Black Death in Norway

The Black Death was present in Norway between 1349 and 1350.[1]

1346-1353 spread of the Black Death in Europe map

Background

Norway in the mid-14th century

At this point in time, Norway was in a personal union with Sweden under the same monarch, Magnus IV of Sweden.

The Black Death

Since the outbreak of the Black Death at the Crimea, it had reached Sicily by an Italian ship from the Crimea. After having spread across the Italian states, and from Italy to France, Spain and England, the plague reached Norway by a plague ship from England in the summer of 1349.[1]

Plague migration

Western Norway

The bubonic plague pandemic known as the Black Death reached Bergen in Norway by ship from England in late summer of 1349, and spread from Bergen North to Trondheim. The Black Death in Norway is famously described in the contemporary Icelandic sources Gotskalks annal, and Lögmanns-annál by Einar Haflidason, which describes the migration of the Black Death in Western Norway.[1]

Eastern Norway

In parallel, the plague is likely to have reached Oslo by sea in spring or early summer of 1349 and from there North toward Hamar, toward Valdres in Central Norway, South West toward Stavanger and East toward Sweden.[1] In contrast to the famous and documented plague migration in Western Norway, however, the migration of the plague in Eastern Norway is only indirectly documented and more unknown.[1]

Consequences

In traditional Norwegian history, the Black Death is given a major importance, as an explanation for the deterioration of Norway from an independent nation in the early 14th-century, to its loss of political independence in the Kalmar Union in the late century, which caused Norway to lose political and economic independence and become a Danish province for centuries onward.[1]

While the exact number deaths from the Black Death is unknown, it is clear that the plague caused a demographic shock, and that the population did not recover to pre-pandemic levels until the 17th-century.[1]

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References
  1. Harrison, Dick, Stora döden: den värsta katastrof som drabbat Europa, Ordfront, Stockholm, 2000 ISBN 91-7324-752-9

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