Norwegian Food History

Historical period

A framework: prehistoric coastal and inland settlement; the Viking Age with its trade, its farms and its bog and grave evidence; Christianisation and the fasting calendar; the Hanseatic Kontor at Bryggen in Bergen from the 14th century and the stockfish monopoly it ran; the Black Death, which killed a very large share of the population and abandoned whole farm districts; DENMARK-NORWAY from 1380 to 1814, with the grain monopoly that made the country dependent on Danish supply; union with Sweden 1814-1905; the potato, the population rise and the emigration of roughly 800,000 people; independence, the fisheries and the herring; German occupation and rationing 1940-45; the postwar welfare state; the oil economy from 1969 and the wealth it brought to the table; and the New Nordic turn.