Kingdom of Norway

History

Harald Fairhair's Vow and the Seafarers of the North

Norway's origins trace back to the Viking Age of the late 9th century. According to saga tradition, when the petty king Harald proposed to Princess Gyda, she refused to marry him until he became king over all of Norway. Harald vowed neither to cut nor comb his hair until he had united the realm, earning the epithet 'Fairhair' only after his decisive victory at the Battle of Hafrsfjord around 872. After centuries inside the Kalmar Union with Denmark and a subsequent personal union with Sweden, Norway peacefully dissolved the union by plebiscite in 1905 and elected King Haakon VII as monarch of a fully independent constitutional kingdom.

Fortresses of the Fjords and Resistance in World War II

When World War II broke out, Norway proclaimed neutrality, but Germany launched Operation Weserübung on April 9, 1940, to secure the ice-free iron-ore port of Narvik and Norway's strategic Atlantic coastline. On the first morning of the invasion, the aging coastal batteries and torpedo tubes of Oscarsborg Fortress in the Oslofjord sank the brand-new German heavy cruiser Blücher, buying crucial hours for King Haakon VII, the cabinet, and the national gold reserves to evacuate northward. After two months of fighting alongside Allied forces around Narvik, the king and government established a government-in-exile in London. Throughout the war, Norway's massive merchant marine (Nortraship) served as a vital lifeline for Allied Atlantic convoys, while Norwegian resistance saboteurs famously crippled the Vemork heavy-water plant in Telemark to thwart German nuclear research.