Norwegian Units of Measurement - Length

Length

• skrupel – scruple, 1/12 linje or approx. 0.18 mm.
• linje – line, 1/12 tomme or approx. 2.18 mm
• tomme – thumb (inch), 1/12 fot, approx. 26.1 mm. This unit was commonly used for measuring timber until the 1970s. Nowadays, the word refers invariably to the English inch, 25.4 mm.
• kvarter – quarter, 1/4 alen.
• fot – foot, 1/2 alen. From 1824, 313.74 mm.
• alen – forearm or ell, 627.48 mm from 1824, 627.5 mm from 1683, 632.6 mm from 1541. Before that, local variants.
• favn – fathom (pl. favner), 3 alen, 1.882 m.
• stang – rod, 5 alen or 3.1374 m
• lås – 15 favner, 28.2 m
• fjerdingsvei – quarter mile, alt. fjerding, 1/4 mil, i.e. 2.82 km.
• mil or landmil – Norwegian mile, spelled miil prior to 1862, 18,000 alen (36,000 feet, 7.018 miles or 11.295 km). Before 1683, a mil was defined as 17600 alen or 11.13 km. Another old land-mile, 11.824 km. The unit survives to this day, but in a metric 10 km adaptation
• rast –lit. "rest", the old name of the mil. A suitable distance between rests when walking. Believed to be approx. 9 km before 1541.
• Kaffekok, a similar term to rast used in the north by the indigenous Sami people.
• steinkast – stone's throw, perhaps 25 favner, used to this day as a very approximate measure of a short distance.