightly before 12,300 B.P., followed by

902-560: Is 2,405 meters high. It is situated on the border between the municipality of Luster and Årdal and is part of the Hurrungane range. The summit is a destination for mountaineers but is fairly difficult. First ascent by William Cecil Slingsby on 21 July 1876. There are a number of different routes, the most common being Heftye's renne (Heftye's couloir ). Another route of ascent is via Andrew's renne (Andrew's couloir ), first ascent A. W. Andrews and party in 1899. Store Skagastølstind and

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984-406: Is in fact often referred to as Standard Østnorsk ('Standard East Norwegian'). Standard Østnorsk ( lit.   ' 'Standard East Norwegian' ' ) or sometimes described as " Urban East Norwegian " is the pronunciation most commonly given in dictionaries. However, Standard Østnorsk as a spoken language is not used (and does not have prestige ) outside South-Eastern Norway. All spoken variations of

1066-470: Is located in the north-central part of the region, while Hardanger Icecap ( Hardangerjøkulen ) and the Folgefonna Glacier are smaller ice fields in the south. Norway's longest fjord, Sogn Fjord (205 km [127 mi]), located in the central part of the region, nearly divides Vestlandet in two; farther south Hardanger Fjord stretches inland for 179 km (111 mi). Many waterfalls flow into

1148-545: Is notable for its use of Riksmål as its standard language. Use of Riksmål is rigorously pursued, even with regard to readers' letters, which are "translated" into the standard. Aftenposten gave up its most markedly conservative "signal words" in 1990. While the specifics of the debate are unique to Norway, some parallels can be found in Austrian German and the One Standard German Axiom , which revolves over

1230-498: Is one of the major agricultural areas in Norway. Farms in other areas of Western Norway are often small. The total area of agricultural in Western Norway is 2 650 square kilometers, which is 5.3% of the total area in the region. Western Norway is highly mountainous; in less than 10 kilometers from the Sognefjord , there are peaks that are over 2000 meters in height. The highest point is Store Skagastølstind (also known as Storen), which

1312-507: Is regulated by the governmental Language Council of Norway . A related, more conservative orthographic standard, commonly known as Riksmål , is regulated by the non-governmental Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature . The written standard is a Norwegianised variety of the Danish language . The first Bokmål orthography was officially adopted in 1907 under the name Riksmål after being under development since 1879. The architects behind

1394-618: The Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. Vikings ' seaworthiness and wanderlust resulted in new areas being developed. Norwegian settlers moved into the North Sea westward to Iceland , the Faroe Islands , Greenland , Shetland , Orkney , Isle of Man and the Hebrides . Settlements were established in the southeast corner of Ireland including in Dublin , Waterford and Wexford . Norwegians settled along

1476-572: The Faroe Islands lie to the west across the North Sea, while Denmark lies south of its southern tip across the North Sea . It is 675 km (419 mi) from the Faroe Islands to Western Norway while Unst in the Shetland Islands is about 300 km (190 mi) away. Western Norway has a 26,592 km (16,524 mi) long coastline. The southern part of the region is called Jæren . This

1558-855: The Icelandic horse is a close relative of the Fjord horse and both the Faroese and Icelandic languages are based on the Old West Norse. In early Norse times, people from Western Norway became settlers at the Western Isles in the Northern Atlantic , Orkney , Shetland , the Faroe Islands and Iceland . During the Viking Age settlements were made at the Hebrides , Man and Ireland proper. In early modern times, Western Norway experienced much emigration to

1640-460: The Paleic relief . A study of Sognefjord suggest that the fluvial and glacial erosion that made the fjords has followed structural weaknesses in the crust . The headvalleys in particular seem to located at structural weakness zones. Western Norway bears some resemblance to other passive margins at lower latitudes like eastern Australia . In both cases a table land is dissected by valleys forming

1722-676: The United States , Canada , and to a lesser extent to the United Kingdom . This applies particularly to the US states of Minnesota , North and South Dakota , Wisconsin , Montana , and the Canadian province of Manitoba . The Icelandic and Faroese people , and many people in the British Isles , are descendants of Norsemen and Vikings who emigrated from Western Norway during the Viking Age . On

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1804-773: The Vikings feared among contemporary Christian Europeans. But the images of Vikings as bloodthirsty plunderers are not always representative. The Vikings were involved in a wealthy merchant trade, not only in Europe but also including the Byzantine Empire and the Baghdad Caliphate. Historically Vikings are often introduced with the Viking attack on Lindisfarne in 793, when they really made their mark in European history. The era ends with

1886-448: The de facto standard for spoken Bokmål. In The Phonology of Norwegian , Gjert Kristoffersen writes that Bokmål [...] is in its most common variety looked upon as reflecting formal middle-class urban speech, especially that found in the eastern part of Southern Norway [sic], with the capital Oslo as the obvious centre. One can therefore say that Bokmål has a spoken realisation that one might call an unofficial standard spoken Norwegian. It

1968-408: The "educated daily speech" had become the mother tongue of elites in most Norwegian cities, such as Bergen , Kristiania and Trondheim . This Dano-Norwegian koiné could be described as Danish with regional Norwegian pronunciation (see Norwegian dialects ), some Norwegian vocabulary, and simplified grammar. With the gradual subsequent process of Norwegianisation of the written language used in

2050-500: The 1950s under the leadership of Arnulf Øverland . Riksmålsforbundet organised a parents' campaign against Samnorsk in 1951, and the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature was founded in 1953. Because of this resistance, the 1959 reform was relatively modest, and some of the common traditional Danish spellings and inflections were admitted back into the standard through the reforms in 1981 and 2005. Currently, Riksmål denotes

2132-506: The 9th century from his Castle Avaldsnes on Karmöy at Haugesund. Norway was named from the Way North by seafaring. Before the millennium , iron was introduced and used in agriculture, and there was a shortage of land to cultivate . In the same period, the kings' power increased, and large tax claims caused many to seek freedom and fortune abroad. Many emigrated, and looting became an alternative source of income. Effective boats and weapons made

2214-408: The Danish standard, which became used for virtually all administrative documents. Norwegians used Danish primarily in writing, but it gradually came to be spoken by urban elites on formal or official occasions. Although Danish never became the spoken language of the vast majority of the population, by the time Norway's ties with Denmark were severed in 1814, a Dano-Norwegian vernacular often called

2296-623: The Earth's crust, they dug out gorges and canyons that knifed deep into the jagged coast. To the east the land sloped more gently, and broader valleys were formed. During repeated periods of glaciation in the Great Ice Age of the Quaternary Period (i.e., about the last 2.6 million years), the scouring action of glaciers tonguing down the V-shaped valleys that were then part of the landscape created

2378-472: The Hardangervidda is above the tree line . Its alpine climate means that many species of Arctic animals and plants are found here, further south than anywhere else in Europe. Its wild reindeer herds are among the largest in the world, with some 15,000 animals recorded in 1996 and about 8,000 in 2008. They migrate across the plateau during the year, moving from their winter grazing lands on the east side of

2460-537: The Hardangervidda, where they graze on lichen , to their breeding grounds in the more fertile west of the plateau. 30,000 years ago glaciers covered vast areas of the Northern Hemisphere . As so much water was trapped on land, in the form of glacial ice, the sea lay 120 metres below its present level. This meant that the North Sea was dry land, a treeless tundra, with long, winding rivers, endless stretches of boggy land and wide, sandy heaths. Only as far south as

2542-650: The Mediterranean and the Black Sea were there any forests. As the climate slowly improved and the Scandinavian peninsula rose from the grip of the ice, plants and animals started to invade the new territory. As soon as there was dry land the first plants took root and with them came animals, birds and insects. The first of these were the Arctic animals such as wild reindeer , Arctic fox and wolverine (glutton), who followed

Western Norway - Misplaced Pages Continue

2624-453: The Norwegian language are used in the Storting (parliament) and in Norwegian national broadcasters such as NRK and TV 2 , even in cases where the conventions of Bokmål are used. The spoken variation typically reflects a speaker's native region. Up until about 1300, the written language of Norway, Old Norwegian , was essentially the same as the other Old Norse dialects . The speech, however,

2706-551: The Oslofjord area) and written Danish; and subsequently Riksmål and Bokmål, which primarily inherited their non-Oslo elements from Danish. The present-day Oslo dialect is also influenced by other Eastern Norwegian dialects. The following table shows some important cases where traditional Bokmål and Standard Østnorsk followed Danish rather than the traditional Oslo dialect as it is commonly portrayed in literature about Norwegian dialects. In many of these cases, radical Bokmål follows

2788-561: The Riksmål movement, and Riksmålsvernet (The Society for the Protection of Riksmål) was founded in 1919. In 1929, the parliament voted to rename the written standards. Bokmål was re-introduced as the official name for the Dano-Norwegian standard, replacing Riksmål , while Landsmål was renamed Nynorsk . In 1938 both written standards were heavily reformed and many common spellings and grammatical endings were made mandatory. This meant

2870-565: The Skagerrak and Oslo areas respectively, and deformed glacial tills found on the coast of Jæren provide the main onshore evidence for the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream. The Norwegian current generally flows northeasterly along the Norwegian trench. The depth of the trench, along with density differences between Norwegian current water and the adjacent Atlantic Water, results in large-scale eddies. The Norwegian trench region in

2952-418: The advent of Nynorsk in the 19th century, a written language based on rural Modern Norwegian dialects and puristic opposition to the Danish and Dano-Norwegian spoken in Norwegian cities. The following table shows a few central differences between Bokmål and Danish. Most natives of Oslo today speak a dialect that is an amalgamation of vikværsk (which is the technical term for the traditional dialects in

3034-558: The archaeological record, nor has it contributed more than a handful of words to the Icelandic language , which was a Scandinavian dialect, more or less identical with the Viking Age Norse spoken in Western Norway, the Faroes , Shetland , Orkney , etc. Today it is estimated that 60% of the Icelandic population are descendants of people from Western Norway. For a century emigration was

3116-474: The average depth of the North Sea , which is about 100 metres (330 ft). It was formed during the last 1.1 million years by the effects of erosion associated with repeated ice stream activity. The trench is not a subduction -related oceanic trench , where one tectonic plate is being forced under another. The Norwegian Trench was created by fluvial erosion processes during the later Tertiary age. Pleistocene glaciers and ice sheets further deepened

3198-532: The average precipitation is 2,250 mm per year [ 1 ]. The wet climate is partly due to the Gulf Stream , which also gives this region a milder winter than other parts of Norway, with rain being more common than snow in the winter. Late June to early August is when summer is at its peak. This is when the weather is at its most stable and warmest with sunny, long and bright days. It is not unusual with temperatures reaching 25 °C (77 °F) and above. During

3280-512: The beginning there has been sure short visits by people from the south who hunted along the coast. It is thought that people came from Doggerland , the North Sea land area between Denmark and England, which disappeared when the ice retreated and sea levels rose. The people who lived there must now find a new land. Some retreated south again, while a few passed the Norwegian Trench (which was considerably smaller than now) in its hunt for deer and

3362-423: The catch goes into fish meal and oil, but some is processed for human consumption in freezing plants. In the northwest the city of Ålesund thrives on fishing. Ålesund is one of the world's largest and most important ports for cod . By the mid-1990s Norway had become the world's second largest oil exporter (behind Saudi Arabia ). The first commercially important discovery of petroleum on Norway's continental shelf

Western Norway - Misplaced Pages Continue

3444-472: The cities of Norway, from Danish to Bokmål and Riksmål, the upper-class sociolects in the cities changed accordingly. In 1814, when Norway was ceded from Denmark to Sweden , Norway defied Sweden and her allies, declared independence and adopted a democratic constitution. Although compelled to submit to a dynastic union with Sweden, this spark of independence continued to burn, influencing the evolution of language in Norway. Old language traditions were revived by

3526-531: The congregation donated their fully furnished church to the Emigration Center. It was taken down, transported to Sletta and reconstructed there by volunteers from Radøy . The church was reconsecrated by the Bishop of Bjørgvin , Ole Danholt Hagesæther, 6 July 1997. Western Norway is the third largest region in Norway by area. It covers an area of 58,582 km (22,619 sq mi). The United Kingdom and

3608-451: The course of September the landscape is painted in golden colours. Red clusters of rowan berries hang on naked branches. Autumn also means harvest time along the fjords. Gales, rain and cloud are likely along the west coast and the rainfall is frequent and heavy. Thanks to the warming Gulf Stream , the Norwegian fjords enjoy a relatively mild climate and remain virtually ice-free even during the winter. Wintertime, usually from November, turns

3690-410: The edge of the glacier up to the mountains. The trees came later, accompanied by a rich flora and fauna including bears, elk , marten , fox, hare , European beaver and otter . This influx reached its climax around 3000 BC when the climate improved considerably, giving rise to the postglacial period of warmth. The average temperature rose 3 degrees. This may not sound very much, but in the mountains

3772-486: The end of the century approached. It was estimated that the high rate of oil production could be sustained at least into the second decade of the 21st century, while that of natural gas was projected to increase dramatically and be sustained much longer. More than one-fourth of the huge investment made in Norwegian offshore operations by the mid-1990s went toward the development of the Troll gas field just west of Bergen , one of

3854-937: The fjords, with the Syv Systre , Toka Gorge , and Vørings Falls (Vøringsfossen) among the best known. The rugged coastline is protected by thousands of offshore islands in a nearly continuous line. Occasionally, the northern parts of Møre og Romsdal are considered to be part of Trøndelag . Map references: Europe Area: total: 58,582 km Area – comparative: slightly larger than Croatia , but slightly smaller than West Virginia . Coastline: 26,592 km Maritime claims: contiguous zone: 10  nmi (18.5 km; 11.5 mi) continental shelf: 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) exclusive economic zone: 200 nmi (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) territorial sea: 12 nmi (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) Rivers running westward acquired tremendous erosive power. Following fracture lines marking weaknesses in

3936-592: The growing influence of Nynorsk, eventually leading to the foundation of the non-governmental organisation Riksmålsforbundet in 1907, which he led until his death in 1910. The 1907 reform documents do not mention the language by name, but the term Riksmål eventually caught on and was adopted by the Ministry of Church and Education in the years leading up to the 1917 spelling reform, appearing in its 1908 publication Utredning av spørsmaalet om et mulig samarbeide mellem landsmaal og riksmaal i retskrivningen ("Investigation of

4018-614: The higher mountain areas. Numerous glaciers are still found in Western Norway. Elevation extremes: lowest point: North Sea 0 m highest point: Store Skagastølstind 2,405 m The fjords of western Norway formed in connection to the east-ward tilting of much of Norway during the Cenozoic uplift of the Scandinavian Mountains . This uplift, that occurred long before the Quaternary glaciations , enabled rivers to incise deeply

4100-782: The interior mountain region. The major exception is the wide Jæren Plain, south of Stavanger . Glaciation and other forces wore down the surface and created thick sandstone , conglomerate , and limestone deposits known as sparagmite . Numerous extensive areas called peneplains, whose relief has been largely eroded away, also were formed. Remains of these include the Hardanger Plateau —1,100 m (3,600 ft) above sea level—Europe's largest mountain plateau, covering about 6,500 km (2,500 sq mi). Glaciated; mostly high plateaus and rugged mountains broken by fertile valleys; small, scattered plains; coastline deeply indented by fjords. Frozen ground all-year can also be found in

4182-669: The internet we are linked to the national digital records of emigrants from Norway to the United States that have been developed by the University of Bergen and the Bergen Public Archives. The center's Emigrant Church was originally the Brampton Lutheran Church in Sargent County, North Dakota , built by Norwegian emigrants at the turn of the 19th century. The Brampton congregation was formed 1 July 1908. and 22 June 1996,

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4264-491: The kind of standard to be used in a non-dominant country. In the Norwegian discourse, the term Dano-Norwegian is seldom used with reference to contemporary Bokmål and its spoken varieties. The nationality of the language has been a hotly debated topic, and its users and proponents have generally not been fond of the implied association with Danish (hence the neutral names Riksmål and Bokmål , meaning state language and book language respectively). The debate intensified with

4346-502: The largest offshore gas fields ever found. Its development ranked as one of the world's largest energy projects. With a water displacement of one million tons and a height of nearly 1,550 feet (475 m), the Troll A platform was the tallest concrete structure ever moved when it was towed into place in 1995. Gas deliveries from the Troll field made Norway a leading supplier of natural gas to continental Europe. Bokm%C3%A5l language Bokmål

4428-624: The magnificent U-shaped drowned fjords that now grace the western coast of Norway. Enormous masses of soil , gravel , and stone were also carried by glacial action as far south as present-day Denmark and northern Germany . The bedrock , exposed in about 40 percent of the area, was scoured and polished by the movements of these materials. From the southernmost point a swelling complex of ranges, collectively called Langfjellene , runs northward to divide eastern Norway , or Østlandet, from western Norway. The narrow coastal zone of Vestlandet has many islands, and steep-walled, narrow fjords cut deep into

4510-666: The mountain areas of Western Norway into highly favourable skiing conditions. During springtime the most amazing colours burst forth to honour the warmth of the rising sun. Orchards of flowering fruit trees can be seen along the Hardangerfjord in May. Western Norway is rich in natural resources. Today Stavanger the oil capital of Norway. Before petroleum, fishing and agriculture were the most important economic activities in Western Norway. Some areas of Western Norway such as Jæren , Karmøy , Vindafjord , Voss , Sunnfjord and Fræna comprise

4592-495: The mountaineering of the late 19th century in Norway is traditionally linked to the historical hotel Turtagrø. There are many fjords in Western Norway, Hardangerfjorden , Boknafjorden and Sognefjorden are the longest. The Sognefjord ( Sognefjorden ) is the largest fjord in Norway, and the second longest in the world, after Scoresby Sund on Greenland . Located in Sogn og Fjordane it stretches 205 km (127 mi) inland to

4674-631: The new country. The region includes most of the scope of the old Gulating , which was founded around the year 900. The Gulating Act divided the country into the Western counties, which consisted of the former småkongedømmene that existed in the area before the unification of the 800's and then was converted to jarle judge. These were Sunnmørafylke ( Sunnmøre ), Firda County ( Fjordane ), Sygna County ( Sogn ), Hordafylke ( Hordaland ), Rygjafylke ( Rogaland ) and Egdafylke ( Agder ). Harald Hairfair united Norway and parts of Sweden west of Lake Vänern and Götaälv in

4756-470: The northwest area of England, principally in the area of modern-day Cumbria . The Norwegian Vikings also discovered Vinland , present-day America, long before Christopher Columbus . Christianity became the dominant religion in Norway in the 11th century, but the religion was probably known among Norwegians already in the 7th century. While Eastern Norway was introduced to Christianity by missionaries and monks from Germany and Friesland , Western Norway

4838-516: The other hand, thousands of Western Norwegians are descendants of Dutch and German traders who arrived in the 16th and the 17th centuries, especially in Bergen. Vestland is also the name of a county consisting of two former counties, viz. Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane. The two counties were re-merged after having been split in 1763 (then called Søndre Bergenhus and Nordre Bergenhus , respectively). === Early history === Norway's history begins on

4920-422: The patriotic poet Henrik Wergeland (1808–1845), who championed an independent non-Danish written language. Haugen indicates that: "Within the first generation of liberty, two solutions emerged and won adherents, one based on the speech of the upper class and one on that of the common people. The former called for Norwegianisation of the Danish writing, the latter for a brand new start." The more conservative of

5002-426: The question of a possible cooperation between Landmål and Riksmål with regards to orthography"). Through this work an official policy to merge the standards (to a common Samnorsk ) through spelling reforms came to be. In line with these plans, the 1917 reform introduced some elements from Norwegian dialects and Nynorsk as optional alternatives to traditional Dano-Norwegian forms. The reform met some resistance from

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5084-415: The reform were Marius Nygaard and Jacob Jonathan Aars. It was an adaptation of written Danish - commonly used since the past union with Denmark - to Dano-Norwegian , the koiné spoken by the Norwegian urban elite, especially in the capital. When the large conservative newspaper Aftenposten adopted the 1907 orthography in 1923, Danish writing was practically out of use in Norway. The name Bokmål

5166-539: The removal of many traditional Dano-Norwegian forms in Bokmål, a decision that was harshly criticised by the Riksmål movement for being too radical and premature. While it criticised the adoption of Nynorsk spellings, it initially also expressed support for making the orthography more phonemic , for instance by removing silent h's in interrogative pronouns (which was done in Swedish a few years earlier). The resistance culminated in

5248-456: The second-largest is Stavanger . Historically the regions of Agder , Vest-Telemark , Hallingdal , Valdres , and northern parts of Gudbrandsdal have been included in Western Norway. Western Norway, as well as other parts of historical regions of Norway, shares a common history with Denmark , the Faroe Islands and Iceland and to a lesser extent the Netherlands and Britain. For example,

5330-662: The settlement period in Iceland is the Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), written in the 12th century, which gives a detailed account of the first settlers. According to this book, Western Norwegian sailors accidentally discovered the country. A few voyages of exploration were made soon after that and then the settlement started. Ingólfur Arnarson was said to be the first settler. He was a chieftain from Norway, arriving in Iceland with his family and dependents in 874. He built his farm in Reykjavík ,

5412-591: The site of the present capital. During the next 60 years or so, Viking settlers from Scandinavia and also from Norse colonies in the British Isles —Ireland, Scotland and the Scottish Isles —settled in the country. There was therefore a Celtic element among the first inhabitants. The settlement of Iceland may also be viewed in the context of the general Viking expansion of the period, plausibly linked to population pressure in Western Norway and increasing scarcity of farming land. It has thus left few traces in

5494-511: The small village of Skjolden . Providing the most spectacular fjord and mountain scenery in Norway, the region has been a tourist mecca for centuries. Except for the Jæren plain located at the extreme southern end of the region, Vestlandet is mountainous, with the Jotunheim Mountains and the Hardanger Plateau being the highest areas. The Jostedals Glacier , the largest glacier in Europe,

5576-589: The southern coast of Norway . It reaches from the Stad peninsula in Sogn og Fjordane in the northwest to the Oslofjord in the southeast. The trench is between 50 and 95 kilometres (31 and 59 miles) wide and up to 700 metres (2,300 ft) deep. Off the Rogaland coast it is 250–300 metres (820–980 ft) deep, and its deepest point is off Arendal where it reaches 700 metres (2,300 ft) deep – an abyss compared to

5658-487: The species which can withstand short periods of frost and snow in winter. These are found both a little further north, and in the fjords. Typical examples are the foxglove (digitalis purpurea) and the holly (ilex aquifolium), which in Norway grow only in the southwest. Western Norway is one of the wettest regions in Europe, with precipitation in the mountains near the coast of about 3,500 mm per year on average, and exceeding 5,000 mm in peak years. In Bergen city

5740-399: The time interval 11,000–10,000 B.P. ( Younger Dryas ). The erosion rate of the cirque glacier was 0.9 mm/year. Western Norway has similar flora and fauna as the rest of Norway, but there are some major differences. While almost all red deer in Norway are found here, there are few moose . Reindeer are a common sight on the Hardangervidda and in other large mountain areas. The whole of

5822-413: The traditional Oslo dialect and Nynorsk, and these forms are also given. Closest match to the traditional Oslo dialect. However, Bokmål uses ku "cow" and (now archaic) su "sow" exclusively. Norwegian Trench The Norwegian trench or Norwegian channel ( Norwegian : Norskerenna ; Danish : Norskerenden ; Swedish : Norska rännan ) is an elongated depression in the sea floor off

5904-469: The tree line rises about 100 metres up the mountainside for each degree M so the consequences were dramatic. Most of the mountains of Western Norway which today occupy about three quarters of the land mass M became covered with dense forests of pine and birch. The glaciers had thawed and vanished, and extensive oak forests, not unlike those we see today in Central Europe, spread over the low-lying land. Life

5986-583: The trench. During the main glaciations, the Skagerrak Trough was the meeting point for ice from southeastern Norway, southern Sweden and parts of the Baltic causing a relatively fast-moving ice stream that passed south of the Norwegian coast and then turned north, eventually reaching deepwater at about 62°N. The material carried by the ice stream was then deposited in the North Sea fan. Glacial erratics such as flint and rhomb porphyry , thought to originate from

6068-434: The two counties of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordane up to 1924. This has been possible thanks to the work of many years by Jahn Sjursen, who has also collected books and other publications, pictures and objects related to Norwegian emigrants in the United States. He officially donated his collections to the Emigration Center at the opening in 1997. The Center continues to receive publications and objects for its collection. Via

6150-405: The two language transitions was advanced by the work of writers like Peter Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe , schoolmaster and agitator for language reform Knud Knudsen , and Knudsen's famous disciple, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson , as well as a more cautious Norwegianisation by Henrik Ibsen . In particular, Knudsen's work on language reform in the mid-19th century was important for the 1907 orthography and

6232-547: The weaker member of the union. During this period, the modern Danish and Norwegian languages emerged. Norwegian went through a Middle Norwegian transition, and a Danish written language more heavily influenced by Low German was gradually standardised. This process was aided by the Reformation , which prompted Christiern Pedersen 's translation of the Bible into Danish. Remnants of written Old Norse and Norwegian were thus displaced by

6314-481: The west coast, particularly in Rogaland . Excavations and rock art tells us that it was in Rogaland that the first humans settled in Norway, when the ice retreated after the last ice age ca. 10,000 years ago. There are many artifacts from the Stone Age in Rogaland . The preliminary oldest traces of humans are found in a settlement on Galta , Rennesøy , near the ferry terminal Mortavika and Vista on Randaberg . In

6396-426: Was gradually differentiated into local and regional dialects. As long as Norway remained an independent kingdom , the written language remained essentially constant. In 1380, Norway entered into a personal union with Denmark. By the early 16th century, Norway had lost its separate political institutions, and together with Denmark formed the political unit known as Denmark–Norway until 1814, progressively becoming

6478-525: Was hard for the animals and plants in the high mountains, as they were pressed up towards the highest peaks, which rose like islands from a sea of forest. Along the west coast the winter is mild and snowfalls rare. Here are a number of the plants which cannot tolerate frost, for example the star hyacinth (scilla verna) and the purple heather (erica purpurea), which are otherwise only found in England, Ireland and further south. A little further inland we come upon

6560-455: Was made at the Ekofisk field in the North Sea late in 1969, just as foreign oil companies were about to give up after four years of exploratory drilling. Intensified exploration increased reserves faster than production. Nevertheless, by the mid-1990s about half of export earnings and nearly one-tenth of government revenues came from offshore oil and gas, and these revenues continued to increase as

6642-428: Was mainly introduced to the religion by English, Scottish, Irish people and Vikings who had converted to Christianity. Norse paganism existed in some areas in Western Norway until being totally replaced by Christianity by the 13th century. The coastal areas were the first to be introduced to the new faith, and then the inland areas. Churches were established throughout the country. The main source of information about

6724-465: Was officially adopted in 1929 after a proposition to call the written language Dano-Norwegian lost by a single vote in the Lagting . The government does not regulate spoken Bokmål and recommends that normalised pronunciation should follow the phonology of the speaker's local dialect. Nevertheless, there is a spoken variety of Norwegian that, in the region of South-Eastern Norway , is commonly seen as

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