Tea For Two -

Flýtilyklar

Valmynd
Meginmál
Deildarval

Norway at a glance

Norway forms the western part of Scandinavia. The rugged coastline, broken by massive fjords and thousands of islands, stretches over 25,000 km. Norway shares land border with Sweden, Finland and Russia to the east. To the west and south, Norway is bordered by the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea and Skagerrak. In north it borders the Barents Sea.

Archaeological finds indicate that there were people in Norway about 12,000 years ago. They probably came from more southern regions and travelled further north along the Norwegian coastline. In the 9th century, Norway consisted of a number of petty kingdoms. According to history, Harald Fairhair gathered the small kingdoms into one in 872 with the battle of Hafrsfjord and became the first king of a united Norway. In 1389 the countries of Norway, Denmark and Sweden entered into the Kalmar Union. Sweden declared its independence in 1523, but Norway remained under the Danish crown until 1814. Then the Danish-Norwegian king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden after it found itself on the losing side in the Napoleonic wars. Only in 1905 did Norway (peacefully) separate from Sweden. Norway is a constitutional monarch with a parliamentary system of government.

Norway has a population of 4 640 219 (as per 1.1.2006), and is increasing by 0.73% (as of 2005).

Norway has a state church (Evangelic Lutheran) and approximately 86% of the population is members. To show the correct picture it should, however, be mentioned that a survey conducted by Gallup International in 65 countries in 2005 found that Norway was the least religious country in Western Europe. Many people use the ceremonies of baptism, marriage and burial without being regular churchgoers or believing in the teachings of the church.

The Norwegian language has two official written forms, Bokmål and Nynorsk. Although bokmål is used by the majority, officially they have equal status and are both used in public administration, in schools, churches and on radio and television.

The country is richly endowed with natural resources; petroleum, hydropower, fish, forest and minerals. Norway has obtained one of the highest standards of living in the world, partly from petroleum production. The country possesses the second highest GDP per capital in the world, and held the highest position in the World on the Human Development Index for the fifth consecutive year.