The article questions the annalistic notice of the coronation of King Magnus Eriksson as the joint king of Norway, Sweden and Scania in Stockholm in the summer of 1336. This is done through the re-examinations of records and narratives of the event. Although it was presumably a joint coronation, no Norwegians or Danes have been recorded as present at the event. A coronation was a sacral event, but the new archbishop of Lund stayed at home, even though he was the primate of Uppsala. At the same time, the Norwegian bishops were gathered at a provincial council. One narrative tells us that the king was crowned by Bishop Engelbert of Dorpat, but another, more trustworthy source says that Archbishop Petrus Philippi of Uppsala was the coronator. Because the archbishop’s new cathedral in Uppsala was still under construction, the coronation took place in Stockholm. The article concludes that the coronation of 1336 was meant to be only for Sweden. When examining the evidence from the available sources, the Icelandic annals Annales regii must be considered the most reliable source of information. It states that the Norwegian council of the realm consented to the coronation of their king in Stockholm. The annalistic notice of a joint coronation for Sweden, Norway and Scania was written as late as 1402–09. It is based in Birgittine propaganda lamenting the Swedish loss of Scania and must therefore be considered unreliable. The article has rehabilitated Gustav Storm’s evidence of a separate Norwegian coronation of Magnus Eriksson in 1337, based in Annalbruddstykket from Skálholt and Erikskrönikan. An inventory from Båhus of 1346 supports a separate coronation in mentioning the Norwegian virga, the short sceptre, among the coronation gear. A dominant view of the Norwegian unions during the fourteenth century has been that Sweden, and later Denmark, was the dominant party and oppressed Norway. Two different coronations of Magnus Eriksson support the present view of the Norwegian-Swedish union as being composed of two equal parties with a common king. Moreover, the evidence supporting a separate Norwegian coronation is significant for giving a better understanding of the coronation of Erik of Pomerania in Kalmar in 1397.

The Act for the Protection of Neglected Children of 6 June 1896, in which Norway introduced statutory public child protection services with the authority to intervene in families in cases of parental neglect, is a well-known document in the history of European social assistance. The background, intentions and effects of the act through history are known from previous research, but without any examination of the parental rights perspective. This article discusses the relationship between parental rights and societal authority in social policy. In the Storting, critical questions were raised as to whether parental rights had been sufficiently safeguarded, about the criteria for intervention in the family institution and the qualities of alternative childcare institutions. This criticism was based on liberal values and a desire to protect families against unlawful coercion. The debate on parental rights did not influence the design of the act, but provides insight into the social elite’s notions of the relationship between children, parents and society at the turn of the century.