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The Norwegian Domination and
the Norse World c. 1100 c. 1400.
 Norgesveldet , Occasional Papers No.
1
Esben Albrectsen a
a
University of Copenhagen , Denmark
Published online: 29 Jul 2011.
To cite this article: Esben Albrectsen (2011) The Norwegian Domination and the Norse World c.
1100 c. 1400.  Norgesveldet , Occasional Papers No. 1, Scandinavian Journal of History, 36:3,
382-383, DOI: 10.1080/03468755.2011.585781
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2011.585781
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382 SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY
The Norwegian Domination and the Norse World c. 1100 c. 1400.
 Norgesveldet , Occasional Papers No. 1
STEINAR IMSEN (Ed.)
Trondheim, Tapir Academic Press, 2010
295 pp., 350 NOK, ISBN 978-82-519-2563-1
The Central Middle Ages was in Scandinavia as elsewhere a period marked by state
formation. Kingdoms rose to power in Norway as well as in Sweden and Denmark,
but in the Later Middle Ages their status became complicated. For some time the three
countries were politically connected (The Union of Kalmar), but in the long run a union
was established between Denmark, Norway and the duchies Slesvig and Holstein. In this
connection Norway collapsed as a state in 1537, not to rise again till 1814/1905. In
the Norwegian national tradition of the 19th century, the union with Denmark (1380
1814) was considered a traumatic period and therefore not of much political interest.
In contrast to this, the formation of a strong, independent Norwegian state in the High
Middle Ages became a symbol of a great Norway, with which, in later periods, a people
eager to regain its sovereignty wished to identify.
In the last decades, however, historians have turned their interest from focus-
ing on ups and downs in Norway s history towards change and transformation. Knut
Mykland inspired the publication of four volumes on the union of Denmark and Norway
joint written by Danish and Norwegian historians1 and views on  The Norwegian
Domination (Noregsveldet) have too been reconsidered, not least by professor Steinar
Imsen in Trondheim. This book, whose editor he is, may be seen as a step in an ongo-
ing effort to research state formation in a new way. It contains 12 contributions to a
conference, partly concentrating on the state, and partly on the whole Norse world,
that is to say the Atlantic areas populated by Norwegians who throughout the Middle
Ages preserved their Norse language and culture. A paper by Barbara Crawford is on
the united earldoms of Orkney and Caithness, others treat the Scottish Western Isles,
Man and Irish places, the first areas given up. As to the Norse-Gaelic frontier, Richard
Oram and Paul Adderley suggest that it was probably environmental conditions that led
to the collapse of the Norse cultural tradition in the Western Isles.
Most papers, however, treat state formation. Randi Bjłrshol Wćrdahl prepares
the way for revision of the nationalistic historiography in Norway and Iceland ( The
Norwegian Realm and the Norse World: A Historiographic Approach ), and she demon-
strates how it has faded. In this book no contributor talks of greatness or fall, and yet
research on  The Norwegian Domination is still carried out although this old political
formation cannot be looked at for identity by inhabitants in a modern national state,
since it did not survive the 15th century and is split up between Norway, Iceland,
Sweden, Denmark and UK. He who will explore this state as a whole not only has
to cross frontiers, but must also master the historiography of several countries.
These difficulties are met by a team of historians who have proposed a new view
on the political system. They want to test the thesis that in the Central Middle Ages a
monarchical state was created, where Norway and parts of the Norse world acted as a
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BOOK REVIEWS 383
kind of commonwealth, a federation based on consensus and cooperation between the
king and the territories of his realm. The kingdom built up in the years after c. 1260
was bipolar, Norway and the skattlands (territories paying tribute), and in both fields
research has already been done. That Norway proper was a state with strong commu-
nal elements has long been a main point in Steinar Imsen s publications, and now the
skattlands are included. On the basis of ethnic-territorial identities, provincial and local
communes were established, and their relationship to the realm of Norway, singly and
together, may be expected to get an important place in the coming investigations. Much
has so far been done as to the earldom of Orkney, Jämtland, Härjedalen and the Arctic,
as appears from the valuable contributions to this book including full bibliographies.
What we are waiting for not least is analyses of the relationship between Iceland and the
king and of the Icelandic political culture in the Later Middle Ages. Only the economic
side has to a certain extent been researched.2 Another subject to be investigated is the
importance of the Norwegian church and the metropolitan see at Nidaros (Trondheim)
for keeping a Norse world and political unity. Two important questions arise from this
book, and should be researched from a comparative perspective. Why did Norway and
Sweden in the Central Middle Ages have more luck than Denmark to build and keep
an empire? Preliminary answers are here given by Thomas Lindquist ( The Making of a
Greater Sweden ) and Jens E. Olesen ( A Danish Medieval  Empire in the Baltic (1168
1227)? ). The other question is to clarify whether it is correct or not to characterize  The
Norwegian Domination as a special political system marked by federalism and commu-
nalism. Investigations into royal administration and legislation both in Norway and in the
 skattlands will here come to the front.
Notes
1 Danmark-Norge 1380 1814.
2 In a stately context fishery and trade are discussed by Helgi Thorláksson ( King and
Commerce. The Foreign Trade of Iceland in Medieval Times and the Impact of Royal
Authority ), but mainly in the 14th century, and he does not touch on Iceland s com-
mercial separation from Norway and incipient rapprochement to Denmark in the 15th
century (cf. Hamre, Lars. Norsk historie frå midten av 1400 åra til 1513, 1971, pp.
10 15 ).
References
Danmark-Norge 1380 1814. Vols I IV. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1997 1998.
Hamre, Lars. Norsk historie frå midten av 1400 åra til 1513. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1971.
ESBEN ALBRECTSEN
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
[e-mail]
© 2011, Esben Albrectsen
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