Hålogaland

Coordinates: 67°N 14°E / 67°N 14°E / 67; 14

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Tromsø, by Peder Balke, 1804–1887. This painting illustrates some of the rugged Fjord and island terrain that was Hålogaland.

Hålogaland around 1000 CE.

Hålogaland was the northernmost of the Norwegian provinces in the mediaeval Norse sagas. In the early Viking Age, before Harald Fairhair, Hålogaland was a petty kingdom extending between Namdalen in Nord-Trøndelag and Lyngen in Troms. Perhaps the best known inhabitant was Ottar.

Hålogaland figures extensively in the Norse sagas, and in the Heimskringla, especially the Ynglinga Saga. It was inhabited by the Háleygia aett, "the race of Hölgi", who was the eponymous hero of Hålogaland.

The name

Etymology

Alex Woolf, Pictland to Alba, says that Hålogaland, the most northerly Scandianvian region from the 8th century, meant the "Land of the High Fire" and that reference was to the aurora borealis.^[1]

Use of name

In modern times, the term Hålogaland is used in a variety of senses. For some purposes, all of Nord-Norge plus Svalbard and Jan Mayen are covered under the term Hålogaland. For other purposes the counties of Nordland and Troms constitute Hålogaland. Hålogaland or even Mid Hålogaland are frequent terms covering the smaller districts of Ofoten, Lofoten and Vesterålen, as well as the municipalities Bjarkøy, Gratangen, Harstad, Ibestad, Kvæfjord and Skånland of Troms county. The term has also been used in this last sense, minus the Lofoten archipelago.

In the sagas

In the Heimskringla, a man called Gudlög led a number of Norwegian pirates that were fought by the Swedish king Jorund in the Heimskringla, and king Godgest was given a horse by the Swedish king Adils.

The first earl of Lade, Håkon Grjotgardsson, ruler of Trøndelag, came from Hålogaland, and sought to extend his kingdom southwards. Here, he met with Harald Fairhair, and joined him.

Geography

Hålogaland, in every sense of the word, is drowned coastline containing extensive mountainous fjords and islands. It was an excellent refuge for Viking ships as well as a way station for voyagers to the White Sea, which offered access to Russia. Even in modern times, Narvik was an important WWII objective. In 2008, the name was proposed as the possible name of an independent Northern Norway.^[2]

See also

• Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr, a goddess strongly associated with Hölgi

Notes

References

• Woolf, Alex (2007), From Pictland to Alba, 789–1070, The New Edinburgh History of Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 0-7486-1234-5