Norway is divided into 19 counties (fylker), and Stavanger is located in
Rogaland
County. The County
Council carries on traditions back to the establishment of Local
Legislation in 1837. However it was not until 1976 that the
County government members were elected
directly through local polls, at
the same time as the munipal elections took place.
Stavanger
people had always had a hard time making their
living. This fact, combined with the religious
oppression, paved for emigration, which, unexpectedly, not only made
life easier for the people who left but, also, for those who stayed
back. A lot of people bid farewell when the first shipload of
emigrants on board a 52 foot sloop, "Resturation",
set out from Stavanger to New York. People thought it was pure madness
when the 52 emigrants set out from Stavanger harbour July 4, 1825. Like
the Pilgrim Fathers from England in the 16th century, the passengers
onboard the "Resturation" left their country mainly
because of religious oppression.
Cleng
Peerson, who has been called the pioneer of Norwegian emigration, came
from Tysvaer in the north of Rogaland. It was
Cleng Peerson who encouraged the small group of Quakers to make the
98-day long voyage across the Atlantic to the New World. In the 100
years that followed the voyage of the "Resturation", some 800.000
Norwegians emigrated to the New World. Today there are more people of
Norwegian descent in the US than the population of Norway,
which is currently over four millions. Only Ireland,
with its tiny population of three million, contributed more emigrants
than Norway.
Still,
Stavanger people have never been able to afford the luxury of giving
in to despair for long. They found there was a living to be made
canning food for the growing shipping industry,
so canneries multiplied along the waterfront and in every available
shed. Stavanger brisling sardines conquered the world market, 50 million
tins of sardines went out in just one year. Industrial Stavanger became
the headquarters of export business and shipping companies dealing with
the entire world. During the years of turmoil, the religious life
blossomed. Missionaries from Stavanger were sent around the world.
However,
towards the 19th century there was a growing lay-movement, which has
given Stavanger a reportation for being a "chapel town" since the past
century. As many as 28 different religious
organizations had their premises in the town. It is said that Rogaland`s
attitude to religion has been influenced by this region`s many
similarities with the Holy Land: Rogalanders are used to guarding flocks
of sheep just as in the land of Israel, and they are fishermen as well.
Link
between Rogaland and Liberty.
Most
people know Statue of Liberty, originally called Liberty Enlightening
the World, this colossal statue, located in the harbour of New York. The
statue symbolizing global freedom is in the form of a woman wearing
flowing robes and spiked crown who holds a torch aloft in her right hand
and carries in her left a book inscribed "July 4, 1776".
Broken chains, symbolizing the overthrow
of tyranny, lie at her feet. The statue
was designed by the French sculptor Frèdèric
Bartoldi, and the statue was given by France to the United States to
commemorate the centennial of US indepence i 1876.
However
only a few people know that the Vinsnes mine, Karmoy in Rogaland at the
turn of the century was northern Europes largest mining community,
supplied a number of projects with copper, among them the Statue of
Liberty. The mines have since been transformed
into an attractive museum found at Skudeneshavn.
The
statue, formed of copper sheets riveted to an iron framework, is one of
the largest in the world. The statue weighs 254 tonnes (250 tons), and
it measures 93.5 m (306 ft 8 in) from the bottom of the pedestal to the
tip of the torch.
The
Vikings
From about AD 800 to 1100 the Vikings had large settlements in the
Stavanger area. The derivation of the word "Viking" is disputed; it may
be from Old Norse vik (a bay or creek) or Old English wik (a fortified
trade settlement). The Viking Age, however is a period that long has
been popularly associated with unbridled piracy, when freebooters came
swarming out of the northlands in their predatory longships to burn and
pillage their way across civilized Europe. Today this is recognized as a
gross simplification. The achievements of the Viking Age in term of
Scandinavian art and craftsmanship, marine technology, exploration, and
the development of commerce, emphasizes the Vikings as traders and not
raiders. Jewels from the early Viking age proving Viking also to be
farms and craftsmen.
Not
every Norwegian, however, was a professional warrior or Viking, and not
every Viking was a pirate. Leiv Eirikson, a Viking, sailed to America
about 500 years before Colombus. Coming from an agrarian culture, he
named the new found land, Vinland, the land of meadows. This did not,
however lead to a wave of Norse immigration to the North American
Continent, as the attempts to settle on the eastern seaboard were soon
abandoned in the face of hostility from the native peoples. Stories of
the abortive American venture are recorded in the medieval Icelandic
sagas.
The
impact of the Vikings was less enduring than might have been expected,
as they had a great capacity for being assimilated into local
populations. 150 years after settling in Normandy their Franco-Viking
descendants were strong enough to conquer England (1066) and Sicily
(1060-1090). The settlers brought to the British Isles energetic art
forms, new farming techniques, mercantile acumen, and a vigorous
language. The Vikings introduced new forms of administration and justice
- such as the jury system. Even the word law is from an Old Norse word.
Traces from the Vikings are still apparent in the dialects of Scotland
and northern England.
Fritz
Roed`s monumental sculpture, The Sword in Rock , (The three swords
impaled on the shores of Hafrsfjord in Stavanger) is a symbol of the
consolidation of the nation at Hafrsfjord around 872 AD. It was here
that Harald Haarfagre - Fairhair - won his final battle against many
rulers of the land. The sculpture has become a prominent landmark. A
number of historians have argued convincingly that the Stavanger area
was an economic and military centre as far back as the 8th century.
According to professor Halvdan Koth (1873-1965) the battle of Hafrsfjord
took place in 900 AD.
Text provided by:
Michael Holmboe Meyer
