ImportFS

HIS-1111: Arctic Norway - aspects of history

Utfyllende informasjon
Aim
This part of the Arctic Norway programme is intended to provide knowledge and understanding of the history of the peoples of northern Norway, and of Norwegian activity in the polar or northern region.

Content
Because of the students’ varied backgrounds, we assume no previous knowledge of the region. We also work on the assumption that students know very little about Norwegian history. We therefore incorporate, in most of the classes, a brief overview of important themes in Norwegian history, to provide the context for a more detailed presentation of North Norway’s history. (Students should expect, however, to fill in this brief overview by reading the excellent accounts of Norwegian historical developments in Rolf Danielsen, Norway: a history from the Vikings to our own times, which is an important part of the required reading for this course.) Increasing Norwegian activity in the northern regions, for purposes of hunting and scientific and economic research but also increasingly as a form of national expression and assertion, is also a theme. Tensions in this area during the Cold War period are considered, and the final part of the course examines social developments in this ethnically-diverse society during the last 100 years.

Evaluation
The students have to write two essays, in all totalling no more than 20 pages. The first from October 10th to October 19th, the second from November 28th to December 5th.

Pensum
CONTENTS
1. Einar-Arne Drivenes et al, “A Question of Identity”, translated by Michael Drake, in Einar-Arne Drivenes, Marit Anne Hauan and Helge A. Wold, Nordnorsk kulturhistorie, Vol. I. Det gjenstridige landet (Oslo, Gyldendahl Norsk Forlag) pp. 8-17.
2. ed. Niels Lund, Two Voyagers at the Court of King Alfred (York, William Sessions Ltd., 1984), pp. 15-22, 30-33, 43-49, 51,53, notes.
3. Extract from Heimskringla – King Olaf’s fall (2 pages)
4. A History of Norway and the Passion and Miracles of the Blessed Óláfr, translated by Devra Kunin, edited by Carl Phelpstead (Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London, 2001), pp. 5-7, 70-71.
5. Thorstein Vilhjalmsson, “Old Norse Navigation: An Overview”, in ed. Ingi Sigurðsson and Jón Skaptason, Aspects of Arctic and Sub-Arctic history : proceedings of the International Congress on the History of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Region, Reykjavík, 18-21 June 1998 (Reykjavík, University of Iceland Press, 2000), pp. 362-372.
6. Przemysław Urbańczyk, Medieval Arctic Norway (Warszawa, Semper, 1992), pp. 42-78.
7. Gwyn Jones, A History of the Vikings (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 315-353, 375-386, 160-161.
8. Alf Ragnar Nielssen, “Farming Expansion North of the Arctic Circle c.1250-1700”, in ed. Ingi Sigurðsson and Jón Skaptason, Aspects of Arctic and Sub-Arctic history : proceedings of the International Congress on the History of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Region, Reykjavík, 18-21 June 1998 (Reykjavík, University of Iceland Press, 2000) [8 pp.]
9. Olaus Magnus (1555), Description of the Northern Peoples, translated by Peter Fisher and Humphrey Higgins (London , The Hakluyt Society, 1996). Introduction, pp. xxxvi-xxxix; Book I, Chapters 2 & 4; Book 2, Chapter 7; Book 21, Chapters 1, 2, 5, 20, 21 & 28. [17 pp.]
10. Thor B. Arlov, “The Discovery and Early Exploitation of Svalbard. Some Historiographical Notes” in Acta Borealia 1-2005, pp. 1-19.
11. Susan Barr, Norway’s Polar Territories (Oslo, Aschehoug, 1987), pp. 25-29, 48-51.
12. William Mills, Exploring Polar Frontiers: a historical encyclopedia (Oxford, ABC Clio, 2003), entries for Arctic Ocean; Barents Sea; Willem Barents; Bear Island; Vitus Bering; North Pole; Northeast Passage; Northwest Passage; Norway; Spitsbergen; Surveying and Mapping; Svalbard.
13. ed. Mark Nuttall, Encyclopedia of the Arctic (New York, Routledge, 2005), entries for Barents Council; Barents Region; Barents Regional Council; Barents Sea; Bear Island; Jan Mayen; Svalbard; Svalbard Treaty.
14. Rune Haugen, “The witch-hunt in early modern Finnmark” in Acta Borealia, 1-1999, vol. 16, pp. 43-60.
15. Tatjana A. Schrader, “Pomor trade with Norway” in Acta Borealia, 1/2 –1988, pp. 111-117.
16. Gösta H. Liljequist, High Latitudes: A History of Swedish Polar Travels and Research (Stockholm, The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat in collaboration with Streiffert, 1993) pp. 43-62.
17. Rolf Danielsen and Edgar Hovland, “Recovery and growth: the Norwegian economy, 1815-1875” and “Modern Norway takes shape, 1875-1920” in Rolf Danielsen et al, Norway: a history from the Vikings to our own times (Oslo, Scandinavian University Press, 1995), pp. 230-254, 271-296.
18. Steinar Aas, “North Norway – The Frontier of the North?” in Acta Borealia 1998 No. 1, pp. 27-40.
19. W. Martin Conway, The First Crossing of Spitsbergen (London, J. M. Dent, 1897), pp. 27-37, 62-72, 337-349.
20. Urban Wråkberg, “The Politics of Naming: Contested Observations and the Shaping of Geographical Knowledge” in ed. Michael Bravo and Sverker Sörlin, Narrating The Arctic: A Cultural History of Nordic Scientific Practices (Canton MA, Science History Publications/USA, 2002), pp. 155-185.
21. Willy Østreng, Politics in High Latitudes: The Svalbard Archipelago (London, C. Hurst & Company, 1977) pp. 26-28, 67-85.
22. Trygve Mathisen, Svalbard in International Politics 1871-1925 (Oslo, Norsk polarinstitutt, 1954), pp. 172-179 & Trygve Mathisen, Svalbard in the Changing Arctic (Oslo, Gyldendal norsk forlag, 1954), pp. 31-45.
23. Roald Berg, “A Norwegian Policy of the North before World War I?” in Acta Borealia 1994-95, pp. 5-18.
24. Harald Dag Jølle, “The tension between culture and nature: Fridtjof Nansen’s understanding of Arctic minorities” in Acta Borealia, 1-2001, pp. 3-23.
25. Einar Niemi, “North Norwegian Rising! Regionalism and Nation Building in the North, 1900-1940” in ed. Richard Holt, Hilde Lange and Ulrike Spring, Internationalization in the History of Northern Europe (Tromsø, Universitetet i Tromsø, 2000), pp. 37-52
26. Henry Minde, “Assimilation of the Sami – Implementation and Consequences” in Acta Borealia, 2-2003, pp. 121-146.
27. Teemu Ryymin, “Creating Kvenness: identity building among the Arctic Finns in northern Norway” in Acta Borealia, 1-2001, vol 18, pp. 51-64.
28. Randi Rønning Balsvik, “Women in North Norwegian Coastal Societies”, translated from Historisk Tidsskrift 4/1991, pp. 636-653.
29. Andrei Repnevsky, “Norway and the Soviet Union 1917-1985: fear and cooperation”; Sven G. Holtsmark, “Norway and the Soviet Union 1917-1991: neighbours through conflict and cooperation”; Geir Hønneland, “Enthusiasm of the Barents Region and new stereotypes” in Supplement to the Exhibition Catalogue Norway-Russia: Neighbours for a thousand years. English translation of the six introduction articles (Oslo, 2004)
30. Jens Petter Nielsen, “The Barents Region in Historical Perspective” in eds. Olav Schram Stokke & Ola Tunander, The Barents Region Cooperation in Arctic Europe (London, Sage Publications, 1994), pp. 87-100.

· Prince Albert I of Monaco and Norwegian Arctic Research (Tromsø, Norsk polarinstitutt, 2005) to follow.
· Other, short handouts will be distributed in class during the course of the semester.