This paper is the continuation of my study of the spatial ideas of medieval Scandinavians. As I have shown elsewhere, before the settlement of Iceland in the ninth century the Norwegians imagined the inhabited world as consisting of four quarters, with Norway forming the northern quarter and the islands in the Atlantic Ocean the western. However, according to the sources, travel from Norway to Iceland was described not by the term vestr “westward”, but by út “out, towards the outer side”. Here, I attempt to explain this phenomenon and to demonstrate the diversity of the spatial ideas and traditions preserved in the sagas.
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Artikler
Vitenskapelig publikasjon
(side 7-22)
av Tatjana N. Jackson
SammendragEngelsk sammendragNorway and the islands of the Atlantic Ocean in the Icelandic sagas. Kringla heimsins before and after the settlement of Iceland
In the course of this study of the principles of spatial orientation of medieval Scandinavians reflected in the monuments of Old Norse–Icelandic literature, I refer to the position of Iceland in the four-part world circle and discover that Iceland per se found itself «outside» the traditional north-Germanic world circle (kringla heimsins) which the settlers had arrived from (movement from the «former» world circle to Iceland was described in the sources not as to the British Isles with the term vestr «westward», but út «out, towards the outer side»). This indicates the existence of such spatial ideas long before the discovery of Iceland. This picture of the world was, no doubt, introduced in the ninth century to Iceland, which resulted in the fact that in 965 the country was divided into the four Quarters named after the four cardinal points. However, settlement of the island resulted in the «creation of a new world». Along with the creation of new social, legal and political orders, a new state and a new people, its residents formed their own world circle in which Iceland occupied the central position, with Norway and the British Isles to the east. Stories about people who had come to Iceland from the British Isles vestan «from the west» are likely to be based on a very old oral tradition that was formed at a time when these saga characters had just left their homes on the islands labelled in «the old system» as Vestrlönd. The old «north-Germanic» and the new «Icelandic» world circles meet in the saga texts, which might mean their coexistence in real life. Thus, we achieve a glimpse of the literarization of old traditions and gain extra insight into the process of formation of Icelandic national identity.
Vitenskapelig publikasjon
(side 23-43)
av Hilde Dahl
SammendragEngelsk sammendragArtikkelen presenterer farlige sinnssyke kriminelle pasienter innlagt i Kriminalasylet og Reitgjerdet asyl i perioden 1895–1940. Artikkelen har som målsetning å diskutere hvordan farlighet ble forstått ved å bruke pasienteksempler. Begge disse asylene står i en særstilling i norsk psykiatrihistorie, og var frem til sent 1900-tallet de eneste sikkerhetspsykiatriske institusjonene i landet. Begge ble etablert nettopp for å verne samfunnet mot farlige sinnssyke. Artikkelen bidrar med innsikt i hvem disse farlige pasientene var og hva de hadde gjort.
Dangerous insane criminals admitted to Criminal Asylums in Norway, 1895-1940
This article is about criminally insane patients assessed as dangerous and who were admitted to one of the two criminal asylums in Norway during the period 1895-1940. These asylums are unique in Norwegian history of psychiatry – the first, Kriminalasylet, administered under the Department of Justice, the second, Reitgjerdet, under the Department of Social Affairs. Both were established with the aim of treating and confining criminally insane males, and the term «dangerous» was central to their establishment. Nevertheless, only a minority of the patient population was assessed as dangerous, either through a separate declaration signed by a psychiatrist or by a secure sentence given by the courts. The article explores who these dangerous insane men were, the crimes they had committed and what made them dangerous in the eyes of others. Patient journals, published debates and contemporary articles are the main sources.
Vitenskapelig publikasjon
(side 44-69)
av Rolf Harald Stensland
SammendragEngelsk sammendragFør 1. verdenskrig hadde Tyskland gjort seg helt avhengig av import av nitrogenholdig natursalpeter fra Chile til landbruket. Chilesalpeter var også hovedråstoff for produksjon av ammunisjon. Blokaden tvang Tyskland til selv å produsere salpeter. Landet forsøkte samtidig å opprettholde import fra nøytrale land. Norgesalpeter var som Chilesalpeter primært et gjødselprodukt, men potensielt anvendelig i produksjon av ammunisjon og for andre industrielle formål. Vi har hittil manglet kunnskap om tyske forsyningsmyndigheters tilgang på Norgesalpeter og hvordan de administrerte produktet i forhold til krigsbehovene. Artikkelen belyser dette på grunnlag av tyske kilder.
Norgesalpeter from Norsk Hydro under German supply management during the First World War
At the beginning of the First World War, German access to Chilean nitrogenous saltpetre for ammunition and fertilizer was blocked by the enemy. The first problem raised in the article is how the German supply authorities registered nitrogen reserves for use in a continued war, and how it was decided to administer saltpetre from Norway. Norgesalpeter was a fertilizer, but after conversion it could be used for industrial purposes, such as in ammunition production. Confiscated by the Preussian War Ministry, Norgesalpeter was placed under the control of Kriegschemikalien AG, primarily as a reserve for ammunition production. Although Norgesalpeter could be used for other purposes, this was only if allowed by the War Ministry. As our second problem, we investigated how Norgesalpeter was administered up until the end of the war. The overall impression is that Kriegschemikalien’s access to Norgesalpeter was markedly reduced due to Hydro’s priorities on the part of the Entente. In 1915, Norgesalpeter was converted and used as a supplement in ammunition production or for other purposes in order to relieve the threatened supply situation. Similar action was taken by the military during the Verdun offensive in the spring of 1916. Civil protests about the shortage of food culminated in April 1917 and Norgesalpeter was now ceded from the military to agriculture. Besides this, German agriculture and food production seem to have continued without Norgesalpeter. We also know that Norwegian pyrites could be utilised in the production of super phosphate and ammonium sulphate and thus contribute to harvest yields, but only as long as pyrites were accessible. These findings appear to support and explain Offer’s thesis that Germans generally did not starve during the war. As was the case during the Verdun offensive, our impression is that the Western allies managed to reduce access to Norgesalpeter during the Ludendorff offensive in the spring of 1918. But Norgesalpeter was instrumental in relieving the German supply situation during this last offensive on the Western Front.
Bokmeldinger
(side 75-80)
av Jens Petter Nielsen
(side 86-89)
av Urban Wråkberg