Since 1924 an energetic work has been performed by patriotic forces in public and private life to restore the economy of Nor way, and remarkable results have been achieved in a number of fields ; among the most important should be mentioned that the kroner has again (May I, 1928) been restored to the gold parity. At the same time the public debt is decidedly on the decline, while the industry is being reorganized by the foundation of an increasing number of new banks. (S. C. H.) down to historical times. The old English poem Beowulf mentions a "Finnaland" which should perhaps be located in S. Norway in about the 6th century, and later on the ancient laws of this re gion forbid the practice of visiting the "Finns" to obtain knowl edge of the future. But only in Finmark, which even in the 13th century stretched far into Sweden and included the Norwegian district of Tromso, could the earlier inhabitants live their old life, and here they finally fell into the utmost want. Their exist ence is mentioned as a thing of the past by a North Trondhjem writer in 1689. The Teutonic element flowed into Norway from two centres ; one western, probably from Jutland, the other eastern, from the W. coast of Sweden.
When history first sheds a faint light over Norway we find each small district or "fylke" (Old Norse fylkir, from folk, army) settled under its own king, and about twenty nine fylker in the country. The king always possessed a hird, or company of warriors sworn to his service, and indeed royal birth and the possession of such a hird, and not land or subjects, were the essential attributes of a king. There was no law of primo geniture, and on the death of a king some of his heirs would take their share of the patrimony in valuables, gather a hird, and spend their lives in warlike expeditions (see VIKINGS), while one would settle down and become king of the fylke. There are in dications that these conditions were fostered by a matriarchal system, and that it would often occur that a wandering king would marry the daughter of a fylkes-king and become his heir. Probably the king's power was only absolute over his own hird. He was certainly commander-in-chief and perhaps chief priest of the fylke, but the administrative power was chiefly in the hands of the herser and possibly of an earl. The position of earls is vague, but it is noticeable that both those of whom we hear in Harald Haarfager's time take the opposite side to their king.
The eight Trondhjem fylker had a common Thing or assembly very early, but these districts were remote, while the wealthy western districts were too much cut off from each other to unite effectively, though here also a common Thing was early estab lished. The first successful attempt at unification originated round Vestf old, the modern Jarlsberg and Laurvik Amt on the Christiania fjord, where it is possible that national feeling was fostered by proximity to the Danish and Swedish kingdoms. Tra dition made the royal family a branch of the great Yngling dy nasty of Uppsala, which claimed descent from the god Frey. Through several generations this family had extended its king dom by marriage, conquest and inheritance, and by the end of the Archaeological and geological researches have revealed a fish ing and hunting population in Norway, possibly as far back as c. 6000 B.C. Until lately this aboriginal people, which was cer
tainly non-Aryan, was held to be Lappish, but recent investiga tions seem to show that the Lapps only entered Norway about A.D. 900-1000, and that the original population was probably of Finnish race, though only distantly allied to the Ugro-Finns now inhabiting Finland. To them belong perhaps certain non-Aryan names for features of the country, such as Toten, Vefsen, Bukn.
The time of the immigration of a Teutonic element is uncertain. It did not extend N. beyond the Trondhjem district until about the beginning of our era, but the evidence of archaeology suggests that the Teutonic element en tered S. Norway towards the end of the (Scandinavian) later Stone age, C. 1700 B.C. (see SCANDINAVIAN
The language of the older race was superseded by Teutonic, and those aborigines who were not incorporated (probably as slaves) were driven into the mountains or the islands that fringe the coast. In the highlands the "Finns" maintained some independence reign of Halfdan the Black, it included the greater part of Hamar and Oslo Stift, and the fylke of Sogn, the district round the modern Sognefjord.
Halfdan's son, Harald Haarfager, hav ing no brothers, succeeded to the whole kingdom. By 866 his power was so well established in S. Norway that he contemplated the conquest of the whole land. There can be no doubt that Harald introduced a feudal view of obligations towards the king, and landowning families, who had regarded their odel, or inheri ted property, as absolutely their own, resented being forced to pay dues on it. In each district Harald offered the herser the op portunity of becoming his vassals, answerable to him for the government of the district but many quitted the lands which were their real title to influence, rather than suffer the new order. Only the little kingdoms made futile attempts at combination, except in the western districts of Agde (comprising the modern Lister and Mandal and Nedenaes), Rogaland and Hordaland. Here was the home of the "western Vikings" who for nearly a century had owed wealth and fame to their raids on the British Isles. Attack by land was impossible, and Harald had to gather men and ships for three years before he could meet the fleet of the allied kings at Hafsfjord. The battle (872) resulted in a victory to him, and with it all opposition in Norway ended. An expedition to Scotland and the Scottish isles (c. 891) dispersed enemies who could harry the Norwegian coast, many of them taking refuge in Iceland; and the earldom of the Orkneys and Shetlands became an appanage of the Norwegian Crown. For the moment the whole country was under a single king, but Harald destroyed his work by giving about twenty of his sons the title of king, and dividing the country among them, only qualify ing this retrograde step by installing his favourite son Erik Blodoxe as over-king (93o). Moreover, Harald had established no common Thing for the whole of his kingdom, and the three natural divisions of the country remained more or less separate for centuries, even having separate laws until the second half of the 13th century.