Norwegian farm culture
Encyclopedia
The Norwegian farm culture (Norwegian
: bondekultur) was a rural movement unique in values and practices which assumed a form in Viking Age
Norway
, and continued with little change into the age of firearms - and in many respects even to the early 20th century. It has been described as unique in Europe and was widely celebrated in Norwegian literature
during the romantic nationalist
movement.
traditions, and as the original settlers of the land. The poets from late 18th century Norway based their style on contemporary pastoral
poetry, and classic ideals, where the rural shepherd could be simultaneously depicted in typical Norwegian dress, but still have him blowing his "Arcadian clarion". At the same time, the farmer and the Norwegian mountains became symbols of national strength and pride. Areas such as Gudbrandsdalen became popular travel destinations because of their historical importance and reputation as rural heartlands, where many locals claimed ancestry from the Norse
kings. The first well-known poetry written in rural dialect
originated in these parts in the late 18th century. The patriotic era in Norway lasted until about 1830. In the following years, romantic nationalism slowly emerged.
, legend
s, fairy-tales, in a rich decorative style, "rosemaling
", woodcarving, silversmithing and folk-music, both on the Hardanger fiddle and the regular violin
. Added to this came a great number of songs and tunes from medieval times, and the dances. While the patriots considered Gudbrandsdalen the heart of Norway, the romantic nationalists were drawn to Telemark
as the center of rural culture. Here they found the greatest folk-musicians and the venerable tradition of medieval ballads best preserved.
It has been stated that the cultural consciousness among the Norwegian farmers was high, and that they did not always welcome the tax collectors as the years passed. The culture was rich, more so in the way that each valley had their distinct varieties and modifications. Outsider were often impressed, and said so.
On the other hand, the urbanists could show a kind of superior attitude towards this culture. It was, after all, raw and had to be refined before "national" usage. Thus, they did not always appreciate the value of the farm culture in its own right. The farmers understood this, and answered with a kind of forced contempt against the urbane. This created a "cultural breach" between city and rural community. Many poets, among them Henrik Wergeland
and Henrik Ibsen
understood this, and criticized the romantic nationalists for not taking the farmers’ culture seriously. Those who made the best efforts on collecting and writing down the rural culture were those that came from "within". They knew the codes, and had the farmers’ trust.
A strongly egalitarian approach characterizes this Norwegian cultural view, resisting any who would put themselves in a position of superiority. This results in a consensus oriented and issue oriented approach to problems and an unwritten law to stress social equality and emphasize fairness for all. It has also been characterized less favorably by Dano-Norwegian
author Aksel Sandemose
as the Jante Law
(Norwegian
Janteloven), which requires a rural environment to survive.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
, himself is of urban stock, provides a modern perspective on Norwegian nationalism: “With no powerful city bourgeoisie and no strong landed gentry, burgeoning Norwegian nationalism took on a different character from that of the European countries in the 19th century. It was emphatically rural and egalitarian in its orientation, and it trended to glorify the simple ways of life of the countryside rather than revel in urban grandeur of the military pride of the state… The irony of this invention of nationhood is the fact that those individuals who most strongly promoted the idea of Norwegianness as a rural form of life, were themselves urban and highly educated people – their daily life was very far removed from that of the simple peasants who they defined as the carriers of national identity.”
, so ancient that the time of their enactment is lost, govern Norwegian property transfer. This property system worked to preserve the Norwegian farm and contributed to the independence and relative equality the Norwegians maintained, even during periods of Danish and Swedish suzerainty.
The Gulating
lawtext is in many aspects written by the farmers themselves. The juridical text states a common "we", who make their own agreements with their king and their nobility. Thus, the law states that the king can call out a leidang
"because we find it useful". The historian Kåre Lunden
argues that a farming community with such self esteem, would find it proper to execute the king himself if he went against their common interests, as they actually did at the Battle of Stiklestad
. Snorre Sturlason mentions that King Håkon I of Norway had to rule with the support of the farmers, as the same farmers made a point of going against him if he pressed certain matters further at the ting
(the case in question was Christianity
).
The Gulating law also stipulates that the farmers will abstain from "beating up the parsons" for the future (meaning they have done it before). Norwegian history tells of a number of unlucky country priests falling victim to angry farmers. Thus, only the strongest candidates were willing to leave for the rural areas. Kåre Lunden makes a point of this attitude, compared to the french medieval farmer stock, who willingly gave up their freedom for the monasteries.
Norway was never a feudal country, with serfdom
never existing; the scattered population, mountainous areas and lack of established communities did not support a centralized feudal order. While Denmark attempted to impose the “vertical” feudal order, with accompanying authoritarian roles and responsibilities, such efforts had in Norway limited success. During the Union Period, Denmark gradually established over-lordship of Norway, which for military purposes and in the eyes of the world made Denmark-Norway one united realm. Not only was the central government located in Copenhagen, but virtually all local officials in Norway were Danes. Official business was conducted in Danish, although the common language remained Norwegian. But this over-lordship remained formal, and external to the people's everyday life. When the governors and sheriffs attempted conducting in Norway the oppressive practices and virtual slavery that were common in Denmark, they encountered firm resistance and vigorous protests from the Norwegian self-owning farmers.
The farmers had kept their independence including the use of local assemblies known as the Thing
, and lived by their old Norse
code of law up until 1685. It was at that time that the Danish King Christian V
revised Norwegian property laws. The laws of Magnus Lagabøte had by then been practiced for 400 years. After this judicial code, the farmers saw the king as a guarantor for their rights, and were equal to the king in the old sense that the king or the king's men was obliged to hold their pledges towards them (social contract). However, this did not bother the Danish sheriffs, and the farmers answered the broken pledges by killing the sheriff - a recurring incident during the early days of the union. The honor of a given word was deeply rooted in the farmer’s conscience, long into the 19th century. Sources from the 18th century mentions a number of incidents where the farmers refused to acknowledge Danish law in Norway, and referring to "ancient rights" during court hearings.
Significantly, the Norwegian military was based on the farmers, and Norwegian farmers were known to be good soldiers in that era, and more warlike than the Danish. Thus, Norway saw a long list of peasant revolts, often against the heavy tax-burden of the Dano-Norwegian
state, and against foreign armies. An army of farmers thus beat and annihilated a troop of Scottish
mercenaries in the Battle of Kringen
in 1612, during the Kalmar War
. This episode magnified the general opinion of Norwegian peasantry. The warlike behavior also resulted in many brawls, fights and local feuds between farms, clans and valleys. An old schoolteacher stated that he in his lifetime (about 1727) had experienced as many as 30 manslaughters in his own community, Hol
in Hallingdal
, over perhaps 40 years. Various sources support this pugnacious nature; many of the stories of fights and fighters were handed down as heroic legends in folk-tradition, sung as songs, and connected to dance-tunes. The legend
s derived from this particular time, often tell of proud resistance towards the authorities, and a kind of Viking
persistence facing death. Those legends value a good punchline
in the nick of time, in some cases given in front of the executioner
´s block.
Even today we can find a kind of mock-feud between central valleys, and still occasional brawling between youths from different landscapes and counties.
In the 1660s and 1670s, a large amount of crown land in Norway was sold to liquidate war debts, mostly to rich burghers, officials and nobles. The bonder who had worked this land now found themselves renter from a far more oppressive class than their former landlord, the crown. These new landowners introduced oppressive rent practices designed to reduce the bonder to virtual serfdom as was then common in Denmark. Statholder Gyldenløve, interested in forestalling the serious troubles arising, urged the King to curb the greed of the landowners, and is quoted by Knut Gjerset as stating "In Norway, the government differs so much from that of other lands that there it consists of the farmer, and is maintained by them… The prosperity of the farmers is the main thing, the root and basis for the preservation of the whole kingdom."
In 1684-1695, regulations were published that capped the rates of rent charged and limited the amount of "free service" rendered by the bonded farmers. When a farm was leased, it had to be leased with all its conveniences to the leaseholder for his lifetime, the rent established by unchangeable mutual contract, and fixed prices established for the products with which the farmer paid his rent.
In those years, the farmers gathered time and again, struggling for their inherited rights. Strikes against war taxes were common, notably in the mountain areas. Thus, Upper Hallingdal revolted in 1713, while parts of Telemark revolted some years later, both incidents related to the great nordic war. It is known that farmers at the time held their own rights over the rights of the king, and did not acnowledge the union laws. Some of those men argued persistently for their cause.
As the news of the French Revolution
spread, the most educated farmers assembled their people and strove for democracy and common rights. Some of these joined sides with religious reformer Hans Nielsen Hauge
, and fought for farmers’ rights in the Constitutional Assembly
.
The last uprising prior to the "farmer`s parliament" from 1836 took place in 1818, once again because of high taxes and hard times. As usual, the farmers wanted to send a petition straight to the king (Carl Johan). The parliament sent troops, and about 300 men from Hallingdal, Valdres and Hedmark was escorted to Christiania, under suspicion of rebellion. Their letter for the king and parliament was never to be delivered, but the tax burden eased for a time afterwards. One has to note that the men in power reacted as would the Danish before them, even four years after the constitutional assembly.
The first generation of farmers born after 1814 counted many personalities willing to test their intellectual strength in the new-born democracy
. Thus we find many self-taught farmers, who in time became a valuable source for information when the folklorists arrived in the 1850s. Many of these men wrote their information down, and worked as local teachers. In one case, a farmer from Telemark
, Rikard Aslaksson Berge, even ventured to teach himself German
and Theology
. He welcomed Ivar Aasen
, and was a valuable source for preserving old traditional music and lore in his area. Other farmers who thought in the same manner, were among those elected for the famous "Farmers' Parliament" of 1835. It is fair to say that the Norwegian farmers in general were self-aware and independent, very unlike their feudal counterparts in central Europe.
After 1820, political channels have been used.
were symbols of Norwegian counter-culture for many years.
When radio broadcasting was started in Norway, the broadcasting company soon got their own folk music
programme, and as this was welcomed in the rural areas (people gathered in silence each Sunday evening at the home of the one farmer with a radio), the folk music was resented in the urban areas. The tensions were great, and many angry readers protested the efforts of bringing hardanger fiddle into their homes. People in Oslo
as a rule neither liked nor understood the music. The protests also resulted in casting stones through the windows of Eivind Groven
, who was responsible for the folk music programs.
On the other area, Nynorsk
, debates went on for many years, and had to be silenced through political agreement as late as 1959. Prejudice, mostly against Nynorsk prevailed for many years, and are still a prominent feature amongst teenagers in Oslo
. The right-wing parties still are trying to get votes from young people using this argument.
The farm culture developed then into a strong political counter-culture, with a lot of different branches, like the layman
-movement, the fight against alcohol
, the fight for rural dialect and nynorsk
, the fight for folk music and rural culture, and of course, the lasting fight against centralism. Norway's political landscape is based on the balance between the capital or city and districts.
, the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
, described its characteristics in a book published in 1796 as, “The distribution of landed property into small farms produces a degree of equality which I have seldom seen elsewhere; and the rich being all merchants, who are obliged to divide their personal fortune amongst their children, the boys always receiving twice as much as the girls, property has met no chance of accumulating till overgrowing wealth destroys the balance of liberty.
You will be surprised to hear me talk of liberty; yet the Norwegians appear to me to be the most free community I have ever observed.
The mayor of each town or district, and the judges in the country, exercise an authority almost patriarchal. They can do much good, but little harm, as every individual can appeal from their judgment; and as they may always be forced to give a reason for their conduct, it is generally regulated by prudence. 'They have not time to learn to be tyrants,' said a gentleman to me, with whom I discussed the subject.
The farmers not fearing to be turned out of their farms, should they displease a man in power, and having no vote to be commanded at an election for a mock representative, are a manly race; for not being obliged to submit to any debasing tenure in order to live, or advance themselves in the world, they act with an independent spirit. I never yet have heard of anything like domineering or oppression, excepting such as has arisen from natural causes. The freedom the people enjoy may, perhaps, render them a little litigious, and subject them to the impositions of cunning practitioners of the law; but the authority of office is bounded, and the emoluments of it do not destroy its utility.
Last year a man who had abused his power was cashiered, on the representation of the people to the bailiff of the district.”
, was the non-noble bourgeoisie, composed of professional men, officials, clergy, wealthy merchants, a few industrialists. At its high point in the 18th Century, it was composed of less than fifty thousand people. Many were descendants of Danish immigrants in the 17th Century and the others had been educated in Denmark. They read foreign books, were culturally tied to Denmark, and spoke Dano-Norwegian
or book language. Nonetheless, most were Norwegian in loyalty, sentiment and interests.
After the breakthrough for parliamentarism in 1884, the farmers joined the liberal
left-wing party under Johan Sverdrup
. Here they remained for many years, sometimes breaking out and joining again in the tumultuous history of the party. From 1920 the farmers made their own political party in Norway, called the Farmer's Party (Norwegian: Bondepartiet) later Centre Party (Norwegian: Senterpartiet). The party and their name lost goodwill during the 1930s, because of the ill-reputed government of 1931 with Vidkun Quisling
acting as a secretary of defence
, representing Bondepartiet in the government.
After the crash
of 1929, many farmers lost their properties, and a crisis-plan was established. In this, the newly formed Nasjonal Samling (NS) party played a role, and many farmers in gratitude voted, or joined the NS the following years. As the tides turned during the 1930s, the farmers got out of the NS, mostly because they didn't need them anymore. Some of the most wealthy farmers stayed on. This turned out to be a problem for them as World War II
came to Norway. In recent years, some historians accuse the entire farmer community in Norway for being sympathetic to the NS. That is not, strictly speaking, true. Although some of the greatest landowners in Eastern Norway and Gudbrandsdalen was on the inside, this was not the case in other areas. Vinje
and upper Telemark
was reputedly free from NS influence, and the party never found support there.
After the war, it has been the goal of both the Norwegian right-wing party Høyre and the Labour party, who took power in 1935 and kept it almost ever since, to reduce the number of farms in Norway. The Labour party wanted space and manpower for industry, and rather wanted people to join their affiliated unions
than possibly favouring other parties. Høyre wanted to get rid of the farmers because of an ancient grudge, dating back to the 19th century. The Norwegian property laws became a hindrance for free trade
, and so were the farmers, they claimed.
When the tensions rose in Norway because of the EEC, later the EU, Norwegian farmers positioned themselves with the strong No-block, and with support from other left-wing groups, they stopped Norway from joining the union twice. This is also a reason for right-wing grudges against the farm culture.
Today, many Norwegian farms and farmers struggle to make much money due to the globalisation of the food market. Most Norwegian farmers produce their goods, mostly food, for the sake of their own, and continue and old tradition of "self-preserving". This philosophy has been strong in Norway at all times. They are, of course, sceptical of the WTO agreements, and instead wish to join sides with the farmers of developing countries rather than be aligned to farmers in the USA. As Norway is considered a modern industrialized country, this is somewhat difficult to explain. The explanation may lie in the fact that Norway is still a small country with a small market, and no threat to anyone. The farmers claim that free trade would kill off the entire agriculture of Norway, as they would not be able to compete for very long.
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
: bondekultur) was a rural movement unique in values and practices which assumed a form in Viking Age
Viking Age
Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and continued with little change into the age of firearms - and in many respects even to the early 20th century. It has been described as unique in Europe and was widely celebrated in Norwegian literature
Norwegian literature
Norwegian literature is literature composed in Norway or by Norwegian people. The history of Norwegian literature starts with the pagan Eddaic poems and skaldic verse of the 9th and 10th centuries with poets such as Bragi Boddason and Eyvindr Skáldaspillir...
during the romantic nationalist
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
movement.
18th-century patriotism
One important strain of national feeling in Norway was Norwegian patriotism, a movement which began and was most influential in the 18th century and emphasised everyday rural-life and traditions, in contrast to the more idealistic romantic nationalism. It emphasised Norwegian farmers as bearers of VikingViking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
traditions, and as the original settlers of the land. The poets from late 18th century Norway based their style on contemporary pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
poetry, and classic ideals, where the rural shepherd could be simultaneously depicted in typical Norwegian dress, but still have him blowing his "Arcadian clarion". At the same time, the farmer and the Norwegian mountains became symbols of national strength and pride. Areas such as Gudbrandsdalen became popular travel destinations because of their historical importance and reputation as rural heartlands, where many locals claimed ancestry from the Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
kings. The first well-known poetry written in rural dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
originated in these parts in the late 18th century. The patriotic era in Norway lasted until about 1830. In the following years, romantic nationalism slowly emerged.
The Romantic Nationalist view
The Norwegian romantic national movement set forth from about 1840, believing that the cultural basis for Norway was to be found in the farm culture. This culture had over the years blossomed in its own right, scarcely known outside the limits of the rural districts. It showed itself in the art of storytellingStorytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
, legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s, fairy-tales, in a rich decorative style, "rosemaling
Rosemaling
Rosemåling, or rosemaling, Norwegian for "decorative painting", is the name of a form of decorative folk art that originated in the rural valleys of Norway.Some art historians interpret "rose" as a reference to the rose flower, although the floral elements are often...
", woodcarving, silversmithing and folk-music, both on the Hardanger fiddle and the regular violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
. Added to this came a great number of songs and tunes from medieval times, and the dances. While the patriots considered Gudbrandsdalen the heart of Norway, the romantic nationalists were drawn to Telemark
Telemark
is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
as the center of rural culture. Here they found the greatest folk-musicians and the venerable tradition of medieval ballads best preserved.
It has been stated that the cultural consciousness among the Norwegian farmers was high, and that they did not always welcome the tax collectors as the years passed. The culture was rich, more so in the way that each valley had their distinct varieties and modifications. Outsider were often impressed, and said so.
On the other hand, the urbanists could show a kind of superior attitude towards this culture. It was, after all, raw and had to be refined before "national" usage. Thus, they did not always appreciate the value of the farm culture in its own right. The farmers understood this, and answered with a kind of forced contempt against the urbane. This created a "cultural breach" between city and rural community. Many poets, among them Henrik Wergeland
Henrik Wergeland
Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist...
and Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
understood this, and criticized the romantic nationalists for not taking the farmers’ culture seriously. Those who made the best efforts on collecting and writing down the rural culture were those that came from "within". They knew the codes, and had the farmers’ trust.
A strongly egalitarian approach characterizes this Norwegian cultural view, resisting any who would put themselves in a position of superiority. This results in a consensus oriented and issue oriented approach to problems and an unwritten law to stress social equality and emphasize fairness for all. It has also been characterized less favorably by Dano-Norwegian
Dano-Norwegian
Dano-Norwegian is a linguistic term for a koiné that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway . It is from this koiné that Riksmål and Bokmål developed...
author Aksel Sandemose
Aksel Sandemose
Aksel Sandemose was a novelist, born in Nykøbing, Mors Island, Denmark to a Danish father and a Norwegian mother....
as the Jante Law
Jante Law
The Jante Law is a pattern of group behaviour towards individuals within Scandinavian communities, which negatively portrays and criticises individual success and achievement as unworthy and inappropriate.The Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose...
(Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
Janteloven), which requires a rural environment to survive.
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
Thomas Hylland Eriksen is professor of social anthropology at the University of Oslo. He has done field work in Trinidad and Mauritius. His fields of research include identity, nationalism, globalisation and identity politics. Eriksen finished his dr. polit.-degree in 1991, and was made professor...
, himself is of urban stock, provides a modern perspective on Norwegian nationalism: “With no powerful city bourgeoisie and no strong landed gentry, burgeoning Norwegian nationalism took on a different character from that of the European countries in the 19th century. It was emphatically rural and egalitarian in its orientation, and it trended to glorify the simple ways of life of the countryside rather than revel in urban grandeur of the military pride of the state… The irony of this invention of nationhood is the fact that those individuals who most strongly promoted the idea of Norwegianness as a rural form of life, were themselves urban and highly educated people – their daily life was very far removed from that of the simple peasants who they defined as the carriers of national identity.”
A Historic Basis
Norwegian property lawsAncient Norwegian property laws
Two Norwegian property laws, which are so ancient that the time of their enactment is lost, govern Norwegian property. These are the Åsetesrett , and the Odelsrett ....
, so ancient that the time of their enactment is lost, govern Norwegian property transfer. This property system worked to preserve the Norwegian farm and contributed to the independence and relative equality the Norwegians maintained, even during periods of Danish and Swedish suzerainty.
The Gulating
Gulating
Gulaþing is both the name of one of the first Norwegian legislative assemblies or Þing and one of the present day law courts of western Norway.-History:...
lawtext is in many aspects written by the farmers themselves. The juridical text states a common "we", who make their own agreements with their king and their nobility. Thus, the law states that the king can call out a leidang
Leidang
The institution known as leiðangr , leidang , leding, , ledung , expeditio or sometimes lething , was a public levy of free farmers typical for medieval Scandinavians. It was a form of conscription to organise coastal fleets for seasonal excursions and in defence of the realm...
"because we find it useful". The historian Kåre Lunden
Kåre Lunden
Kåre Lunden is a Norwegian historian, and Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Oslo.He originally studied agronomy at the Norwegian College of Agriculture, graduating in 1957. He then worked six years as a civil servant in the Norwegian Ministry of Church Affairs and Education,...
argues that a farming community with such self esteem, would find it proper to execute the king himself if he went against their common interests, as they actually did at the Battle of Stiklestad
Battle of Stiklestad
The Battle of Stiklestad in 1030 is one of the most famous battles in the history of Norway. In this battle, King Olaf II of Norway was killed. He was later canonized...
. Snorre Sturlason mentions that King Håkon I of Norway had to rule with the support of the farmers, as the same farmers made a point of going against him if he pressed certain matters further at the ting
Thing (assembly)
A thing was the governing assembly in Germanic and introduced into some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead...
(the case in question was Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
).
The Gulating law also stipulates that the farmers will abstain from "beating up the parsons" for the future (meaning they have done it before). Norwegian history tells of a number of unlucky country priests falling victim to angry farmers. Thus, only the strongest candidates were willing to leave for the rural areas. Kåre Lunden makes a point of this attitude, compared to the french medieval farmer stock, who willingly gave up their freedom for the monasteries.
Norway was never a feudal country, with serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
never existing; the scattered population, mountainous areas and lack of established communities did not support a centralized feudal order. While Denmark attempted to impose the “vertical” feudal order, with accompanying authoritarian roles and responsibilities, such efforts had in Norway limited success. During the Union Period, Denmark gradually established over-lordship of Norway, which for military purposes and in the eyes of the world made Denmark-Norway one united realm. Not only was the central government located in Copenhagen, but virtually all local officials in Norway were Danes. Official business was conducted in Danish, although the common language remained Norwegian. But this over-lordship remained formal, and external to the people's everyday life. When the governors and sheriffs attempted conducting in Norway the oppressive practices and virtual slavery that were common in Denmark, they encountered firm resistance and vigorous protests from the Norwegian self-owning farmers.
The farmers had kept their independence including the use of local assemblies known as the Thing
Thing (assembly)
A thing was the governing assembly in Germanic and introduced into some Celtic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided by lawspeakers, meeting in a place called a thingstead...
, and lived by their old Norse
Old Norse
Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
code of law up until 1685. It was at that time that the Danish King Christian V
Christian V of Denmark
Christian V , was king of Denmark and Norway from 1670 to 1699, the son of Frederick III of Denmark and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
revised Norwegian property laws. The laws of Magnus Lagabøte had by then been practiced for 400 years. After this judicial code, the farmers saw the king as a guarantor for their rights, and were equal to the king in the old sense that the king or the king's men was obliged to hold their pledges towards them (social contract). However, this did not bother the Danish sheriffs, and the farmers answered the broken pledges by killing the sheriff - a recurring incident during the early days of the union. The honor of a given word was deeply rooted in the farmer’s conscience, long into the 19th century. Sources from the 18th century mentions a number of incidents where the farmers refused to acknowledge Danish law in Norway, and referring to "ancient rights" during court hearings.
Significantly, the Norwegian military was based on the farmers, and Norwegian farmers were known to be good soldiers in that era, and more warlike than the Danish. Thus, Norway saw a long list of peasant revolts, often against the heavy tax-burden of the Dano-Norwegian
Dano-Norwegian
Dano-Norwegian is a linguistic term for a koiné that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway . It is from this koiné that Riksmål and Bokmål developed...
state, and against foreign armies. An army of farmers thus beat and annihilated a troop of Scottish
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
mercenaries in the Battle of Kringen
Battle of Kringen
The Battle of Kringen was a battle perpetrated by a Norwegian peasant militia against Scottish mercenary soldiers who were on their way to enlist in the Swedish army for the Kalmar War....
in 1612, during the Kalmar War
Kalmar War
The Kalmar War was a war between Denmark–Norway and Sweden. Though Denmark soon gained the upper hand, she was unable to defeat Sweden entirely...
. This episode magnified the general opinion of Norwegian peasantry. The warlike behavior also resulted in many brawls, fights and local feuds between farms, clans and valleys. An old schoolteacher stated that he in his lifetime (about 1727) had experienced as many as 30 manslaughters in his own community, Hol
Hol
Hol is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway.-Administrative history:The area of Hol was separated from the municipality of Ål in 1877 to become a separate municipality. In 1937 a part of neighboring Uvdal with 220 inhabitants was moved to Hol municipality. The area of Dagali was transferred...
in Hallingdal
Hallingdal
Hallingdal is a valley and traditional district in Buskerud county in Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Flå, Nes, Gol, Hemsedal, Ål and Hol.-History:Ancient routes went to Vestlandet through Valdres and Hallingdal and down Røldal to Odda...
, over perhaps 40 years. Various sources support this pugnacious nature; many of the stories of fights and fighters were handed down as heroic legends in folk-tradition, sung as songs, and connected to dance-tunes. The legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s derived from this particular time, often tell of proud resistance towards the authorities, and a kind of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
persistence facing death. Those legends value a good punchline
Punch line
A punch line is the final part of a joke, comedy sketch, or profound statement, usually the word, sentence or exchange of sentences which is intended to be funny or to provoke laughter or thought from listeners...
in the nick of time, in some cases given in front of the executioner
Executioner
A judicial executioner is a person who carries out a death sentence ordered by the state or other legal authority, which was known in feudal terminology as high justice.-Scope and job:...
´s block.
Even today we can find a kind of mock-feud between central valleys, and still occasional brawling between youths from different landscapes and counties.
In the 1660s and 1670s, a large amount of crown land in Norway was sold to liquidate war debts, mostly to rich burghers, officials and nobles. The bonder who had worked this land now found themselves renter from a far more oppressive class than their former landlord, the crown. These new landowners introduced oppressive rent practices designed to reduce the bonder to virtual serfdom as was then common in Denmark. Statholder Gyldenløve, interested in forestalling the serious troubles arising, urged the King to curb the greed of the landowners, and is quoted by Knut Gjerset as stating "In Norway, the government differs so much from that of other lands that there it consists of the farmer, and is maintained by them… The prosperity of the farmers is the main thing, the root and basis for the preservation of the whole kingdom."
In 1684-1695, regulations were published that capped the rates of rent charged and limited the amount of "free service" rendered by the bonded farmers. When a farm was leased, it had to be leased with all its conveniences to the leaseholder for his lifetime, the rent established by unchangeable mutual contract, and fixed prices established for the products with which the farmer paid his rent.
In those years, the farmers gathered time and again, struggling for their inherited rights. Strikes against war taxes were common, notably in the mountain areas. Thus, Upper Hallingdal revolted in 1713, while parts of Telemark revolted some years later, both incidents related to the great nordic war. It is known that farmers at the time held their own rights over the rights of the king, and did not acnowledge the union laws. Some of those men argued persistently for their cause.
As the news of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
spread, the most educated farmers assembled their people and strove for democracy and common rights. Some of these joined sides with religious reformer Hans Nielsen Hauge
Hans Nielsen Hauge
Hans Nielsen Hauge was a noted revivalist Norwegian lay minister who spoke up against the Church establishment in Norway. Hauge is considered an influential personality in the industrialization of Norway...
, and fought for farmers’ rights in the Constitutional Assembly
Constitutional Assembly
The Constitutional Assembly was a body elected in 1955 to draw up a permanent constitution for the Republic of Indonesia. It sat between November 10, 1956 and July 2, 1959...
.
The last uprising prior to the "farmer`s parliament" from 1836 took place in 1818, once again because of high taxes and hard times. As usual, the farmers wanted to send a petition straight to the king (Carl Johan). The parliament sent troops, and about 300 men from Hallingdal, Valdres and Hedmark was escorted to Christiania, under suspicion of rebellion. Their letter for the king and parliament was never to be delivered, but the tax burden eased for a time afterwards. One has to note that the men in power reacted as would the Danish before them, even four years after the constitutional assembly.
The first generation of farmers born after 1814 counted many personalities willing to test their intellectual strength in the new-born democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
. Thus we find many self-taught farmers, who in time became a valuable source for information when the folklorists arrived in the 1850s. Many of these men wrote their information down, and worked as local teachers. In one case, a farmer from Telemark
Telemark
is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
, Rikard Aslaksson Berge, even ventured to teach himself German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
. He welcomed Ivar Aasen
Ivar Aasen
Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright and poet.-Background:...
, and was a valuable source for preserving old traditional music and lore in his area. Other farmers who thought in the same manner, were among those elected for the famous "Farmers' Parliament" of 1835. It is fair to say that the Norwegian farmers in general were self-aware and independent, very unlike their feudal counterparts in central Europe.
Known farmer rebellions
- 1501: Knut AlvssonKnut AlvssonKnut Alvsson was a Norwegian nobleman and politician descended on his paternal grandfather’s side from the influential and wealthy Swedish Tre Rosor noble family, who was active during the period of the Kalmar Union....
uprising. Most of Southern Norway. - 1540: Hun-revenge (hunehemndi). SetesdalSetesdalSetesdal is a valley and a traditional district in Aust-Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes....
and parts of Telemark. - 1713: Tax strike during the Great Nordic War (Hallingdal).
- 1720: Protests against hiring of soldiers.
- 1787: Christian Lofthus uprising (Agder and Telemark).
- 1818: Halvor Hoel uprising.
After 1820, political channels have been used.
Culture and counter-culture
The farm culture as such had to be preserved through idealism as years turned, and new music and other impulses reached Norway during the 20th century. Folk music in Norway and the nynorskNynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
were symbols of Norwegian counter-culture for many years.
When radio broadcasting was started in Norway, the broadcasting company soon got their own folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
programme, and as this was welcomed in the rural areas (people gathered in silence each Sunday evening at the home of the one farmer with a radio), the folk music was resented in the urban areas. The tensions were great, and many angry readers protested the efforts of bringing hardanger fiddle into their homes. People in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
as a rule neither liked nor understood the music. The protests also resulted in casting stones through the windows of Eivind Groven
Eivind Groven
Eivind Groven was a Norwegian microtonal composer and music-theorist. He was from Telemark and had his background in the folk music of the area.- Biography :...
, who was responsible for the folk music programs.
On the other area, Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
, debates went on for many years, and had to be silenced through political agreement as late as 1959. Prejudice, mostly against Nynorsk prevailed for many years, and are still a prominent feature amongst teenagers in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. The right-wing parties still are trying to get votes from young people using this argument.
The farm culture developed then into a strong political counter-culture, with a lot of different branches, like the layman
Layman
A layperson or layman is a person who is not an expert in a given field of knowledge. The term originally meant a member of the laity, i.e. a non-clergymen, but over the centuries shifted in definition....
-movement, the fight against alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
, the fight for rural dialect and nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
, the fight for folk music and rural culture, and of course, the lasting fight against centralism. Norway's political landscape is based on the balance between the capital or city and districts.
Characteristics
Mary WollstonecraftMary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
, the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
, described its characteristics in a book published in 1796 as, “The distribution of landed property into small farms produces a degree of equality which I have seldom seen elsewhere; and the rich being all merchants, who are obliged to divide their personal fortune amongst their children, the boys always receiving twice as much as the girls, property has met no chance of accumulating till overgrowing wealth destroys the balance of liberty.
You will be surprised to hear me talk of liberty; yet the Norwegians appear to me to be the most free community I have ever observed.
The mayor of each town or district, and the judges in the country, exercise an authority almost patriarchal. They can do much good, but little harm, as every individual can appeal from their judgment; and as they may always be forced to give a reason for their conduct, it is generally regulated by prudence. 'They have not time to learn to be tyrants,' said a gentleman to me, with whom I discussed the subject.
The farmers not fearing to be turned out of their farms, should they displease a man in power, and having no vote to be commanded at an election for a mock representative, are a manly race; for not being obliged to submit to any debasing tenure in order to live, or advance themselves in the world, they act with an independent spirit. I never yet have heard of anything like domineering or oppression, excepting such as has arisen from natural causes. The freedom the people enjoy may, perhaps, render them a little litigious, and subject them to the impositions of cunning practitioners of the law; but the authority of office is bounded, and the emoluments of it do not destroy its utility.
Last year a man who had abused his power was cashiered, on the representation of the people to the bailiff of the district.”
Relationship to Norway's aristocracy
While under Danish rule up until 1814 there was distinct difference in classes, it was not based on wealth. Below the Norway’s aristocracyNorwegian nobility
Norwegian nobility are persons and families who in early times belonged to the supreme social, political, and military class and who later were members of the institutionalised nobility in the Kingdom of Norway. It has its historical roots in the group of chieftains and warriors which evolved...
, was the non-noble bourgeoisie, composed of professional men, officials, clergy, wealthy merchants, a few industrialists. At its high point in the 18th Century, it was composed of less than fifty thousand people. Many were descendants of Danish immigrants in the 17th Century and the others had been educated in Denmark. They read foreign books, were culturally tied to Denmark, and spoke Dano-Norwegian
Dano-Norwegian
Dano-Norwegian is a linguistic term for a koiné that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union between the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway . It is from this koiné that Riksmål and Bokmål developed...
or book language. Nonetheless, most were Norwegian in loyalty, sentiment and interests.
The farmers and politics
The farmers made a strong opposition in the Norwegian Storting from 1835 and forwards. After some years, they got a reputation for making investments difficult. It was well known that the farmers owned most of the country's real estate, and thus, also the resources. As time went on, the farmers and the growing bourgeois communities clashed in the parliament several times. The farmer's opposition, as it was called, was in many cases unwilling to pay the expenses in the gradual building of the nation.After the breakthrough for parliamentarism in 1884, the farmers joined the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
left-wing party under Johan Sverdrup
Johan Sverdrup
Johan Sverdrup was a Norwegian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the first Prime Minister of Norway after the introduction of parliamentarism. Sverdrup was Prime Minister from 1884 to 1889.- Early years :...
. Here they remained for many years, sometimes breaking out and joining again in the tumultuous history of the party. From 1920 the farmers made their own political party in Norway, called the Farmer's Party (Norwegian: Bondepartiet) later Centre Party (Norwegian: Senterpartiet). The party and their name lost goodwill during the 1930s, because of the ill-reputed government of 1931 with Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'etat that garnered him international infamy. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying...
acting as a secretary of defence
Defence minister
A defence minister is a person in a cabinet position in charge of a Ministry of Defence, which regulates the armed forces in some sovereign nations...
, representing Bondepartiet in the government.
After the crash
Stock market crash
A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a significant cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic as much as by underlying economic factors...
of 1929, many farmers lost their properties, and a crisis-plan was established. In this, the newly formed Nasjonal Samling (NS) party played a role, and many farmers in gratitude voted, or joined the NS the following years. As the tides turned during the 1930s, the farmers got out of the NS, mostly because they didn't need them anymore. Some of the most wealthy farmers stayed on. This turned out to be a problem for them as World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
came to Norway. In recent years, some historians accuse the entire farmer community in Norway for being sympathetic to the NS. That is not, strictly speaking, true. Although some of the greatest landowners in Eastern Norway and Gudbrandsdalen was on the inside, this was not the case in other areas. Vinje
Vinje
Vinje is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Vest-Telemark. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Åmot.-Name:...
and upper Telemark
Telemark
is a county in Norway, bordering Vestfold, Buskerud, Hordaland, Rogaland and Aust-Agder. The county administration is in Skien. Until 1919 the county was known as Bratsberg amt.-Location:...
was reputedly free from NS influence, and the party never found support there.
After the war, it has been the goal of both the Norwegian right-wing party Høyre and the Labour party, who took power in 1935 and kept it almost ever since, to reduce the number of farms in Norway. The Labour party wanted space and manpower for industry, and rather wanted people to join their affiliated unions
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
than possibly favouring other parties. Høyre wanted to get rid of the farmers because of an ancient grudge, dating back to the 19th century. The Norwegian property laws became a hindrance for free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
, and so were the farmers, they claimed.
When the tensions rose in Norway because of the EEC, later the EU, Norwegian farmers positioned themselves with the strong No-block, and with support from other left-wing groups, they stopped Norway from joining the union twice. This is also a reason for right-wing grudges against the farm culture.
Today, many Norwegian farms and farmers struggle to make much money due to the globalisation of the food market. Most Norwegian farmers produce their goods, mostly food, for the sake of their own, and continue and old tradition of "self-preserving". This philosophy has been strong in Norway at all times. They are, of course, sceptical of the WTO agreements, and instead wish to join sides with the farmers of developing countries rather than be aligned to farmers in the USA. As Norway is considered a modern industrialized country, this is somewhat difficult to explain. The explanation may lie in the fact that Norway is still a small country with a small market, and no threat to anyone. The farmers claim that free trade would kill off the entire agriculture of Norway, as they would not be able to compete for very long.