Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1906-06-28
TRONDHJEM THE
ANCIENT CITADEL
HISTORY OF ITS oNE-TIME
GRANDEUR.
CRADLE OF MORSE NATION
Seat Of Government in Ninth Century
First Haakon was Crowned There
in 935-No Royal PaIace-king
Uses Residence of Governor of the
Province.

Trondhjem, Norway, June 23.-In-
terest in Norway, its customs and his
tory, has increased since it severed
its connection with Sweden. Just
now all eyes are turned toward Trond-
hjem, the ancient seat of govern
ment and at one time the commercial
center of the kingdom.
Trondhjem, the ancient capital Of
the kings of Norway may be called
the cradle of the Morse nation. 1t
is first mentioned in history, before
there was a united Norway, in con-
nection with Harold the Fair Haired
who conquered all the petty kings Of
the Morse counties and united them
into a single state under his own
crown in the latter part of the ninth
century. But it did not attain first
importance in the kingdom until
Haakon the Good was crowned there
in 935 amid the joyful acclamations of
the people who had successfully re-
belled against the cruel tyranny Of
Eruk Blood-axe and his despotic wife
Queen Gunhild. Since then all the
kings of Norway of whatever nation
atty they might be have had to
travel to this far away city for the
ceremony of investiture. The King
Haakon of today owes his name to
the first good king of united and in
dependent Norway and the little
Crown Prince becomes the namesake
of his first legitimate successor the
great Olaf Tryggvesson who was
crowned in 995. Up to that time
Trondhjem was less a national cap
ital than the mere stronghold of an
important province but in 996 Olaf
Tryggvesson laid the foundation of
the present city which he then call
ed Nidaros. 1t is the northernmost
town of any Importance in Europe be-
ing situated in the same latitude as
the south coast of Iceland but it has a
strongly temperate climate. While
Christiania Fjord and all the rivers in
the southern part of Norway become
solidly frozen during the winter, the
River Mid rarely freezes over and
the beautiful Trondhjem Fjord never.
The climate is like that of middle
Germany in winter and much like that
of the coast of Oregon in summer.
Hence the luxurious vegetation and
the resultant prosperity of the peo-
pie.
Christianity introduced.
King Haakon the Good is dis
tinguished as being the first christian
sovereign of Norway. He was sent
by his father to England in his child
hood and there he became convert
to the faith and was baptized. Upon
his return to Norway and his acces-
sion to his fathers throne he did not
dare to Immediately attack the
ancient Asa faith which had so many
fanatical adherents among his closest
friends so he temporized for some
sixteen years or more until he had
won such unbounded popularity as
seemed to warrant his taking steps
toward the realization of the wish
nearest his heart-the christianization
of his people. He began well bur
he did not possess the cruelty of zeal
that was necessary for the accom-
plishment of such a task in that age
Sc he only succeeded in opening the
way for his more vigorous successor
Olaf Tryggvesson who introduced
the fire and sword into the fight with
a great measure of success. But even
he failed to completely eradicate
paganism from the national heart and
it was only after his successor, by
his wife, and more particularly by
his death had appealed to the ready
imagination of the norsemen that
christianity really became the estab-
lished religion of the country. This
great missionary was King Olaf
Haroldson who was afterward can
onized as st. Olaf and over whose
sacred remains the great cathedral in
Trondhjem arose This cathedral is
the proudest historical monument in
Norway and the finest church in all
Scandinavia. st. Olaf was killed at
the religious battle of Stsklestad in
1880 and his son and successor Mag
nus the Good brought his body to
Trondhjem and placed it in mag
nificent sarcophagus on the high al
tar of St. Clements church where it
became an object of devout pill
grimages from all over the country.
Eventually the cathedral anu some Is
or 20 other churches were built upon
the strength of the faith he
had created and even in Nor.
way today his name is revered
above all others. In ISL Trondhjem
was erected into an archbishopric and
a new impulse was given to ecclesi-
astical building enterprises. At this
time the great Archbishop Epstein.
the third of Trondhjem, quarreled
with the king and fed to England
where he remained for three years.
He returned full of religious zeal and
ambitious plans for his own national
capital and during the next few years