Norway Knowledge Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sweden

Norway has land borders with Sweden, Finland, and Russia - but not with Denmark, from which it is separated by the Skagerrak Strait (on the edge of the North Sea). However, for several hundred years, Norway was united with either Denmark or Sweden in what was known as a "personal union" - in other words, they had the same monarch.

In the late 18th/early 19th centuries Norway was in a personal union with Denmark, the latter being the more powerful of the two countries. However, Denmark allied itself with Napoleon, which didn't go down too well with the British and Russians, and the Danes were forced to concede Norway to Sweden. The Norwegians didn't like it but were not strong enough to do much about it and despite several attempts to revolt against the union, Norway remained tied to Sweden for nearly 100 years.

In 1905 the Norwegian people voted in two national plebiscites to dissolve the union with Sweden and to have a new king. Independence was declared on 7 June 1905 and a few months later the Swedish government agreed to recognise Norway as an independent constitutional monarchy.

Answer: Oslo

Oslo is the capital and largest city in Norway, with a population in its widest metropolitan area of 1.7 million (2016). Oslo was founded in 1040 and became a Norwegian capital at the beginning of the 14th century. However, because Norway was often part of unions with other Scandinavian countries, the city was not as powerful as it might otherwise have been. In 1624, the city was burned down and a new city was built nearby with the name Christiania, later Kristiania. In 1925, that city incorporated the village of Oslo, where the old capital had been, and the city adopted the old name.

Oslo is known as a "global city", a term used for cities that play a significant role in the world economy.

Answer: North Sea

The North Sea was previously known largely for its storms and for its fishing industry, especially cod, herring, and mackerel. It had been known for some time that there was oil and natural gas on the edges of the sea but it wasn't until the mid-60/early 70s that the extent of the oilfields became known and that they could be exploited commercially. The bulk of the oil lies in the areas around Norway and the UK though there are significant natural gas reserves off Denmark and the Netherlands.

Drilling in the North Sea is dangerous and many lives have been lost on oil rigs and in air and shipping accidents. Nonetheless, by 2015 the North Sea had become the world's most active area for offshore drilling and Norway was the world's largest producer of oil outside the OPEC nations. Oil was also discovered in other waters around Norway, including the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea.

Answer: Glacial activity

Glaciers often form in pre-existing valleys with gentle slopes but they cause severe abrasion as a result of the movement of ice and large amounts of rock. This abrasion gauges out much steeper valleys, most of which are below sea level. Norway's largest fjord, for example, is Sognefjord which covers more than 200 km (125 miles) from the sea to its furthest point inland, and in places is more than 1,300m (4,300 ft) deep.

One alternative theory is that Norway's fjords were created by Slartibartfast, who features in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", but you'll need to look in the Literature category for a quiz on that.

Answer: Seeds

Svalbard hosts the Global Seed Vault which contains duplicates of every seed held in gene banks in different countries. Svalbard acts as a seed repository that could be used if crops were destroyed because of factors such as global warming, natural weather disasters, and other incidents such as warfare.

The Svalbard Seed Depository is based in an old mine. The tunnels were carved into a sandstone mountain and the interior is within an area of permafrost which provides the low temperatures required for the storage of biological specimens. As of 2021 over 1,000,000 seeds were stored at Svalbard.

Answer: Happiness

The World Happiness Report was first announced in 2012 and includes tables ranking countries against each other. Scandinavian countries have done particularly well, including Norway which was listed in the top five countries every year 2012-2021.

It's also true to say that Norway does have a high level of individual wealth, strong corporate performance, and high levels of literacy which are no doubt factors leading to their happiness.

Answer: Reindeer

The Sami people live in a region known as Sapmi and their traditional language is part of the Uralic language group; it is related to Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. The region used to be known as Lapland but that's a term which the Sami regard as derogatory so it has largely been discarded, apart that is from annual letters from British children to Father Christmas who apparently lives there. Note that this is not the same address as the one used by Santa Claus - he lives at the North Pole.

Herding reindeer is a traditional, partly nomadic, occupation for the Sami but there are just as many involved in fishing and sheep-herding. Approximately 40,000 Sami people live in Norway, which is the largest percentage across the different countries in which the Sami live.

Answer: Maelstrom

The word 'maelstrom' means 'grinding stream' although the strong currents around Norway are not quite as gentle as the usual image of a stream. It used to be said that whirlpools were so dangerous that they would swallow any ship that passed into the circulating currents but while that may have been true of some lighter sailing boats, most ships can cross them relatively safely although that has to be done at key times in the whirlpool's cycle.

Saltstraumen is a fairly typical maelstrom in that it is found in a strait between two islands. The strength of the current is a result of the height difference between the sea and a fjord - when the water rushes "downhill" it can reach speeds of 40 kmh (25 mph) and creates whirlpools that are about 10 metres (25 ft) across. Moskstraumen differs from Saltstraumen in that it forms in open seas; it's wider but the tidal currents are not as strong. The world's third largest maelstrom, the Corryvreckan, is in the Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland.

Answer: Aurora Borealis

The Aurora Borealis, sometimes known as the Northern Lights, are caused by solar winds that bombard the Earth with charged particles which are deflected by the planet's magnetosphere. The result is a lighting display in the night sky which can take several forms, including clouds, arcs, 'curtains', and stripes, and have bright, changing colours, including reds, greens, and blues. The lights appear to dance, quickly moving and changing shape

The Aurora Borealis were given that name by Galileo; Aurora was the name of the Roman goddess of the dawn and Boreas was the Greek god of the north wind. The earliest record of the Aurora are thought to be in a cave-painting in France, dating back 30,000 years. The Inuit people told stories of northern spirits playing ball with the head of a walrus and the Vikings thought that the light was a reflection off the shields of the Valkyries. Similar lights appear in the Southern hemisphere - the Aurora Australis.

Answer: Canada

There are two Viking sagas that tell the story of how and when Vikings first discovered Vinland. Although they're not quite the same, both feature Leif Ericsson as leading an expedition to Vinland and it's generally accepted that his voyages did lead to an exploration of, and settlement in, an area of what is now called Newfoundland, making his crew the first Europeans to reach the Americas.

It's not clear from the sagas if the word 'Vinland' refers to 'meadows and pasture', which is one translation, or to a land with vines and berries from which wine could be made. Either way, the land was said to be bountiful but it did have resident people already. One location in Newfoundland is (as of 2022) the largest and southernmost settlement found so far, L'Anse aux Meadows. The site was excavated in the 1960s and 70s, and radiocarbon dating puts the dates of settlement at around the year 1000 CE.