Tønsberg Fortress ( Tunsberghus festning ) was a medieval fortress and castle, located in Tønsberg , Norway which was defended by the fortress for over 300 years.
108-575: It includes ruins from Castrum Tunsbergis , Norway's largest castle in the 13th century, originally built by King Håkon IV , the grandson of King Sverre . Dating in 871, Tønsberg is commonly believed to have been the oldest Norwegian town and one of the oldest recorded fortified locations in Norway. According to Snorri Sturluson , Tønsberg was founded before the Battle of Hafrsfjord under which King Harald I of Norway united Norway under his rule. Tønsberg
216-1140: A 1257 peace agreement with Christopher I of Denmark . Haakon thereafter negotiated a marriage between his only remaining son, Magnus, and Christopher's niece Ingeborg . Haakon's Nordic policies initiated the build-up to the later personal unions (called the Kalmar Union ), that in the end had dire consequences for Norway as it did not have the economic and military resources to persevere and maintain Haakon's aggressive policies. More distantly, Haakon sought an alliance with Alfonso X of Castile (a potential next Holy Roman emperor) chiefly as it would guarantee new supplies of grain to Castile in light of rising prices in England , and possibly giving access to Baltic grain through Norwegian control of Lübeck. Alfonso in turn sought to expand his influence in Northern Europe, as well as to gain Norwegian naval assistance for
324-727: A change known as Holtzmann's law . An epenthetic vowel became popular by 1200 in Old Danish, 1250 in Old Swedish and Old Norwegian, and 1300 in Old Icelandic. An unstressed vowel was used which varied by dialect. Old Norwegian exhibited all three: /u/ was used in West Norwegian south of Bergen , as in aftur , aftor (older aptr ); North of Bergen, /i/ appeared in aftir , after ; and East Norwegian used /a/ , after , aftær . Old Norse
432-562: A clear picture of Haakon, Helle maintains that Haakon "obviously" learned to master the political game in his early years. He interprets Haakon as an independent and strong-willed ruler to whom he assigns a "significant personal responsibility" for the policies pursued during his reign: notably regarding the internal consolidation of the kingship, the orientation towards European culture and the aggressive foreign policy. In his article in Norsk biografisk leksikon , Knut Helle acknowledges that Haakon
540-417: A female raven or a male crow. All neuter words have identical nominative and accusative forms, and all feminine words have identical nominative and accusative plurals. The gender of some words' plurals does not agree with that of their singulars, such as lim and mund . Some words, such as hungr , have multiple genders, evidenced by their determiners being declined in different genders within
648-412: A front vowel to be split into a semivowel-vowel sequence before a back vowel in the following syllable. While West Norse only broke /e/ , East Norse also broke /i/ . The change was blocked by a /w/ , /l/ , or /ʀ/ preceding the potentially-broken vowel. Some /ja/ or /jɔ/ and /jaː/ or /jɔː/ result from breaking of /e/ and /eː/ respectively. When a noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb has
756-409: A given sentence. Nouns, adjectives, and pronouns were declined in four grammatical cases – nominative , accusative , genitive , and dative – in singular and plural numbers. Adjectives and pronouns were additionally declined in three grammatical genders. Some pronouns (first and second person) could have dual number in addition to singular and plural. The genitive
864-411: A great amount of time together, only to have their friendship destroyed - according to the saga, by intrigues derived from rumours and slander by men who played the two against each other. Skule was the first person in Norway to be titled duke ( hertug ) in 1237, but instead of control over a region, gained the rights to the incomes from a third of the syssels scattered across the whole of Norway. This
972-599: A king of the Birkebeiner faction, Haakon defeated the uprising of the final Bagler royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung , in 1227. He put a definitive end to the civil war era when he had Skule Bårdsson killed in 1240, a year after he had himself proclaimed king in opposition to Haakon. Haakon thereafter formally appointed his own son as his co-regent . Under Haakon's rule, medieval Norway is considered to have reached its zenith or golden age. His reputation and formidable naval fleet allowed him to maintain friendships with both
1080-584: A long vowel or diphthong in the accented syllable and its stem ends in a single l , n , or s , the r (or the elder r - or z -variant ʀ ) in an ending is assimilated. When the accented vowel is short, the ending is dropped. The nominative of the strong masculine declension and some i-stem feminine nouns uses one such -r (ʀ). Óðin-r ( Óðin-ʀ ) becomes Óðinn instead of * Óðinr ( * Óðinʀ ). The verb blása ('to blow'), has third person present tense blæss ('[he] blows') rather than * blæsr ( * blæsʀ ). Similarly,
1188-563: A new development the Scottish king Alexander II claimed the Hebrides and asked to buy the islands from Norway, but Haakon staunchly rejected the proposals. Following Alexander II's death, his son Alexander III continued and stepped up his father's policy by sending an embassy to Norway in 1261, and thereafter attacking the Hebrides. In 1263, the dispute with the Scottish king over the Hebrides induced Haakon to undertake an expedition to
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#17327729408071296-573: A new rising from 1219. The rising only gained support in parts of Eastern Norway, and was did not gain control of Viken and Opplandene as the Baglers formerly had done. In the summer of 1223, Skule forced the Ribbungar to surrender. However, The great meeting in Bergen soon after renewed the division of the Norwegian kingdom, with Skule gaining control of the northern third of the country instead of
1404-474: A noun must mirror the gender of that noun , so that one says, " heill maðr! " but, " heilt barn! ". As in other languages, the grammatical gender of an impersonal noun is generally unrelated to an expected natural gender of that noun. While indeed karl , "man" is masculine, kona , "woman", is feminine, and hús , "house", is neuter, so also are hrafn and kráka , for "raven" and "crow", masculine and feminine respectively, even in reference to
1512-462: A papal recognition. The Catholic principle of legitimacy was thus established in the Norwegian order of succession, although Haakon's new law still maintained that illegitimate children could be designated as successor in the absence of any legitimate children or grandchildren—contrary to Catholic principles. While his strong position allowed him to set boundaries to the Church's political influence, he
1620-476: A similar development influenced by Middle Low German . Various languages unrelated to Old Norse and others not closely related have been heavily influenced by Norse, particularly the Norman language ; to a lesser extent, Finnish and Estonian . Russian, Ukrainian , Belarusian , Lithuanian and Latvian also have a few Norse loanwords. The words Rus and Russia , according to one theory, may be named after
1728-493: A strong personal desire to be approved fully as a European king. Several papal commissions were appointed to investigate the matter, and Haakon declared his legitimate son Haakon the Young his successor instead of an older living illegitimate son. Although Haakon had children with his mistress Kanga the Young prior to his marriage with Margrete, it was his children with Margrete who were designated as his successors in accordance with
1836-503: A superficial emulator of foreign culture. Since the 1960s, historians including Narve Bjørgo , Per Sveaas Andersen , Knut Helle , Svein Haga , and Kåre Lunden have in turn professed a reaction against Koht's view. According to Sverre Bagge, modern historians tend to follow Koht when it comes to see Skule's rebellion as a last desperate attempt to stop Haakon from encroaching on Skule's power, but lean closer to Munch's overall evaluation of
1944-405: A view which influenced historians such as Halvdan Koht and Edvard Bull, Sr. Haakon has often been compared with Skule Bårdsson, and historians have taken sides in the old conflict. While Munch saw Skule as a traitor to the rightful Norwegian king, Koht viewed Skule as a heroic figure. On more sketchy grounds, Kinck praised Skule as representing the original and dying Norse culture, and Haakon as
2052-608: A voiced velar fricative [ɣ] in all cases, and others have that realisation only in the middle of words and between vowels (with it otherwise being realised [ɡ] ). The Old East Norse /ʀ/ was an apical consonant , with its precise position unknown; it is reconstructed as a palatal sibilant . It descended from Proto-Germanic /z/ and eventually developed into /r/ , as had already occurred in Old West Norse. The consonant digraphs ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ occurred word-initially. It
2160-467: A vowel or semivowel of a different vowel backness . In the case of i-umlaut and ʀ-umlaut , this entails a fronting of back vowels, with retention of lip rounding. In the case of u-umlaut , this entails labialization of unrounded vowels. Umlaut is phonemic and in many situations grammatically significant as a side effect of losing the Proto-Germanic morphological suffixes whose vowels created
2268-448: A word. Strong verbs ablaut the lemma 's nucleus to derive the past forms of the verb. This parallels English conjugation, where, e.g., the nucleus of sing becomes sang in the past tense and sung in the past participle. Some verbs are derived by ablaut, as the present-in-past verbs do by consequence of being derived from the past tense forms of strong verbs. Umlaut or mutation is an assimilatory process acting on vowels preceding
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#17327729408072376-544: Is classified as Old West Norse, and Old West Norse traits were found in western Sweden . In what is present-day Denmark and Sweden, most speakers spoke Old East Norse. Though Old Gutnish is sometimes included in the Old East Norse dialect due to geographical associations, it developed its own unique features and shared in changes to both other branches. The 12th-century Icelandic Gray Goose Laws state that Swedes , Norwegians , Icelanders , and Danes spoke
2484-445: Is commemorated in modern-day Norway by the popular annual skiing event Birkebeinerrennet . Haakon's dramatic childhood was often parallelled with that of former king Olaf Tryggvasson (who introduced Christianity to Norway), as well as with the gospels and Child Jesus , which served an important ideological function for his kingship. In the saga, Haakon is described as bright and witty, and as being small for his age. When he
2592-465: Is expected to exist, such as in the male names Ragnarr , Steinarr (supposedly * Ragnarʀ , * Steinarʀ ), the result is apparently always /rː/ rather than */rʀ/ or */ʀː/ . This is observable in the Runic corpus. In Old Norse, i/j adjacent to i , e , their u-umlauts, and æ was not possible, nor u/v adjacent to u , o , their i-umlauts, and ǫ . At
2700-403: Is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects : Old West Norse (Old West Nordic, often referred to as Old Norse ), Old East Norse (Old East Nordic), and Old Gutnish . Old West Norse and Old East Norse formed a dialect continuum , with no clear geographical boundary between them. Old East Norse traits were found in eastern Norway , although Old Norwegian
2808-584: Is more common in Old West Norse in both phonemic and allophonic positions, while it only occurs sparsely in post-runic Old East Norse and even in runic Old East Norse. This is still a major difference between Swedish and Faroese and Icelandic today. Plurals of neuters do not have u-umlaut at all in Swedish, but in Faroese and Icelandic they do, for example the Faroese and Icelandic plurals of the word land , lond and lönd respectively, in contrast to
2916-692: Is nonetheless written openly in support of the political program of the House of Sverre , and the legitimacy of Haakon's kingship. Haakon was born in Folkenborg (now in Eidsberg ) to Inga of Varteig in the summer of 1204, probably in March or April. The father was widely regarded to have been King Haakon Sverresson , as Inga had been with Haakon in his hostel in Borg (now Sarpsborg ) in late 1203. King Haakon
3024-459: Is that the nonphonemic difference between the voiced and the voiceless dental fricative is marked. The oldest texts and runic inscriptions use þ exclusively. Long vowels are denoted with acutes . Most other letters are written with the same glyph as the IPA phoneme, except as shown in the table below. Ablaut patterns are groups of vowels which are swapped, or ablauted, in the nucleus of
3132-601: Is the Saga of Haakon Haakonsson , which was written in the years immediately following his death. Commissioned by his son Magnus , it was written by the Icelandic writer and politician Sturla Þórðarson (nephew of the famous historian Snorri Sturluson ). Having come into conflict with the royal representative in Iceland, Sturla came to Norway in 1263 in an attempt to reconcile with Haakon. When he arrived, he learned that Haakon
3240-557: Is unclear whether they were sequences of two consonants (with the first element realised as /h/ or perhaps /x/ ) or as single voiceless sonorants /l̥/ , /r̥/ and /n̥/ respectively. In Old Norwegian, Old Danish and later Old Swedish, the groups ⟨hl⟩ , ⟨hr⟩ , and ⟨hn⟩ were reduced to plain ⟨l⟩ , ⟨r⟩ , ⟨n⟩ , which suggests that they had most likely already been pronounced as voiceless sonorants by Old Norse times. The pronunciation of ⟨hv⟩
3348-563: Is unclear, but it may have been /xʷ/ (the Proto-Germanic pronunciation), /hʷ/ or the similar phoneme /ʍ/ . Unlike the three other digraphs, it was retained much longer in all dialects. Without ever developing into a voiceless sonorant in Icelandic, it instead underwent fortition to a plosive /kv/ , which suggests that instead of being a voiceless sonorant, it retained a stronger frication. Primary stress in Old Norse falls on
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3456-486: The Christianization of Scandinavia , and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse
3564-535: The Latin alphabet , there was no standardized orthography in use in the Middle Ages. A modified version of the letter wynn called vend was used briefly for the sounds /u/ , /v/ , and /w/ . Long vowels were sometimes marked with acutes but also sometimes left unmarked or geminated. The standardized Old Norse spelling was created in the 19th century and is, for the most part, phonemic. The most notable deviation
3672-667: The Rus' people , a Norse tribe, probably from present-day east-central Sweden. The current Finnish and Estonian words for Sweden are Ruotsi and Rootsi , respectively. A number of loanwords have been introduced into Irish , many associated with fishing and sailing. A similar influence is found in Scottish Gaelic , with over one hundred loanwords estimated to be in the language, many of which are related to fishing and sailing. Old Norse vowel phonemes mostly come in pairs of long and short. The standardized orthography marks
3780-635: The Trondheim Cathedral School after the Earl's death in 1214. Haakon was brought up alongside Inge's son Guttorm, and they were treated as the same. When he was eleven, some of Haakon's friends provoked the king by asking him to give Haakon a region to govern. When Haakon was approached by the men and was urged to take up arms against Inge, he rejected it in part because of his young age and its bad prospects, as well as because he believed it would be morally wrong to fight Inge and thus split
3888-408: The royal estate in Bergen , where he built a European-style stone palace. He used a grand fleet with stately royal ships when meeting with other Scandinavian rulers, and actively sent letters and gifts to other European rulers; his most far-reaching contact was achieved when he sent gyrfalcons with an embassy to the sultan of Tunis . The royal court in Bergen also started importing and translating
3996-668: The word stem , so that hyrjar would be pronounced /ˈhyr.jar/ . In compound words, secondary stress falls on the second stem (e.g. lærisveinn , /ˈlɛːɾ.iˌswɛinː/ ). Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark , runic Old Norse was originally written with the Younger Futhark , which had only 16 letters. Because of the limited number of runes, several runes were used for different sounds, and long and short vowels were not distinguished in writing. Medieval runes came into use some time later. As for
4104-557: The 11th century in most of Old East Norse. However, the distinction still holds in Dalecarlian dialects . The dots in the following vowel table separate the oral from nasal phonemes. Note: The open or open-mid vowels may be transcribed differently: Sometime around the 13th century, /ɔ/ (spelled ⟨ǫ⟩ ) merged with /ø/ or /o/ in most dialects except Old Danish , and Icelandic where /ɔ/ ( ǫ ) merged with /ø/ . This can be determined by their distinction within
4212-979: The 12th-century First Grammatical Treatise but not within the early 13th-century Prose Edda . The nasal vowels, also noted in the First Grammatical Treatise, are assumed to have been lost in most dialects by this time (but notably they are retained in Elfdalian and other dialects of Ovansiljan ). See Old Icelandic for the mergers of /øː/ (spelled ⟨œ⟩ ) with /ɛː/ (spelled ⟨æ⟩ ) and /ɛ/ (spelled ⟨ę⟩ ) with /e/ (spelled ⟨e⟩ ). Old Norse had three diphthong phonemes: /ɛi/ , /ɔu/ , /øy ~ ɛy/ (spelled ⟨ei⟩ , ⟨au⟩ , ⟨ey⟩ respectively). In East Norse these would monophthongize and merge with /eː/ and /øː/ , whereas in West Norse and its descendants
4320-668: The 13th century there. The age of the Swedish-speaking population of Finland is strongly contested, but Swedish settlement had spread the language into the region by the time of the Second Swedish Crusade in the 13th century at the latest. The modern descendants of the Old West Norse dialect are the West Scandinavian languages of Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , and the extinct Norn language of Orkney and Shetland , although Norwegian
4428-604: The Arthurian romantic story Tristan and Iseult , which was finished in 1226 after orders from the young and newly-wed Haakon. Haakon's programme seems to have been the spark for the emergence of a new Norse genre of chivalric sagas . Haakon also had the popular religious text Visio Tnugdali translated into Old Norse as Duggals leiðsla . The literature also appealed to women, and both Haakon's wife Margrete and his daughter Kristina owned richly illustrated psalters . Haakon also initiated legal reforms which were crucial for
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4536-582: The Baglers started hunting Haakon, a group of Birkebeiners fled with the child in the winter of 1205/06, heading for Inge Bårdsson , the new Birkebeiner king in Nidaros (now Trondheim ). As the party was struck by a blizzard, two of the best Birkebeiner skiers , Torstein Skevla and Skjervald Skrukka, carried on with the child over the mountain from Lillehammer to Østerdalen . They eventually managed to bring Haakon to safety with King Inge; this particular event
4644-549: The Birkebeiner. He instead said that he prayed that God would give him his share of his father's inheritance when the time was right. After King Inge's death in 1217, a succession dispute erupted. Haakon was supported by the majority of Birkebeiners, including the veterans who had served under his father and grandfather. Other candidates included Inge's illegitimate son Guttorm (who dropped out very soon); Inge's half-brother Earl Skule Bårdsson , who had been appointed leader of
4752-572: The Faroe Islands, Faroese has also been influenced by Danish. Both Middle English (especially northern English dialects within the area of the Danelaw ) and Early Scots (including Lowland Scots ) were strongly influenced by Norse and contained many Old Norse loanwords . Consequently, Modern English (including Scottish English ), inherited a significant proportion of its vocabulary directly from Norse. The development of Norman French
4860-662: The Ghibelline Emperor Frederick II, who sent ambassadors to Norway. As Haakon had gained a powerful reputation due to the strength of his fleet, other European rulers wanted to benefit from his friendship. Despite the struggle between the Pope and the Emperor, Haakon was able to maintain friendships with both. According to an English chronicler, the Pope wanted Haakon to become Holy Roman Emperor. It has been suggested that Haakon hesitated to leave Norway due to
4968-453: The Hebrides and Man. Alexander started negotiations after Norwegian landings on the Scottish mainland, but the Scots purposely prolonged the talks. The Scots waited until September and October for weather that would be trouble for Haakon's fleet. A Scottish force met a smaller Norwegian force at the Battle of Largs (2 October). Although the battle was inconclusive, Haakon withdrew to Orkney for
5076-511: The King of England; the first known Norwegian trade agreements were made with England in the years 1217–23 (England's first commercial treaties were also made with Norway), and the friendship with Henry III of England was a cornerstone of Haakon's foreign policy. As they had become kings around the same time, Haakon wrote to Henry in 1224 that he wished they could maintain the friendship that had existed between their fathers. Haakon sought to defend
5184-692: The Mongol threat. Haakon pursued a foreign policy that was active in all directions (although foremost to the west and south-east). In the north-east, the relationship with Novgorod had been tense due to a dispute over the right to tax the Sami people , as well as raiding from both Norwegian and Karelian sides. Eventually, the Mongol invasion of Rus' drove Prince Alexander Nevsky to negotiations with Haakon that likely strengthened Norwegian control of Troms and Finnmark . An embassy from Novgorod one time asked for
5292-541: The Mongols, Haakon allowed them to stay in the area surrounding the Malangen fjord and had them Christianized—something that would please the papacy. Later, in 1248, Louis IX of France proposed (by Matthew Paris as messenger) to Haakon to join him for a Crusade, with Haakon as commander of the fleet, but Haakon declined. While Haakon had been unsuccessful in gaining the recognition of Pope Gregory IX , he quickly gained
5400-813: The Norwegian sovereignty over islands in the west, namely the Hebrides and Man (under the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles ), Shetland and Orkney (under the Earldom of Orkney ), and the Faroe Islands . Further, the Norse community in Greenland agreed to submit to the Norwegian crown in 1261, and in 1262 Haakon achieved one of his long-standing ambitions when he incorporated Iceland into his kingdom by exploiting
5508-448: The Old in contrast to his namesake son , was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 years, longer than any Norwegian king since Harald Fairhair . Haakon was born into the troubled civil war era in Norway , but his reign eventually managed to put an end to the internal conflicts. At the start of his reign, during his minority, Earl Skule Bårdsson served as regent . As
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#17327729408075616-579: The Swedes, as well as ties with opponents of the ruling line of monarchs of Denmark. In 1249, Haakon allied with Earl Birger for a joint Swedish-Norwegian invasion into Halland and Scania , but the agreement was eventually abandoned by the Swedes ( see Treaty of Lödöse ). Haakon claimed Halland in 1253, and finally invaded the province on his own in 1256, demanding it as compensation for the looting of Norwegian ships in Danish seas. But he renounced this claim in
5724-473: The Swedish plural land and numerous other examples. That also applies to almost all feminine nouns, for example the largest feminine noun group, the o-stem nouns (except the Swedish noun jord mentioned above), and even i-stem nouns and root nouns , such as Old West Norse mǫrk ( mörk in Icelandic) in comparison with Modern and Old Swedish mark . Vowel breaking, or fracture, caused
5832-457: The Younger av Folkindberg (who is only known by name) (1198–1225), before 1225. They were: Haakon married Margrete Skulesdatter on 25 May 1225, daughter of his rival Earl Skule Bårdsson . Their children were: Håkon and Kristin were the mascots of the 1994 Winter Olympics . Håkon is named after Haakon IV of Norway and Kristin after Christina of Norway . In The Last King (2016),
5940-541: The beginning of words, this manifested as a dropping of the initial /j/ (which was general, independent of the following vowel) or /v/ . Compare ON orð , úlfr , ár with English word, wolf, year . In inflections, this manifested as the dropping of the inflectional vowels. Thus, klæði + dat -i remains klæði , and sjáum in Icelandic progressed to sjǫ́um > sjǫ́m > sjám . The * jj and * ww of Proto-Germanic became ggj and ggv respectively in Old Norse,
6048-408: The border-area around Elven from the late 1240s through the 1250s. He sent grand fleets as embassies; some reportedly numbered over 300 ships. Haakon also reconciled with the Swedes when he his son Haakon the Young married Rikissa , a daughter of Swedish leader Earl Birger . Haakon sought to expand his kingdom southwards of Elven into the Danish province of Halland . He thus looked for alliance with
6156-534: The campaign or crusade he had proposed in Morocco (seeing that the Iberian Moors received backing overseas from North Africa). Haakon could thus potentially also fulfill his papal vow of crusade, although he likely did not intend to. He sent an embassy to Castile in 1255. A Castilian ambassador to Norway returned with the embassy, and proposed to establish the "strongest ties of friendship" with Haakon. At
6264-537: The city of Bergen to the Hanseatic League . During the conflict, Haakon had reportedly been offered control over the city by Emperor Frederick II. In any case, Haakon's policy regarding Northern German ports largely derived from his strategy of attempting to exploit the internal turmoil in Denmark after the death of King Valdemar II in 1241. In Scandinavia, Haakon regularly met with neighbouring rulers in
6372-411: The cluster */Crʀ/ cannot be realized as /Crː/ , nor as */Crʀ/ , nor as */Cʀː/ . The same shortening as in vetr also occurs in lax = laks ('salmon') (as opposed to * lakss , * laksʀ ), botn ('bottom') (as opposed to * botnn , * botnʀ ), and jarl (as opposed to * jarll , * jarlʀ ). Furthermore, wherever the cluster */rʀ/
6480-411: The development of justice in Norway. Haakon's "New Law", written around 1260, was a breakthrough for both the idea and practice of public justice, as opposed to the traditional Norwegian customs of feuds and revenge. The influence of the reforms is also apparent in Haakon's Konungs skuggsjá ("King's Mirror"), an educational text intended for his son Magnus, which was probably written in cooperation with
6588-449: The diphthongs remained. Old Norse has six plosive phonemes, /p/ being rare word-initially and /d/ and /b/ pronounced as voiced fricative allophones between vowels except in compound words (e.g. veðrabati ), already in the Proto-Germanic language (e.g. * b *[β] > [v] between vowels). The /ɡ/ phoneme was pronounced as [ɡ] after an /n/ or another /ɡ/ and as [k] before /s/ and /t/ . Some accounts have it
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#17327729408076696-761: The dispute could have divided the Birkebeiners, Skule settled on becoming regent for Haakon during his minority. In connection with the dispute over the royal election, Haakon's mother Inga had to prove his parentage through a trial by ordeal in Bergen in 1218. The result of the trial strengthened the legal basis for his kingship, and improved his relationship with the Church. The saga's claim that Haakon already had been generally accepted as king in 1217/18 has however been contested by modern historians such as Sverre Bagge . Skule and Haakon increasingly drifted apart in their administration, and Skule focused mainly on governing Eastern Norway after 1220, which he had gained
6804-434: The east, in what marked a setback despite his military victory. In 1224, Sigurd escaped from Skule's custody, and Haakon was left to fight him alone as the new ruler of Eastern Norway. Skule remained passive throughout the rest of the war, and his support for Haakon was lukewarm at best. Assuming the military lead in the fight, Haakon nevertheless defeated Ribbung through comprehensive and organisationally demanding warfare over
6912-692: The end of his rule added Iceland and the Norse Greenland community to his kingdom, leaving the Norwegian realm at its territorial height. Although he for the moment managed to secure Norwegian control of the islands off the northern and western shores of Scotland, plus the Isle of Man , he fell ill and died when wintering in Orkney following some military engagements with the expanding Kingdom of Scotland . The main source of information concerning Haakon
7020-406: The final end of Norway's civil war era. While the Church in Norway initially had refused to recognise Haakon as King of Norway, it had largely turned to support his claim to the throne by the 1223 meeting, although later disagreements occurred. Despite being the undisputed ruler of Norway after 1240, Haakon was still not approved as king by the pope due to his illegitimate birth. He nonetheless had
7128-512: The first true European literature that became available to a wider Norwegian audience. The literature which was popular then was heroic-romantic literature derived from the French and, in turn, English courts, notably chansons de geste around Charlemagne (the Matter of France ) and tales of King Arthur (the Matter of Britain ). The first work that was translated into Old Norse was reportedly
7236-522: The hand of Haakon's daughter Christina , but Haakon refused due to the Mongol threat. With Norwegian ships from the port of Elven were active in the waters south of Sweden and into the Baltic Sea , Norway increasingly relied on Baltic grain from Lübeck . This trade was halted in the late 1240s by the plundering of Norwegian ships in Danish seas by ships from Lübeck. In 1250, Haakon made a peace and trade agreement with Lübeck, which eventually also opened
7344-456: The importance of Bergen as a trading centre, while Orkney, the Hebrides, and Man had more natural ties with the Scottish mainland. Although traditionally having had ties with the community of Norse settlers in northern Scotland , Scottish rulers had increasingly asserted their sovereignty over the entire mainland. Haakon had at the same time gained stronger control of the Hebrides and Man than any Norwegian ruler since Magnus Barefoot . As part of
7452-474: The infant Håkon IV is portrayed by Jonathan Oskar Dahlgren. Old Norse Old Norse , also referred to as Old Nordic , or Old Scandinavian , was a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age ,
7560-542: The insulation. At that time new plaques were mounted inside the tower. On the sides are the gilded signatures of three modern Kings of Norway: Haakon VII (1 August 1906), Olav V (1 July 1958) and Harald V (9 March 1992). The plaque over the entrance reads: 871-1871 Maa Byen som paa Tunet staar, faa blomstre nye Tusind-aar 871 - 1871 May the Town Which Stands on This Site Prosper for Another Thousand Years Slottsfjell Museum ( Slottsfjellsmuseet )
7668-408: The island's internal conflicts in his favour. The dependency on Norwegian maritime trade and their subordination to the Nidaros ecclesiastical province were some of the key reasons which allowed Haakon to assert sovereignty over the islands. The Norwegian kingdom was at the largest it has ever been by the end of Haakon's reign. Norwegian control over the Faroe Islands and Shetland was strong due to
7776-534: The islands. Haakon learned in 1262 that Scottish nobles had raided the Hebrides and that Alexander III planned to conquer the islands. In 1263 Haakon mounted an expedition with his formidable leidang fleet of at least 120 ships. He had become accustomed to negotiating while backed by an intimidating fleet. The fleet left Bergen in July, and reached Shetland and Orkney in August, where they were joined by chieftains from
7884-822: The king's hird at Inge's deathbed and was supported by the Archbishop of Nidaros as well as part of the Birkebeiners; and Haakon the Crazy's son, Knut Haakonsson . With his widespread popular support in Trøndelag and western Norway, Haakon was proclaimed king at Øyrating in June 1217. He was later the same year hailed as king at Gulating in Bergen, and at Haugating , Borgarting and local things east of Elven (Göta Älv). While Skule's supporters initially had attempted to cast doubt about Haakon's royal ancestry, they eventually suspended open resistance to his candidacy. As
7992-399: The long vowels with an acute accent. In medieval manuscripts, it is often unmarked but sometimes marked with an accent or through gemination . Old Norse had nasalized versions of all ten vowel places. These occurred as allophones of the vowels before nasal consonants and in places where a nasal had followed it in an older form of the word, before it was absorbed into a neighboring sound. If
8100-680: The most conservative language, such that in present-day Iceland, schoolchildren are able to read the 12th-century Icelandic sagas in the original language (in editions with normalised spelling). Old Icelandic was very close to Old Norwegian , and together they formed Old West Norse , which was also spoken in Norse settlements in Greenland , the Faroes , Ireland , Scotland , the Isle of Man , northwest England, and in Normandy . Old East Norse
8208-514: The nasal was absorbed by a stressed vowel, it would also lengthen the vowel. This nasalization also occurred in the other Germanic languages, but were not retained long. They were noted in the First Grammatical Treatise , and otherwise might have remained unknown. The First Grammarian marked these with a dot above the letter. This notation did not catch on, and would soon be obsolete. Nasal and oral vowels probably merged around
8316-594: The next few years. As part of the campaign, Haakon additionally led a large army into the Värmland district of Sweden in 1225, to punish the inhabitants for their support of Sigurd. Sigurd died in 1226, and the revolt was finally quashed in 1227 with the surrender of its last leader, Haakon the Crazy's son Knut Haakonsson. This left Haakon more or less uncontested monarch. Haakon's councillors had sought to reconcile Haakon and Skule by proposing marriage between Haakon and Skule's daughter Margaret in 1219. Haakon accepted
8424-641: The other North Germanic languages. Faroese retains many similarities but is influenced by Danish, Norwegian, and Gaelic ( Scottish and/or Irish ). Although Swedish, Danish and Norwegian have diverged the most, they still retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Speakers of modern Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can mostly understand each other without studying their neighboring languages, particularly if speaking slowly. The languages are also sufficiently similar in writing that they can mostly be understood across borders. This could be because these languages have been mutually affected by each other, as well as having
8532-672: The pope and the Holy Roman Emperor , despite their conflict. He was at different points offered the imperial crown by the pope, the High Kingship of Ireland by a delegation of Irish kings, and the command of the French crusader fleet by the French king. He amplified the influence of European culture in Norway by importing and translating contemporary European literature into Old Norse , and by constructing monumental European-style stone buildings. In conjunction with this he employed an active and aggressive foreign policy, and at
8640-424: The process or moved to another location. Norwegian historians have held differing views on Haakon's reign. In the 19th century, P. A. Munch portrayed Haakon as a mighty, almost flawless ruler, which in turn influenced Henrik Ibsen in his 1863 play The Pretenders . In the early 20th century, poet Hans E. Kinck countered and viewed Haakon as an insignificant king subordinated to forces outside of his control,
8748-439: The proposal (although he did not think it would change much politically), but the marriage between Haakon and Margrete did not take place before 1225, partly due to the conflict with Sigurd. The relationship between Haakon and Skule nevertheless deteriorated further during the 1230s, and attempted settlements at meetings in 1233 and 1236 only distanced them more from each other. Periodically, the two nonetheless reconciled and spent
8856-412: The reigns of Håkon Håkonsson and Magnus Lagabøte , who added large walls , towers , residential halls and a church. The last king of a fully independent Norway , Håkon V Magnusson , died at the castle in 1319. Only a few ruins of the fortress remain today. The modern-day tower ( Slottsfjellet i Tønsberg ) was raised in 1888 as a memorial of the historic fortress. In 1971, local authorities improved
8964-425: The request of Alfonso, Haakon sent his daughter Christina to Castile to marry one of Alfonso's brothers. However, Christina died four years later without children, which marked the effective end of the short-lived alliance, and the proposed crusade fell into the blue. Haakon employed an active and aggressive foreign policy to strengthen Norwegian ties in the west. His policy relied on friendship and trade with
9072-399: The right to rule in 1218 as his third of the Norwegian kingdom. From 1221 to 1223, Haakon and Skule separately issued letters as rulers of Norway, and maintained official contacts abroad. In 1223 a great meeting of bishops, clergy, secular nobles, and other high-ranking figures from all across the country was held in Bergen to decide finally on Haakon's right to the throne. Other candidates to
9180-536: The root vowel, ǫ , is short. The clusters */Clʀ, Csʀ, Cnʀ, Crʀ/ cannot yield */Clː, Csː, Cnː, Crː/ respectively, instead /Cl, Cs, Cn, Cr/ . The effect of this shortening can result in the lack of distinction between some forms of the noun. In the case of vetr ('winter'), the nominative and accusative singular and plural forms are identical. The nominative singular and nominative and accusative plural would otherwise have been OWN * vetrr , OEN * wintrʀ . These forms are impossible because
9288-637: The royal court in the mid-1250s. Relations were hostile with both Sweden and Denmark from the start of his reign. During Haakon's rivalry with Earl Skule, Skule sought the support of Valdemar II of Denmark , but any aid was made impossible after Valdemar's capture by one of his vassals. Since the Danes wanted overlordship of Norway and supported the Guelphs (those supporting the Pope over the Holy Roman Emperor), Haakon in turn sought closer ties with
9396-441: The same language, dǫnsk tunga ("Danish tongue"; speakers of Old East Norse would have said dansk tunga ). Another term was norrœnt mál ("northern speech"). Today Old Norse has developed into the modern North Germanic languages Icelandic , Faroese , Norwegian , Danish , Swedish , and other North Germanic varieties of which Norwegian, Danish and Swedish retain considerable mutual intelligibility . Icelandic remains
9504-494: The support from Pope Innocent IV who sought alliances in his struggle with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II . Haakon finally achieved royal recognition by Pope Innocent in 1246, and Cardinal William of Sabina was sent to Bergen and crowned Haakon in 1247. After consolidating his position in 1240, Haakon focused on displaying the supremacy of the kingship, influenced by the increasingly closer contact with European culture. He built several monumental royal buildings, primarily in
9612-451: The throne were present either personally or through attorneys, but Haakon was in the end unanimously confirmed as King of Norway by the court. The last Bagler king Philip Simonsson died in 1217. Speedy political and military manoeuvering by Skule led to a reconciliation between the Birkebeiners and Baglers, and thus the reunification of the kingdom. However, some discontented Baglers found a new royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung , and launched
9720-441: The two men. Knut Helle interprets the saga to leave an impression of Skule as a skilled warrior and politician, while noting that the author of the saga purposely created a diffuse image of his role in the conflict with Haakon. On the other hand, Helle notes that Skule was outmaneuvered with relative ease by Haakon's supporters in the years immediately after 1217, and that this may suggest some limited abilities. While neither giving
9828-497: The umlaut allophones . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , /ɛ/ , /ɛː/ , /øy/ , and all /ɛi/ were obtained by i-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /o/ , /oː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , /au/ , and /ai/ respectively. Others were formed via ʀ-umlaut from /u/ , /uː/ , /a/ , /aː/ , and /au/ . Some /y/ , /yː/ , /ø/ , /øː/ , and all /ɔ/ , /ɔː/ were obtained by u-umlaut from /i/ , /iː/ , /e/ , /eː/ , and /a/ , /aː/ respectively. See Old Icelandic for information on /ɔː/ . /œ/
9936-482: The verb skína ('to shine') had present tense third person skínn (rather than * skínr , * skínʀ ); while kala ('to cool down') had present tense third person kell (rather than * kelr , * kelʀ ). The rule is not absolute, with certain counter-examples such as vinr ('friend'), which has the synonym vin , yet retains the unabsorbed version, and jǫtunn (' giant '), where assimilation takes place even though
10044-707: The winter. A delegation of Irish kings invited Haakon to become the High King of Ireland and expel the Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland, but this was apparently rejected against Haakon's wish. Haakon over-wintered at the Bishop's Palace in Kirkwall, Orkney , with plans to resume his campaign the next year. During his stay in Kirkwall he however fell ill, and died in the early hours of 16 December 1263. Haakon
10152-404: Was a moderately inflected language with high levels of nominal and verbal inflection. Most of the fused morphemes are retained in modern Icelandic, especially in regard to noun case declensions, whereas modern Norwegian in comparison has moved towards more analytical word structures. Old Norse had three grammatical genders – masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives or pronouns referring to
10260-400: Was also influenced by Norse. Through Norman, to a smaller extent, so was modern French. Written modern Icelandic derives from the Old Norse phonemic writing system. Contemporary Icelandic-speakers can read Old Norse, which varies slightly in spelling as well as semantics and word order. However, pronunciation, particularly of the vowel phonemes, has changed at least as much in Icelandic as in
10368-527: Was an important trading center and site of the Haugating , the Thing (assembly) for Vestfold and one of Norway's most important places for the proclamation of kings. In the 13th century, King Haakon Haakonson built a castle, Tunsberghus , at the location of the modern Tønsberg municipality. It was located at what was formerly one of the most important harbors in Norway. The castle was greatly expanded during
10476-666: Was buried in the St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall for the winter; in spring, his body was exhumed and taken back to Norway, where he was buried in the Old Cathedral in his capital Bergen. Centuries later, in 1531, the cathedral was demolished by the commander of Bergenhus , Eske Bille , for military purposes in connection with the Protestant Reformation , and the graves of Haakon and other Norwegian kings buried there might have been destroyed in
10584-433: Was empowered by the strong institutional position of the kingship at the end of his reign (which he had developed himself), and that his policies were not always successful. Helle nonetheless recognises the substantial political abilities and powerful determination Haakon must have had in order to progress from the difficult position in which he started his reign. Haakon had three illegitimate children with his mistress Kanga
10692-676: Was established in 1939 as the Vestfold Fylkesmuseum. It is now an associate of Vestfold Museum ( Vestfoldmuseene ). The exhibitions in the museum present Vestfold's cultural history with particular, emphasis placed on whaling and shipping, urban and rural history in Vestfold to World War II King Hakon IV of Norway Haakon IV Haakonsson ( c. March/April 1204 – 16 December 1263; Old Norse : Hákon Hákonarson [ˈhɑːˌkon ˈhɑːˌkonɑrˌson] ; Norwegian : Håkon Håkonsson ), sometimes called Haakon
10800-583: Was heavily influenced by the East dialect, and is today more similar to East Scandinavian (Danish and Swedish) than to Icelandic and Faroese. The descendants of the Old East Norse dialect are the East Scandinavian languages of Danish and Swedish . Among these, the grammar of Icelandic and Faroese have changed the least from Old Norse in the last thousand years, though their pronunciations both have changed considerably from Old Norse. With Danish rule of
10908-486: Was in Scotland, and that Magnus ruled Norway in his place. While Magnus initially took an unfriendly attitude towards Sturla, his talents as a story-teller and skald eventually won him the favour of Magnus and his men. The saga is considered the most detailed and reliable of all sagas concerning Norwegian kings, building on both written archive material and oral information from individuals who had been close to Haakon. It
11016-545: Was notably the first Norwegian king to receive formal education at a school. From the late civil war era, the government administration relied increasingly on written communication, which in turn demanded literate leaders. When Haakon was in Bergen under the care of Haakon the Crazy, he began his education at the age of seven, likely at the Bergen Cathedral School . He continued his education under King Inge at
11124-535: Was obtained through a simultaneous u- and i-umlaut of /a/ . It appears in words like gøra ( gjǫra , geyra ), from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną , and commonly in verbs with a velar consonant before the suffix like søkkva < *sankwijaną . OEN often preserves the original value of the vowel directly preceding runic ʀ while OWN receives ʀ-umlaut. Compare runic OEN glaʀ, haʀi, hrauʀ with OWN gler, heri (later héri ), hrøyrr/hreyrr ("glass", "hare", "pile of rocks"). U-umlaut
11232-425: Was on the other hand prepared to give the Church much autonomy in internal affairs and relations with the rural society. Haakon also attempted to strengthen his ties with the papacy by taking a vow to go on Crusade . In 1241 he converted this into a vow of waging war against pagan peoples in the north in light of the Mongol invasion of Europe . When a group of Karelians ("Bjarmians") had been forced westwards by
11340-470: Was part of an attempt by Haakon to limit Skule's power. In 1239 the conflict between the two erupted into open warfare when Skule had himself proclaimed king. Although he had some support in Trøndelag, Opplandene, and eastern Viken, he could not stand up to Haakon's forces. The rebellion ended when Skule was killed in 1240, leaving Haakon the undisputed king of Norway. This revolt is generally taken to mark
11448-711: Was spoken in Denmark, Sweden, Kievan Rus' , eastern England, and Danish settlements in Normandy. The Old Gutnish dialect was spoken in Gotland and in various settlements in the East. In the 11th century, Old Norse was the most widely spoken European language , ranging from Vinland in the West to the Volga River in the East. In Kievan Rus' , it survived the longest in Veliky Novgorod , probably lasting into
11556-524: Was the leader of the Birkebeiner faction in the ongoing civil war against the Bagler faction. He was dead by the time his son Haakon was born (many believed to have been poisoned by his Swedish stepmother Margaret ), but Inga's claim was supported by several of the king's followers. Haakon was born in Bagler-controlled territory, and his mother's claim placed them in a dangerous position. When
11664-565: Was three years old, he was captured by the Baglers but refused to call the Bagler king Philip Simonsson his lord (he nonetheless came from the capture unharmed). When he learned at the age of eight that King Inge Bårdsson and his brother Earl Haakon the Crazy had made an agreement for the succession to the throne that excluded himself, Haakon pointed out that the agreement was invalid due to his attorney not having been present. He subsequently identified his attorney as "God and Saint Olaf ." Haakon
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