melodious prose. In 1891 was printed in a magazine Vilhelm Krag’s (b. 1871) very remarkable poem called Fandango, and shortly afterwards a collection of his lyrics. Vogt and V. Krag continued to be the leading lyrical writers of the period, and although they have many imitators, they cannot be said to have found any rivals. Vilhelm Krag turned to prose fiction, and his novels Isaac Seehuusen (1900) and Isaac Kapergast (1901) are excellent studies of Westland life. More distinguished as a novelist, however, is his brother, Thomas P. Krag (b. 1868), who published a series of romantic novels, of which Ada Wilde (1897) is the most powerful. His short stories are full of delicate charm. Hans E. Kinck (b. 1865) is an accomplished writer of short stories from peasant life, written in dialect. Bernt Lie (b. 1868) is the author of popular works of fiction, mainly for the young. Sven Nilssen (b. 1864) is the author of a very successful novel, The Barque Franciska (1901). With him may be mentioned the popular dramatist and memoir-writer, John Paulsen (b. 1851), author of The Widow’s Son. Johan Bojer (b. 1872) has written satirical romances, of which the most powerful is The Power of Faith (1903). Jakob Hilditch (b. 1864) has written many stories and sketches of a purely national kind, and is the anonymous author of a most diverting parody of banal provincial journalism, Tranviksposten (1900–1901).
The leading critics are Carl Nærup (b. 1864) and Hjalmar Christensen (b. 1869), each of whom has published collections of essays dealing with the aspects of recent Norwegian literature. The death of the leading bibliographer and lexicographer of Norway, Jens Braage Halvorsen (1845–1900), inflicted a blow upon the literary history of his country; his Dictionary of Norwegian Authors (1885–1900)—left for completion by Halfdan Koht—is one of the most elaborate works of its kind ever undertaken. Among recent historians of Norway much activity has been shown by Ernst Sars (b. 1835) and Yngvar Nielsen (b. 1843). The great historian of northern jurisprudence was L. M. B. Aubert (1838–1896), and in this connexion T. H. Aschehoug (b. 1822) must also be mentioned. The leading philosopher of Norway in those years was the Hegelian Marcus Jakob Monrad (b. 1816), whose Aesthetics of 1889 is his masterpiece.
The close of 1899 and the beginning of 1900 were occupied by a discussion, in which every Norwegian author took part, as to the adoption of the landsmaal, or composite dialect of the peasants, in place of the rigsmaal or Dano-Norwegian. Political prejudice greatly embittered the controversy, but the proposition that the The “maal” controversy. landsmaal, which dates from the exertions of Ivar Aasen (q.v.) in 1850, should oust the language in which all the classics of Norway are written, was opposed by almost every philologist and writer in the country, particularly by Björnson and Sophus Bugge (b. 1833). On the other side, Arne Garborg’s was almost the only name which carried any literary weight. The maal has no doubt enriched the literary tongue of the country with many valuable words and turns of expression, but there the advantage of it ends, and it is difficult to feel the slightest sympathy with a movement in favour of suppressing the language in which every one has hitherto expressed himself, in order to adopt an artificial dialect which exists mainly on paper, and which is not the natural speech of any one body of persons throughout the whole of Norway.
Authorities.—La Norvège littéraire, by Paul Botten-Hansen (1824–1869), is an admirable piece of bibliography, but comes down no farther than 1866. Jens Braage Halvorsen (1845–1900) left his admirable and exhaustive Norsk Forfatter-Lexikon, 1814–1880 (Norwegian Dictionary of Authors) incomplete; but the work was continued by Halfdan Koht. See also Henrik Jæger, Illustreret norsk literaturhistorie (Christiania, 1892–1896); to which an appendix Siste Tidsrum 1890–1904 was added by Carl Nærup in 1905; Ph. Schweitzer, Geschichte der skandinavischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1889); F. W. Horn, History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North (Eng. trans., Chicago, 1884); Edmund Gosse, Northern Studies (2nd ed., 1882). (E. G.)
NORWEGIAN SEA, the sea enclosed between Norway, the
Shetland and Faeroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Spitsbergen
and Bear Island. Its basin is bounded on the E. by the
Spitsbergen
platform, the continental shelf of the Barents Sea and
the Norwegian coast: on the S. and S.W. by the North Sea,
the Wyville-Thomson ridge, the Faeroe-Iceland ridge and the
Iceland-Greenland ridge; on the W. by the coast of Greenland
and on the N., so far as is known, by a ridge extending from
Greenland to Spitsbergen. The Norwegian Sea is thus placed
between the basins of the Atlantic on the one side and of the
Arctic Ocean on the other: the mean depth of the submarine
ridge separating it from the former being about 300 fathoms,
and from the latter probably about 400 fathoms. The basin
itself consists of a series of deeps, separated from one another
by transverse ridges. Nansen and Helland-Hansen give the
following results of measurements of the area:
| Area of surface | 2·58 million sq. km. | ||
| Water area at | 600 | metres | 1·79,,,, |
| ,,,, | 1000 | ,, | 1·65,,,, |
| ,,,, | 2000 | ,, | 1·05,,,, |
| ,,,, | 3000 | ,, | 0·30,,,, |
| Volume | 4·12 million cubic km. | ||
| Mean depth | 1600 metres. | ||
The Norwegian Sea forms the meeting-place of waters coming from the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, and it also receives coastal waters from the North Sea and connecting areas, and from the Barents Sea. As communication with other basins is cut off comparatively near the surface, the inflow and outflow of waters must take place entirely in the upper strata, and the isolated water in the deep basin has typical physical characters of its own.
The distribution and circulation of these waters are of great complexity, and have formed the subject of study by oceanographers since the region was first opened up by the Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition, 1876–1878. Much fresh light has been thrown on the subject by the work of the International Council for the study of the sea, and more particularly by the Norwegian investigators Nansen and Helland-Hansen, whose report on Norwegian Fishery and Marine Investigations (vol. ii. No. 2, 1909) contains a complete survey of present knowledge. (H. N. D.)
NORWICH, GEORGE GORING, Earl of (1583?–1663),
English soldier, was the son of George Goring of Hurstpierpoint
and Ovingdean, Sussex, and of Anne Denny, sister of Edward
Denny, earl of Norwich. He was knighted in 1608, and became
a favourite at court, benefiting largely from monopolies granted
by Charles I. He became Baron Goring in 1628, and privy
councillor in 1639. When the troubles between Charles and his
parliament became acute Goring devoted his fortune freely
to the royal cause; and the king in November 1644 renewed
for him the title of earl of Norwich which had become extinct
at his uncle’s death. He went with the queen to Holland in
1642 to raise money for the king, and in the autumn of the next
year he was seeking arms and money from Mazarin in Paris.
His proceedings were revealed to the parliament in January
1644 by an intercepted letter to Henrietta Maria. He was
consequently impeached of high treason, and prudently remained
abroad until 1647 when he received a pass from the parliament
under a pretext of seeking reconciliation. Thus he was able to
take a prominent part in the Second Civil War of 1648 (see
Great Rebellion). He commanded the Kentish levies, which
Fairfax dispersed at Maidstone and elsewhere, and was forced
to surrender unconditionally at Colchester. He was condemned
to exile in November 1648 by a vote of the House of Commons,
but in the next month the vote was annulled. Early in the next
year a court was formed under Bradshaw to try Norwich and
four others. All five were condemned to death on the 6th of
March, but petitions for mercy were presented to parliament,
and Norwich’s life was spared by the Speaker’s casting vote.
Shortly after his liberation from prison in May he joined the
exiled court of Charles II., by whom he was employed in fruitless
negotiations with the duke of Lorraine. He became captain
of the king’s guard at the Restoration, and in consideration of
the fortune he had expended in the king’s service a pension of
£2000 a year was granted him. He died at Brentford on the
6th of January 1663. By his wife Mary Nevill (d. 1648), daughter
of the 6th Lord Abergavenny, he had four daughters and two
sons: George, Lord Goring (q.v.); and Charles, who fought
