Norway

Norway is long, narrow and mostly mountain, a strip along the western edge of Scandinavia that reaches far above the Arctic Circle. Ice Age glaciers cut its coast into hundreds of fjords, the longest being the Sognefjord, and scattered tens of thousands of islands offshore. Inland rise bare plateaus such as the Hardangervidda and the peaks of Jotunheimen. The Gulf Stream keeps the coast largely ice-free at latitudes that freeze solid elsewhere, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard also belongs to Norway.

Norse seafarers raided and traded from the late eighth century, settling Iceland and Greenland and briefly reaching North America. Christian kings united the country in the Middle Ages, but after the Black Death Norway entered a union with Denmark that lasted four centuries. In 1814 it passed to Sweden, though not before Norwegians wrote their own constitution at Eidsvoll, one of the oldest still in force, and full independence came peacefully in 1905. German occupation from 1940 to 1945 left a deep mark.

Friluftsliv, a love of open-air life, is close to a national value: mountain cabins, cross-country skiing and long summer evenings by the water. Ibsen, Grieg and Munch made Norway’s name in the arts, Nansen and Amundsen in polar exploration, and the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo. Oil and gas found under the North Sea in 1969 transformed the economy, and the state invests the revenue abroad through a sovereign wealth fund. Salmon farming, shipping and hydropower are the other pillars.