Norwegian Life

Norwegian Life

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Norwegian Life, by Ethlyn T. Clough
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Title: Norwegian Life
Author: Ethlyn T. Clough
Release Date: December 30, 2003 [EBook #10543]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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NORWEGIAN LIFE ***

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Norwegian Life
AN ACCOUNT OF PAST AND CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS
AND PROGRESS IN NORWAY AND SWEDEN
Edited and Arranged by
ETHLYN T. CLOUGH

PREFACE
An excursion into Norwegian life has for the student all the charm of
the traveler's real journey through the pleasant valleys of the Norse
lands. Much of this charm is explained by the tenacity of the people to

the homely virtues of honesty and thrift, to their customs which testify
to their home-loving character, and to their quaint costumes. It is a
genuine delight to study and visit these lands, because they are the least,
perhaps in Europe, affected by the leveling hand of cosmopolitan ideas.
Go where you will,--to England, about Germany, down into
Italy,--everywhere, the same monotonous sameness is growing more
oppressive every year. But in Norway and Sweden there is still an
originality, a type, if you please, that has resisted the growth of an
artificial life, and gives to students a charm which is even more alluring
than modern cities with their treasures and associations.
The student takes up Norwegian life as one of the subjects which has
been comparatively little explored, and is, therefore replete with
freshness and delight. This little book can not by any means more than
lift the curtain to view the fields of historical and literary interest and
the wondrous life lived in the deep fiords of Viking land. But its brief
pages will have, at least, the merit of giving information on a subject
about which only too little has been written. Taken in all, there are
scarcely half a dozen recent books circulating in American literary
channels on these interesting lands, and for one reason or another, most
of these are unsuited for club people. There is an urgent call for a
comprehensive book which will waste no time in non-essentials,--a
book that can be read in a few sittings and yet will give a glimpse over
this quaint and wondrously interesting corner of Europe. This book has
been prepared, as have all the predecessors in this series, by the help of
many who have written most delightfully of striking things in
Norwegian life. One has specialized in one thing, while another has
been allured by another subject. Accordingly, "Norwegian Life" is the
product of many, each inspired with feeling and admiration for the one
or two subjects on which he has written better than on any others.
Liberty has been taken to make a few verbal changes in order to give to
the story the unity and smoothness desired, and a key-letter at the end
of each chapter refers the reader to a page at the close where due credits
are given.
J.M. HALL.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES

CHAPTER II
NORWAY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER III
SWEDEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER IV
THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN

CHAPTER V
THE LITERATURE OF NORWAY

CHAPTER VI
THE LITERATURE OF SWEDEN

CHAPTER VII
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN

CHAPTER VIII
THE ARMY AND NAVY

CHAPTER IX
PUBLIC EDUCATION

CHAPTER X
HAAKON VII, NEW KING OF NORWAY

CHAPTER XI
THE ROYAL FAMILY OF SWEDEN

CHAPTER XII
CHARITABLE AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS

CHAPTER XIII
MATERIAL CONDITIONS

CHAPTER XIV
HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS, AND WATERWAYS

CHAPTER XV
THE PEOPLE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

CHAPTER XVI
HEALTH, EXERCISE, AND AMUSEMENTS

CHAPTER XVII
THE NEWSPAPERS OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN

CHAPTER XVIII
NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS

CHAPTER XIX
WOMEN OF NORWAY AND SWEDEN

NORWEGIAN LIFE

CHAPTER I
PREHISTORIC AND EARLY HISTORIC TIMES
A glance at the map will show that the Scandinavian Peninsula, that
immense stretch of land running from the Arctic Ocean to the North
Sea, and from the Baltic to the Atlantic, covering an area of nearly
three hundred thousand square miles, is, next to Russia, the largest
territorial division of Europe. Surrounded by sea on all sides but one,
which gives it an unparalleled seaboard of over two thousand miles, it
hangs on the continent by its frontier line with Russia in Lapland.
Down the middle of this seabound continent, dividing it into two nearly
equal parts,