X-Nico

44 unusual facts about Norway


1624 in Norway

28 February – A decree made it explicitly illegal for Jesuits and monks to appear in the country, with death penalty as a consequence for offenders.

2011 Nobel Peace Prize

The five members of the Nobel Committee are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament to roughly reflect the party makeup of that body.

Adolph Tidemand

Adolph Tidemand was born in Mandal, Norway as the son of customs inspector and Storting representative Christen Tidemand (1779–1838) and Johanne Henriette Henrikke Haste (1779–1859).

British submarine flotilla in the Baltic

Four C-class submarines were sent there in September 1915 by a tortuous route—towed around the North Cape to Archangelsk and taken by barge to Krondstadt via the White Sea Canal.

Centre for Peace Studies, Tromsø

The Centre for Peace Studies started out as a research and co-ordination project in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Tromsø, Norway.

Erich Bey

Promoted to Rear Admiral, on Christmas Day, 25 December 1943, Bey led a task force consisting of the battleship Scharnhorst and the Z29, Z30, Z33, Z34 and Z38 out of Alta Fjord in Operation Ostfront.

Expulsion of Catholics from Denmark–Norway

In 1646 the regulations were somewhat relaxed, as foreign sailors were then allowed to practice their religion at three dedicated locations, in Oslo Old Town, Nordnes and Christianssand.

Festen er ikke over... det er kake igjen

Festen er ikke over... det er kake igjen is a compilation from the Norwegian rock band deLillos.

Heimaey stave church

The church was built in Lom in Norway, then shipped as cargo to Iceland and rebuilt.

History of Orkney

Vikings having made the islands the headquarters of their buccaneering expeditions (carried out indifferently against their own Norway and the coasts and isles of Scotland), Harold Hårfagre ("Fair Hair") subdued the rovers in 875 and annexed both Orkney and Shetland to Norway.

Hjalmar Christensen

Hjalmar Christensen (5 May 1869 – 29 December 1925) was a Norwegian writer.

If I Told You, You Were Beautiful

If I Told You, You Were Beautiful is the second album of the Norwegian band Minor majority, released in 2002.

Illinois Route 71

From here it continues to the northeast, passing through Norway, Newark, and Yorkville.

Just south of Norway, there is a memorial dedicated to Norwegian immigrants who settled in the area, with a small park, a cemetery, and a plaque from King Olav V.

In Abhorrence Dementia

In Abhorrence Dementia is the second studio album by Norwegian symphonic black metal band Limbonic Art released in 1997 through Nocturnal Art Productions.

Invasion of Hvaler

The invasion of Hvaler, was a Swedish military invasion of the Norwegian archipelago during the Swedish-Norwegian War of 1814.

Johan Peter Strömberg

Johan Peter Strömberg (19 August 1773, Stockholm – 20 September 1834, Aker) was a Swedish actor, dancer and theatre director.

Kalmar War

Although a side-note to the war, the Battle of Kringen, in which Scottish mercenary forces were defeated by Gudbrandsdal militiamen from Lesja, Dovre, Vaage (Vågå), Fron, Lom and Ringebu is a noted military event in Norway, celebrated to this day.

Kast alle papirene

Kast alle papirene is the ninth studio album by Norwegian rock band deLillos.

Kjellfred Weum

Outside of athletics he has worked as a police officer in Oslo, Bærum, his native Luster, Leikanger and Sogndal.

Kurt Aust

He has written several historical crime novels based on Denmark–Norway around the beginning of 18th century.

Lambertseter Line

Following the 1948 merger of the municipalities of Oslo and Aker, it was decided that the Nordstrand area in the former Aker would be opened to large-scale construction of housing.

Lögberg

It ceased to be used in 1262, when Iceland took allegiance to Norway.

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling

In 2010, as an assistant editor, he wrote an article titled "Tangled Web Between Casino, Ag. Association," which was published in the Advertiser Democrat, a small weekly newspaper located in Norway, Maine.

Matthias Numsen Blytt

Matthias Numsen Blytt (26 April 1789 – 26 June 1862) was a Norwegian botanist.

Neiden

Neiden, Norway, a village in Sør-Varanger, Finnmark county, Norway

Norway, Illinois

The settlers had in large part relocated from the Kendall settlement in New York State which had been founded seven years before by pioneers who arrived from Norway during 1825 aboard the Restauration.

Norway's Next Top Model

With Martina Lervik, another girl from Ålesund also won the sixth Cycle which was running from September to December 2008.

Starting with 13 girls, ranging between the ages of 16 - 27, the second cycle was won by Kamilla Alnes from Ålesund.

It was hosted by Vendela Kirsebom, who was also hosting Sweden's Next Top Model at the same time.

Norwegian POW Museum

In 1982, Eyvind Grundt from Moss, Norway, was sent to Poland on a mission for the Norwegian Red Cross.

Øyulv Gran

Øyulv Gran (1902 – 1972) was a Norwegian writer.

Preben Munthe

He was born in Aker, the son of librarian Wilhelm Munthe (1883–1965) and his wife Jenny Hempel (1882–1975).

Pressure-retarded osmosis

The world's first osmotic plant with capacity of 4 kW was opened by Statkraft on 24 November 2009 in Tofte, Norway.

Ris Church

The watches are designed by the architect Carl Berner and was provided by O. Olsen & Søn bell foundry at Nauen in Sem.

Rune Skarstein

Skarstein was born on 7 April 1940 in the village of Olden in Nordfjord in Western Norway.

Sportsplassen

Sportsplassen ("The Sports Field") is a multi-use stadium in Nordstrand borough, Oslo, Norway.

Suser Videre

Suser videre is the eleventh studio album by Norwegian rock band deLillos.

Talvik

Talvik, Norway, village and former municipality in Finnmark county, Norway

Terminal moraine

One famous terminal moraine is the Giant's Wall in Norway which, according to legend, was built by giants to keep intruders out of their realm.

Thrall

In 1043 Hallvard Vebjørnsson, the son of a local nobleman in the district of greater Lier, was killed while trying to defend a thrall woman from men who accused her of theft.

Wallace Clark

The journey in Wild Goose by his son Miles, travelled around North Cape, Norway, and then through Russian waterways to the Black Sea, and on through the Mediterranean back to Northern Ireland.

Wenche

Wenche a popular female first name in Norway.

Yusuf Dikeç

In 2006, Yusuf Dikeç set a new world record in 25 m center-fire pistol event at the CISM Military World Championships held in Rena, Norway scoring 597 points.


Alf Bonnevie Bryn

He made several first ascents in Switzerland, Corsica and Norway, including the first successful ascent of Stetind in 1910 (together with Ferdinand Schjelderup and Carl Wilhelm Rubenson).

Alvania beanii

This species is distributed in European waters, from the North Coast of Norway and the North East Atlantic Ocean down to the Canary Islands.

Ansar al-Islam

On May 4, 2010 Abu Abdullah al-Shafi'i, Ansar al-Islam's leader since Mullah Krekar left for Norway in 2003, was captured by US forces in Baghdad.

Anton Eger

Anton Eger (born 1980 in Norway) is a Norwegian/Swedish Jazz drummer, known from a series of recordings and collaborations with musicians like Django Bates, Marius Neset, Daniel Heløy Davidsen and Ivo Neame.

Augie Wolf

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) initially banned Wolf for life after ruling he had refused post-match testing on July 7, 1985 in Byrkjelo, Norway.

Barbara Arbuthnott

She came to Sunndal, in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway on her honeymoon with her third husband (married 6 December 1865), Hon William Arbuthnott, son of 8th Viscount of Arbuthnott.

Battle of Fitjar

The Battle of Fitjar at Stord was the last battle in a war between the sons of Eric Bloodaxe and their uncle King Haakon the Good for power over Norway.It also formed part of a contest between Norway and Denmark for control the area of Oslofjord.

BIT20 Ensemble

BIT20 Ensemble is a contemporary music ensemble from Bergen, Norway, founded in 1989 for the purpose of performing and advancing Norwegian and international art music.

Braastad

The name Braastad was introduced when Sverre Braastad (1879 – 1979) from Gjøvik, Norway, married the daughter of cognac producer Tiffon, Edith Rousseau, in 1913, and took over Tiffon, founded by Médéric Rousseau in 1875.

Charlotte Amalie

Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) (1650-1714), a queen-consort of Denmark and Norway

Christian Beyer

While Luther abstained he made the long journey and acted as an assigned as legal adviser to King and the Queen of Denmark, who through the Nordic Kalmar Union also was regent of Sweden as well as Norway.

Duwayne Kerr

Kerr moved to Norway in 2011, and played two seasons for the Norwegian First Division side Strømmen, and was the best goalkeeper in the 2012 Norwegian First Division according to Sarpsborg 08's Director of Sports, Thomas Berntsen.

Ervik

Ervik, Sogn og Fjordane, a village in Selje municipality, Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway

Eupithecia gelidata

The larvae feed on Rhododendron tomentosum but possibly also other plants, because the species has been found in areas of Norway and Sweden where R. tomentosum is not present.

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

Members of the IAG included: Azerbaijan, France, Nigeria, Norway, Peru and the United States; Anglo-American, BP, Chevron and Petrobras; the Azerbaijan EITI Coalition, Global Witness, Revenue Watch Institute, West African Catholic Bishops Conference; and F&C Asset Management.

Fornebu

Fornebu (local form Fornebo) is a peninsular area in the suburban municipality of Bærum in Norway, bordering western parts of Oslo.

Frederick William Cappelen

Frederick William Cappelen (October 21, 1857 – October 16, 1921) was a Norwegian-born architect and civil engineer who held the office of Minneapolis City Engineer.

Give Us Our Skeletons

The movie describes three parallel plots; the first is Niillas Somby's story on how he became one of the most celebrated protesters during the Alta Dam Protests between 1979-1981 near Kautokeino, Norway.

Hannah McKeand

She has founded a company with polar guide Carl Alvey called Expeditions 365 that conducts polar training courses each spring on the Hardangervidda plateau in Norway.

Hans Rotmo

He was a supporter of the revolutionary communist movement AKP(m-l) in his younger years, and many of the lyrics of his songs, especially those from the Vømmøl period, are influenced by the thoughts of Mao Zedong and Karl Marx, although the surface content of most of these songs concern the population of rural Norway, the industrial progress that followed World War II, and the effects of the latter on the former.

Harald Berntsen

He joined Kjell Hovden in the Kommunistisk Arbeiderforbund in 1971, and was named to the central council of the Kommunistisk Universitetslag (KUL) during the 1970s, when KUL grew to become the student branch of the Kommunistisk Arbeiderforbund.

Harpalus anxius

In Europe, it is only absent in the following countries or islands: Andorra, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, Crete, Cyclades, Cyprus, Dodecanese, the Faroe Islands, Franz Josef Land, Gibraltar, Iceland, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, the North Aegean islands, Norway, Novaya Zemlya, Portugal, San Marino, the Savage Islands, Sicily, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Vatican City.

Helge Jordal

Helge Jordal (born 17 February 1946 in Bergen, Norway) is an Norwegian actor, appointed a Knight of the Royal Order of St. Olav in 2006 for his long career as an actor on both screen and stage, and his position as a "grand old man" among Norwegian actors.

Herøy

Herøy Church, a church in Herøy municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway

Ingebjørg Guttormsdatter

Ingebjørg Guttormsdatter was, alongside Ragna Nikolasdatter and Estrid Bjørnsdotter, known as one of the only two acknowledged queen consorts in Norway between the mid 11th century to the 13th century not to have been foreign princesses.

Johan Nygaardsvold

He took jobs in British Columbia in Canada, and Kalispell, Montana, and Spokane, Washington in USA before returning to Norway in 1907, having followed a career as an Industrial Workers of the World agitator.

Johannes W. Løvhaug

Johannes Waage Løvhaug (born 1967) is a Norwegian historian and editor-in-chief of the gazette Apollon of the University of Oslo.

Kali Gwegwe

He is also reputed to have been the first Nigerian to bring a youth team from Europe (Holmlia Sports Club of Oslo, Norway) to participate in a local football competition in Nigeria.

Kilen

Kilen, Aust-Agder, a village in Tvedestrand municipality, Aust-Agder, Norway

Lanke

Lånke, a former municipality in Stjørdal, Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway

Mika Kojonkoski

He returned home to Finland to take over the national team in 1999, before he took over the Norwegian team in 2002 where he helped create stars like Sigurd Pettersen, Lars Bystøl, Bjørn Einar Romøren, Anders Jacobsen and Tom Hilde.

Neset

Enebakkneset (also called Neset) in Fet municipality, Akershus, Norway

Nikolai Kolomeitsev

Kolomeitsev supervised the fitting out of the Zarya in Larvik, Norway.

Nocturno Culto

Ted Skjellum (born 4 March 1972 in Kolbotn, Oppegård), also known by the stage names Nocturno Culto, Nocturno or Kveldulv, is a Norwegian musician best known as the vocalist, lead guitarist, and partial bassist (shared with Fenriz) of the influential black metal band Darkthrone.

Norris J. Nelson

Norwegian actress Asta Bertels was mentioned in the testimony, Nelson relating that he brought her from Norway the same month, April 1946, that he separated from his wife and that he was acting as her agent in furthering a Hollywood career; she signed a contract with showgirl impresario Earl Carroll.

Norway in 1814

He learned that Prussia and Austria were waning in their support of Sweden's claims to Norway, that Tsar Alexander I of Russia (a distant cousin of Christian Frederik's) favored a Swedish-Norwegian union but not with Bernadotte as the king, and that the United Kingdom was looking for a solution to the problem that would keep Norway out of Russia's influence.

Norwegian Media Authority

Norman successor, Heidi Grande Røys of the Socialist Left Party, stated that the moving had had an important symbolic effect on the target areas, and that she did not see the lack of advantages as a reason to not move similar agencies later.

NRJ Group

With its pan-European NRJ/ENERGY stations, the Paris-based NRJ Group has challenged the European radio market by being significantly different from diversifying market players like the Luxembourg-based RTL Group (Antenne Bayern, RTL Berlin, Yorin FM), and SBS Broadcasting (Radio 1 Norway, The Voice) or Stockholm-based MTG (P4 Norway, Rix FM, Lugna Favoriter).

Ogmund Crouchdance

In 1261 he was one of the leaders of the Norwegian delegation who took princess Ingebjørg Eiriksdotter, the daughter of Eric IV of Denmark, out of the convent in Horsens (dominikanerkloster ved Horsens) to bring her to Norway as the bride of the king's son, Magnus Håkonsson.

Øyvind Svenning

Øyvind Svenning (born 29 January 1980) is a Norwegian football defender who currently plays for the Norwegian team Randaberg.

Rennesøy

In the present municipality one of Norway's oldest and best preserved monasteries, Utstein, is situated.

Research and Development Network in Norway

Participating agencies included the Regional Development Fund, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, the Norwegian Telecommunications Administration (NTA) and the Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (NTNF).

Röyksopp's Night Out

It contains live recordings from a concert in Norway, Rockefeller (Oslo) in November 2005.

St. Margaret's Church, Oslo

Margaret's Church was a stone church built in the 13th century, placed in Maridalen in the outskirts of Oslo, Norway, close to the northern end of Maridalsvannet.

Stein Eriksen

He was knighted with the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for his contribution to Norway, the highest honor that the Norwegian government can give to people living outside Norway.

Sverre Andersen

Sverre Andersen made his Norway debut on 30 June 1954 when he played for the U19 in a game against Denmark in Odense.

Swing ride

In Kongeparken located 10 km outside the fourth largest city in Norway, Stavanger is the home of a Wellenflieger named "Spinnvidle" and has been in operation since 2012.

The Kavli Foundation

The Kavli Prizes are presented in cooperation with the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway is Kavli's native country).

Whaling in Norway

According to documents released by WikiLeaks, US president Barack Obama, who promised to oppose whaling during his presidential campaign, used diplomatic channels to put pressure on Norway during his visit for the conferment of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

White Flag incident

LTTE's Political Wing leader Balasingham Nadesan and Pulidevan agreed to surrender and they contacted the United Nations, the governments of Norway, United Kingdom, USA and also ICRC and had been assured by Mahinda Rajapaksa and told to surrender at a particular place by the Basil Rajapakse.