Galtung (noble family)
Galtung was a Norwegian noble family dating from the ennoblement of Lauritz Galtung in 1648. However, when he was ennobled, documents existed that indicated the family descended from an older noble family, the Galte family. A male-lineage connection between Galtung and Galte has not been made, but a female-line linkage bridging between Galte and Galtung been documented in genealogical records, but not in the way names are usually passed around as surnames. The old lineage of Galte that moved from Hatteberg in 1399 still exists in a direct male line up to 2022, as having  fallen from grace to become farmers during the Danish period tending to the same lands in Hardanger their ancestors would have been kings and earls of. The old Galte. The first family called Galte, belongs to what was called the uradel (i.e., undocumented as nobility by letters of patent, but widely recognized as nobility in other sources) in the middle ages. The Galte family male-line did not die out in the Middle Ages, but was forced to give up their previous titles and lands as the Danish Reformation brought them down from power. They had their main seat at  Hatteberg, Mel, Eik and Torsnes in Jondal, Hardanger. It is believed that the descendants living today represent the oldest surviving noble family in Norway. The old male lineage remains unbroken to this day, in the 42nd generation. The later generations are not listed, as the Galte descendants from the 15-16nth century stopped using the Galte name. The old Galte's historical achievements. The ancient earls and kings of Western-Norway descended from mythical king Fornjot of Gotland ("Jotland"), Kvenland and Finland through his descendant's king Nor and sea-king Gor. Their sister sister Goe had gone missing, and  traveling through Scandinavia from Finland, the two brothers ended up gathering large parts of what was a smaller version of Norway to a kingdom. This story is found in the Orkney Saga in Flateyjarbók, where the author even links the royal bloodline with Odin and Adam. This line accounts for the direct male line of the Galte-family at Hatteberg, the main seat of the family in Hardanger at Vestlandet. People and branches of the family not listed above in the direct male line ending at Hatteberg, were also a major players in European history as they went on to  found their own dynasties abroad. One such was Tore "Teiande" Ragnvaldsson's brother, Rolf Ragnvaldsson, better known as he became Rollo, first of the House of Normandie. Fall from grace. The 15nth century was a cataclysmic fall from grace for the Galte-family in Hardanger. The "nail in the coffin" was when Greip Ivarsson's father-in-law Greip Àmundsson (Ogmundsson) Aga was abducted by danish serving Hartvig Krummedike in 1440. He was eventually let go in return of 120 marks of silver. After the 15nth century, the Galte-family stopped using the "Galte" name officially for obvious political reasons . A supposed link was made by Danish immigrants that they were descendants due to their connection with Torsnes, but this does not occur in the family tree along the rest of the Hardanger Galte descendants descending from Greip Ivarsson, the last Galti who lived at Hatteberg. Hatteberg was pawned in 1399 by Greip Ivarsson to his close relative Gaute Eiriksson Galte to get enough money to acquire ships, as Greip was broke. He needed the ships to set sails west to free the Feroe Islands and bring them back under Norwegian dominion, but he failed. He never managed to buy  Hatteberg back, and hence the family main seat changed hands to Gaute Eiriksson Galte (ca. 1340-1412), inherited by Gaute's daughters. Hatteberg then a century later is in the hands of danish Jens Bjelke who sold it to Axel Mowat. Through his daughter Karen's marriage to Erik Rosenkrantz, Hatteberg and Mel became "Baroniet i Rosendal", after having served as a Norwegian noble and royal seat for hundreds of years. Greip Ivarsson's family had moved to Norheim which became Norheimsund, and spread by the wind, as some stayed and others moved. Throughout the 16nth to the 18nth century , Galte-descendants were fined for fighting with the officials sent by Denmark, and to a great extent kept their position as leaders of the locals of Hardanger that were more than just upset with the new, Danish immigrant ruling class whom first confiscated Norwegian lands and shared it among themselves, monopolized the trades, heavily taxing the Norwegian farmers into poverty and then adopting the Norwegian noble family name Galte into Danish noble Galtung as their own. Some descendants settled in America with the migration rush in the 19nth century, and there are descendants in America today probably not aware of  their origin. Of the family in Hardanger, it's hard to say how many descendants there are and they too are often not aware of their descent. The old Galte-clan today. The old Galte-clan ("ætt") descendants still exist, even in a straight male line unbroken from the time of Greip Ivarsson (ca. 1355-1400). As of 2022, the latest male member in the line counts as the 42nd generation. The generations after Greip Ivarsson are not listed, as they stopped using the "Galte" name. The younger Galtung. The younger Galtung family male-line can be traced back to  Laurits Johanneson who was born around 1519. It was his great-grandson Lauritz Galtung, Admiral of the Dano-Norwegian fleet, who later renewed the nobility of the family in 1648, changing the name from Galte to Galtung. The present family belonged to an influential circle of families in the Hardanger area, including the owners of the farms Aga and Torsnes, and had many well-known naval officers, including admirals . In 1885, historian Henrik Jørgen Huitfeldt-Kaas said that in the period 1670-1870 the family started marrying commoners, and thus, should be considered to have lost their nobility (later it  was asserted that this position was influenced by the Danish, whose nobility, to a large degree, supplanted Norwegian nobility during the Dano-Norwegian union. Early in the 18th century the remaining family lived on the old family farm of Torsnes, which is still occupied by descendants today. By the end of the 18th century, many of the family's members could be found in the cities, populating professional classes as lawyers, doctors and such.Living descendants today include sociologist Johan Galtung, recognised for his contributions to peace research and practice of conflict-solving, the so-called transcend-method. According to  Statistics Norway 100 persons have Galtung as their surname as of 2009.