Nordland
Nordland is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to the southeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The county was known as Nordlandene amt; the county administration is in Bodø. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen has been administered from Nordland since 1995. In the southern part is Vega, listed on the UNESCO World Heritage site list; the history of Nordland is a tale about the gifts from the sea: One of the most productive seas in the world providing food all year since ancient times, the same sea creates a climate more moderate than any other place in the arctic. The county is divided into traditional districts; these are Helgeland in the south, Salten in the centre, Ofoten in the northeast. In the northwest lie the archipelagoes of Lofoten and Vesterålen. Nordland is located along the northwestern coast of the Scandinavian peninsula in Northern Norway. Due to the large distance to the densely populated parts of Europe, this is one of the least polluted areas in Europe.
Nordland extends about 500 km from Trøndelag to Troms. The distance by road from Bindal in the far south of the county to Andenes on the northern tip is 800 km. Nordland has a rugged coastline, with many fjords. From south to north, the main fjords are Bindalsfjord, Ranfjord, Saltfjord-Skjerstadfjord, Tysfjord and Andfjord, shared with Troms county; the best-known is the Vestfjorden, not a fjord, but an open stretch of sea between the Lofoten island group and the mainland. The Raftsundet strait, with its famous branch Trollfjord, is the shortest waterway connecting Lofoten and Vesterålen; the continental shelf is narrow west of Andenes, nowhere else in Norway is the deep ocean only a few kilometres from shore. Saltstraumen whirlpool is just southeast of Bodø, Moskenstraumen is located in southern Lofoten. Steep mountains near the sea and an flat lowland area in between the mountains and the sea is typical for the long coastline in Nordland, Strandflaten continues out from the shore, the result is numerous islands, of which Helgeland have thousands.
The southern part of Norways largest island, Hinnøya is in Nordland, as is the third-largest island, Langøya. In the fjords, the coastal brim is much less developed: There might be a more gradual slope, with hills, towards the mountains, or no lowland at all. There are valleys at the head of fjords with a river at the centre of the valley. Mo i Rana, Mosjøen and Rognan are situated in such valleys. Norway's second-largest glacier, the second-largest lake, Røssvatnet, the second-deepest fjord, Tysfjord are all located in Nordland; the largest river is Vefsna. The Saltfjellet mountain range forms a natural border between Helgeland and Salten, is where the Arctic Circle cuts through the county; the western part of this mountain range is dominated by steep mountains and fjord inlets, with glaciers stretching towards the sea, while the eastern part of the mountains is more gentle and rounded, with some forested valleys, is well suited for hiking. The interior of Nordland, towards the border with Sweden, is dominated by the Kjølen Mountains.
The highest mountain in Nordland is Oksskolten in Okstindan range, the second-highest is Suliskongen in Fauske, the third is Storsteinfjellet in Narvik. Stetind in Tysfjord has been voted as Norway's national mountain. There are many glaciers in the mountains, like Blåmannsisen, the Sulitjelma Glacier, Frostisen—7 of the 15 largest glaciers in continental Norway are located in Nordland. In the geological past, a collision with Greenland pushed long slices of the seabed on top of the existing bedrock, today forming the bedrock from Dovrefjell and Trollheimen south of Trondheim stretching north in Trøndelag and through Nordland to justh north of Tromsø; this Cambrian—Silurian bedrock, much of it mica schist, is by far the largest area in Norway with soft bedrock rich in nutritions good for plant growth. It forms the bedrock in the fjord areas, while the islands off the coast and some of the easternmost areas along the border with Sweden are made up of hard bedrock. In some areas, as in Tysfjord and Sørfold, the bedrock is a mix of hard granite.
Much of the Lofoten mountains are of precambrian eruptive origin and 3.5 billion years old, among the oldest on earth. The youngest rock in Norway is on Andøya known for its fossils of dinosaurs and other life forms; as the land was depressed by the ice sheet in the ice age, substantial areas in the lowest altitudes was beneath the surface of the sea for thousands of years acquiring marine deposits. Due to post-glacial rebound, this is now dry land, reaching 120 metres above sea level today in Saltdal, 100 m in Narvik and Brønnøysund, 30–50 m in Lofoten and Vesterålen. Limestone is common in Nordland, with many caves throughout the county, such as Grønligrotta in Rana. There are more caves in Rana than any other area in northern Europe. In August 2006 the Tjoarvekrajgge cave in Sørfold was explored and verified as the longest cave in Scandinavia.
Battles of Narvik
The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940 as a naval battle in the Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian city of Narvik as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. The two naval battles in the Ofotfjord on 10 April and 13 April were fought between the British Royal Navy and Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, while the two-month land campaign was fought between Norwegian, French and Polish troops against German mountain troops, shipwrecked Kriegsmarine sailors and German paratroopers from the 7th Air Division. Although defeated at sea off Narvik, losing control of the town of Narvik and being pushed back towards the Swedish border, the Germans prevailed because of the Allied evacuation from Norway in June 1940 following the Battle of France. Narvik provided an ice-free harbour in the North Atlantic for iron ore transported by the railway from Kiruna in Sweden. Both sides in the war had an interest in securing this iron supply for themselves and denying it to the enemy, setting the stage for one of the biggest battles since the Invasion of Poland.
Prior to the German invasion, British forces had considered Narvik as a possible landing point for an expedition to help Finland in the Winter War. Such an expedition had the potential of taking control of the Swedish mines and opening up the Baltic for the Allies. French politicians were eager to start a second front as far away from France as possible. On 1 March 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of Norway, codenamed Operation Weserübung as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned, discussed, Franco-British occupation of Norway; this operation would involve most of the Kriegsmarine. Participating units were divided into five groups, which were to occupy six of the main Norwegian ports. Group I departed Bremerhaven on 6 April, it consisted of 10 German destroyers of the 1934A and 1936 classes Georg Thiele, Wolfgang Zenker, Bernd von Arnim, Erich Giese, Erich Koellner, Diether von Roeder, Hans Lüdemann, Hermann Künne, Wilhelm Heidkamp and Anton Schmitt, commanded by Kommodore Friedrich Bonte.
Each of the warships carried around 200 soldiers. The troop-carrying destroyers were escorted most of the way by the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In the early morning of 9 April, the destroyers of Group I passed the Vestfjorden and arrived at the Ofotfjorden leading to Narvik, in fog and heavy snow. In Ofotfjord, they captured three Norwegian patrol boats. Before capture Kelt managed to send a message to the coastal defence ship HNoMS Norge, alerting the local Norwegian naval commander of the incoming vessels; the German ships Wolfgang Zenker, Erich Koellner and Hermann Künne landed their soldiers in Herjangsfjord in order to capture a Norwegian regimental supply base at Elvegårdsmoen. Hans Ludemann and Hermann Künne landed their troops in order to engage the nearby Norwegian forts. Diether von Roeder remained in Ofotfjord. Erich Giese did not join the main force for some time; the main defence of Narvik were the old coastal defence ships Norge. Having been alerted by Kelt, both Norwegian ships prepared for combat: the guns were loaded and life preservers issued to the crew.
Around 04:15, the Germans spotted Eidsvold, Eidsvold signalled the leading German destroyer with an aldis lamp. When the Germans failed to respond to the signal, a warning shot was fired across their bow; the Germans had orders to occupy Norway peacefully if at all possible, so the German flagship Wilhelm Heidkamp stopped and signalled that it would send an officer to negotiate. A small launch ferried Korvettenkapitän Gerlach over to Eidsvold. Gerlach was taken to the bridge to speak to Captain Odd Isaachsen Willoch. Gerlach tried to convince Willoch that the Germans had arrived as friends, but that the Norwegians had to hand over their warships to the German armed forces. Captain Willoch asked for time to consult Captain Per Askim, the commander of Norge; this request was refused by the Germans, but while Willoch had been talking to the German officer the radio officer on board Eidsvold had communicated the events to Askim. Askim's response to the German demands and order to Willoch came immediately.
Willoch responded to Askim. While this was going on, the German destroyer Wilhelm Heidkamp had positioned herself 700 m off the port side of Eidsvold and trained her torpedo launchers on the Norwegian ship. Gerlach tried once again to convince Willoch to surrender; as Gerlach left Eidsvold, he fired a red flare. At this point, Captain Willoch shouted: "På plass ved kanonene. Nå skal vi slåss, gutter!". Eidsvold turned towards the closest destroyer and accelerated, closing the distance to Wilhelm Heidkamp to 300 m while the battery commander ordered the port battery to open fire; the Germans, afraid that Eidsvold might ram the destroyer, fired four torpedoes from Wilhelm Heidkamp at the old ship. Two of the torpedoes hit; the Norwegian ammunition magazine was ignited and Eidsvold was blown in two. The forward part of the ship sank in seconds, the stern followed in minutes, propellers still turning. At around 04:37, she was gone. 175 Norwegian sailors died in the freezing water, including Captain Willoch
Northern Sami
Northern or North Sami, sometimes simply referred to as Sami, is the most spoken of all Sami languages. The area where Northern Sami is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway and Finland; the number of Northern Sami speakers is estimated to be somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000. About 2,000 of these live in between 5,000 and 6,000 in Sweden. Among the first printed Sami texts is Svenske och Lappeske ABC Book, written in Swedish and what is a form of Northern Sami, it was published in two editions in 1638 and 1640 and includes 30 pages of prayers and confessions of Protestant faith. It has been described as the first book "with a regular Sami language form". Northern Sami was first described by Knud Leem in 1748 and in dictionaries in 1752 and 1768. One of Leem's fellow grammaticians, who had assisted him, was Anders Porsanger, himself Sami and in fact the first Sami to receive higher education, who studied at the Trondheim Cathedral School and other schools, but, unable to publish his work on Sami due to racist attitudes at the time.
The majority of his work has disappeared. The mass mobilization during the Alta controversy as well as a more tolerant political environment caused a change to the Norwegian policy of assimilation during the last decades of the twentieth century. In Norway, Northern Sami is an official language of two counties and six municipalities. Sami born before 1977 have never learned to write Sami according to the used orthography in school, so it is only in recent years that there have been Sami capable of writing their own language for various administrative positions; the consonant inventory of Northern Sami is large. Some analyses of Northern Sami phonology may include preaspirated stops and affricates and pre-stopped or pre-glottalised nasals. However, these can be treated as clusters for the purpose of phonology, since they are composed of two segments and only the first of these lengthens in quantity 3; the terms "preaspirated" and "pre-stopped" will be used in this article to describe these combinations for convenience.
Notes: Voiceless stops have voiced or voiced allophones when they occur adjacent to voiced sounds, sometimes word-initially. Stops before a homorganic nasal are realised as unreleased stops; some younger, speakers instead realise voiceless stops as a glottal stop in this position, decompose voiced stops into a homorganic nasal + glottal stop combination. /v/ is realised as a labiodental fricative in the syllable onset, as bilabial or in the syllable coda. Although is a fricative, it behaves phonologically like an approximant, in particular like /j/. Quantity 3 geminated plain stops and affricates are variously described as voiced or voiced. Voiceless sonorants are rare, but occur more as allophonic realisations. A combination of sonorant followed by /h/ in the coda, is realised as the equivalent voiceless sonorant. Voiceless only occurs this way, is quite rare. A combination of /h/ followed by a stop or affricate in the onset is realised as preaspiration. /θ/ is rare. Not all Northern Sami dialects have identical consonant inventories.
Some consonants are absent from some dialects. Western Finnmark lacks /ŋ/, using /ɲ/ in its place; this applies to sequences of pre-stopped /gːŋ/ and /kŋ/, which become /dːɲ/ and /tɲ/ respectively. Is retained before a velar consonant, but as an allophone of /n/. Eastern Finnmark does not have voiced pre-stopped nasals. Sea Sami does not have pre-stopped nasals at all, having geminate nasals in their place; the postaspirated stops do not occur in Western Finnmark dialects, plain stops are used instead. They occur only in recent loanwords from the Scandinavian languages, only before a stressed syllable when not next to another consonant. Consonants, including clusters, that occur after a stressed syllable can occur in multiple distinctive length types, or quantities; these are conventionally labelled Q1, Q2 and Q3 for short. The consonants of a word alternate in a process known as consonant gradation, where consonants appear in different quantities depending on the specific grammatical form. One of the possibilities is named the strong grade, while the other is named weak grade.
The consonants of a weak grade are quantity 1 or 2, while the consonants of a strong grade are quantity 2 or 3. Quantity 1 includes any single consonant, it originates from Proto-Samic single consonants in the weak grade. Quantity 2 includes any combination of consonants with a short consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable, it originates from Proto-Samic single consonants in the strong grade, as well as combinations of two consonants in the weak grade. Quantity 3 includes any combination of consonants with a long consonant in the coda of the preceding sylla
Vestfjorden
Vestfjord or Vestfjorden is a 155-kilometre long sea in Nordland county, Norway. The name means "the west fjord", although it is called a fjord, it could best be described as a firth or an open bight of sea; the "fjord" lies between the Salten district of mainland Norway. The term fjord is used more for bodies of water in the western Scandinavian languages than the more narrow usage assigned in English; the Vestfjord flows from the area near the town of Narvik to southwest. The mouth of the Vestfjord is about 80 kilometres wide running from the mainland town of Bodø to the islands of Røstlandet and Værøya to the northwest of Bodø; the Vestfjord is famous for its cod fishery, exploited back to the early medieval period. More the winter invasion of Orcas in the inner parts of Vestfjord has become a tourist attraction. Strong winds with heavy seas are not uncommon in Vestfjord in winter
Strait
A strait is a formed, narrow navigable waterway that connects two larger bodies of water. Most it is a channel of water that lies between two land masses; some straits are not navigable, for example because they are too shallow, or because of an unnavigable reef or archipelago. The terms channel, pass or passage, can be synonymous and used interchangeably with strait, although each is sometimes differentiated with varying senses. In Scotland firth or kyle are sometimes used as synonyms for strait. Many straits are economically important. Straits can be important shipping wars have been fought for control of them. Numerous artificial channels, called canals, have been constructed to connect two bodies of water over land, such as the Suez Canal. Although rivers and canals provide passage between two large lakes or a lake and a sea, these seem to suit the formal definition of strait, they are not referred to as such; the term strait is reserved for much larger, wider features of the marine environment.
There are exceptions, with straits being called Pearse Canal, for example. Straits are the converse of isthmuses; that is, while a strait lies between two land masses and connects two larger bodies of water, an isthmus lies between two bodies of water and connects two larger land masses. Some straits have the potential to generate significant tidal power using tidal stream turbines. Tides are more predictable than wind power; the Pentland Firth may be capable of generating 10 GW. Cook Strait in New Zealand may be capable of generating 5.6 GW though the total energy available in the flow is 15 GW. Straits used for international navigation through the territorial sea between one part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone and another part of the high seas or an exclusive economic zone are subject to the legal regime of transit passage; the regime of innocent passage applies in straits used for international navigation that connect a part of high seas or an exclusive economic zone with the territorial sea of coastal nation and in straits formed by an island of a state bordering the strait and its mainland if there exists seaward of the island a route through the high seas or through an exclusive economic zone of similar convenience with respect to navigational and hydrographical characteristics.
There may be no suspension of innocent passage through such straits. List of straits Strait passage Media related to Straits at Wikimedia Commons
Harstad/Narvik Airport, Evenes
Harstad/Narvik Airport, Evenes is an international airport located in Evenes Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The airport serves the towns of Narvik, it is co-located with Evenes Air Station of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The civilian sector is owned and operated by the state-owned Avinor and handled 654,977 passengers in 2013. Evenes has a parallel taxiway and a terminal with five gates; the airlines with daily scheduled services are Norwegian Air Shuttle, Scandinavian Airlines and Widerøe. Destinations with daily services are Oslo, Bodø, Tromsø and Andenes. Evenes is the only primary airport in Central Hålogaland and its catchment area for Oslo-bound flights includes Lofoten and Vesterålen. Seaplane services to Harstad and Narvik started in 1935. Planning of an airport started in 1950s. Several locations were considered, including building separate airports for each town. Consensus for Evenes was reached in the mid-1960s, but construction was postponed to prioritize local airports, which resulted in Narvik receiving Narvik Airport, Framnes.
Evenes opened on 30 June 1973 with a 1,600-meter runway. It was extended in 1977. SAS Commuter served Harstad/Narvik from 1990 to 2002, from 1994 competition was introduced on the Oslo route with the entry of Braathens SAFE. Norwegian started services in 2003 and launched international scheduled services from 2013; the first scheduled airline service to Harstad and Narvik was carried out by Norwegian Air Lines in 1935. Using a Junkers W 34, they flew a coastal route between Bergen and Tromsø, with stops in Narvik and Harstad; the route continued until 1939 when it was terminated because of the outbreak of World War II. The route resumed in 1946, when it was flown with a Junkers Ju 52. DNL operated a direct service between Harstad and Narvik. Harstad's water aerodrome was located at Klubbeskjæret in the town center. For a while there were discussion of moving it to Harstadbotn. Seaplane routes were only conducted during the summer. Widerøe started flying to Narvik in 1951, at first flying via Svolvær to Bodø.
DNL's successor Scandinavian Airlines System terminated its seaplane routes the following year, leaving them to Widerøe, who operated the Noorduyn Norseman and de Havilland Canada Otter. Patronage at Harstad was 1,143 passengers in 1946, 2,725 the following year and 8,037 in 1959; the latter year saw 6,139 passengers at Narvik. The Harstad–Narvik area had been proposed as a potential location of Bardufoss Air Station when it had been planned during the late 1930s. However, Bardufoss has been selected because of its favorable strategic location. About 1950 discussions started regarding construction of an airport between Bodø and Tromsø. A survey conducted in 1951 looked into the possibilities of building an airport for Harstad at Skånland, Rødmyra, Tennvassåsen and Kjøtta. In Narvik work started on planning an airport in Evenes, approved by Narvik Municipal Council in February 1951. However, it considered several closer locations, such as Herjangfjellet, Elvgårdsmoen, Håkvikvleira and Vidrek; the civilian sector at Bardufoss Airport opened in 1956.
It served all of Tromsø as well as Ofoten. Travel time to Bardufoss was six hours from Harstad. Two engineering students at the Norwegian Institute of Technology concluded in 1957 that a new airport in Harstad would cost 3 million Norwegian krone; this was followed up with a meeting between representatives from Narvik. Harstad and the surrounding municipalities proposed in 1960 an airport at Evenskjer in Evenes, on condition that the Tjeldsund Bridge be built, allowing the island of Hinnøya to be connected to the mainland. For Narvik a similar consideration was the necessary construction of the Rombak Bridge; the municipalities of Harstad, Ibestad, Kvæfjord and Skånland created the Southern Troms Intermunicipal Airport Committee in 1963. It concluded that the airport for the Harstad area and Vesterålen should be built at Kvæfjordeidet, while Narvik would be best served with a motorway to Bardufoss. Narvik Municipality conducted surveys at Herjangsfjellet in 1962 and 1963. A government committee which had received a mandate to consider future airports, concluded with a report on 16 December 1964.
It recommended that nine more primary airports be built and that Evenes and Kristiansund Airport, Kvernberget receive top priority. The committee noted SAS' introduction of the Sud Aviation Caravelle and wanted to build a network of airport capable of handling jetliners, it argued for Evenes as a good location that despite it being closer to Harstad, Narvik would be closer to Bardufoss and have an advantage of it as a reserve airport. At a common meeting for eleven southern Troms and Ofoten municipalities on 11 May 1965, these unanimously supported Evenes, they establish a committee, which issued a report to the government in June 1966, which concluded that it would be possible to have an airport completed by 1968. The airlines Braathens SAFE and Widerøe both launched an alternative proposal whereby the government instead should build a network of short take-off and landing airports; when Håkon Kyllingmark was appointed Minister of Transport and Communications in 1965, he placed the primary airport construction plan on hold and instead focused on construction of regional airports.
This caused local interest for airports at Kvæfjordeidet and Vidrek to resume, after initiative from Widerøe. Several commercial interest organizations in Narvik supported an airport at Vidrek, while their Harstad counterparts supported an airport at Evenes. Narvik Municipal Council continued to
Norway
Norway the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe whose territory comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the kingdom. Norway lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land. Norway has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres and a population of 5,312,300; the country shares a long eastern border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, the Skagerrak strait to the south, with Denmark on the other side. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the Barents Sea. Harald V of the House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway. Erna Solberg has been prime minister since 2013. A unitary sovereign state with a constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the parliament, the cabinet and the supreme court, as determined by the 1814 constitution; the kingdom was established in 872 as a merger of a large number of petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for 1,147 years.
From 1537 to 1814, Norway was a part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with the Kingdom of Sweden. Norway was neutral during the First World War. Norway remained neutral until April 1940 when the country was invaded and occupied by Germany until the end of Second World War. Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: counties and municipalities; the Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Norway maintains close ties with both the United States. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Free Trade Association, the Council of Europe, the Antarctic Treaty, the Nordic Council. Norway maintains the Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system, its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals; the Norwegian state has large ownership positions in key industrial sectors, having extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, lumber and fresh water.
The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside of the Middle East; the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World IMF lists. On the CIA's GDP per capita list which includes autonomous territories and regions, Norway ranks as number eleven, it has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of US$1 trillion. Norway has had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world since 2009, a position held between 2001 and 2006, it had the highest inequality-adjusted ranking until 2018 when Iceland moved to the top of the list. Norway ranked first on the World Happiness Report for 2017 and ranks first on the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity, the Democracy Index. Norway has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Norway has two official names: Norge in Noreg in Nynorsk; the English name Norway comes from the Old English word Norþweg mentioned in 880, meaning "northern way" or "way leading to the north", how the Anglo-Saxons referred to the coastline of Atlantic Norway similar to scientific consensus about the origin of the Norwegian language name.
The Anglo-Saxons of Britain referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. There is some disagreement about whether the native name of Norway had the same etymology as the English form. According to the traditional dominant view, the first component was norðr, a cognate of English north, so the full name was Norðr vegr, "the way northwards", referring to the sailing route along the Norwegian coast, contrasting with suðrvegar "southern way" for, austrvegr "eastern way" for the Baltic. In the translation of Orosius for Alfred, the name is Norðweg, while in younger Old English sources the ð is gone. In the 10th century many Norsemen settled in Northern France, according to the sagas, in the area, called Normandy from norðmann, although not a Norwegian possession. In France normanni or northmanni referred to people of Sweden or Denmark; until around 1800 inhabitants of Western Norway where referred to as nordmenn while inhabitants of Eastern Norway where referred to as austmenn. According to another theory, the first component was a word nór, meaning "narrow" or "northern", referring to the inner-archipelago sailing route through the land.
The interpretation as "northern", as reflected in the English and Latin forms of the name, would have been due to folk etymology. This latter view originated with philologist Niels Halvorsen Trønnes in 1847; the form Nore is still used in placenames such as the village of Nore and lake Norefjorden in Buskerud county, still has the same meaning. Among other arguments in favour of the theor
