In an age when strength, bravery, and an adventurous spirit made a nation eminent, Norway played a great rôle upon the arena of the world, founding and destroying kingdoms, mingling her vigorous blood with that of other nations, and infusing her love of liberty, restrained by law, into their souls. Since powder and modern strategy have subordinated heroism to discipline and numbers, Norway must resign herself to the fate which her numerical weakness imposes upon her. A people of scarcely two millions can cut no very great figure in the world, as it is now constituted. It must either rest upon its laurels or win new ones in other fields. As the militant organization of society, with its needless bloodshed and oppression, slowly yields to the industrial, history will find another gauge of merit than that of Krupp guns and heavy battalions. Then, perhaps, there will again be a chance for small nations to assert themselves. [Illustration: BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON.] Norway has made a beginning in this direction by her contributions, during recent years, to science and literature. The astronomer Hansteen (d. 1873), the mathematicians Abel and Sophus Lie, the zoölogist Sars, the historians Munch, Keyser, Sars, and Storm, and the philologist Ivar Aason, have gained recognition, beyond the boundaries of their own country. The painters Tidemand (d. 1876) and Gude have interpreted in colors the poetry of Norse popular life and scenery. The musicians Ole Bull (d. 1880), Nordraak, and Grieg have made the melancholy strains of their native mountains resound through the concert-halls of Paris and London, and the poets Björnson, Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland have made Norway known to the world and the world known to Norway. They have broken down the wall which so long hedged in their country, and excluded it from the intellectual life of Europe. [Illustration] [Illustration] INDEX A Aabo, 514 Aachen, 31, 32 Aake, the Yeoman, 58 Aal, Jacob, 518 Aale Hallvardsson, 373 Aaluf, 111 Aamunde Gyrdsson, 312 Aaros, 237 Aasa, 32 Aasa, Haakon Grjotgardsson's daughter, 60 Aasbjörn Sigurdsson, 211, 212 Aasbjörn of Medalhus, 92 Aasen, Ivar, 538 Aasgerd, wife of Egil Baldgrim's son, 78, 79 Aasta, mother of Olaf the Saint,182, 186, 187, 188, 199, 200,240 Aastrid, queen of Olaf the Saint,197 Aastrid, Olaf Tryggvesson's mother, 108, 109, 134, 135 Aastrid, Olaf Tryggvesson's sister,148 Aastrid, daughter of Thirik, 153 Aastrid, wife of Earl Sigvalde,163, 171 Aasulf of Austraat, 426 Abel, mathematician, 538 Absalon, Bishop, 330, 359, 379 Adalbert of Bremen, 272 Adeler, Kort, 500 Aeger, 23 Aelgifa, see Alfifa Aesir, 13, 14 Africa, 32, 298 Agdeness, 294, 300 Agder, 32, 47, 147, 173, 324 Agmund Skoftesson, 288 Agnes, Queen of Denmark, 456 Agnes, daughter of Haakon Longlegs, 478 Agvaldsness, 95, 211 Aker, 416, 492 Akershus, 459, 481, 486, 503 Akron, 293 Albrecht of Mecklenburg, 463, 464, 467, 468, 469 Alexander Newsky, 430