7000BC The Sami people began herding reindeer in
northern Europe about this time as the last Ice Age ended. They were
later considered to be Europe’s only indigenous people. By 2013 they
numbered about 80,000 including 8,000 in Finland, 50,000 in Norway,
20,000 in Sweden and 2,000 in Russia.
(SFC, 8/30/13, p.A2)
700-800 Vikings began arriving to the Orkney
(SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)
793 Jun 8, Vikings raided the
Northumbrian coast in England. Corfe served as a center of West
Saxon resistance to Viking invaders. Vikings plundered the monastery
and St. Cuthbert convent at Lindsfarne
(HN, 6/8/98)(AM, 7/00, p.64)(PC, 1992, p.68)
800-900 In Scandinavia Futhark evolved around the
9th century. Instead of 24 letters, the Scandinavian "Younger"
Futhark had 16 letters. In England, Anglo-Saxon Futhorc started to
be replaced by the Latin alphabet by the 9th century, and did not
survive much more past the Norman Conquest. Futhark continued to be
used in Scandinavia for centuries longer, but by 1600 CE, it had
become nothing more than curiosities among scholars and
834 In southeastern Norway's
Vestfold County a 65-foot vessel was buried in an enormous mound as
the grave ship for a rich and powerful Viking woman. In 1904 the
mound surrendered the Oseberg Viking longboat.
843 Jun 24, Vikings destroyed
850-933 Harold the Fairhaired. Princess Gyda is
said to have incited Harold to gather the whole of Norway under his
scepter. The name Gyda was later corrupted to Gjøe, the name of
Amdunsen’s Northwest Passage sloop (1903-1905).
(Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)
891 Sep 1, Norse defeated near
c900-1000 Harald Bluetooth, or Harald Blatand,
10th-century king of Denmark, attributed to himself the unification
of Denmark and the Christianization of the Danes. He also conquered
Norway and raided Normandy. He was later invaded and defeated by
German emperor Otto II.
960 Thorvald Asvaldsson, the
father of Eric the Red (950-1003), committed a murder about this
time and was banished from Norway. He took his family to Iceland.
969-1000 Olaf Tryggvesson, Olav I, King of Norway
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
986 Bjarni Herjolfsson sailed
from Norway to Iceland with cargo for his father, who had moved on
to Greenland. Herjjolfsson was blown off course and reached
Labrador, which he described as "worthless country."
(NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, p.4)(WSJ, 7/6/04,
995-1000 Olaf I was king.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
995-1030 Olaf Haraldsson, aka Saint Olaf, the
patron saint of Norway. He was king from 1016-1029. He and a crew of
Vikings attacked London and pulled down the London Bridge with
ropes. This is remembered in the nursery rhyme "London Bridge is
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)(SFC, 8/23/97, p.E3)
1002 Thorer Eastman (d.1002), a
Norwegian sea captain, was blown off course on a trading voyage from
Iceland to Greenland. He and his wife, Gudrid, along with a crew of
13 became stranded on a rock near the coast of Newfoundland for
weeks until they were rescued by Leif Eriksson, who was on his way
home to Greenland from North America with a cargo of timber. That
fall an epidemic swept Greenland and Eastman died.
(ON, 12/07, p.4)
c1004 In 2004 archaeologists in
western Norway found the remains of a harbor complex built by the
Vikings about this time, at the ancient harbor complex at
Faanestangen, near the west coast city of Trondheim, some 250 miles
north of Oslo.
1015 After converting to
Christianity in France, Olaf Haraldsson returned to Norway and
promptly conquered land held by Denmark, Sweden and Norwegian lords.
1016-1029 In Norway Olaf Haraldsson served as
king. He later became Saint Olaf, the patron saint of Norway.
(WUD, 1994, p.1002)
1024 Olaf Haraldsson
introduced a religious code in his efforts to convert the Norwegians
1028 Olaf Haraldsson was forced
to flee Norway by Canute, king of England and Denmark, Olaf returned
to reconquer Norway, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of
Stiklestad in 1030.
1028-1035 Canute the Great became King of Norway.
(AHD, 1971, p.198)
1030 Jul 29, The patron saint
of Norway, King Olaf the Second, was killed in the Battle of
Stiklestad. Olaf Haraldsson was b