Norwegian Farm Culture - A Historic Basis

A Historic Basis

Norwegian property laws, so ancient that the time of their enactment is lost, govern Norwegian property transfer. This property system worked to preserve the Norwegian farm and contributed to the independence and relative equality the Norwegians maintained, even during periods of Danish and Swedish suzerainty.

The Gulating lawtext is in many aspects written by the farmers themselves. The juridical text states a common "we", who make their own agreements with their king and their nobility. Thus, the law states that the king can call out a leidang "because we find it useful". The historian Kåre Lunden argues that a farming community with such self esteem, would find it proper to execute the king himself if he went against their common interests, as they actually did at the Battle of Stiklestad. Snorre Sturlason mentions that King Håkon I of Norway had to rule with the support of the farmers, as the same farmers made a point of going against him if he pressed certain matters further at the ting (the case in question was Christianity).

The Gulating law also stipulates that the farmers will abstain from "beating up the parsons" for the future (meaning they have done it before). Norwegian history tells of a number of unlucky country priests falling victim to angry farmers. Thus, only the strongest candidates were willing to leave for the rural areas. Kåre Lunden makes a point of this attitude, compared to the French medieval farmer stock, who willingly gave up their freedom for the monasteries.

Norway was never a feudal country, with serfdom never existing; the scattered population, mountainous areas and lack of established communities did not support a centralized feudal order. While Denmark attempted to impose the “vertical” feudal order, with accompanying authoritarian roles and responsibilities, such efforts had in Norway limited success. During the Union Period, Denmark gradually established over-lordship of Norway, which for military purposes and in the eyes of the world made Denmark-Norway one united realm. Not only was the central government located in Copenhagen, but virtually all local officials in Norway were Danes. Official business was conducted in Danish, although the common language remained Norwegian. But this over-lordship remained formal, and external to the people's everyday life. When the governors and sheriffs attempted conducting in Norway the oppressive practices and virtual slavery that were common in Denmark, they encountered firm resistance and vigorous protests from the Norwegian self-owning farmers.

The farmers had kept their independence including the use of local assemblies known as the Thing, and lived by their old Norse code of law up until 1685. It was at that time that the Danish King Christian V revised Norwegian property laws. The laws of Magnus Lagabøte had by then been practiced for 400 years. After this judicial code, the farmers saw the king as a guarantor for their rights, and were equal to the king in the old sense that the king or the king's men was obliged to hold their pledges towards them (social contract). However, this did not bother the Danish sheriffs, and the farmers answered the broken pledges by killing the sheriff – a recurring incident during the early days of the union. The honor of a given word was deeply rooted in the farmer’s conscience, long into the 19th century. Sources from the 18th century mentions a number of incidents where the farmers refused to acknowledge Danish law in Norway, and referring to "ancient rights" during court hearings.

Significantly, the Norwegian military was based on the farmers, and Norwegian farmers were known to be good soldiers in that era, and reckoned to be more warlike than the Danish. Different from the Danish farmers, the Norwegians had the right to bear arms. This had practical reasons: Hunting was a common part of the farmer´s life. Hence, Norwegian peasant boys were more skilled in weaponry, and were requested as soldiers as far away as Prussia. The battles fought on Norwegian soil during the Napoleonic wars, were fought by "commanded farmers".

In consequense, Norway saw a long list of peasant revolts, often against the heavy tax-burden of the Dano-Norwegian state, and against foreign armies. An army of farmers thus beat and annihilated a troop of Scottish mercenaries in the Battle of Kringen in 1612, during the Kalmar War. This episode magnified the general opinion of Norwegian peasantry. The warlike behavior also resulted in many brawls, fights and local feuds between farms, clans and valleys. An old schoolteacher stated that he in his lifetime (about 1727) had experienced as many as 30 manslaughters in his own community, Hol in Hallingdal, over perhaps 40 years. Various sources support this pugnacious nature; many of the stories of fights and fighters were handed down as heroic legends in folk-tradition, sung as songs, and connected to dance-tunes. The legends derived from this particular time, often tell of proud resistance towards the authorities, and a kind of Viking persistence facing death. Those legends value a good punchline in the nick of time, in some cases given in front of the executioner´s block. Even today we can find a kind of mock-feud between central valleys, and still occasional brawling between youths from different landscapes and counties.

In the 1660s and 1670s, a large amount of crown land in Norway was sold to liquidate war debts, mostly to rich burghers, officials and nobles. The bonder who had worked this land now found themselves renter from a far more oppressive class than their former landlord, the crown. These new landowners introduced oppressive rent practices designed to reduce the bonder to virtual serfdom as was then common in Denmark. Statholder Gyldenløve, interested in forestalling the serious troubles arising, urged the King to curb the greed of the landowners, and is quoted by Knut Gjerset as stating "In Norway, the government differs so much from that of other lands that there it consists of the farmer, and is maintained by them… The prosperity of the farmers is the main thing, the root and basis for the preservation of the whole kingdom."

In 1684–1695, regulations were published that capped the rates of rent charged and limited the amount of "free service" rendered by the bonded farmers. When a farm was leased, it had to be leased with all its conveniences to the leaseholder for his lifetime, the rent established by unchangeable mutual contract, and fixed prices established for the products with which the farmer paid his rent.

In those years, the farmers gathered time and again, struggling for their inherited rights. Strikes against war taxes were common, notably in the mountain areas. Thus, Upper Hallingdal revolted in 1713, while parts of Telemark revolted some years later, both incidents related to the great nordic war. It is known that farmers at the time held their own rights over the rights of the king, and did not acknowledge the union laws. Some of those men argued persistently for their cause.

As the news of the French Revolution spread, the most educated farmers assembled their people and strove for democracy and common rights. Some of these joined sides with religious reformer Hans Nielsen Hauge, and fought for farmers’ rights in the Constitutional Assembly.

The last uprising prior to the "farmer`s parliament" from 1836 took place in 1818, once again because of high taxes and hard times. As usual, the farmers wanted to send a petition straight to the king (Carl Johan). The parliament sent troops, and about 300 men from Hallingdal, Valdres and Hedmark was escorted to Christiania, under suspicion of rebellion. Their letter for the king and parliament was never to be delivered, but the tax burden eased for a time afterwards. One has to note that the men in power reacted as would the Danish before them, even four years after the constitutional assembly.

The first generation of farmers born after 1814 counted many personalities willing to test their intellectual strength in the new-born democracy. Thus we find many self-taught farmers, who in time became a valuable source for information when the folklorists arrived in the 1850s. Many of these men wrote their information down, and worked as local teachers. In one case, a farmer from Telemark, Rikard Aslaksson Berge, even ventured to teach himself German and Theology. He welcomed Ivar Aasen, and was a valuable source for preserving old traditional music and lore in his area. Other farmers who thought in the same manner, were among those elected for the famous "Farmers' Parliament" of 1835. It is fair to say that the Norwegian farmers in general were self-aware and independent, very unlike their feudal counterparts in central Europe.