I’m back on the blog to present you Norway. Everyone knows this country, but when I say that I’m in Norway, people usually reply: “This is such a cold country!” and this remark proves that this country is not really well known. First, this is not true, this country is not so cold! We are in Tromsø and in January the temperatures are between +3°C and -10 °C! During winter, we can find about the same temperatures in many parts of France and of the world.
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I don’t find the temperature difference with Marseille is huge, what do you think? :)
In addition to this, the cold is not the only characteristic of Norway ( if not, we would not be there…). This country has plenty of treasures that I want to show you and that we will study on various topics.
The real name of Norway is “Kingdom of Norway”. It is located west of the Scandinavian peninsula and shares borders with Sweden, Finland and Russia. The Scandinavian peninsula is a geographical concept. This name comes from the word that designates the Scander mountains (Scandinavian Alps), which goes from the north to the south of the peninsula, mainly along the border between Norway and Sweden. These mountains, eroded by glaciation, falling to the west in the Norwegian Sea, form numerous fjords. The Scandinavian peninsula is strictly geographical and refers to Norway and Sweden. These two countries forming a peninsula wich is an advanced land into the sea.
We must be careful to not confuse the Scandinavian Peninsula with Scandinavia wich is a political concept bringing together countries sharing a common history and culture. Scandinavia is the homeland of some of the Germanic peoples and the Vikings. In addition to the Scandinavian peninsula wich includes Norway and Sweden, Scandinavia includes Denmark, whose inhabitants speak an ethnically apparent language and share a common history. Not only to the Viking period (late VIIIth to XIth century) but also more recently, Norway and Denmark have often been united under the same crown.
In the broad sense, Scandinavia include Iceland wich was long ruled by Denmark and originaly settled by norwegian people. But also Faroe Islands, an autonomous region of Denmark, and Greenland and Svalbard, respectively dependent of Norway and Denmark.
Finland is sometimes included because it was under Swedish rule for a long time but this is a mistake, because the Finnish language is unrelated to the Scandinavian languages and Finland forms a distinct geographic of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The addition of Finland and Scandinavia is referred to as Finnoscandia or Fennoscandia.
About the country’s name, many etymologists think it comes from the term “North Road” (in old Norse “nord veg”) . Sami people call it “nuorrek” which means “the coast” or “along the sea.” Another proposed etymology is “Nór rige”, meaning “Kingdom of Nór”, Nór being the name of a mythical king.
The Norwegian coast, with a length of over 2,500 km (mainland only), is punctuated by fjords and a multitude of small islands (about 50,000 in total!). Norway is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and three other seas: the North Sea to the southwest, Skagerrak to the southeast , the Norwegian Sea to the west and the Barents Sea to the northeast. The land borders measure 2,542 kilometers in length, most with Sweden, but also Finland and north Russia.
(click on the picture for a larger view)
Norway is known as ”land of the midnight sun” because of its location. A part of the country is at the north of the Arctic Circle where the sun never goes down in summer (from May to July) and never rises in winter (from late November to late January). Norway is the most northern country of Europe, containing the famous North Cape (Nordkapp in Norwegian) where people come to watch the midnight sun. But in reality, other parts of the coast are slightly further north.
With 385,155 km ² (including Svalbard and Jan Mayen), Norway is slightly larger than Germany. But the relief of the country, with mountains and glaciers, is very rugged. The most famous features of its geography are the fjords. Norway has several hundred fjords on its coast. They were formed by the severe erosion exerted by huge masses of ice on the the valleys and the sea came to fill them at the end of the Ice Age. They cut land and some of them penetrate the lands until 200 km, as Sognefjorden, and their deep may reach 1350m. The most narrow and deep fjords are the most extraordinary, like for instance Geirangerfjord. Most of them can be found between Stavanger and Trondheim. Norway is also home to many glaciers and waterfalls. The highest summit is Mount Galdhøpiggen (2469 meters high). Moreover, erosion has also been the cause of the formation of islands and islets (over 200,000) that line the coast.
Along the coast, the climate is tempered by the heat brought by the Gulf Stream. But climatic conditions inside the lands, along the border with Sweden, offer a more severe climate.
At the political level, Norway is divided into five Landsdeler or large regions, whose delimitations are based on geography and language. But the most important subdivisions are the nineteen “fylke” or counties, which provide important administrative functions. The “fylker” are the intermediary between the kingdom and the municipalities. In every “fylke” the king is represented by a “fylkesmann“.
Oslo is considered both as a municipality and a county. Municipalities are the local unit of gouvernemeent in Norway and are responsible for a number of areas.
Here are for your information the 10 largest municipalities:
To be continued…
-céline
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