Am Rande des Himalayas: Ein christlicher Roman (German Edition)

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In the translation of Saint-Martin: Exactly behind the Carpathian mountain was the Gepids kingdom, which clearly indicates that these were the same Bulgarian-Gepids allies. Latin and Greek sources indicate that in the second half of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th centuries a Bulgarian community settled in Pannonia where they were living in the same kingdom with the Gepids.

When around AD the Longobards, together with the Avars, destroyed the Gepids kingdom, and then they moved to settle in Italy together with other tribes among which were also the Bulgarians. Traces of these movements could be seen during the time of Paul Deacon because he wrote that many new settlements appeared in Italy with names of the tribes who founded them: Pope Gregory the Great wrote that the Bulgarians settled in the area south of the Alps before Italy was conquered by Alboin.

A simultaneous movement of the Gepids and Bulgarians has been described as well. According to the Bulgarian scientists S.

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Voynov, this encounter took place probably at the time of Attila; however, P. However, the Kutrigurs and the Avars were allies, not enemies of the Longobards; they defeated the Gepids and their allies, the Bulgarians together. This indicates that if they did not mean some earlier event or some encounter before Attila arrived, i. And this happened not earlier than , when the outbreak of the first Longobard-Gepidian war. To the south of them, on the other side of the river Danube, is the country, Carinthia, [lying] south to the mountains, called the Alps. To the same mountains extend the boundaries of the Bavarians, and of the Suabians; and then, to the east of the country Carinthia, beyond the desert, is the country of the Bulgarians ; and, to the east of them, the country of the Greeks.

Hampson clearly seen that: Southern Poland and western Ukraine Galicia. This fact is supported by the Theophilus the Preacher report see below that before , when the Bulgarians for the first time invaded Illiricum and Thrace, nobody had heard of them. Thus, it is not possible to talk about Bulgarian presence in Europe before the reign of emperor Zeno One part of them were called Altziagirs, the other - Savirs.

Altziagirs inhabit the land around Khersones…In the summer, they roam in the steppe to look for pastures for their herds, in the winter, they move to the Pontic Sea coast. The significance of the Jordanes description is that he clearly distinguishes the Bulgarians and the Huns, to whom the Altziagirs, Savirs and Hunugurs Onogurs belong.

This author mentioned also Khazaria as a vast land, and the Khazars who he called also Akatzirs Agatzirs citing Jordanes although Jordanes did not say that. Throughout this country flows river Kufis Kuban but the author did not mention presence of Bulgarians there, indicating that this geographic picture is described after the Bulgarian migration out of the country under the pressure by the Khazars.

A chronological marker is the mentioning of the Avars as recently settled in Gepidia people: Recently, they began to call this land Gepidia; as it is well known now, the Unes Avars people live there. It is well known that the Ravenna Cosmography was put together between , when the Frisians conquered Dorestad about which is mentioned , and no later than , when the Arabs conquered Spain not mentioned. For this reason, the Bulgarians were described as recently settled on the Balkans people.

In spite of the numerous geographical inaccuracies, Theophanus the Preacher gave a detailed information about the Bulgarians east of the Black Sea: But before that we will tell you about the Unogondurs-Bulgars and the Kotrags Kutrigurs past. Between the lake itself and river Kuphis lays the Old Great Bulgaria, inhabited by Bulgarians and Kotrags of the same tribe.

Nekropil or Dead gates is in the common mouth of the rivers Dnieper and Bug. Here Theophanes meant Kerch Strait. Byzantine historian John of Nikiu narrates: Quetrades Kubrat , the prince of the Moutanes Huns , and a nephew of Quernakes Organa, at Patriarch Nikephorus , was baptized as a child and was educated in Constantinople. Anastassius the Librarian, of Latin origin, literary repeated what was told by Theophanus. Around the Maeotis lake along the river Kophin Kuban is situated the known from the old times Great Bulgaria.

The so-called Kotrags Kotragoi , from the same tribe as the Bulgarians, also lived there. It is clear from this source that the Bulgarians inhabited the land along the river Kuban till the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov Figure 5. Besides Bulgarians, they were called also Unogundurs; the Kotrags Kutrigurs were from the same tribe. Only Nikephoros, who's text is shorter than the other sources, mentioned Huns among the Bulgarians.

Since the Bulgarians and the Gepids were mentioned together at the same time, it becomes clear that the author meant the Bulgarians from Pannonia who, together with the Gepids, joined the Avars after the latter, together with the Longobards, conquered their country in Emperor Constantine army was shamefully thrown out and totally destroyed…the Emperor was forced to pay them tributes. From now on, the Bulgarian kingdom with their ruler Batai, must be acknowledged. The same event was described by George Amartol: A description of the Constantine Pogonat military campaign, and the unfortunate for Byzantium war with the Bulgarians follows.

Justin the Thracian ruled 9 years and 3 months. His son, Constantine reigned 17 years. During his 13th year, saints gathered in Constantinople for the Fourth Ecumenical Council. This anonymous author has made a few chronological errors. The Fourth Ecumenical Council took place in November of , during the 13th year of Emperor Constantine indeed, which clearly indicates that Emperor Constantine IV is the same Emperor Constantine Pogonat during whose reign the Bulgarians settled south of Danube river.

John Zonara also wrote about the Bulgarians migration: This is why Emperor Constantine went against them both by land and by sea with a fleet coming from the sea into the Danube. Byzantine sources report also about migration of another group of Bulgarians led by Kuber the name is of Iranian origin, in Osset. Next, the deeds of Kuber are described: Thus, the concept of a common Bulgarian space includes not only Bulgaria of Asparukh in Moesia but also Bulgaria of Kuber in Macedonia. Instead, they reached a conflict with the Avars, as a result of which 9, Bulgarians, lead by Altzioc, left the state to save themselves in Bavaria.

At the beginning the local Herzog accepted them, but then under the pressure by Frankish King Dagobert, most of the Bulgarians were killed. The survived people, lead by Altzioc found a safe heaven in the beginning in Carinthia, with prince Walluh, later were welcomed by the Longobards and settled in the land, in the Venetian maracas. Three decades later, in around , another Bulgarian group left the Avars state and settled with the Longobards, in the province of Beneveto. There are many toponyms that speak of Bulgarian presence in Lombardia: Chepino, Chepinzi, Chepelare, Chepeldja, etc.

Possible is a primary Finno-Ugric origin of the term, in Udmurt. The leader of the earlier, unsuccessful migration, was Alzioc. Whether the two leaders were related or it is a coincidence of names, or the names sound very close, it is not known. According to the Bulgarian historian D. Angelov, these are two different groups of Bulgarians, and professor V. Beshevliev has reasonable doubt that the survived people of Altzioc could populate many cities in Italy. Migration of people would not leave much trace into the ethnos they migrate to.

Most scientists accept that Altzioc and Altzec were the same person, but Fredegar mistakenly called the unknown leader of the migration with name of the later migration leader Altzec. The German historian Heinrich Kunstmann preposed that the unidentified and unburied remains of 6, people skulls and 47, big bones , found in St. Florian monastery by the Austrian city of Linz, are the remains of these killed Bulgarians. Denis monastery around , it is a compilation of panegyric speeches. In chapter 28, the announcement about the Bulgarians of Altzioc by Fredegar is copied, however, the name of Altzioc is not mentioned; it sais also that all Bulgarians were killed.

Or that the scale of the killings has been vastly exaggerated under the influence of the legend. A probable reason for he conflict with the Bulgarians was the beginning of the expansion of Dagobert to the East. In he began a war with the state of Samo a slavic state founded by the merchant Samo , subjugated Bavaria, and founded the kingdom of Thuringia. Probably, the Frankish king was afraid that the Bulgarians would threaten his power in Bavaria. Altzec appeared immediately after the death of Kubrat in , indicating that most probably he was his son, as Theophanos wrote.

Deacon wrote about this event: At that time, the Herzog of the Bulgarians called Alseco Altzec , for unknown reason, left his people, and in peace came to Italy with all of his army. He met with King Grimuald, promised to serve him, and asked to settle in his country. And the king sent him to Benevento, to his son Romuald, ordering him to meet and help these people by finding a place for them to settle.

And they the Bulgarians live in these places until today, and speak both Latin and their own language. Ancona, Rimini, Pesaro, Fanno, and Sengalia. These are all the details on the earliest migrations of the ancient Bulgarians that we found in the Greek and Latin sources. In summary, the Bulgarians were mentioned by all the byzantine historians for the first time during the reigns of the emperors Zeno and Anastassius, when a small group of them settled with the Gepids in Pannonia.

At that time they occasionally attacked and ravaged some of the Balkan provinces without permanently living there. Permanent settlement of the Bulgarians on the Balkans, according to all byzantine sources, took place in , under the Emperor Constantine IV Pogonat.

Chronography of b, part Gagloiti Ossetian family and personal names. Tuleshkov Architectural art of the ancient Bulgarians, vol 2. The Christian Topography, Book 3 http: Theophanes the Confessor, Chronography, http: Edition of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, vol. Paul Deacon History of the Longobards, Russian translation. Armenian Geography of 7th Century. Russian translation, http: From the Beginning until Todorov-Bemberski The name of the Bulgarians: History and Identity, Sofia.

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Norway

Jourdan On the origin and deeds of the Geths. Podosinov East Europe in the Roman cartographic traditions, Moscow. Ossetian Iranian — Russian Dictionary http: Tsagaraev The names of the great ancestors: Takazov Digors-Russian Dictionary, Vladicaucas www. Philology and Culture — 1. It is not clear why this author connected the Bulgarians with Achilles. One hypothesis is that it was written at the time when the Bulgarians conquered Thessaly. This is strange because Thessaly has been within the Bulgarian borders only episodically, it was not a typical part of Bulgaria such as Moesia was, for example.

The same information we can read in Joan Tsetsas 12th century: The Achilles connection may have another explanation. And since the Bulgarians established themselves on these lands in the beginning, it is possible that this was the connection with Achilles. Syrian historian and Episcope of Mytilene, Zacharaia Rhetor 5th century wrote interesting details about Bulgarians living north form the Caucasus mountain. Behind the limits of Dadu ddw they live in the mountains, they have fortresses.

Ungurs wngwr , are people who live in tents, thirteen different people: These people survive by eating meat from domestic animals, fish, and wild animals, and using their weapons. Michael the Syrian was a Syrian Jacobite Patriarch. He was born also in Mytilene but lived later than Zacharia Rhetor. They travelled days through the gorges of the mountain Imeon. They traveled during the winter to look for water, and they reach river Tanais Don which was coming from the Maeotis sea Sea of Azov into the Pontus Sea.

And he crossed both rivers Tanais and Danube and asked Emperor Maurice land to live there as an ally of the Empire. He gave him the Upper and Lower Moesia and Dacia, flourishing countries which were devastated by the Avars during the reign of Emperor Anastassius, and they settled there to defend the byzantine people. These Sythians were called Bulgarians by the Byzantians: The other two brothers came to the country of the Alans called Barsilia, its cities were build by the Romans, one of which is called Caspia or Toraian Gates: Clearly, in this text events from different times are mixed up.

The Avars invasion was 65 years after the coming of Emperor Anastassius. It is reported by Theophilaktos of Simokatta, that in three tribes called Kotzagirs, Tarniachs, and Zabenders, relative to the Avars, run out from the Turkic Khaganate and settled in the Caucasus mountain, and after that they joined the Avars. The Bulgarian scientist P. Goliyski proved that there was indeed. Anastassius mentioned by Michael the Syrian was not the Emperor Anastassius but a general from the time of Emperor Maurice with the same name.

A military reader who lived in the East the Eastern Persian provinces , did not recognize the young shah, and rebelled against him. When Khosrau saw that a large part of the persian people supported Bahram, he asked byzantine Emperor Maurice for help. He sent him a secret letter via the byzantine military commander in Rekafa city in central Syria, on the south bank of the Euphrates. He sent also 40 talents gold to cover the cost.

Bishop Gregory Bar Hebraeus gave even better information repeating the story of the three brothers migration and adding that this happened during the fourth year of Emperor Maurice reign, i. Thus, during the period of , these Bulgarians settled south of Danube peacefully, as allies of Byzantium it was the Bulgarians in Pannonia who attacked and pillaged Illiricum and Thrace at that time. Byzantine historian Joseph Genesius lived in 10th century also wrote about this migration: Michael the Syrian has mixed up two different events: Particularly useful information reported by Michael the Syrian, is naming the mountain of Imeon as the starting point of the Bulgarian-Khazars migration.

One branch of the mountain is spread miles to the west, the other - miles to the north, and the third branch continues to the Unknown land. Almost until the end of the 19th century, the local people thought of the mountain chain made of Fergan, Alai, Kyrghiz, and Kokshetau, as one mountain chain, an extension of Pamir and Hindu Kush, called Bolor. Ptolemy probably knew the name Manisa, and used it as Imaus or Imeon Figure 8.

Thus, from Michael the Syrian we learn that the Bulgarians and the Khazars started their migration from the mountain Imeon, i. The ancient road went from the Toraian Gates to the Caspia city, and from there to Daryal. Exactly west of this pass laid the country called Bazgun or Abkhazia. In the Kabardinian version of "The Nart sagas" in the middle reaches of the river Kuban was located area "Barsian Field" - an echo of the toponym Barsilia. Writing about the migration in Barsilia, he said: These authors seem to be rather biased to their preconceived ideas without vigorous scrutiny of the facts.

Then the Bulgarians invaded Thrace. About the same events in the Armenian translation of Michael the Syrian we read: He also pointed out that during the uprise, the Avars twice invaded the empire reaching the Long Wall of Constantinople, devastating on their way Singidunum, Anchealo, and the whole Ellada, which indicates that these were the Pannonian Bulgarians the Kutrigurs that were under the Avars.

Leo Grammaticus also wrote that the Avars, taking advantage of the byzantine mutiny, pillaged Thrace reaching Constantinople. Syrian sources for the history of Azerbaijan, Baku, The Second Kingdom of the Greeks. Translated from Syriac by E. Wallis Budge London, http: Bozilov History of the Medieval Bulgaria, 7th - 19th centuries, vol 1 http: The Regions of the World. A Persian Geography A H. Veliev Ancient Azerbaijan.

Historian-geographical Esseys, Giandglik, Baku. Kosabian Information on the medieval Bulgarian state in ancient Armenian and Syrian sources, Problems of Culture, 4. Greek sources for the History of Bulgaria Describing the reign of Vagharshak, he wrote: On the next meeting, he appointed people to lead and to rule them; he sent them wise men and supervisors. Even today the villages there bear the names of his brothers and descendants. The second report about the Bulgarians that Movses Khorenatsi wrote, is at the time of King Arshak or Arcaces , son of Vagharshak, reign: For example, in the French translation of M.

The sons of Bagarat were forced to worship his pagan Armenian Gods, two of whom were killed with a sword because of the religion of their father. I would not hesitate to call them followers of Annanius and Eleasar the two Jews refusing to worship the Babylonian Gods. The rest of them agreed on the following: Here the story told by Mar Abas Katina ends. Later, part of the Bulgarians migrated to the land which the Armenian king conquered, and the region where they settled was already called Vanand, after the name of their leader. A little later, during the reign of the next after Arshak king, a second migration took place to the adjacent region called Kol, where Jews were living too.

Centuries later we find identical, confirming information by the Khazarian khagan Joseph ben Aaron, in his letter to the Andalusian Jewish scientist Hasdai ibn Shaphrut: They married the people of this country, and thus, mixed with the pagans, learned their customs, went to war always together with them; at the end they became one people. The Khazarian Khagan bound his family to these Jews who were prosecuted in Armenia and who settled in Khazaria. The Armenian authors reported that Jews were living in the country of the Bulgarians.

This is a strong indication, that at that time, the Khazars, the Bulgarians and the Barsilians considered themselves one people, one community. It is not quite clear who Vagharshak was, and what was the situation during his reign. Movses Khorenatsi wrote that Vagharshak ruled for 22 years, and his son Arshak years. In fact, the old military campaigns of Arthashes caused the resistance and the consolidation of many tribes of Dagestan: Keeping these reports in mind, we could conclude that the Bulgarian migration took place in the 2d century BC.

For example, in older publications such as "History of Armenia" issued in by V. The Georgian historian Leontii Mrovelli wrote about the victories of Artashes: Strabo clarified that Artashes defeated Siris i. Artashes fought the northern tribes too - the Sarmatian Siraks Ovses ; it is possible that he moved some of them into the newly acquired land. According to professor A. Arshak I was the first ethnic Parthian who ruled Armenia more precisely, the second, the first Arshacid the Armenian throne is short ruling Vonon Vonones I Emperor Tiberius sent his protege Tiridates, a Parhtian of nobel origin, to remove Artabanes and take the Parthian throne.

The Iverians or Iberians , who were Georgians, came to help the Romans. The army was lead by Pharasmanes who, meanwhile, became the king of Iberia because his father Mithridates died. Pharasmanes wanted to conquer Armenia and to place his brother, called also Mithtridates after his father , on the Armenian throne. Meanwhile, Pharasmanes managed to organize a plot against Arshak I who was killed in Also, Pharasmanes used Sarmatian tribes as his allies, and let them go through the Caspian Gates Daryal and invade Armenia.

And Pharasmanes put on the Armenian throne his brother Mithridates. In the same time Tiridates succeeded to expel Artaban and to rule Parthia for one year; he is known as Tiridates II With the help of the Dachians and the Sarmatians Dionysius Cassius called them Scythians , Artabanes returned to the throne but could not get Armenia back. However, soon after that, during the Emperor Caligula , the Romans removed Mithridates from the throne 37 , and chained, sent him to Rome.

He ruled until 42, but nothing is known about his governing. Emperor Claudius freed Mithridates and in 42 put him again on the Armenian throne; Orodes was expelled. Soon afterwards, the relationship between the brothers Pharasmanes and Mithridates worsened. Perhaps Mithridates behaved independently, supporting the interests of the Armenian aristocracy and did not follow his powerful brother. The Inver king sent his son Rhadamistus to his uncle Mithridates under the pretense that he was running to him but his goal was to organize a plot and kill him.

The plot succeeded and Mithridates was killed by his nephew who had the pretense for the Armenian throne. The king of Parthia at that time Vologases Vagharshak took advantage of the situation, and conquered Armenia. He put his brother Tiridates or Trdates on the throne. Goliyski referred to a fragment from the work of the French scientist Jacques Jean Marie de Morgan describing the northern people of Kartly Georgia during the reign of king Mirvan I BC where he mentioned the name Vund: After Mirvan pacified Georgia, soon this poor country was flooded again by new barbarian invasions from the north by the numerous so-called Balkars.

First they camped in the north along the rivers Malka and Terek but the Scythian people bothered them there, and they crossed the mountain under the leadership of their Vant. They went through the Ossetian land, without stopping they passed Daryal and flooded Georgia. Their attack was furious, it was impossible to stop them when they reached the banks of river Aragvi, They quickly crossed Georgia without ravaging it, and arrived in Armenia where they settled with the permission of the king of this country, in the region of Antpet Passer or Vanand.

Morgan took litterary the information about Vant from S.

Baratoff and his "History of Georgia". He punished them for devastating Iveria. In this case, Sulhan Baratov, who is also cited by Morgan, put together the information from the Armenian M. Khorenatsi and the Georgian sources, and thus connected the two events: However, all these events took place at least a century later. Dionysus Cassius wrote about a letter of Tiberius to the king of Iveria urging him to invade Armenia, and chase the Parthians away from there.

According to Flavius, the Alans had a new weapon - the lasso arkana. Having this information in mind, Yu. Gagloiti concluded that the Scythian used by the Iverians in 35 were the Alans, which indirectly was confirmed by Flavius describing the second campaign of the Alans in 72, which was a completely different action.

Gagloiti, the attack beyond the Caucuses was in 35, the first known big military campaign of the Alans in northern Caucuses. Gaius Valerius Flaccus described this battle in a rather poetic form: The following phrase refers to that time: The main part of them migrated to Pannonia. These people under the names of Assiags and Issedons or Essedons were known in the West Caucases; they probably became the main part of the later eastern tribes called Essegels. Thus, there were Sarmatians that were allies to Armenia. Judging from the events that followed, one could think that in 35 or a little earlier, the the Bulgars of Vand, under the pressure of the Alans and the Yasigs who were allies of the Romans and the Iverians, peacefully migrated to Armenia not as enemies, allies of the Iverians or Tiberius where they asked first Vonon or Artashes III Zenon for land to settle on, in the region of Kars Eastern Turkey today ; later, right before he was killed in a plot, they asked Arshak I to settle in the region of Kol.

There were uprises in the Caucasus during the reign of Arshak - the march of Ivers, Romans, Sarmatians, Alans against Armenia and the migration of the Alans from the land around the Sea of Azov to the northern slopes of the Caucuses, as well as Central Caucuses.

For the purposes of our story about when were the Bulgarians mentioned first, we have to describe the short reign of king Vonon. He lived for many years in Rome where he was educated. They fought against each other, Vonon lost in this war and run away from the country.

Then the Armenian aristocrats naharars received him, and offered him their throne which was unoccupied at that time since the old Artashessian or Artaxiad dynasty was interrupted after the death of Tigranes IV. All of them were related to the Artashesid dynasty.

The short reign of Vonon was the starting point of the Arshakid dynasty in Armenia, as all the Armenian historians wrote unanimously. In the Armenian sources he was described under the name of Vagharshak, the first Armenian king of Arshakid origin. Later, Vonon was moved to Cilicia but in 19, in an attempt to escape, he was killed by the guards. He was king of Parthia in and king of Armenia After his death, Artaban put his son Arshak, as a second ethnical Parthian, on the Armenian throne.

This is how the legendary images of Vagharshak Vonon and Arshak, son of Artaban, as the first Arkashids in Armenia, came to be known. Their rule was short and not very significant, and because of that the Armenian historians attributed the deeds of Artashes the Great and Trdat the Brave Trdat I , to Vagharshak Vonon , just as they wrote that Arshak I prosecuted the Christians, when this was done by Sanatruk I, who reigned after Trdat. Khorenatsi himself clearly stated the information about Vagharshak and his son Arshak, i.

After that, he told the Armenian history beginning with Artashes I, describing him as the son of Arshak. In this way, the two dynasties Artashesids and Arkashids were presented as one - Arkashid. Hence, the combining the personality and the deeds of the real restorer of the Armenian kingdom into the image of Vagharshak is quite understandable. And this demonstrates that, before Map Abas Katina mentioned it as recorded by Khorenatsi , the Bulgarians already were living in West Caucuses, near Daryal pass, probably century earlier!

To make out statement on the origin of the Bulgarians even more precise, we have to mention other reports as well. Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo besieged Tigranakert located close to Diyarbakir in Kurdish Turkey today , but it was clear that the Armenians were ready for a prolonged siege. Accidentally, the head fell in the center of a meeting that the barbarians the Armenians and their allies held.

Next to his tent, a barbarian of a prominent family was caught. After they tortured him, he confessed that he was supposed to kill him and betrayed all of his accomplices. Then people sent by the besieged Tigranakert came and declared that they will open the gates of the city.

To soften his heart, the citizens of Tigranakert sent Carbulo a golden wreath. However, when the Romans went toward the city, the gates were closed. The Carbulo beheaded the prominent captive and shot his head with a banister to scare the people in the city. Thus, the two sources complement each other: Sextus Frontine mentioned his name, Vanand, while Tacitus described how he was captured - at the mission for removal of Carbulo.

The name means "Winner of Darkness" or "Winner of evil. Justi In the Kushans, the name Vanando, means winner. Pliny the Elder wrote that Carbulo troops reached Armenia through the Caspian gates which is in Iveria. In the middle of this pass is the Dirikdon, i. In fact, Pliny pointed to the same pass about which centuries later Zacharaia Rhetor and M.

It is logical that Romans would go through this pass since at that time Iveria was their ally. The war with the Romans and their allies, the Iverians, lasted for 10 years. In 63 Trdat gained the throne again, and at the end the Parthians won with the Randean peace treaty. With the established peace with Rome the Parthian dynasty became lawful on the Armenain throne, but formally the country was a Roman vassal.

Practically, their politics was entirely connected with Pathia. Drakhsanakertsi reported prosecutions of the Jews. He did not obey and fell in disgrace. The next ruler, Arshak, according to Khorenatsi, killed two of the Bagarat sons because they refused to reject the Jewish faith. Exactly at that time the turmoil between the Bulgarians took place. Vanad was executed during king Trdat and Under Abgar who ruled Armenia from 13 to 50, the Christianity was tolerated but under the king after Trdat, Sanatruk I , there were prosecutions and executions of Christians.

Stamatov wrote in the Bulgarian literature. Respectively, the neighboring Arachia and Artaza will be Hark and Artas, new names used instead of the old Shavarshan or Shavarshakan. It is well known that the region of Artas, next to Vanand, was named by the Alans, a large group of whom settled in this place. Such a region Artos, Ardos can be found around the wells of river Terek. Most of the historians, Yu. Gabuev, wrote that this migration of the Alans happened in the period between the two big marches against the Armenians or between AD.

This happened probably during the 1st-2d centuries, but it took at least years before the new names were firmly established. It is very important to clarify when exactly lived M. He was mentioned by Sebeos 7th century as Maraba Mtsurins philosopher, indicating that he was from the city of Mtsurin. It was chosen to be the capital of Armenia in 62 after Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo destroyed Artaxshat, the capital of Trdat. In the 2d century Mtsurin suffered an earthquake, but it was rebuilt and expanded by Sanatruk , the possible successor of Trdat, and in 4th century was destroyed again this time by the Persians during the march of Shapur in Thus, the palace of Sanatruk was in Mtsurin, not in Mtsibin.

Mar Abas Katina lived in the period when Mtsurin was the capital. Saakian proved that the information of Movses Khorenatsi about the city of Mtsibin is actually about the city of Mtsurin. For this reason, Saakian thinks that the city of Mtsurin in the region of Taron was the real capital of Armenia, after it was additionally built by Sanatruk, and all the information about Mtsibin must be related to Mtsurin. He also mixed Mtsibin and Mtsuk Mtsurin , for example: At the same time he contradicted himself: Sebeos had used various sources which possibly explains the confusion.

He himself mentioned that he relied on the information by M. Khorenatsi also indirectly pointed out that the center of the country during the first Arshakids was Taron, with its main city of Mtsurin. Describing the deeds of the mythical Vagharshak, Khorenatsi wrote that he founded the institution for throne heritage, from father to the first born son, and for this purpose he sent the rest of his sons outside the capital: For this reason, he sent them to live in the region of Hashteank and the adjacent valley, outside Taron… And only his first born son……and his son i.

From this follows that the capital indeed was in the region of Taron. Many other authors have connected it either with Masur Cairo or Mosul Iraq , but they have missed one small but important detail, that Sasun region was next to the city of Masur, i. Sasun used to be part gavar of the Great Armenia, but later it was conquered by the Arabs, then it was a semi-independent until the Turks came. In this case, Masur is the arabic version of the Armenian Mtsurin. Ukhtanes Sebastatsi, presented this name as Mariba Katina. Saakian also explains the name of the mythical Vagharshak at his time the Bulgarians of Vund came logically in the same way as Khorenatsi himself did: Thus, the name of Vagharshak became known as the first ruler of the Arshakid dynasty.

In reality, however, the mythical Vagharshak corresponds to king Trdat who was put on the throne by his brother - the king of Parthia Vologes Vagharshak who chronologically, was not the first Arshakid, but was the first ruler who firmly established the dynasty on the Armenian throne. Sebeos presented the first Arshakid both as a brother and a son of the king of Parthia. Khorenatsi, just like Stepanos Taronetsi and Ukhtanes Sebastatsi, wrote that Vagharshak was put on the Armenian throne directly by his brother Arshak the Great, the king of Parthia, while Vardan the Great wrote that Vagharshak was a son of Arshak the Great.

Saakian reached the logical conclusion that Marab Mar Abas Katina or Marab, the philosopher of Mtsurin lived in Mtsurin, the capital of Armenia in the second half of the second century; he was a secretary or writer which his name Katina means , and a book keeper oclose to Vagharshak II Some authors claim that Vagharshapat was built by Vagharshak I , however, the Romans Statius Priscus, Dionysos Cassius wrote that the city was in the area of Vardges, was founded in by the Roman, and Roman troops were camping there until He also built Vagharshavan in the area of Bassenan, along the upper river Arks now in Turkey, between the villages of Hassankala and Erzurum but this city has never been a capital.

Khorenatsi wrote that he was sent to Nineveh, the ancient capital of Assyria, to study the archives of the kings. This is the main argument of those scientists who deny the existence of Mar Abas Katina or place him in a different time period 3d-4th century , as a result they accused M. In this way, the first mentioning of Vund was placed in the 4th century.

The confusion of the time frames of these events can be seen also in the works of another author, Vardan the Great. Khorenatsi also wrote that Mar Abas Katina learned everything about the Armenian kings in the archives in Edessa, which Abgar brought from Mtsbin Mtsurin , he wrote even that he had seen these archives.

Thus we have a contradiction: Thus, the real events from the 2d century were placed in much older context. Perhaps, the imaginary mission of Marab Mtsurin in the non-existent Nineveh was reported only to stress the ancient history of the Armenian kingdom and its rulers. The author is unknown, it is considered to be written in the 7th century, but the original has been lost, and only a copy is known, published by T. Mihrdatian in in Constantinople. Mihrdatian got the document from bishop Yovhannes Shahxatunian who discovered the book in the library in Ejmiatsin in The information in this book was from Movses Khorenatsi and mostly Sebeos, which makes it look as a compilation, although there are a few differences in opinion.

Here, Mtsurin is reported as the earliest capital. The first information comes from a column from the palace of Sanatruk with an inscription: The Persian king requested this column with the inscription: The second information from this book is related to the Arshakids ruling: And the third information from this book is related to Vagharshak, the brother of Arshak the Junior: It becomes clear from this book that Mtsurn or Mtsurin was the capital of Armenia at that time.

The anonymous author has avoided the mistake of the other historians. At the time of Trdat I, Adiabena was an independent state. This is an indication that even if Mtsbin was within Armenia, as it used to be at the time of Tigran II the Great 55 BC , it would be a city at the border, a highly inappropriate place for a capital. Another indirect fact that is impressive is written also by Sebeos. Citing the book of Marab Mtsurin, he explained that in the palace of Sanatruk, there was a stone plate with inscribed names of five Armenian and Parthian kings who ruled before him.

If we take into account Sanatruk himself, then there were exactly five Asharkid kings related to Parthia: Behind it, in the gorges of the Caucasus, live the Sarmatian people of Epagerites, and next to them - Sauromats. This is the tribe where Mithridates found refuge at the time of Clauduis, and from him we learn about the neighboring tribe, the Tallis which migrated to the East of the Caspian gulf that went dry at low tide.

The earliest information is from the time of Alexander the Great: Sarkin, Caspi, Urbnisi and Odsrah, and their fortresses were: Alexander was amazed that these people were descendants of the Ieuseians. At that time he could not conquer them. Then another militaristic tribe, called Honni, came and asked the king of the Bunturks to settle in Zanavi.

Only after Alexander returned, besieged Sarkin, and threw out the Bunturks from that place. According to the author of the Russian translation E. Takaishvili, Bundurks means Turks-spearmen. However, none of these interpretations could be accepted. Khorenatsi although it is well established that the unknown Georgian author used the work of Khorenatsi among the other sources, and also the Georgian chronicles are from the time of Vahtang Gorsaval ruling around Sarkin was close to the city of Mtsheti, at the merge of the rivers Kura and Aragvi, and north from the valley of river Aragvi the gorge on the river Terek Daryal can be reached.

Urbanisi was located in the region of Shida-Kartly at the border with Ossetia , on the left bank of river Kura, 10 km from Gori. Today it is a village, but in the antiquity and early medieval times it used to be an important administrative and cultural center. Odsdrah or Ordshos was a city in the region of Samtshe-Djavahetia, located at the border with Armenia, and cities with the name of Zanavi are in the region of Borjomi and in Samtshe-Djahavetia. The novel information here is that not only the Bunturks but also the Kipchaks lived along the river Kura.

The Bunturks dug through the mountain in the north stone by stone, and made the pass through which they escaped to the Caucases leaving the empty city to Alexander. Khorenatsi, like other Armenian authors, thought of them as one person, and wrote that this king re-built the city of Vardkesavan with high walls, and called it after himself Vagharshapat Echmiadsin today. Khorenatsi wrote that the information about these events he borrowed from the Syrian Bardatsan These barbarian attacks were mostly against Media, only the Roman might saved Armenia and Cappadocia form them.

The confusion stems from the fact that at that time Parthia was ruled by Vologes II who was in perpetual war with his brothers for the throne. He ruled in the eastern provinces of Parthia until his death in AD. In the following years, some of the aristocrats in the west rebelled against him, and requested from the Armenian king to put his son on the throne instead of Amasp. In this case, Khosrov I was mixed with his grandson Khosrov II who saved the last of the Arshakids after their dynasty in Parthia fell, and who fought successfully with the first Sassanid ruler Artashir I Papakan, not with his son Shapur I.

If the rebellion of the western aristocrats happened at the beginning of the Khosrov I reign, i. It is accepted that Amasp II ruled over Kartly from His successor and nephew, Rev I , was put on the throne by the rebelled aristocrats. The Armenian sources gave us the names of two Bulgarian rulers: Vund and Venasseb Vunasep Sourhab.

The names of these tribes were given strictly as they were in M. Khorenatsi, but the author makes it clearer: Agatangel called the invaders masakha-hona, Movses Khorenatsi wrote that Trdat went through the land of the Albans to meet with the attacking northern people.

Khorenatsi described the even with more details. Trdat reached the Gargarayan plain Steppe of Kharabahs , on the right bank of river Kura, and clashed with the Barsilis. The Armenian king challenged the king of the Barsilis and killed him cutting him in two with his sword. After that, the Barsilis retreated without a fight.

Glak called the unfortunate ruler of the Barsilis - the king of the Northern Tedrehon. Khorenatsi and Stepanos Torenatsi, described in details the fight between the two kings. Although the exact time of the acceptance of the Christianity by the Armenians is debatable, there are other sources of information about these events. This biography, describing life in the 5th century, was written originally in Greek, later it was translated in Syrian. It tells us the story of the Byzantine aristocrat Pharasman, a Georgian by his origin.

He was a high official in the palace of Emperor Arcadius He was thrown out of the palace because of a love affair with Empress Eudoxia, and found a refuge in Iveria. It shows that perhaps he was connecting directly the Barsilis with the Bulgarians. This is confirmed by the Syrian authors as well, who placed the Bulgarians in the land of Barsilia. It is about the division of Armenia in between Persia and Byzantium.

This political crisis in Armenia, as well as the foreign occupation, caused some of the Vanandans armenianized Bulgarians to rebel: They did not support neither of the Armenian sides, and retreated in the mountainous regions of Taik. They attacked the lands of both Armenian kings disturbing our country. Sakhak, Armenian leader and subordinate to Khosrov, attacked them killing many, and the rest were thrown out of the borders of the Fourth Armenia.

But they did not go to live with the Greeks, nor with Arshak, they found a save heaven with some people within the Fourth Armenia, at the border with Syria. The Vanandans took a pleasure in destructive activities thinking that this was fair and even pleasurable.

Sakhak prosecuted them for a long time, and finally succeeded to throw them out to the borders of Mananali" Terdjan in Turkey today. A little later, the Vanandans that were completely armenianized or Vund Bulgarians, living in Vanand , already Christians, participated in the rebellion of Vardan Mamukonian against the rule of the Sassanids Persians. Nicholas Adonz also wrote about river Pulk that flows into Eufrates, apparently going through the the same region and keeping its name until 19th century. Goliyski wrote that this name was since the time when the Bulgarians settled there after the prosecution by Sakhak.

Here, the Bulgarians were called Sarmatians! The basic information about the Bulgarians in the Caucuses comes from the Armenian geography Ashkharatsuyts of 7th century. It survived until today thanks to multiple copies made at different time by unknown writers. In its expanded edition, a list of tribes compiled by Anania Shirakatsi, we read: Five rivers come from these mountains and flow into the Maeotic sea.

From the Caucuses come two rivers, Valdanis and Psewcheros or Psychrus. Psewcherus divides Bosporus the Cimmerian Bosporus from these places, where the city of Nikops is located. The names of the Bulgarians come from the names of the rivers: These names were unknown to Ptolemy. Forty six 46 tribes live in this lands. Among those, under 8 are the Baslians Barsils , strong people, 9 are the Khazars, 10 the Bushkh Bulgars who used to come here in the winter for the pastures living on an island between the rivers Rhimica and Atl Volga.

Ptolemy called this island Grav. It used to become black when so many people came here with their herds. The people of Sarmatia were reported as follows, from east to west: The sleeves of river Atl merge behind the island and reach Caspian sea thus dividing Sarmatia and Scythia.

The people of Sarmatia included the following tribes from west to east: After that the Caucuses are divided in two parts, one where the Shirvan and Horvan people live, near Horsvem at the Caspian sea. The other part is where the river Arm Armnay begins, goes straight to the north, and merges with Atl flowing to the northeast. To the north of this mountain, the Mazkuts Mazgutes or Massagetae live in the field of Vardanian Plane north of Derbent next to the Caspian sea. At this point the mountain reaches the sea where the Derbent wall is and the city of the pass Chor, a big fortress built in the sea.

To the north of Derbent, close to the sea, is the kingdom of the Hones, to the west in the Caucuses are the cities of the Hones Varajan, and also Chungars and Msndr Semender. Their king is called Khagan, and the queen - the wife go the Khagan - Khatun. The main text of the Ashkharatsuyts was written probably in the 7th century by Annania Shirakatsi, and we have today only later copies of it dated not earlier than the middle of the 10th century. This text presents the geographic reality of that time Francs in Galia, Goths and Slavs in Thrace, the city of Basra, the name of Crimea as a property of Christians, etc.

This author attempted to prove that this geography can not be related to M. Khorenatsi and his time 5th century at all, because of the many different geographic realities of later times described in the book. Patkanian, who translated the book in Russian, reached the same conclusion. In the short edition of the Ashkharatsuyts, the Bulgarians are mentioned only once as neighbors of the Barsilis and the Khazars. Three layers of information regarding the Bulgarians are observed in the expanded edition of the Ashkharatsuyts.

Shirakitsi himself he died around but by somebody else at a later time. The second layer is probably the oldest, ancient, and relates to the mention the Purk people who's location coincides with the location of the Epageritis of Plynii, the Burgars of Zaharias Rhetor, and the Purgurs of Michael the Syria, i.

Notes to the interpretation of the names in "Ashharatsuyts" Ceraunes mounts - In Armenian "Shantayin". For ancient authors is the Caucasus region, east of Mount Kazbek. So called covered with eternal snow high mountain located between Nalchik and Vladikavkaz Vladicaucasus separates Balkaria and Digoria. Of its glaciers began river Psekan-su, a tributary of the river Terek. In Georgian ts'kheni, Armenian dzi - horse, words are Abkhazian-Adyghian borrowings. Proper location of Horsehead Mountain in Bulgarian and world literature is made for the first time by Peter Dobrev, and this is his undoubted merit!

Since modern Ossetian not use the sound "sh" Adyghian Shugan is transformed into Sugan. In the description of Europe, this mountain is reported as "Bulgarian Mountain": One is the Danube, which is divided into six branches and forms a lake and island called Pyuki.

On this island lived Aspar-hruk son of Hubrat who escaped from Khazirs, from the "Bulgarian Mountain" came and drove the people of the Avars in the west and settled there. Valdanis - Vardanes, or Kuban from Osset. Identification with raven probably become secondary in Georgian qorani - raven. Today, the representatives live in the fortified Hatukay located on the confluence of rivers Laban and Kuban. That probably the clan Hatukayan are those enclosures are supported by their medieval name - Kodaykoy, according to the description of Giovanni de Luca of the 17 century.

Pitinunt Pityus — mod. Budba word "city" does not exist in the original text, and editor Arsen Sukriyan, adds it to its publication and translation of "Ashharatsuyts" in Venice in then was copied verbatim translation of Patkanyan - In the case mentioned only toponym Pisinun Pisinown , and Sukryan not consider that it is a city Pitsunda and added in parentheses the word "city". Budba believes that this passage should read: He believes that "pisinun" is distorted Armenian transcription of "Apsni" the self-the name of Abhasaans, ie talking about Abkhazia.

Of course, this statement does not change the geographical landmarks for Bulgarians - West Caucasus: Apshils - Abkhaz tribe apsua, apchioh, abyuis, the inhabitants of Tsebelda. Vishap - in Armenian river of the Dragon. Kodor in Abkhazian legends is the name of the great dragon, who are called and the river gorges. In Abkhaz Kodor no convincing explanation. According to another Dragon River is river Pichora, which flows into the river Rioni.

In ancient Greek sources mention it as river Dokon. Rhimica - Rhimnici mountes, or the Stavropols Heights. Grav — "black island", and most likely part of the Caspian Sea, bounded by the ancient bed of river Kalaus and the delta of river Volga. Grave probably comes from the Latin gravis - large, wide or too low, dull, ie tucked, final. Gerrus - River Samur in East Caucasus. In Herodotus Gerrhus — river in European Sarmatia.

Alonta — river Terek, the name Alonta means river of Alans. Ardos - area in Central Ossetia. The name means mountain meadow. Bulgarian word from Protobulgarian Origin. Meets modern area Babadag in Romania North Dobrogea. Drashanakhertsi History of Armenia. Pritsak Khazarian-Jewish documents of 10th century.

Tiflis Tbilisi , p. Ethnical composition of Caucusian Albania. Georgia in the ancient times to 4th century. Lordkipanidse, Tbilisi, Academy of Sciences of Georgia. Bagrationi History of Georgia. Mroveli Kartlis Tshvovreba. Lives of the kings of Kartly. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, http: Tacitus Annals, small works, History. K Dibvoys Political History of Parthia. Collection of descriptions of places and tribes in the Caucuses.

On the origin of the Bagratids. Kuznetsov Essays on the History of the Alans. Saakian The capital Mtsurn and the historiographer Marab of Mtsurn. In a translation into Bulgarian: Academy of Sciences of Abkhazia, Institute of Humanities http: Transation from the ancient Georgian Language by E. Goliiski Armenia and the Iranian world. Djafarov Huns and Azerbajan. A Dictionary of the Iranian Verb. Kovalevskaya The Caucuses and the Alans. Skhatum On the time of migration of the Yazigs to the Caucuses. Volkova Ethnonyms and tribal names. Veliev The ancient, ancient Azerbajan. Hisrtorical geographical essays, Baku.

On the tribes of Kolhids and the ancestors of the Ablhazians Ansuans. Natural History by Pliny. Translated in Russian Aliev Ancient sources on the history of Azerbaijan, Baku. Tome — 1, Paris. Armenia in the age of Justinian.

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This tribe represents the largest Bulgarian group living along the upper and middle parts of river Kuban, and, as it is said in Ashkharatsuyts, the name comes from the name of the river where these people lived. The river had a more popular name at that time — Valdanis Osset. This indicates that the name was added later. Similar observation was made by another author, K.

It is not clear why this tribe was called Kupi or Kuphis, since in the Ashkharatsuyts text Kuban river was called Valdanis. The name Kuphis is known as consumed for the first time in "Ravena cosmograph". The ethnonyms Vnndr and Nndr is used in the Arab geographical descriptions. To the south of it, the people of Vnndr live Danube Bulgaria who are Christians. The Carpathian mountain in Transylvania is the first border between the Magyars Hungary and the First Bulgarian kingdom after Magyars migration to Pannonia and Transylvania in the end of the 9th century.

The Hungarians called the Bulgarians Nandors. Almost the whole are state lines. Railways are most fully developed in the S. Four lines cross the frontier into Sweden—from Christiania by Kongsvinger Kongsvinger railway and by Fredrikshald Smaalenenes railway , from Trondhjem by Storlien Meraker railway , and from Narvik on Ofoten Fjord, the most northerly line in the world. These local lines form links in important schemes for trunk lines. Norwegian railways are divided between the standard gauge and one of 3 ft. A canal from Fredrikshald gives access N. The great majority of the peasantry are freeholders.

Legislation has provided for the retention of landed property by families to which it has belonged for any considerable period—thus, under certain conditions, a family which has parted with land can reacquire it at an appraisement—or land alienated by its owner may on his death be acquired by his next of kin.

The chief crops are oats barley, potatoes, mangcorn a mixed crop of oats and barley , rye and wheat, the last being little cultivated. Cattle and sheep are kept in large numbers. Norwegian horses are small and thick-set, and remarkably surefooted. In the north large herds of reindeer are kept by Lapps. There is an agricultural college and model farm at Aas near. Lumbering is an important industry. Forestry is controlled by the Department of Agriculture, and its higher branches are taught at the Aas college.

The principal are the cod fisheries. In March and April the cod shoal on the coastal banks for the purpose of spawning, and this gives rise to the well-known fishery for which the Lofoten Islands are the principal base. For herring there is a spring fishery off Stavanger and Haugesund, and one in November and December off Nordland. Mackerel fisheries are important from Trondhjem Fjord S. Salmon and sea-trout fisheries are important in the rivers and still more off the coast.

A fishery board at Bergen administers the Norwegian fisheries. Granite is quarried near Fredrikstad, Fredrikshald and Sarpsborg, and exported as paving setts and kerbstones, mostly to Great Britain and Germany. Good marble is found near Fredrikshald, and also in the Salten and Ranen districts. Large water-power is available in many districts. A powerful impulse was given to industrial enterprise by the non-renewal of the customs treaty with Sweden in , which established a protective systerr against that country. Actually their mercantile marine is only exceeded by those of Great Britain, Germany and the United States.

From to the tonnage increased from 28, to more than 1,, The tonnage now exceeds the latter figure, but steam has greatly increased the carrying power. In Norwegian steam vessels had a tonnage of about 52,; they now exceed , tons. The growth of both may be judged from periodic. The chief articles of export are timber, wooden wares and wood pulp, principally to Great Britain, and fish products, principally to Germany, Sweden and Spain. Among the first are cereals principally from Russia , groceries from Germany , and clothing from Germany and Great Britain.

Among the second are coal chiefly from Great Britain , hides and skins, cotton and wool, oil and machinery, steamships, and metal goods from Great Britain, Germany and. The constitution rests on the fundamental law grundlov promulgated at Eidsvold on the 17th of May , and altered in detail at various times. The executive is vested in the king, who comes of age at eighteen. His authority is exercised through, and responsibility for his official acts rests with, a council of state consisting of a minister and councillors, who are the heads of finance, public accounts, church and education, defence, public works, agriculture, commerce, navigation and industry and foreign affairs.

He can issue provisional ordinances pending a meeting of parliament, can declare war if a war of offence, only with the consent of parliament and conclude peace, and has supreme command of the army and navy. The legislative body is the parliament storthing , the members of which are elected directly by the people divided into electoral divisions, each returning one member.

Until the election of the members were chosen by electors nominated by the voters. Elections take place every three years. The franchise is extended to every Norwegian male who has passed his twenty-fifth year, has resided five years in the country, and fulfils the legal conditions of citizenship. Under the same conditions, and if they or their husbands have paid taxes for the past year, the franchise is extended to women under a measure adopted by the Storthing in June Members of parliament must possess the franchise in their constituency, and must have resided ten years in the country; their age must not be less than thirty.

The Storthing meets at Christiania, normally for two months in each year; it must receive royal assent to the prolongation of a session. After the opening of parliament the assembly divides itself into two sections, the upper lagthing consisting of one-quarter of the total number of members, and the lower odelsthing of the remainder. Every bill must be introduced in the Odelsthing; if passed there it is sent to the Lagthing, and if carried there also the royal assent gives it the force of law.

If a measure is twice passed by the Odelsthing and rejected by the Lagthing, it is decided by a majority of two-thirds of the combined sections. The king has a veto, but if a measure once or twice vetoed is passed by three successive parliaments it becomes law ipso facto. This occurred when in the Norwegians insisted on removing the sign of union with Sweden from the flag of the mercantile marine. Members of parliament are paid 13s. Parliament fixes taxation, and has control of the members of the council of state, who are not allowed to vote in either house, though they may speak.

Considerable sums, however, have been raised by loans, principally for railways. The principal items of expenditure are railways, defence principally the army , the post office, interest on debt, the church and education, and justice. The Bank of Norway is a private joint-stock corporation, in which the state has large interests. It is governed by special acts of parliament, and its chief officials are publicly appointed.

It alone has the right to issue notes, which are in wide circulation. The Mortgage Bank Norges Hypothekbank was established by the state to grant loans on real estate. The currency of Norway is based on a gold standard; but the monetary unit is the krone crown , of 1s. The metric system is in use. All capable men of twenty-two years of age and upwards are liable for conscription except the clergy and pilots , and when called they serve 6 years in the line, 6 years with the reserve and 4 years with the second reserve.

In war, men are liable to service from the 18th to the 50th year of age. Only the line can be sent out of the country. The men only meet for military training from 18 to days in each year. The peace establishment of the line is 12, men, with officers; its war footing 26,, or more, but may not exceed 18, without the authority of parliament.

A number of Norwegian forts along the S. The navy consists of about officers and men on permanent service; but all seafaring men between twenty-two and thirty-eight are liable for maritime conscription, and are put through some preliminary training. The war vessels include four battleships of to tons each, and about 16 other vessels, besides a torpedo flotilla—intended for coast defence only. Criminal cases are tried either in jury courts lagmandsret or courts of assize meddomsret. The first is for more serious offences; the second deals with minor offences and is a court of first instance.

Military crimes are dealt with by a military judicial organization. Rural communes herreder are similarly administered, and their chairmen form a county council amtsthing for each county. At the head is the amtmand , the county governor. The electoral franchise for local council election is for men the same as the parliamentary franchise, and, like it, is extended in a limited degree to women.

All Christian sects except Jesuits are tolerated. The king nominates the clergy of the established church. The clergy take a leading part in primary education, which, in spite of the difficulties arising in a sparsely populated country, reaches a high standard. Teachers must belong to the established church. Their training colleges include one free public college in each diocese. The municipalities and counties bear the cost of primary education with a state grant.

There is a state-aided university at Christiania. Rolfsen, Norge i det Nittende Aarhundrede Christiania, seq. Nielsen, Reisehaandbog over Norge 10th ed. Keary, Norway and the Norwegians London, ; A. Chapman, Wild Norway London, ; E. Kjerulf, Udsigt over det sydlige Norges geologi Christiania, ; a German translation was published at Bonn, ; W.

Blytt, Norges Flora Christiania, ; C. Norman, Norges Arktiske Flora Christiania, seq. Until lately this aboriginal people, which was certainly non-Aryan, was held to be Lappish, but recent investigations seem to show that the Lapps only entered Norway about A. To them belong perhaps certain non-Aryan names for natural features of the country, such as Toten, Vefsen, Bukn.

The time of the immigration of a Teutonic element is far from certain. It did not extend N. Norway towards the end of the Scandinavian later Stone age, c. But whatever were the stages of the process, the language of the older race was superseded by Teutonic, and those aborigines who were not incorporated probably most often as slaves were driven into the mountains or the islands that fringe the coast. Their existence is mentioned as a thing of the past by a North Trondhjem writer in The new Teutonic element of population seems to have flowed into Norway from two centres; one western, probably from Jutland, the other eastern, from the W.

The bodies of immigrants were no doubt more or less independent, and each was probably under a king. It is probable that the Horder, who gave their name to Hordaland and Hardanger, were a branch of the Harudes whom Ptolemy in the 2nd century mentions as living in Jutland, where their name remains in the present Hardesyssel. The Ryger, who gave their name to Rogaland, and the modern Ryfylke, are probably akin to the Rugii, an E. Germanic tribe at one time settled in N.

The first mention of any tribe settled in Norway is by Ptolemy, who speaks of the Chaidenoi or Heiner, inhabiting the W. The system of settlement in Norway appears to have been different from that adopted by the same race in other lands. In Denmark, for instance, a group of as many as twenty settlers held land more or less in common, but this system, which demanded that a considerable extent of land should be readily accessible, was not feasible in the greater part of Norway, and except in one or two flatter districts each farm was owned, or at least worked, by a single family.

At times a king would win an overlordship over the neighbouring tribes, but the character of the country hindered permanent assimilation. 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 primogeniture, 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 indications 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 herser Old Norse hersir , of whom there were several in each fylke, united high birth with wealth and political power, and with the holder , the class of privileged hereditary landowners from which they sprang, formed an aristocracy of which there seems little trace in the other Scandinavian countries at this period.

Its rise in Norway is perhaps due to the fact that the nature of the country, as well as the individualistic system of settlement, left more scope for inequalities of wealth than in Denmark or Sweden. Once a family had become wealthy enough to fit out Viking ships, it must have added wealth to wealth, besides enormously raising its prestige. The lands of almost all the most powerful families were on islands, whence it was easy to set forth on roving expeditions. These islands had been the refuge of the aborigines, and it is possible that, as A.

Hansen has suggested, the rise of the aristocracy depends here, as elsewhere, on a subject population. Among the proper names of thralls in a poem in the Elder Edda are several which can only be explained on the hypothesis that they are Finnish, e. There can be no doubt that, in Haalogaland for instance, the aristocracy gained its wealth not only from the tribute extorted from the Finns in Finmark, but also from slave labour. 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 established.

The first successful attempt at unification originated round Vestfold, the modern Jarlsberg and Laurvik Amt on the Christiania fjord. Here also there was a certain degree of union very early, and it is possible that national feeling was fostered by proximity to the Danish and Swedish kingdoms. The district was thickly populated, and a centre of commerce.

Tradition made the royal family a branch of the great Yngling dynasty of Upsala, which claimed descent from the god Frey. Through several generations this family had extended its kingdom by marriage, conquest and inheritance, and by the end of the 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, having no brothers, succeeded to the whole kingdom, and was further fortunate in that Harald Haarfager. By his power was so well established in S.

Norway that he contemplated the conquest of the whole land. The chief obstacle appears to have been the resistance, not only of the petty kings, but also of the aristocratic families, who dreaded the power of a monarchy established by force, and consequently supported the vaguer authority of their own kinglets. 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 inherited property, as absolutely their own, resented being forced to pay dues on it.

In each district Harald offered the herser the opportunity of becoming his vassals, answerable to him for the government of the district. The increased dues and the grants of land made by Harald rendered the position of one of his earls more lucrative than that of king under the older system; and it shows to what a paramount position the old aristocracy must have attained, that numbers of the herser and holder could not reconcile themselves to the limitation of their independence, but quitted the lands which were their real title to influence, rather than submit to the new order.

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 resulted in a victory to him, and with it all opposition in Norway was at an end. An expedition to Scotland and the Scottish isles c.

Moreover, Harald had established no common Thing for the whole of his kingdom. Norway is naturally divided into three parts, and each of these remained more or less separate for centuries, even having separate laws until the second half of the 13th century. It was only in that a permanent council was formed, the Rigets Raad.

Harald died in Earl Sigurd of Lade ruled the N. Haakon ruled ably though tyrannically, and his prestige was greatly increased by his victory over the Jomsvikings, a band of pirates inhabiting the island of Wollin at the mouth of the Oder, who had collected a large fleet to attack Norway. The earl was treacherously killed by his thrall while in hiding, and Olaf entered unopposed upon his short and brilliant reign. Introduction of Christianity by Olaf.

His great work was the enforced conversion to Christianity of Norway, Iceland and Greenland. In this undertaking both Olaf and his successor and namesake looked for help to England, whence they obtained a bishop and priests; hence it comes that the organization of the early church in Norway resembles that of England.

No more than England did Norway escape the struggle between Church and State, but the hierarchical party in Norway only rose to power after the establishment of an archiepiscopal see at Trondhjem in , after which the quarrel raged for over a century. Until the year , when tithes were imposed, the priests depended for their livelihood on their dues, and Adam of Bremen informs us that this made them very avaricious. The Relations with Denmark. He defeated Svein at Nesje in , which left him free to work towards a united and Christian Norway. For some years he was successful, but he strained the loyalty of his subjects too far, and on the appearance of Knut the Great in he fled to Russia.

In his young son Magnus, afterwards called the Good, was summoned from Russia, and was readily accepted as king. A treaty was made with Hardeknut which provided that whichever king survived should inherit the other's crown. As soon, however, as overtures were made to him by Magnus, he forsook the cause of Svein, and in agreed to become joint king of Norway with Magnus. The difficulties arising out of this situation were solved by Magnus's death in Harald's attempts to win Denmark were vain, and in he set about a yet more formidable task in attacking England, End of Harald Haarfager's line.

His son Olaf Kyrre the Quiet shared the kingdom with his brother Magnus until the latter's death in , after which the country enjoyed a period of peace. A feature of this reign is the increasing importance of the towns, including Bergen, which was founded by Olaf. The latter died in Besides engaging in an unsuccessful war against the Swedish king Inge, in which he was defeated at Foxerne in , Magnus undertook three warlike expeditions to the Scottish isles. It was on the last of these expeditions, in , that he met his death. He was succeeded by his three sons, Eystein, Sigurd and Olaf.

Sigurd undertook a pilgrimage, from which he gained the name of Jorsalfar traveller to Jerusalem. He won much booty from the Moors in Spain, from pirates in the Mediterranean, and finally at Sidon, which he and his ally Baldwin I. Eystein died in Sigurd lived till , but was subject to fits of insanity in his later years. He was the last undoubted representative of Harald Haarfager's race, for on his death his son Magnus was ousted by Harald Gille, or Gilchrist, who professed to be a natural son of Magnus Barfod.

Harald Gille was slain in by another pretender, and anarchy ruled during the reign of his sons Eystein, Inge and Disputed successions. At last Inge's party attacked and killed first Sigurd and then Eystein Inge fell in a fight against Sigurd's son Haakon Herdebred in , but a powerful baron, Erling, succeeded in getting his son Magnus made king, on the plea that the boy's maternal grandfather was King Sigurd Jorsalfar.

Descent through females was not valid in succession to the throne, and to render his son's position more secure, Erling obtained the support of the Church. In the archbishop of Trondhjem crowned Magnus, demanding that the crown should be held as a fief of the Norwegian Church. Owing to such concessions the Church was gaining a paramount position, when a new pretender appeared.

Sverrir claimed to be the son of Sigurd Mund, and was adopted as leader by a party known as the Birkebeiner or Birchlegs. He possessed military genius of a rare order, and in spite of help from Denmark, the support of the Church and of the majority of barons, Magnus was defeated time after time, till he met his death at the battle of Nordnes in The aristocracy could offer little further opposition.

In joining hands with the Church against Sverre, the local chiefs had got out of touch with the small landowners, with whose support Sverre was able to build up a powerful monarchy. Sverre's most dangerous opponent was the Church, which offered the most strenuous resistance to his efforts to cut down its prerogatives. The archbishop found support in Denmark, whence he laid his whole see under an interdict, but Sverre's counter-claim of his own divine right as king had much more influence in Norway. His son Haakon III. In the last of the rival claimants fell, and the country began to regain prosperity.

The acquisition of Iceland was at length realized. Haakon's death occurred after the battle of Largs in the Orkneys in The war with Scotland was soon terminated by his son Magnus, who surrendered the Hebrides and the Isle of Man at the treaty of Perth in Magnus saw the worthlessness of a doubtful suzerainty over islands which had lost their value to Norway since the decay of Viking enterprise.

He gained his title of Law-Mender from the revision of the laws, which had remained very much as in heathen days, and which were still different for the four different districts. By Magnus had secured the acceptance of a revised compilation of the older law-books. The new code repealed all the old wergild laws, and provided that the major part of the fine for manslaughter should be paid to the victim's heir, the remainder to the king.

During Magnus's reign we hear of a larger council, occasionally called palliment parliament , which is summoned at the king's wish. The old landed aristocracy had lost its power so completely that even after Magnus's death in it was unable to reinstate itself during the minority of his son Erik. Erik was succeeded in by his brother Haakon V.

This paralysis of the aristocracy is no doubt partly to be ascribed to the civil wars, but in part also to the gradual impoverishment of the country, which told especially upon this class. Russia had long eclipsed Norway as the centre of the fur trade, and other industries must have suffered, not only from the civil wars, but also from the supremacy of the Hanseatic towns, which dominated the North, and could dictate their own terms. In earlier times the aristocratic families had owed their wealth to three main sources: Trade had been a favourite means of enrichment among the aristocracy up to the middle of the 13th century, but now it was almost monopolized by Germans, and Viking enterprise was a thing of the past.

The third source of wealth had also failed, for it is clear from the laws of Magnus that the class of thralls had practically disappeared. This must have greatly contributed to shatter the power of the class which had once been the chief factor in the government of Norway. Haakon's daughter Ingeborg had married Duke Erik of Sweden, and on Haakon's death in their three-year-old son Magnus succeeded to the Norwegian and Swedish thrones, the two countries entering into a union which was not definitely broken till It was during this reign that Norway was ravaged by the Black Death.

Their young son Olaf V. The difficulty was met by filling the throne by election—an Union of Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish thrones. The choice fell on King Haakon's widow Margrete, but a couple of years later, chiefly in order to gain German support in a coming struggle with the Mecklenburgers, the Norwegians elected as king the young Erik of Pomerania, great-nephew of the queen, who henceforth acted as regent. Sars, Udsigt over den norske Historie , Deel i. Taranger, Den Angelsaksiske kirkes Indflydelse paa den norske ; A.

Hansen, Landnam i Norge ; A. Gudmundsson in Pauls Grundriss der germanischen Philologie vol. The above works are published in Christiania except where otherwise stated. In English, there is a history of Norway by H. Boyesen in the Story of the Nations series London, , and there are historical notes in G. The most important original sources are: The original Icelandic text is edited by F. For a critical investigation into the sources of Snorri and the contemporary historians, see G. Sephton, Northern Library vol. Other important sources are: Diplomatarium Norvegicum , ed.

Unger, Christiania, and Norges Gamle Love indtil , ed. First, in , the triple bond gave place to a union in which Norway became more firmly joined to Denmark. Next, in , as the result of the Reformation, Norway sank almost to the level of a province. After she gained something in status from the establishment of autocracy in Denmark, and at the close of the period she became a constitutional kingdom on a footing of approximate equality with Sweden. But for the convulsions to which some of these changes gave rise, Norway possesses during this period but little history of her own, and she sank from her former position as a considerable and independent nation.

The kings dwelt outside her borders, her fleet and army decayed, and her language gradually 15th century. Germans plundered her coasts and monopolized her commerce, and after Danes began to appropriate the higher posts in her administration. When in Karl Knutsson was chosen king by the Swedes, and Christian of Oldenburg by the Danes, it was by force that Norway fell to the latter. On the 24th of November the Norwegians protested against Christian's assumption of sovereignty over them, and against separation from the Swedes. Next year, however, the Swedes assented to the separation.

His son Hans purchased the obedience of the Norwegian nobles by concessions to their power. The imposing union continued in name, but the weakness of the nation and its government was strikingly illustrated when the Germans in Bergen besieged a monastery in which their enemy Olaf Nilsson, a high official, had taken refuge. After the downfall of Christian II. She was ruled for a century and a quarter by Danish century officials; the churches and monasteries of Norway were sacked by Danes, and Danes were installed as pastors under the Lutheran system, which the Norwegians were compelled to accept in However, the power of the Hanse League in Bergen was broken.

The rule of the Oldenburg dynasty proved neglectful rather than tyrannical, and under it the mass of the peasants was not flagrantly oppressed. He reformed its government and strove to develop its resources, but his policy involved Norway in the loss 17th century. The Danish war of revenge against Carl X. By the peace of Roskilde she was compelled to renounce the counties of Trondhjem and Baahus, and although the former was restored by the peace of Copenhagen, two years later, her population fell below half a million.

The Swedes had now acquired the rich provinces in the south and south-west of the Scandinavian peninsula, and their ambition to extend their frontiers to the North Sea became more pronounced and more possible of accomplishment. From the middle of the 17th century, however, the Dutch and English made their influence felt, and the political status of Norway could no longer be regarded as a purely Scandinavian affair.

Personal liberty perhaps suffered, but the Norwegian peasant remained a freeman while his counterpart in Denmark was a serf. Norwegian law was revised and codified under Christian V. Under the sons of these monarchs, Frederick IV. Her shipping was destroyed, and in , when driven from continental Europe, the Swedish hosts fell upon her. Two years later, however, the death of Carl XII. During this war Peter Tordenskjold, the greatest among a long series of Norwegian heroes who served in the Danish fleet, won undying fame.

Before the close of the 18th century something had been done towards dispelling the intellectual darkness. Holberg, though he flourished outside Norway, was at least born there, and by stemming the tide of German influence he made the future of Norwegian literature possible. At the close of the century Hans Nielson Hauge, the Wesley of Norway, appeared, while the growth of the timber trade with England gave rise to a great increase in wealth and population.

In a century and a half the number of the Norwegian people was doubled, so that by Norway comprised some , souls. In the oppressive law that grain should be imported into Norway only from Denmark was repealed, and thanks to Danish policy Norway actually drew financial profit from the wars of the French Revolution. The Norwegian national movement was to render a decade at the beginning of the 19th century more memorable in Norwegian Beginning of Norwegian national movement.

In the Danish government committed the Norwegians to the second Armed Neutrality, and therefore to a share in the battle of Copenhagen, by which it was broken up. It was not until , however, that Norway was fully involved in the Napoleonic wars. Then, after the bombardment of Copenhagen, she was compelled by Danish policy to embrace the cause of Napoleon against both England and Sweden.

Commerce was annihilated, and the supply of food failed. The national distress brought into the forefront of politics national leaders, among whom Count Hermann Jasper von Wedel-Jarlsberg was the most conspicuous. As yet, however, patriotism went no further than a demand for an administration distinct from that of Denmark, which was conceded in , and for a university nearer home than Copenhagen.

In the government assented to the foundation of the university of Christiania. Some time previously Sweden had joined the allies in their their struggle against Napoleon, while Denmark had, unwisely, sided with the French. After the power of Napoleon had been broken at the battle of Leipzig, he advanced against Denmark, and King Frederick soon saw himself compelled to accede to the cession of Norway, which had long been the aspiration of the Swedes, especially after the loss of Finland in In the treaty of Kiel Frederick VI.

But the Norwegians, who had not been consulted in the matter, refused to acknowledge the treaty, declaring that, while the Danish king might renounce his right to the Norwegian crown, it was contrary to international law to dispose of an entire kingdom without the consent of its people. A meeting of delegates was convened at Eidsvold, not far from the Norwegian capital, where, on the 17th of May , a constitution, framed upon the constitutions of America, of France , and of Spain , was adopted.

Among its most important features are that the Storthing, or National Assembly, is a single-chamber institution, and that the king is not given an absolute veto, or the right to dissolve the Storthing. Soon afterwards the Swedes, under the crown prince, invaded Norway. The hostilities lasted only a fortnight, when Bernadotte opened negotiations with the Norwegians.

A convention was held at Moss, where it was proposed that the Norwegians should accept the Swedish king as their sovereign, on the condition that their constitution of the 17th of May should remain intact, except with such alterations as the union might render necessary. The constitution framed at Eidsvold was retained, and formed the Grundlov , or fundamental law of the kingdom. The union thus concluded between the two countries was really an offensive and defensive alliance under a common king, each country retaining its own government, parliament, army, navy and customs.

In Sweden the people received only an imperfect and erroneous insight into the nature of the union, and for a long time believed it to be an achievement of the Swedish arms. They had hoped to make Norway a province of Sweden, and now they had entered into a union in which both countries were equally independent. During the first fifteen years the king was represented in Norway by a Swedish Viceroy, while the government was, of course, composed only of Norwegians.

Count Wedel Jarlsberg was the first to be entrusted with the important office of head of the Norwegian government, while several of Prince Christian Frederick's councillors of state were retained, or replaced by others holding their political views. During the first years of the union the country suffered from poverty and depression of trade, and the finances were in a Strained relations between king and Storthing. The first Storthing was chiefly occupied with financial and other practical measures. In order to improve the finances of the country a bank of Norway was founded, and the army was reduced to one half.

The paid-up capital of the bank was procured by an extraordinary tax, and this, together with the growing discontent among the peasantry, brought about a rising in Hedemarken, the object of which was to dissolve the Storthing and to obtain a reduction in the taxation. The rising, however, soon subsided, and the bountiful harvest of brought more prosperous times to the peasantry.

Meanwhile, however, the financial position of the country had nearly endangered its independence. The settlement with Denmark with regard to Norway's share of the national debt common to both, assumed threatening proportions. In the interest of Denmark, the allied powers asked for a speedy settlement, and in order to escape their collective intervention, Bernadotte, who had now succeeded to the throne of Sweden and Norway, on the death February 5, of the old king Carl XIII. But the Norwegians considered that this was still too much, and the attitude of the Storthing in nearly occasioned a fresh interference of the powers.

The Storthing, however, yielded at last, and agreed to raise a loan and pay the amount stipulated in the convention, but the king evidently had his doubts as to whether the Norwegians really intended to fulfil their obligations. About this time another important question had to be settled by the Storthing.

The Storthings of and had already passed a bill for the abolition of nobility, but the king had on both occasions refused his sanction. The Norwegians maintained that the few counts and barons still to be found in Norway were all Danish and of very recent origin, while the really true and ancient nobility of the country were the Norwegian peasants, descendants of the old jarls and chieftains. According to the constitution, any bill which has been passed by three successively elected Storthings, elections being held every third year, becomes law without the king's sanction.

When the third reading of the bill came on, the king did everything in his power to obstruct it, but in spite of his opposition the bill was eventually carried and became law. In Count Wedel Jarlsberg retired from the government. He had become unpopular through his financial policy, and Royal proposals for constitutional revision. In he had been impeached before the Rigsret, the supreme court of the realm, for having caused the state considerable losses. Jonas Collett was appointed as his successor to the post of minister of finance.

The changes, in fact, were the same as he had suggested in his circular note to the Powers, and which he knew would be hailed with approval by his Swedish subjects. When the Storthing met again in the royal proposals for the constitutional changes came on for discussion. The Storthing unanimously rejected not only the king's proposals, but also several others by private members for changes in the constitution. The king submitted his proposals again in the following session of the Storthing, and again later on, but they were always unanimously rejected.

In they were discussed for the last time, with the same result. The king's insistence was viewed by the people as a sign of absolutist tendencies, and naturally excited fresh alarm. In the eyes of the people the members of the opposition in the Storthing were the true champions of the rights and the independence which they had gained in For several years the Norwegians had been celebrating the 17th of May as their day of independence, it being the anniversary The king's absolutist tendencies. His irritation knew no bounds, and although Collett was acquitted by the supreme court, the king, in order to express his irritation with the Storthing and the action they had taken against one of his ministers, dissolved the national assembly with every sign of displeasure.

The Swedish Viceroy at the time, Count Sandels, had tried to convince him that his prejudice against the celebration of the 17th of May was groundless, and for some years the king had made no objection to the celebration. In it was, however, celebrated in a very marked manner, and later in the same year there was a demonstration against a foolish political play called The Union , and this being privately reported to the king in as bad a light as possible, he thought that Count Sandels, who had not considered it worth while to report the occurrence, was not fitted for his post, and had him replaced by Count Beltzar Bojilaus Platen , an upright but narrow-minded statesman.

Count Platen's first act was to issue a proclamation warning the people against celebrating the day of independence; and in April the king, against the advice of his ministers, summoned an extraordinary Storthing, his intention being to wrest from the Storthing the supremacy it had gained in He also intended to take steps to prevent the celebration of the 17th of May, and assembled a force of Norwegian soldiers in the neighbourhood of the capital.

The king arrived in Christiania soon after the opening of the extraordinary Storthing. He did not succeed, however, in his attempt to make any constitutional changes, but the Storthing met the king's wishes with regard to the celebration of the 17th of May by deciding not to continue the celebration, and the people all over the country quietly acquiesced.

The following year trouble broke out again. The students had decided to celebrate the 17th of May with a festive gathering, which, however, passed off quietly. But large masses of the people paraded the streets, singing and shouting, and gathered finally in the market-place. His health eventually broke down from disappointment and vexation at the indignities and abuse heaped upon him. He died in Christiania at the end of the year, and his post remained vacant for several years, the presidency of the Norwegian government in the-meantime being taken by Collett, its oldest member.

By the July Revolution of the political situation in Europe became completely changed, and the lessons derived Increased political power of the peasantry. The representatives of the peasantry, for whom the constitution had paved the way to become the ruling element in political life, were also beginning to distinguish themselves in the national assembly, where they now had taken up an independent position against the representatives of the official classes, who in and afterwards had played the leading and most influential part in politics.

This party was now under the leadership of the able and gifted Ole Ueland, who remained a member of every Storthing from to The attention of this new party was especially directed to the finances of the country, in the administration of which they demanded the strictest economy. They often went too far in their zeal, and thereby incurred considerable ridicule. About this time the peasant party found a champion in the youthful poet Henrik Wergeland, who soon became one of the Wergeland opposed by Welhaven. He was a republican in politics, and the most zealous upholder of the national independence of Norway and of her full equality with Sweden in the union.

A strong opposition to Wergeland and the peasant party was formed by the upper classes under the leadership of another rising poet and writer, Johan Sebastian Welhaven, and other talented men, who wished to retain the literary and linguistic relationship with Denmark, while Wergeland and his party wished to make the separation from Denmark as complete as possible, and in every way to encourage the growth of the national characteristics and feeling among the people.

He devoted much of his time, by writing and other means, to promote the education of the people; but although he was most popular with the working and poorer classes, he was not able to form any political party around him, and at the time of his death he stood almost isolated. He died in , and his opponents became now the leaders in the field of literature, and carried on the work of national reconstruction in a more restrained and quiet manner.

The peasant party still continued to exist, but restricted itself principally to the assertion of local interests and the maintenance of strict economy in finance.

The violent agitation that began in died away. The tension between the king and the legislature, however, still continued, and reached its height during the session of , when all the royal proposals for changes in the constitution were laid aside, without even passing through committee, and when various other steps towards upholding the independence of the country were taken. Collett, another minister who had greatly displeased the king by his conduct, was dismissed; but unity in the government was brought about by the appointment of Count Wedel Jarlsberg as viceroy of Norway.

From this time the relations between the king and the Norwegian people began to improve, whereas in Sweden he was, in his later years, not a little disliked. When the king's anger had subsided, he summoned the Storthing to an extraordinary session, during which several important The national flag question.

Towards the close of the session an address to the king was agreed to, in which the Storthing urged that steps should be taken to place Norway in political respects upon an equal footing with Sweden, especially in the conduct of diplomatic affairs with foreign countries. The same address contained a petition for the use of the national or merchant flag in all waters. According to the constitution, Norway was to have her own merchant flag, and in the Storthing had passed a resolution that the flag should be scarlet, divided into four by a blue cross with white borders.

The king, however, refused his sanction to the resolution, but gave permission to use the flag in waters nearer home; but beyond Cape Finisterre the naval flag, which was really the Swedish flag, with a white cross on a red ground in the upper square, must be carried. In reply to the Storthing's address the king in conceded the right to all merchant ships to carry the national flag in all waters.

This was hailed with great rejoicings all over the country; but the question of the national flag for general use had yet to be settled. With regard to the question raised in the address of the Storthing about the conduct of diplomatic affairs, and other matters concerning the equality of Norway in the union, the king in appointed a committee of four Norwegians and four Swedes, who were to consider and report upon the questions thus raised. But before the committee had finished their report the king died March 8th , and was succeeded by his son Oscar I.

According to the constitution the Norwegian kings must be crowned in Throndhjem cathedral, but the bishop of Throndhjem was in doubt whether the queen, who was a Roman Catholic, could be crowned, and the king decided to forego the coronation both of himself and his queen. The new king soon showed his desire to meet the wishes of the Norwegian people. Thus he decided that in all documents concerning the internal government of the country Norway should stand first where reference was made to the king as sovereign of the two kingdoms. After having received the report of the committee concerning the flag question, he resolved June 20th, that Norway and Sweden should each carry its own national flag as the naval flag, with the mark of union in the upper corner; and it was also decided that the merchant flag of the two kingdoms should bear the same mark of union, and that only ships sailing under these flags could claim the protection of the state.

The financial and material condition of the country had now considerably improved, and King Oscar's reign was marked by the carrying out of important legislative work and reforms, especially in local government. New roads were planned and built all over the country, the first railway was built, steamship routes along the coast were established, lighthouses were erected and trade and shipping made great progress.

The king's reign was not disturbed by any serious conflicts between the two countries. During the Schleswig-Holstein rebellion and the Crimean War King Oscar succeeded in maintaining the neutrality of Norway and Sweden, by which Norwegian shipping especially benefited. The abolition of the English navigation acts in was of great importance to Norway, and opened up a great future for its merchant fleet. In a treaty had been concluded with Russia, by which the frontier between that country and the adjoining strip of Relations with Russia.

Norwegian territory in the Polar region was definitely delimited; but in spite of this treaty Russia in demanded that the Russian Lapps on the Norwegian frontier should have the right to fish on the Norwegian coast, and have a portion of the coast on the Varanger fjord allotted to them to settle upon. The Norwegian government refused to accede to the Russian demands, and serious complications might have ensued if the attention of Russia had not been turned in another direction.

While his father had looked to Russia for support, King Oscar was more inclined to secure western powers as his allies, and during the Crimean War he concluded a treaty with England and France, according to which these countries promised their assistance in the event of any fresh attempts at encroachment on Norwegian or Swedish territory by Russia.

In consequence of this treaty the relations between Norway and Sweden and Russia became somewhat strained; but after the peace of Paris in , and the accession of Alexander II. Owing to the king's ill-health, his son, the crown prince Carl, was appointed regent in , and two years later, when King Oscar died, he succeeded to the thrones of the two countries as Carl XV. He was a gifted, genial and noble personality, and Death of Oscar I.

According to the constitution, the king had the power to appoint a viceroy for Norway, who might be either a Norwegian or Swede. Since no Swede had held the post, and since no appointment of a viceroy had been made. A proposal for the Question of Norwegian viceroy. The king, whose sympathies on this question were known, had been appealed to, and had privately promised that he would sanction the proposed change in the constitution; but as soon as the resolution of the Storthing became known in Sweden, a violent outcry arose both in the Swedish press and the Swedish estates.

In the following year the Swedish government again pressed the demands of the Swedish estates for a revision of the Act of Union, Swedish proposals for revision of Act of Union. The proposal was sent to the Norwegian government, which did not seem at all disposed to entertain it; but some dissensions arose with regard to the form in which its reply was to be laid before the king. The more obstinate members of the ministry resigned, and others, of a more pliable nature, were appointed under the presidency of Fredrik Stang, who had already been minister of the interior from to The reconstructed government was, however, in accord with the retiring one, that no proposal for the revision of the Act of Union could then be entertained.

The king, however, advocated the desirability of a revision, but insisted that this would have to be based upon the full equality of both countries. In the Storthing assented to the appointment by the king of a Union committee, the second time that such a committee had been called upon to consider this vexatious question.

It was not until that its report was made public, but it could not come on for discussion in the Storthing till it met again in During this period the differences between the two countries were somewhat thrust into the background by the Danish complications in , which threatened to draw the two kingdoms into war.

King Carl was himself in favour of a defensive alliance with Denmark, but the Norwegian Storthing would only consent to this if an alliance could also be effected with at least one of the western powers. In the Storthing passed a resolution by which its sessions were made annual instead of triennial according to the constitution of The first important question which the first yearly Storthing which met in had to consider was once more the proposed revision of the Act of Union.

The Norwegians had persistently maintained that in any discussion on this question the basis for the negotiations should be 1 the full equality of the two kingdoms, and 2 no extension of the bonds of the union beyond the line originally defined in the act of When, therefore, the proposed revision of the Act of Union eventually came before the Storthing in , it was rejected by an overwhelming majority.

The position which the government had taken up on this question helped to open the eyes of the Norwegians to some defects in the constitution, which had proved obstacles to the development and strengthening of the parliamentary system. In a private bill came before the Storthing, proposing that the ministers should be admitted to the Storthing and take part Question of admittance of ministers to seats in the Storthing.

After a number of stormy debates the bill was successfully carried under the leadership of Johan Sverdrup by a large majority, but the government, evidently jealous of the growing powers and influence of the new liberal party in the Storthing, advised the king to refuse his sanction, although the government party itself had several times in the preceding half-century introduced a similar bill for admitting the ministers to the Storthing.

At that time, however, the opposition had looked with suspicion on the presence of the ministers in the national assembly, lest their superior skill in debate and political experience should turn the scale too readily in favour of government measures. Now, on the contrary, the opposition had gained more experience and had confidence in its own strength, and no doubt found that the legislative work could better be carried on if the ministers were present to explain and defend their views; but the government saw in the proposed reform the threatened introduction of full parliamentary government, by which the ministry could not remain in office unless supported by a majority in the Storthing.

Before the Storthing separated the liberals carried a vote of censure against the government; but the king declared that the ministers enjoyed his confidence and took no further notice of the vote. Two of the ministers, who had advised the ratification of the bill, resigned, however; and a third minister, who had been in the government since , resigned also, and retired from public life, foreseeing the storm that was brewing on the political horizon.

Numerous public meetings were held all over the country in support of the proposed reform, and among the speakers was Johan Sverdrup, now the acknowledged leader of the liberal party, who was hailed with great enthusiasm as the champion of the proposed reform. This was the political situation when King Carl died 18th September He was succeeded by his brother who ascended Death of Carl XV. In the following year he gave his sanction to the bill for the abolition of the office of viceroy, which the Storthing had again passed, and the president of the ministry was afterwards recognized as the prime minister and head of the government in Christiania.

Fredrik Stang, who was the president of the ministry at the time, was the first to fill this office.

In the same year Norway celebrated its existence for a thousand years as a kingdom, with great festivities. In the government, in order to show the people that they to some extent were willing to meet their wishes with regard to Proposals by the Storthing for full popular control. But this was to be accompanied by certain other constitutional changes, such as giving the king the right of dissolving the Storthing at his pleasure and providing fixed pensions for ex-ministers, which was regarded as a guarantee against the majority of the assembly misusing its new power.

The bill which the government brought in was unanimously rejected by the Storthing, the conservatives also voting against it, as they considered the guarantees insufficient. The same year, and again in , the Storthing passed the bill, but in a somewhat different form from that of On both occasions the king refused his sanction. The Storthing then resorted to the procedure provided by the constitution to carry out the people's will. In the bill was The king's veto. This proposal was carried by a large majority on the 9th of June , but the king and his ministers in reply declared that they would not recognize the validity of the resolution.

From this moment the struggle may be said to have centred itself upon the existence or non-existence of an absolute veto on Struggle between the king and the Storthing. The king requested the faculty of law at the Christiania university to give its opinion on the question at issue, and with one dissentient the learned doctors upheld the king's right to the absolute veto in questions concerning amendments of the constitution, although they could not find that it was expressly stated in the fundamental law of the country.

The ministry also advised the king to claim a veto in questions of supply, which still further increased the ill-feeling in the country against the government, and the conflict in consequence grew more and more violent. In the midst of the struggle between the king and the Storthing, the prime minister, Fredrik Stang, resigned, and Christian Elections of August Selmer became his successor; and this, together with the appointment of another member to the ministry, K.

Schweigaard, plainly indicated that the conflict with the Storthing was to be continued. In June the king arrived in Christiania to dissolve the Storthing, and on this occasion delivered a speech from the throne, in which he openly censured the representatives of the people for their attitude in legislative work and on the question of the absolute veto, the speech creating considerable surprise throughout the country.

The elections resulted in a great victory for the liberal party, which returned stronger than ever to the Storthing, numbering 83 and the conservatives only The ministry, however, showed no sign of yielding, and, when the new Storthing met in February , the Odelsthing the lower division of the Impeachment of ministers by the Storthing, The jurisdiction of the Rigsret is limited to the trial of offences against the state, and there is no appeal against its decisions. The charges against the ministers were for having acted contrary to the interests of the country by advising the king to refuse his sanction—first, to the amendment of the law for admitting the ministers to the Storthing; secondly, to a bill involving a question of supply; and thirdly, to a bill by which the Storthing could appoint additional directors on the state railways.

The trial of the eleven ministers of the Selmer cabinet began in The ministry sentenced by the Rigsret. May and lasted over ten months. In the end the Rigsret sentenced the prime minister and seven of his ministers to be deprived of their offices, while three, who had either recommended the king to sanction the bill for admitting the ministers to the Storthing, or had entered the cabinet at a later date, were heavily fined.

The excitement in the country rose to feverish anxiety. Fortunately the king after some hesitation issued 11th March an order in council announcing that the judgment of the supreme court would be carried into effect, and Selmer was then called upon to resign his position as Acquiescence by the king. King Oscar, however, in his declaration upheld the constitutional prerogative of the crown, which, he maintained, was not impaired by the judgment of the Rigsret. Professor Broch, a former minister, next failed to form a ministry, and the king was at last compelled to appoint a ministry in accordance with the majority in the First Liberal ministry

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