ETIINOIAM;V. Since Neolithic times Norway has been mainly inhabited by tall, blonde longlicads. of Teutonic stock, who are believed to have come from the Caucasian steppes during the prehistoric migrations. llecause of the great ice cap whieli lingered on the mountains. Norway was peopled notelt later than Swe den, which Shows Paleolithic inhabitation. while the former has revealed only the Neolithic.. There were till4 land bridges by which Mall may have (qite to the Scandinavian peninsula. one on the west joining the British Isles to Norway: the second from 1(iigen in North Ger Illally to ?•Vallia in Sweden: and a third much later bridge from Finland to East Sweden. Ily the middle bridge Sweden and Norway received the red deer and the Teutonic longhead popu lation, whiell is almost pure in the former country. Whatever Finnic elements are present may have come by the Bothnia bridge. On Illy west there came a dark. short type of probably Bound or Pictish origin. It would seem that these people brought the Shet land pony.. The lotiglicads mining in from Swc don (be S.Oltiliwesi coast lowlands cupied the interior of the country after the melting away of the ice cap. This region was never lunette(' by that tremendous wave of mi gration of short. dark lomdteads called •letliter raneatts' by Sergi. coming. it is 0011 d n..1. originally from North Africa. Titus there has been forming here for a long period from these light and dark elements a virile rave itt eta environment whose stress was a spur to the edu cation of manly qualil ies for which the Nor wegians have excelled since they come in the kw of history.
The Norwegians prefer a country life, but little of the In0111'1111 movement toWnrdl cities being noticed until reeently. They are of tall stature (5 ft. S in.). with strong. well-knit frames. and good museular development. Fair skin. blue 1•3'I-s, and light flaxen hair eliar neterize the bulk of the population. but the dark type is often recognized. Among the ehil dren Illaxen hair is almost universal. hut with de• velopment the hair, eyes. and skit' breome darker in n majority of eases. As a people the Norwe.
Onus are remarkably hardy and show a preference for athletic sports which require great endurance. For this reason they are typical explorers. In °harm-ter they are frank. yet cautious and re served. honest. and religious. modified paidAl is the literary language, the out Norse survives in a few districts, as it does in Iceland. Since the peasants speak various dialects of Old Norse. and malty of the educated consider the presence of the Danish language an anomaly, efforts to revive Norse have been zealously prose cuted for many years.
IhsronY. The early history of Norway is pre served (ody in the legendary sagas. The most recent arelneologieal researches show that the Scandinavian people were probably the autoch thonous inhabitants of the peninsula. The histor ical period of Norway reaches no further back than the ninth century. The petty tribal king
doms whieh existed here as in all northern coun tries 111.1? bmIted tinder liar:11d llaarfagr or Fair hair (died e.933), who in the last third of that century established the seat of government at 'I'rindhjem in the north. At this time the Danes :1 lid Norwegians (see Noam.txs) were the terror of Europe through their plundering expeditions and invasions.
The introduction of Christianity, the result of the intercourse which the had with the more civilized parts of Europe through their maritime expeditions. was gradually ef fected in the hundred years that followed the death of Harald Ilaarfagr. Ilaakon the Good. son of Harald Ilaarfagr, attempted vainly to establish it: hut this result was brought about by Olaf ( 993-1000 ) and Olaf the Saint (e.1015-1030), wild northern missionaries who bore the iris.; in 01IP hand and the sword in the other. Olaf the Saint zealously prose. cubed the conversion of his countrymen and raised himself to supreme power in the hand by the subjection of the small kings or chieftains who in the times of heathenism had subdivided the Kingdom among them. In 1028 Olaf was driven nut by Canute the treat of Denmark, and. having attempted to recover his throne. defeated and slain in IMO. On the death of Canute in 1035. Olars son. :\lagnus I., recovered posses sion of the throne, and theueeforth. till 1319. Norway continued to he governed by native kings. Of these the most noteworthy were Scorn. Sigurdson a statesman of consid• (Table ability who was put in power by the an. tionalist democrat party, who after years of bitter strife had overcome the party of the nobles and clergy. and Ihmkott the OM ((?l7 031, iii whose rein indelivIlikilt Norway reached the height of its prosperity. During these een turies the Norse adventurers bad established per. manent eolonies in Iceland and Greenland. and for a time the Orkney and Shetland islands and the were in the possession of the Nor wegian kings, whose last inroad into Scotland was rei,elled in 1'263. Tht• thirteenth century saw the beginning of ‘vrillen Norse literature and law. The death of Ilnakon without male heirs. in 1319. threw the eleetion of n new king into the hands of the national assembly, who made ehoire of Magnus of Sweden, surnamed Smek. the son of 11a:ikon's datpditer. lle was in turn sueeeeded Ivy Ids son. llaakon. and the latter's son, Olaf, after Navin; been elected King cif Denmark in 1370, beeame ruler of both Scandinavian king• dome on the death of his father in 1380. Timis young king, who exercised only a nominal sway under the guidance of his mother,Queen Margaret (q.v.), the only child of Vablemar 1.V. of Den mark, died without heirs in 1387. The ambitious and capable Margaret succeeded to the thrones of Denmark and Norway, and in 1389 she became mis tress also of Sweden, and the three kingdoms were bound together by the Union of Calmar in 1397.