Helgeland
Helgeland ( Hålogaland in the Middle Ages ) is a landscape in northern Norway , which today encompasses the southern part of Fylkes Nordland up to Saltfjellet . The region has 78,400 inhabitants and an area of 17,936 km². The region has approximately 15,000 islands.
In the Middle Ages, Hålogaland referred to the entire territory north of Trøndelag and was an independent kingdom before the Christianization of Norway , which also encompassed most of Troms and temporarily extended into the Sami- dominated area ( Finnmark , Swedish Lapland , Northern Finland and the northwest - Russia ). Hålogaland has a prominent place in the sagas . The goddesses Þorgerðr Hölgabrúðr and Irpa of the Jómsvíkinga saga probably come from Hálogaland and were most likely worshiped there. Probably the most famous inhabitant of Hålogaland was the navigator and merchant Ottar , whose account of his homeland found a place in Alfred the Great's translation of the world history of Orosius .
The name does not come from the same root as holy , as Adam von Bremen already claimed, but from a popular name háleygir . In Snorri Sturluson's Younger Edda , he is derived from a mythical king Holgi . Holgi, in turn, is said to have succeeded Odin's son Sæming (Säming).
The younger form of the name can be found from 1380, the older one continues in the names of the dioceses Sør-Hålogaland (Nordland) and Nord-Hålogaland (Troms and Finnmark) and in the name of the higher court (Hålogaland lagmannsrett), which covers the three northern provinces Nordland, Troms and Finnmark as well as Spitzbergen is responsible.
In Helgeland, near Bratland and the island of Aldra, there was a transmitter of the Omega radio navigation system . In the vicinity of Bratland is also the marine transmitter JXN , which, like the omega transmitter once did, uses a wire antenna stretched over a fjord.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ helgelandsinfo.no
- ↑ "Thorgerd Hölgabrud". In: Golther, Prof. Wolfgang: “ Handbook of Germanic Mythology . Unchanged new press d. rev. Edition from 1908 ”. Magnus-Verlag, Essen 1983. p. 483.