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La realtà che ho io per voi è nella forma che voi mi date; ma è realtà per voi e non per me; la realtà che voi avete per me è nella forma che io vi do; ma è realtà per me e non per voi; e per me stesso io non ho altra realtà se non nella forma che riesco a darmi. E come? Ma costruendomi, appunto.
Luigi Pirandello
After the grass has been spread out to dry in the sun, the raker comes along and forms it into strips ready to be gathered up. Then the seagulls have a ball! In the Cumbrian fells, north England.
Playing around with flash, a miniature dress form, and new 50mm 1.8 lens. Shot this with D7000, 50mm at ISO400, f/7.1, 1/80, 2.33EV. Strobist: single SB600 with diffuser dome in DIY Pringles can snoot above angled down from camera left, fired via Nikon CLS from camera. Post in Aperture3 and Topaz Adjust.
Many thanks to all who viewed, fav'd and commented.
3 differing forms of stock movement along the Hume Highway heading south towards Yass.
(1/3) Single drive Southern Cross Horse Transport MAN with the bloodstock on board.
(2/3) The great small and local transporter, FUSO, unbranded livery but doing its job well.
(3/3) Ross Smith Livestock Transport out of Wagga with the woolies in tow behind the KENWORTH.
New South Wales, Australia.
Mastering one’s body is a way of mastering the mind and exploring the body’s limits. It involves constant learning and forms part of how we construct our identity.
Il sogno è vedere le forme invisibili della distanza imprecisa, con sensibili movimenti della speranza e della volontà cercare
sulla fredda linea d'orizzonte
l'albero, la spiaggia, il fiore, l'uccello, la fonte: i baci meritati della Verità. (Fernando Pessoa)
Corsica : Coast of Balagna seen from the beach of Nonza (Capi Corsu)
Check out my set "Most Interesting 500" here!
Visit my Waldorfschool/Steinerschool related pinboards here!
It is not known whether human physical immortality is an unachievable phenomenon or not. Biological forms have inherent limitations but she show the truth of immortality beauty.
AS requested by some of the flickr member : here is the lighting info
1. light top with soft box
2. light front with honeycomb and softbox
Située dans la Glorieta de D. Juan de Austria, la Fontaine des Quatre Saisons , est composée d'un bassin et de trois corps à des hauteurs différentes.
Ce bassin recueille l'eau qui tombe des corps supérieurs, qui ont la forme d'une coquille Saint-Jacques .
Dans la section entre le premier et le deuxième corps, il y a quatre reliefs qui représentent les quatre saisons de l'année.
La fontaine a été construite en 1929 par Manuel Delgado Brackenbury, avec l'aide d'Eduardo Castillo et de Manuel García.
These abandoned warehouses in Briton Ferry, known locally as Wern Works, have been vacant since 2011. The seven-acre site has been home to many businesses since it was first used by High Duty Alloys in the 1950s.
These photographs, taken in June 2016, showcase the building as it stands today.
Inspiration for the framing of the shots came from the 1975 New Topographics exhibition.
Terraced iron-sulphate-stromatolites formed by acid leachates from pyrite-bearing mine wastes, Tintillo river (Iberian Pyrite Belt, Riotinto Mining Basin, Huelva, Spain)
Terraced iron formations of millimetric to metric scale are usually developed during the oxidation and hydrolysis/precipitation of dissolved iron in the acidic solutions after they emerge from waste piles, tailings, or mine portals, and they display a morphological pattern similar to that observed in travertines formed in Ca2+-HCO3 ––rich spring waters. TIFs differ from calcareous travertines, however, in their mineralogical composition, which is characterized by hydrous iron (oxy)hydroxides and/or hydroxysulfates, in agreement with the typical Fe(II)/Fe(III)-SO4 2– chemical composition of most acid mine drainage solutions. These spectacular formations are the result of the interaction between (1) highly acidic and Fe(II)-enriched waters, (2) atmospheric oxygen, and (3) acidophilic microbes that have found perfect habitats for their Fe-oxidizing metabolisms in these extreme environments. The abiotic processes could be more important than the biotic factors in winter (higher flow, lower temperature), and conversely, the bacterial activity could play a major role in summer (lower flow, higher temperature).
The water from the Tintillo river (and other rivers and creeks from Riotinto Mining Basin, Huelva, Spain) has a nearly unique red and orange colour derived from its extremely acidic chemical makeup, with very high levels of iron and heavy metals. There are a number of subsurface sulfide (mainly pyrite) bodies responsible for this acidity. These mineral bodies belong to the Iberian Pyrite Belt, formed 350 My ago in the Devonian Period, connected to active and hydrothermal volcanism that led to the formation of a volcanic-sedimentary complex. Volcanic activity in the region led to eight giant volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits associated with polymetallic massive flanks of volcanic cones in the form of pyrite, but also chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena and cassiterite.
References:
Iron terraces in acid mine drainage systems: A discussion about the organic and inorganic factors involved in their formation through observations from the Tintillo acidic river (Riotinto mine, Huelva, Spain)
pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/3/3/13...
The Tintillo acidic river (Rio Tinto mines, Huelva, Spain): an example of extreme environmental impact of pyritic mine wastes on the environment or an exceptional site to study acid-sulphate mine drainage systems?
www.researchgate.net/publication/235355068_The_Tintillo_a...
Pink form of an Angulose Prominent (Peridea angulosa) on Oak (Quercus sp.). Catoctin Mountains, Frederick County, Maryland.
Odda is a town and administrative center in Ullensvang municipality in Vestland county in Norway. The town is located deep in the Sørfjorden in Hardanger , and has 4,764 inhabitants as of 1 January 2023 . Odda was the administrative center of Odda municipality , which on 1 January 2020 was merged with Jondal and Ullensvang to form the new Ullensvang municipality.
In 2009 , the industrial heritage in Odda-Tyssedal was listed on Norway's tentative list for UNESCO's World Heritage List , together with the Rjukan–Notodden industrial heritage .
Public services
Odda hospital is a local hospital for the municipalities of Eidfjord, Jondal, Odda and Ullensvang.
Odda secondary school offers both vocational and study specialist educations.
Business
Odda is known as an industrial location, with companies such as Odda Smelteverk , Boliden Odda (formerly Norzink ) and Tinfos Titan & Iron (TTI).
History
Tourism and hotel management
Before industrial activity in Odda began around 1910, Odda was a popular tourist destination which, among other things, attracted many foreigners who wanted to experience the scenic area with glaciers, fjords and waterfalls. This laid the foundation for several people to start hotel operations on the site.
Some of the most popular destinations for tourists visiting Odda were Låtefossen and Espelandsfossen .
Shuttle station, steamship wharf and steamship expedition
Baard Jakobsen Aga (1812–1895) received a merchant license in Odda in 1861, and in 1864 took over the shuttle station that was in operation in Odda. Then he secured a new plot of land where he built a hotel which was called alternately Prestegårds Hotel and Agas Hotel. In 1868 he became a post opener and steamship dispatcher, and he then had a steamship wharf and dispatch house built at Almerket. He had previously expanded the hotel business, but in 1888 he inaugurated a new hotel building, the "new Agas Hotel". In the 20th century, the large hotel building was used for other purposes, including Rita's bakery, which led to the building being called "Ritagården" colloquially. Agas Hotel/Ritagården was demolished in 1978.
From guest house to Hotel Hardanger
The start of hotel operations at Odda occurred around 1845, when a man named Monsen started an inn on the site. Monsen went bankrupt in the 1860s, and the inn was bought by a man named Wetshus. He continued to run the hotel business. After Wetshus had died, the two brothers Sven and Mikal Tollefsen became his successors in the early 1880s, with financial support from a rich Englishman. The Tollefsen brothers carried out a major renovation of the former guest house. When Sven Tollefsen died, Mikal Tollefsen became the hotel's sole owner.
Tollefsen also bought Agas Hotel, which Baard Jakobsen Aga had started.
On 9 August 1895, the then Hotel Hardanger was completely damaged in a fire. The fire started in Hotel Hardanger, but 7–8 neighboring buildings also caught fire. It was said that the fire was caused by the maid of an English hotel guest having left a candle or a kerosene lamp by an open window, and that the curtain had caught fire - as it was very hot most of the windows in the hotel were open, and this caused the fire to spread with great speed. The fire started at 12 o'clock in the morning.
The commander and crew of the steamship "Vega" - which happened to be docked in Odda when the fire started - managed to put out the fire(s) within three hours using fire-fighting equipment from the ship. Among other things, they managed to save the post office, while the telegraph building was lost. The competing Jordals Hotel, which was run by Jacob Jordal, was also saved.
Hotel Hardanger was insured, and Bergens Tidende wrote that the insurance sum was NOK 90,000, but also published an anonymous source's assessment that the hotel complex was worth NOK 200,000–250,000, and that the owner - Mikal Tollefsen - had probably suffered a significant financial loss due to underinsurance. No people were injured in the fire.
Shortly after the fire in 1895, Tollefsen started building a new and larger hotel on the site of the fire. The new hotel was completed on 24 June 1896, and had 170 hotel beds in 110 guest rooms. Architecturally, it was a mixture of Swiss style and dragon style, with towers and projections.
Hardanger Hotel is mentioned, among other things, in a French travelogue published in 1897.
In 1913, the owner of Hotel Hardanger filed a claim for damages against the two factories - a cyanamide factory and a carbide factory - which had started up in Odda a few years earlier, because the factory operation caused such great pollution and bad odors that it affected the hotel operation. The provisions of the Neighborhood Act were the legal basis for the lawsuit. The court agreed with the plaintiff that the two factories were obliged to pay compensation for inconvenience and losses that the hotel had suffered after 2 August 1911, but not because Odda had become less idyllic and thus attractive to tourists. The compensation sum was to be determined after an appraisal had been carried out , and the result of the appraisal was not available until 1922. By then both factories had gone bankrupt, and hotel owner Mikal Tollefsen had died.
Hotel Hardanger becomes a town hall
In 1917, the municipality bought the Hotel Hardanger, to convert the building into a town hall . The hotel had then been almost empty all year round, because the industrial activity on the site had meant that the tourists did not show up. [9]
The hotel's so-called "Kongerom" was converted into a chairman's office and lord's boardroom. Eventually, the new town hall also accommodated a number of other businesses, such as a cinema, police station, doctor's office and bank. The old hotel was in use as Odda Town Hall until a new building was inaugurated in 1957; from then on, the former Hotel Hardanger was referred to as Odda old town hall . This building was demolished in 1976.
Jordals Hotel becomes Hardanger Hotel
In 1917, Jordals Hotel was bought by the Melkeraaen family, who continued to run the hotel for 68 years. Along the way, they changed the name of the hotel to Hardanger Hotel.
The Hardanger Hotel, which was a wooden Swiss-style building, was demolished in 1962, and a new five-story hotel building was inaugurated on 1 July 1963.
From tourism to industrial site
Factories and smelters
At the beginning of the 20th century, two factories were started in Odda. On one, cyanamide was produced, and on the other, carbide was produced .
In 1908, the operation of the first factory that was to be part of Odda Smelteverk , a carbide factory owned by a British company, began. In 1909, another British company started production of calcium cyanamide in the same area as the first factory. The reason why Odda was interesting for the foreign companies was the access to large amounts of hydropower and ice-free ports.
Both factories went bankrupt in 1921 , in connection with the worldwide economic crisis that occurred in the early 1920s. The bankruptcies led to thousands of people becoming unemployed. Both factories started up again in 1924, with Odda Smelteverk A/S as the new owner. This operating company was established by the power company Tyssefaldene and the Hafslund/Meraker group.
The cyanamide factory was built on in the 1930s.
At the smelter, the so-called Odda process was developed by chief chemist Erling Johnson in 1927–1928; it is a chemical process based on nitric acid for the industrial production of three-sided artificial fertilizer with the sub-components nitrogen , phosphorus and potassium .
Preservation decision and dispute over conservation value
In 2011 , the National Archives decided to protect several of the smelter's buildings and facilities, and to include the smelter in the Norwegian application to UNESCO for world heritage status for Norwegian industrial monuments. In 2013, however, the Ministry of the Environment decided that the series nomination should be split into two phases, 1. application for Rjukan/Notodden to be submitted to UNESCO in January 2014, and phase 2, that work be continued on expanding the nomination to include Odda/ Tyssedal with eventual submission to UNESCO in January 2016.
The owners of the smelter site objected to the conservation decision made in 2011, but the decision was upheld in 2012. The conservation included the cyanamide factory, the cable car, the Linde house (named after the German inventor Carl von Linde ) and the limestone silo on the import quay. Over the years, there has been much controversy in Odda about whether the smelter's buildings and facilities should be preserved or removed.
Cultural life
Music and theater
Tyssedalkoret and Odda Songlag are two choirs that come from Odda municipality. The water power and industrial history of the area here was documented in the performance and the DVD ``Arven'', performed by Tyssedalkoret with band and soloists in autumn 2004 and released on DVD in Christmas 2005. In addition these two choirs have the bands Odda Musikklag , Odda Skolekorps and Røldal Skolemusiklag. The blues team Lokst Utøve has 272 members. The Blueslaget received the culture award for 2009 for their great work as concert/festival organisers, volunteer workers and inspirers for bands and soloists. In 2011, Erlend Garatun Huus published the book Rock og Røyk , which is about the history of rock in Odda.
At the closed smelter (2001), the old "Lindehuset" has been used for theater and concert activities. The theater play Bikebubesong , based on the Oddingen Frode Grytten's novel Bikubesong , was performed in this venue in 2003 with great success. The play's performance in Oslo has been the most watched contemporary drama in Norwegian history.
A key cultural player in Odda is the company Oddakonsertene, led by Gunn Gravdal Elton. In April 2019, the Odda concerts staged the musical Albert og Leonie , a story about how Odda arose as an industrial community. The musical was a huge success with sold-out houses. 2,600 people queued to see and hear the story. The director was Martine Bakken Lundberg. The main roles were played by André Søfteland and Lene Kokai Flage. Over 60 amateurs were on stage. Albert and Leonie was planned to be staged again in 2020 and 2021, but had to be canceled due to the corona pandemic .
The odd concerts started in 2005 and as of 2019 have staged more than 60 concerts. All have been sold out. The most popular concerts are the annual Christmas concerts, which gather over 1,000 listeners. The traditional Christmas concert in Odda church with a large ensemble and two to three concerts in a row officially ended in 2019, but a simplified version was arranged in 2020, with concerts in Skare and Odda churches.
The Literature Symposium
From 2005, a festival called the Literature Symposium in Odda has been organized every autumn . The Linden house at the defunct Smelteverket, Odda cinema, Sentralbadet, Odda church are some of the venues at the symposium. Previously, there was every year "Bikubegang" with Frode Grytten , where he told about the story behind the book "Bikubesong", while he wandered around Odda. The literary symposium also has concerts, often in connection with an author/musician or individual artists. During the Literary Symposium 2011, the Sentralbadet Litteraturhus opened in the old bathroom at the closed Smelteverket, and this has become headquarters for the symposium, as well as a permanent house for literary events all year round.
As of 2010, a major rehabilitation/remodeling of Lindehuset was planned, so that the building would be better suited for events such as concerts and theater performances.
The National Antiquities' "Value creation project"
Odda is one of the pilot projects in the Value Creation Project for the National Archives.
TV shows
The actions in the TV series RIP Henry and Ragnarok have been added to Odda, and are recorded there. In Ragnarok, on the other hand, the city goes by the name Edda .
Known oddities
Samson Isberg (1795–1873), sharpshooter
Knud Knudsen (photographer) (1832–1915)
Gro Holm , born Prestgarden (1878–1949), writer
Alfred Hagn (1882–1958), painter, writer and spy.
Claes Gill (1910–1973), writer, actor and theater manager
Torbjørn Mork (1928–1992), doctor, politician ( Ap ), director of health 1972–1992
Walther Aas (1928–1990), artist
Roger Albertsen , (1957–2003), footballer
Anne B. Ragde (born 1957), writer, (raised in Trondheim)
Arne Borgstrøm (born 1959), elite long-distance swimmer
Frode Grytten (born 1960), author
Lars Ove Seljestad (born 1961), author
Bjørn Ingvaldsen (born 1962), author, leader of Norwegian Children's and Young People's Book Writers
Hallgeir Opedal (born 1965), writer and journalist
Børge Brende (born 1965), politician ( H ), former secretary general of the Norwegian Red Cross , minister of foreign affairs
Ida Melbo Øystese (born 1968), chief of police in Oslo from 2023.
Knut Olav Åmås (born 1968), author, editor, director of the foundation Fritt Ord
Leif Einar Lothe (born 1969), entrepreneur, singer, TV profile
Marit Eikemo (born 1971), writer
Tore Aurstad (born 1972), author
Ingvill Måkestad Bovim (born 1981), athlete
Håkon Opdal (born 1982), footballer
Ingvild Skare Thygesen (born 1993), TV profile
The Sognefjord is Norway's longest and deepest fjord with its 205 km and 1303 m at its deepest (SNL states 1308), including Sognesjøen which is at the far end towards the North Sea. The Sognefjord has the deepest point on Norway's coast. The fjord is 176–180 km from the innermost Lusterfjorden ( Skjolden ) to Sognefest , and 206 km to the outermost reef (then Lake Sognesjøen is also included). The width varies from around 1 to 2 km in Lusterfjorden to 4–5 km from Leikanger and beyond. Measured from the threshold to Skjolden, the fjord is 174 km. The middle part of the fjord is surrounded by mountains of around 1000 meters and in the inner part the height difference between the bottom of the fjord and the mountain tops is 3500 metres. The highest peak right by the fjord is Bleia at 1,721 metres, which gives a 2,850 meter height difference. Around the inner part of the fjord, the landscape is alpine with pointed mountain peaks, steep mountain sides and glaciers. As an extension of the fjord arms, long and deep valleys extend in all directions, including Jostedalen , Lærdalen and Årdal with Utladalen . The Sognefjord is the world's longest open (ice-free) fjord. The Sognefjord is the world's third longest fjord.
It is located in the middle of Vestland county (formerly Sogn og Fjordane county to which it helped give its name) and stretches from Solund on the coast in the west to Skjolden at the foot of Jotunheimen in the east (northeast), where the fjord arm is called Lustrafjorden . The fjord and the land around it make up the Sogn region, often divided into Outer, Midtre and Indre Sogn. The length from Rutletangen to Skjolden is 186 km . Sogn makes up almost 60% of the area in Sogn and Fjordane, or around 11,000 km 2 . The twelve municipalities in Sogn have a total area of 10,671.55 km² and 37,063 inhabitants (1 January 2014). The land around the inner part of the fjord is called Indre Sogn and includes the long fjord arms. From Leikanger onwards, the country is called Ytre Sogn . The outer part of the fjord has few and small fjord arms. The fjord arms are like hanging valleys under water in that the bottom in the side fjords is often much shallower than the main fjord with a height difference of over 1,000 meters in some cases. The main fjord has a threshold at its mouth to the sea, while several of the side fjords have thresholds at the mouth of the main fjord.
The Sognefjord cuts so deeply into the country that it is only 15 km from the innermost arm at Skjolden to mountain peaks such as Store Skagastølstind in Jotunheimen. The water flow usually exits the fjord. The rivers create sandbanks where they run into the fjord, for example at Gudvangen, in Lærdal and in Gaupne. These sandbars are constantly expanding and changing shape.
The Sognefjord, especially the inner part, is surrounded by mountain massifs which are alpine in the inner part and more rounded in the outer part. The innermost arms of the fjord continue as deep and sometimes long valleys, including Lærdal , Årdal with Utladalen , Nærøydalen , Sogndalsdalen , Fjærland , Fortunsdalen , Aurlandsdalen and Jostedalen . The transition between the fjord and these valleys is determined by sea level, and the boundary has moved outwards at the uplift. Some of the side valleys, such as Vik and Fresvik, would have been hanging valleys in the same way as the Feigedalen if the Sognefjord was drained.
Name
Amund Helland writes " The Sognefjord's real name is Sogn , while Sogn is now used only for the surrounding landscape, and was thus already used in the Middle Ages. As a landscape name, the name is a masculine word and has undoubtedly been so as a fjord name as well." The name is connected to the word "suction", which probably refers to the suction or the difficult current conditions that are created when the water flows through the fjord mouth and over the threshold.
Geography
Large parts of the fjord are surrounded by steep mountains. Kvamsøy at Balestrand is a small island separated from the mainland by a short, shallow strait. Outside Balestrand there are small fjord arms and at Veganes ( Dragsvik ferry quay ) there is a significant branching with the Fjærlandsfjorden .
Municipalities
Municipalities with shoreline to the fjord, counted from west to east:
Solund
Hyllestad (north side)
Gulen (south side)
Høyanger (on both sides of the main fjord)
Vik (south side)
Sogndal (north side)
Aurland (south side, around the Aurlandsfjord)
Lærdal (south side)
Luster (north side, around Lustrafjorden)
Årdal (around the Årdalsfjord)
Depths
The Sognefjord has only one threshold which is at the mouth and the threshold is around 165 meters deep. The area beyond the threshold is called Sognesjøen , which is sheltered by islands to the north and south; there is no threshold outside Sognesjøen that has free circulation towards the ocean.
From the inner parts at Årdal or Skjolden, the fjord gradually deepens outwards (westwards). Between Fodnes-Mannheller and Rutledal-Rysjedalsvika, the bottom is at least 800 metres. The deepest part is approximately at Åkrestrand and Vadheim. The outer part of the fjord (at Losna and Sula ) has a marked threshold with depths of 100 to 200 metres, where the fjord bed rises abruptly from a depth of 1,200 meters to around 100 meters over a stretch of 5 km at Rutledal. In Lake Sognesjøen there are several small troughs (with depths down to 400-500 metres) with thresholds between them. Across the fjord, the bottom is partly completely flat with less than 1 meter variation in depth over a 2 km cross-section. The bottom is covered by fine material (clay) which at Vangsnes is up to 300 meters thick. Seismic shows that the greatest depth to the bedrock is approximately 1,600 m, but loose masses with a thickness of 200–400 m mean that the fjord bottom is nevertheless flat. Seismic surveys at Vangsnes have revealed a 300 meter thick layer of clay at the bottom.
Between 50 and 180 km from the mouth, the fjord bed is relatively flat. Almost all side fjords form hanging valleys to the main fjord. For example, the mouth of the Fjærlandsfjord is well over 400 meters deep, while the main fjord is close to 1,200 meters deep just outside the mouth. Vadheimfjord's mouth is 400 meters deep, here the greatest depth is over 1300 m. Ikjefjord's mouth is only 50 meters deep close to where the main fjord is at its deepest. In large parts of the fjord, it is "abruptly deep" in that the steep mountain sides continue just as steeply underwater.
In contrast to a number of other fjords, not every single part of the Sognefjord has its own name. Only the outermost part has its own name - Sognesjøen . However, there are many fjord arms. From west to east these are:
Sognesjøen
Straumsfjorden
Bjørnefjorden
Nessefjord
The Sognefjord
Lifjorden
Bøfjorden
The Risnefjord
The Ikjefjord
Vadheimsfjorden
Fuglsetfjorden
Høyangsfjorden
Lånefjorden
The Finnafjord
The Arnafjord
The Inner Fjord
Framfjorden
Vikbukti
The Esefjord
Fjærlandsfjorden
The Vetlefjord
Sværefjorden
The Norafjord
Sogndalsfjorden
Barsnes Fjord
The Eidsfjord
Aurlandsfjorden
The Nærøyfjord
Amla Bay
Lærdalsfjorden
Årdalsfjorden
The Lustrafjord
The Gaupnefjord
Climate and fresh water
The fjord colored by meltwater from the glacier.
Terrain formations and distance to the sea lead to great variations in climate along the fjord. The outer part has a mild and humid coastal climate, while the innermost part has an inland climate with cold and dry winters.
The amount of precipitation decreases strongly inwards into the fjord. Lærdal lies in the rain shadow and has very little rainfall, while west-facing slopes further out have a lot of rainfall and there the rainfall often increases with altitude. Brekke and Takle in Ytre Parish are among the places in Norway with the most rainfall. North of the Sognefjord lies the Jostedalsbreen, Norway's largest glacier, and parts of the meltwater drain into the Sognefjord. Wind conditions are strongly influenced by terrain formations. In winter, the dominant wind direction is out the fjord or out the side valleys in the form of so-called downwinds . Fall winds can be very strong and have a major impact on cooling and icing. The slopes and valleys along the inner parts of the fjord have a partially mild climate and are fertile, which makes the area suitable for growing fruit and berries, among other things. The slopes along the fjord partly have large conifer forests, including in the roadless area of Frønningen .
The fjord receives fresh water mainly from the rivers and very little precipitation directly on the fjord's water surface. In the inner part of the Sognefjord, the total supply of fresh water during one year corresponds to a depth of 33 meters if it were distributed over the entire area of the fjord. In spring and partly in autumn, the top 2-3 meters of the fjord are brackish water , especially in the side fjords. The salt content in the surface is lowest in summer and autumn. In June 1954, for example, 5 ‰ salt was measured in the uppermost meters of the Lustrafjord, while at great depths it was 34.5 ‰. Regulation of the waterways for power production has led to a larger proportion of fresh water flowing into the fjord in the winter. The most extensive regulation is in Aurland, Lærdal, Årdal and Jostedal. Regulations affect temperature in the surface layer and icing. In the inner part of the fjord, the rivers are fed by high mountains and glaciers.
The rivers Lærdalselvi , Aurlandselvi , Flåmselvi , Mørkridselvi , Henjaelvi , Grindselvi , Hamreelvi , Njøsaelvi , Kvinnafossen , Sogndalselvi and Jostedøla flow into the Sognefjord and normally have spring floods in June. [3] Lærdalselva has the largest catchment, followed by Jostedøla and Aurlandselva, and these three have roughly the same water flow (around 40 m 3 /second). The Årdalsvatnet drains to the Sognefjord through the short Åreidselva or Hæreidselvi through the Årdalstangen . The Eidsvatnet in Luster drains into the Sognefjord just by Mørkridselvi in Skjolden . Regulation of the waterways for hydropower has resulted in a more steady supply of fresh water throughout the year. Without regulation, 92% of the fresh water would have been supplied in the summer half-year from May to October. Several of the large rivers flow into fjord arms.
Geology
The bedrock along the outer and middle part of the fjord consists mostly of Precambrian gneiss with orientation east-west and northeast-southwest. The islands of Solund consist mostly of Devonian sandstone and conglomerates , while the interior (eastern part) consists mostly of Caledonian gabbro , anorthosite , granite and phyllite .
Jostedøla's material transport (in the form of sludge) involves sedimentation in the Gaupnefjord of 10 to 20 cm/year near the river basin, and 1 cm/year 2 km from the river basin. The river transports 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes of silt annually. The sludge concentration from Jostedøla is at most 1 g/litre. It is particularly at Gaupne that the meltwater from the glaciers is marked by the color of the water.
Icing
According to Helland, it was common for the ice to settle on several of the fjord arms every winter, including on Aurlandsfjorden, Nærøyfjorden and Årdalsfjorden. In the winter of 1888–1889, Lusterfjorden was iced over for six months straight. In the deepest parts of the Sognefjord, there is a year-round temperature of around 6.5 °C, according to Helland. Outer parts are almost never iced over, not even the side fjords. The inner parts can be frozen for several weeks at a stretch. Among other things, inner parts of the Aurlandsfjorden and the Nærøyfjorden freeze easily. Lærdalsfjorden is usually ice-free except for the very innermost part, while it has happened that Årdalsfjorden has been iced up to Ofredal and has been an obstacle to ship traffic. Historically, Lustrafjorden has often been iced over as far as Urnes. The Barsnesfjorden has often been covered with ice. In the Nærøyfjord it happened (among other things in the 1920s and in 1962) that the liner was unable to enter the fjord due to ice and had to dispatch at the ice edge.
Streams
In the Sognefjord, incoming current is hardly noticeable and is most noticeable in strong westerly winds. Outgoing current dominates and is particularly strong in spring and summer. At strong tides, the tidal flow can reach over 1 m/s (2 knots ) around the pier and headland. The Sognefjord is covered by a layer or stream of brackish water of up to 10 meters (varying with the seasons and supply from the rivers). Beneath the brackish water, a current or intermediate layer at a depth of 150 meters goes in and out of the fjord and below this lies the main basin, which has some connection with the ocean beyond the threshold. Together, these three currents contribute to the fact that the water in the fjord is replaced on average within 8-10 years, so that the fjord has life right down to the bottom. The brackish water layer has less density and therefore does not mix easily with the deeper layers. The brackish water that flows out of the fjord slowly mixes with the layer below so that the salt content increases at the same time as the brackish water layer increases up to 10 times the amount of fresh water supplied. The brackish water that flows towards the mouth must be replaced and sets up an incoming current in a slightly deeper layer.
Fish
The Sognefjord has herring and good sprat fishing . In the outer parts of the fjord, salmon has traditionally been fished with wedge nets . Salmon warp or "sitjenet" is a traditional method of salmon fishing and skilled players could catch a lot of fish with this method. Hook nets and drift nets have dominated in modern times and do not require the same active fishing as warp . The salmon's migration in the fjord is controlled by currents on the surface and the warps are placed where there are favorable current conditions where, due to the current, the salmon are driven close to land on their way into the fjord. In Leikanger and Balestrand there are many good places for sitejnot with Suppham being by far the best. Good salmon rivers such as Lærdalselva, Aurlandselva and Årøyelva flow into the Sognefjorden.
In the outer part of the fjord (Gulen and Solund) there is some fish farming. Several of the waterways are known for good salmon and sea trout fishing , and five of the rivers have been designated as national salmon rivers. Lærdalselva has a salmon-carrying stretch and has had by far the largest population. Aurlandselva has historically had a good catch of sea trout. The Sognefjord is among the most important in Norway for anadromous fish species. Norwegian spring-spawning herring are fished in the fjord, especially in the outer parts, as well as some coastal sprat.
In the Sognefjord there are plankton algae which in other Norwegian waters and the occurrence follows the seasons. In general, there is little occurrence in winter due to low light, diatoms bloom in March-April and are dependent on the supply of nutrient salts, in May-June diatoms and flagellates bloom in connection with the spring flood, in summer there is a varying population, new blooms in the autumn in connection with, among other things, floods, and married species can occur all year round.
Tourism
The Sognefjord was established as a tourist destination in the 19th century, among other things, with the establishment of Fylkesbåtane. One of the targets was Gudvangen, which in 1889 received 79 large tourist ships with a total of over 10,000 passengers. In 1889, 4,500 travelers came with the county boats. The German Emperor Wilhelm visited the Sognefjord and Balestrand for the first time in 1890. The emperor subsequently visited the Sognefjord 25 times. The fjord itself and the surrounding area with Jotunheimen, Jostedalsbreen and several stave churches have made the Sognefjord one of Norway's most prominent tourist destinations. Balestrand, Vangsnes, Aurland and Fjærland were among the early destinations for English tourists in the 19th century.
History
It has been the Guest of Death
It has sailed on a Torden
It is christened in Rædsler vorden
that has plowed the Sognefjord
from Forthun to Sognefæst.
If you have forgotten your Lord's Prayer,
do you remember a prayer to pray:
learn it from the wrath of God!
imagine, Sinder, then present
in a Bath on Sognefjord!
Henrik Wergeland
The Sognefjord has been an important transport artery since ancient times. The gulation was probably held near the mouth of the Sognefjord and probably because it was practical to hold the meeting where the ship lay along the coast met the great fjord. From the innermost arms of the fjord it is a relatively short distance to the inland villages of Eastern Norway, particularly through Lærdal to Valdres over the moderate mountain pass Filefjell . Lærdalsøyri was from the 17th century an important market and meeting place. There, farmers from Valdres, Hallingdal and Gudbrandsdalen sold slaughter, tar and other products from the interior and bought fish, salt, hemp and iron from the fjords and from Bergen. Around 1300, the authorities established a shuttle station at Maristova at the entrance to Filefjell. The first drivable road between east and west was built over Filefjell in 1792. From 1843 the paddle steamer "Constitutionen" plyed the route between Bergen and Lærdal, the county boats took over the route in 1857. The road over the Sognefjellet was built as a carriageway in 1938. The Flåmsbana connected the Sognefjord to the railway network in 1940. Stalheimskleivi , between Voss and Sogn, was built in 1850 and turned into a road in 1937. It has made it possible to transport agricultural products , fruit , berries and fish between the villages in Sogn and Bergen .
From 1785, the Trondhjem postal route crossed the Sognefjord by boat between Rutledal and Leirvik in Hyllestad . In 1647, a postal route was established between Bergen and Christiania. The post then took 7-8 days via Gudvangen, Lærdal and Valdres.
It was difficult to get to the Sognefjord by sailboat and the yachts could lie for many days or several weeks at the mouth waiting for favorable wind conditions. East wind was favorable out of the fjord, while south to Bergen, wind from the north or north-west was needed. To enter the fjord, a wind from the west was necessary. The steam and motor boats revolutionized transport on the fjord and these had completely taken over in the early 20th century The county boats were established in 1858 with boat routes on the Sognefjord and to Bergen as an important activity.
In 1934, a ferry route was established along the fjord from Vadheim to Lærdal. From 1939 until the Lærdal tunnel opened, there was a car ferry between Gudvangen and Lærdal - first the ferry went to Lærdalsøyri itself, from 1966 to Revsnes when a road was built there to shorten the ferry route. In the 1990s, the ferry connection Revsnes-Kaupanger was replaced by Mannheller-Fodnes , and after this Kaupanger has only been used by the tourist route Gudvangen-Kaupanger-Lærdal. The road system between Sogndal and Jølster on national highway 5 , including the Fjærlands tunnel , created a ferry-free road connection on the north side of the fjord.
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of 385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .
Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .
Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.
In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.
The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .
Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).
Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .
For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.
Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.
The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.
The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .
Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.
More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.
Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .
In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.
Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .
Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .
Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.
Stone Age (before 1700 BC)
When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.
Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.
The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.
In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .
It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.
Finnmark
In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.
According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.
From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.
According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.
Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)
Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:
Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)
Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)
For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.
Finnmark
In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.
Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)
The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century
Simultaneous production of Vikings
Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:
Early Iron Age
Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)
Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)
Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.
Younger Iron Age
Merovingian period (500–800)
The Viking Age (793–1066)
Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .
Sources of prehistoric times
Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.
Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.
Settlement in prehistoric times
Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.
It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.
Norwegian expansion northwards
From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.
North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.
From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.
On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.
The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".
State formation
The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.
According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.
According to Sverre Steen
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Fiódor Mijáilovich Dostoyevski (en ruso: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, romanización: Fëdor Mihajlovič Dostoevskij; Moscú, 11 de noviembre de 1821 – San Petersburgo, 9 de febrero de 1881) fue uno de los principales escritores de la Rusia zarista, cuya literatura explora la psicología humana en el complejo contexto político, social y espiritual de la sociedad rusa del siglo XIX.
Es considerado uno de los más grandes escritores de Occidente y de la literatura universal. De él dijo Friedrich Nietzsche: «Dostoyevski, el único psicólogo, por cierto, del cual se podía aprender algo, es uno de los accidentes más felices de mi vida». Y José Ortega y Gasset escribió: «En tanto que otros grandes declinan, arrastrados hacia el ocaso por la misteriosa resaca de los tiempos, Dostoyevski se ha instalado en lo más alto».
Si bien la madre de Fiódor Dostoyevski era rusa, su ascendencia paterna se remonta a un pueblo denominado Dostóyevo, ubicado en la gubérniya de Minsk (Bielorrusia). En sus orígenes, el acento del apellido, como el del pueblo, recaía en la segunda sílaba, pero cambió su posición a la tercera en el siglo XIX. De acuerdo con algunas versiones, los ancestros paternos de Dostoyevski eran nobles polonizados (szlachta) de origen ruteno que fueron a la guerra con el escudo de armas de Radwan.
Fue el segundo de los siete hijos del matrimonio formado por Mijaíl Andréievich Dostoievski y María Fiódorovna Necháyeva. Un padre autoritario, médico del hospital para pobres Mariinski en Moscú, y una madre vista por sus hijos como un refugio de amor y protección marcaron el ambiente familiar en la infancia de Dostoyevski. Cuando Fiódor tenía once años de edad, la familia se radicó en la aldea de Darovóye, en Tula, donde el padre había adquirido unas tierras.
En 1834 ingresó, junto con su hermano Mijaíl, en el pensionado de Chermak, donde cursarían los estudios secundarios. La temprana muerte de la madre por tuberculosis en 1837 sumió al padre en la depresión y el alcoholismo, por lo que Fiódor y su hermano Mijaíl fueron enviados a la Escuela de Ingenieros Militares de San Petersburgo, lugar en el que el joven Dostoievski comenzaría a interesarse por la literatura a través de las obras de Shakespeare, Pascal, Victor Hugo y E. T. A. Hoffmann.
En 1839, cuando tenía dieciocho años, le llegó la noticia de que su padre había fallecido. Los siervos mancomunados de Mijaíl Dostoyevski (hidalgo de Darovóye), enfurecidos tras uno de sus brutales arranques de violencia provocados por el alcohol, lo habían inmovilizado y obligado a beber vodka hasta que murió ahogado. Otra historia sugiere que Mijaíl murió por causas naturales, pero que un terrateniente vecino suyo inventó la historia de la rebelión para comprar la finca a un precio más reducido. En parte, Fiódor se culpó posteriormente de este hecho por haber deseado la muerte de su padre en muchas ocasiones. En su artículo de 1928, «Dostoyevski y el parricidio», Sigmund Freud señalaría este sentimiento de culpa como la causa de la intensificación de su epilepsia.
En 1841, Dostoyevski fue ascendido a alférez ingeniero de campo. Ese mismo año, influido por el poeta prerromántico alemán Friedrich Schiller, escribió dos obras teatrales románticas (María Estuardo y Borís Godunov) que no han sido conservadas. Dostoyevski se describía como un «soñador» en su juventud y en esa época admiraba a Schiller.
Durante toda su carrera literaria Dostoievski padeció una epilepsia que supo incorporar en su obra. Los personajes presentados con epilepsia son Murin y Ordínov (La patrona, 1847), Nelly (Humillados y ofendidos, 1861), Myshkin (El idiota, 1868), Kiríllov (Los demonios, 1872) y Smerdiakov (Los hermanos Karamázov, 1879-80). Dostoievski también supo utilizar la epilepsia para librarse de una condena vitalicia a servir en el ejército en Siberia. Aunque la epilepsia había comenzado durante sus años académicos como estudiante de ingeniería militar en San Petersburgo (1838-1843), el diagnóstico tardaría una década en llegar. En 1863 viajó al extranjero con intención de consultar a los especialistas Romberg y Trousseau. Stephenson e Isotoff apuntaron en 1935 la probable influencia Psique (1848), de Carus, en la construcción de sus personajes. Por contrapartida, la epilepsia de Dostoyevski ha inspirado a numerosos epileptólogos, incluyendo a Freud, Alajouanine y Gastaut. La de Dostoievski es la historia natural de una epilepsia que en terminología científica contemporánea se clasificaría como criptogénica focal de probable origen temporal. Sin embargo, más allá del interés que pueda despertar la historia clínica de un trastorno neurológico heterogéneo, bastante bien comprendido y correctamente diagnosticado en vida del escritor, el caso de Dostoievski muestra el buen uso de una enfermedad común por un genio literario que supo transformar la adversidad en oportunidad. Una de las ideas capitales en su obra (que un buen recuerdo puede colmar toda una vida de felicidad) guarda una estrecha relación con los momentos de éxtasis que alcanzaba el escritor durante algunos episodios de la enfermedad o en el momento (aura epiléptica) que anunciaba las crisis epilépticas más violentas, tal como fueron descritos en su obra literaria.
Dostoyevski terminó sus estudios de Ingeniería en 1843 y, después de adquirir el grado militar de subteniente, se incorporó a la Dirección General de Ingenieros en San Petersburgo.
En 1844, Honoré de Balzac visitó San Petersburgo. Dostoyevski decidió traducir Eugenia Grandet para saldar una deuda de 300 rublos con un usurero. Esta traducción despertaría su vocación y poco después de terminarla pidió la excedencia del ejército con la idea de dedicarse exclusivamente a la literatura. En 1845 dejó el ejército y empezó a escribir la novela epistolar Pobres gentes, obra que le proporcionaría sus primeros éxitos de crítica y, fundamentalmente, el reconocimiento del crítico literario Belinski. La obra, editada en forma de libro al año siguiente, convirtió a Dostoyevski en una celebridad literaria a los veinticuatro años. En esta misma época comenzó a contraer algunas deudas y a sufrir con más frecuencia ataques epilépticos. Las novelas siguientes —El doble (1846), Noches blancas (1848) y Niétochka Nezvánova (1849)— no tuvieron el éxito de la primera y recibieron críticas negativas, lo que sumió a Dostoyevski en la depresión. En esta época entró en contacto con ciertos grupos de ideas utópicas, llamados nihilistas, que buscaban la libertad del hombre.
Dostoyevski fue arrestado y encarcelado el 23 de abril de 1849 por formar parte del grupo intelectual liberal Círculo Petrashevski bajo el cargo de conspirar contra el zar Nicolás I. Después de la revuelta decembrista en 1825 y las revoluciones de 1848 en Europa, Nicolás I se mostraba reacio a cualquier tipo de organización clandestina que pudiera poner en peligro su autocracia.
El 16 de noviembre, Dostoyevski y otros miembros del Círculo Petrashevski fueron llevados a la fortaleza de San Pedro y San Pablo y condenados a muerte por participar en actividades consideradas antigubernamentales. El 22 de diciembre, los prisioneros fueron llevados al patio para su fusilamiento; Dostoyevski tenía que situarse frente al pelotón e incluso escuchar los disparos con los ojos vendados, pero su pena fue conmutada en el último momento por cinco años de trabajos forzados en Omsk, Siberia. Durante esta época sus ataques epilépticos fueron en aumento. Años más tarde, Dostoyevski le relataría a su hermano los sufrimientos que atravesó durante los años que pasó «silenciado dentro de un ataúd». Describió el cuartel donde estuvo, que «debería haber sido demolido años atrás», con estas palabras:
En verano, encierro intolerable; en invierno, frío insoportable. Todos los pisos estaban podridos. La suciedad de los pavimentos tenía una pulgada de grosor; uno podía resbalar y caer... Nos apilaban como anillos de un barril... Ni siquiera había lugar para dar la vuelta. Era imposible no comportarse como cerdos, desde el amanecer hasta el atardecer. Pulgas, piojos, y escarabajos por celemín.
Fue liberado en 1854 y se reincorporó al ejército como soldado raso, lo que constituía la segunda parte de su condena. Durante los siguientes cinco formó parte del Séptimo Batallón de línea acuartelado en la fortaleza de Semipalátinsk en Kazajistán. Allí comenzó una relación con María Dmítrievna Isáyeva, esposa de un conocido suyo en Siberia. Se casaron en febrero de 1857 después de la muerte de su esposo. Ese mismo año, el zar Alejandro II decretó una amnistía que benefició a Dostoyevski, quien recuperó su título nobiliario y obtuvo permiso para continuar publicando sus obras.
Al final de su estadía en Kazajistán, Dostoyevski era ya un cristiano convencido. Se convirtió en un agudo crítico del nihilismo y del movimiento socialista de su época. Tiempo después, dedicó parte de sus libros Los endemoniados y Diario de un escritor a criticar las ideas socialistas. Estas críticas se fundamentaban en la creencia de que quienes las pregonaban no conocían al pueblo ruso y de que no era posible trasladar un sistema de ideas de origen europeo a la Rusia de entonces, de la misma forma que no era posible adoptar las doctrinas de una institución occidental como la Iglesia católica a un pueblo esencialmente cristiano-ortodoxo. Dostoyevski plasmaría estas convicciones en la descripción de Piotr Stepánovich para su novela Los endemoniados y en la redacción de las reflexiones del starets Zosima en «Un religioso ruso», de Los hermanos Karamázov.
Dostoievski fue acercándose progresivamente a una postura eslavófila moderada y a las ideas del ideólogo del paneslavismo Nikolái Danilevski, autor de Rusia y Europa. Su interpretación de esta filosofía rescataba el papel integrador y salvador de la religiosidad rusa y no consideraciones de superioridad racial eslava. Por otra parte, en su interpretación, la unión rusa y su supuesto servicio a la humanidad no implicaba desprecio alguno por la influencia europea, que Dostoyevski reconocía gratamente. Más tarde trabó amistad con el estadista conservador Konstantín Pobedonóstsev y abrazó algunos de los principios del Póchvennichestvo.
Con todo, posicionar políticamente a Dostoyevski no es del todo sencillo: como cristiano, rechazaba el ateísmo socialista; como tradicionalista, la destrucción de las instituciones y, como pacifista, cualquier método violento de cambio social, tanto progresista como reaccionario. A pesar de esto, dio claras muestras de simpatía por las reformas sociales producidas durante el reinado de Alejandro II, en particular por la que implicó la abolición de la servidumbre en el campo, dictada en 1861. Por otra parte, si bien en los primeros años de su regreso de Kazajistán era todavía escéptico respecto de los reclamos de las feministas, en 1870 escribió que «todavía podía esperar mucho de la mujer rusa» y cambió de parecer.
Su preocupación por la desigualdad social es notable en su obra y, desde un punto de vista cristiano ascético, creía —como luego reflejaría en su personaje Zosima— que «al considerar la libertad como el aumento de las necesidades y su pronta saturación, se altera su sentido, pues la consecuencia de ello es un aluvión de deseos insensatos, de ilusiones y costumbres absurdas», y quizás confiara, como dicho personaje, en que «el rico más depravado acabará por avergonzarse de su riqueza ante el pobre».
En febrero de 1854, Dostoyevski le pidió por carta a su hermano que le enviara diversos libros, especialmente Lecciones sobre la historia de la filosofía, de Hegel. Durante su destierro en Semipalátinsk, planeó también traducir junto a Alexander Vrangel obras del filósofo alemán, pero el proyecto nunca se concretó. Según Nikolái Strájov, Dostoyevski le ofreció la obra de Hegel enviada por Mijáil sin haberla leído.
En 1859, tras largas gestiones, Dostoyevski consiguió ser licenciado con la condición de residir en cualquier lugar excepto San Petersburgo y Moscú, por lo que se trasladó a Tver. Allí logró publicar El sueño del tío y Stepánchikovo y sus habitantes, que no obtuvieron la crítica que esperaba.
En diciembre de ese mismo año se le autorizó regresar a San Petersburgo, donde fundó, con su hermano Mijaíl, la revista Vremya («Tiempo»), en cuyo primer número apareció Humillados y ofendidos (1861), otra novela inspirada en su etapa siberiana. En ella se encuentran, además, varias alusiones autobiográficas, especialmente en lo referente a la primera etapa de Dostoyevski como escritor; se alude en ella, sobre todo, en su primera obra, Noches blancas, con varios guiños a situaciones o personajes específicos. Su siguiente obra, Recuerdos de la casa de los muertos (1861-1862), basada en sus experiencias como prisionero, fue publicada por capítulos en la revista El Mundo Ruso.
Durante 1862 y 1863 realizó diversos viajes por Europa que lo llevaron a Berlín, París, Londres, Ginebra, Turín, Florencia y Viena. Durante estos viajes comenzó una relación con Polina Súslova,27 una estudiante con ideas avanzadas, que lo abandonó poco después. Perdió mucho dinero jugando a la ruleta y, a finales de octubre de 1863, regresó a Moscú solo y sin dinero. Durante su ausencia, Vremya fue prohibida por haber publicado un artículo sobre el Levantamiento de Enero.
En 1864 Dostoyevski consiguió editar con su hermano una nueva revista llamada Epoja («Época»), en la que publicó Memorias del subsuelo. Su ánimo terminó de quebrarse tras la muerte de su esposa, María Dmítrievna Isáyeva, seguida poco después por la de su hermano. Dostoyevski debió hacerse cargo de la viuda y los cuatro hijos de Mijaíl y, además, de una deuda de 25 000 rublos que este había dejado. Se hundió en una profunda depresión y en el juego, lo que siguió generándole enormes deudas. Para escapar de todos sus problemas financieros, huyó al extranjero, donde perdió el dinero que le quedaba en los casinos. Allí se reencontró con Polina Súslova y le propuso matrimonio, pero fue rechazado.
En 1865, de nuevo en San Petersburgo, comenzó a escribir Crimen y castigo, una de sus obras capitales. La fue publicando, con gran éxito, en la revista El Mensajero Ruso. Sin embargo, sus deudas eran cada vez mayores por lo que, en 1866, se vio obligado a firmar un contrato con el editor Stellovski. Dicho contrato establecía que Dostoyevski recibiría tres mil rublos —que pasarían directamente a manos de sus acreedores— a cambio de los derechos de edición de todas sus obras, y el compromiso de entregar una nueva novela ese mismo año. Si ésta no era entregada en noviembre, recibiría una fuerte multa y, si en diciembre seguía sin estar lista, perdería todos los derechos patrimoniales sobre sus obras, que pasarían a manos de Stellovski. Dostoyevski entonces contrató a Anna Grigórievna Snítkina, una joven taquígrafa a quien dictó, en sólo veintiséis días, su novela El jugador, entregada en conformidad con los términos del contrato. El día de su entrega, sin embargo, el administrador de la editorial aseguró no haber recibido el aviso pertinente por parte de Stellovski, ante lo cual Dostoyevski se vio obligado a constatar la entrega —con acuse de recibo legal— en una comisaría.
Dostoyevski se casó con Snítkina el 15 de febrero de 1867 y, tras una breve estadía en Moscú, partieron hacia Europa. La debilidad de Dostoyevski por el juego volvió a manifestarse en Baden-Baden. En 1867, finalmente establecido en Ginebra, comenzó a preparar el esquema de su novela El idiota, que debía publicarse en los dos primeros fascículos de El Mensajero Ruso del año siguiente. Según Anna Grigórievna, Dostoyevski afirmaba sobre esta obra que «nunca había tenido una idea más poética y más rica, pero que no había logrado expresar ni siquiera la décima parte de lo que quería decir». En 1868 nació su primera hija, Sonia, pero murió tres meses después. El hecho fue devastador para la pareja, y Dostoyevski cayó en una profunda depresión. Decidieron alejarse de Ginebra y, luego de una estadía en Vevey, viajaron a Italia. Allí visitaron Milán, Florencia, Bolonia y Venecia. En 1869, partieron hacia Dresde, donde nació su segunda hija, Liubov. Su situación económica era, en palabras de Anna Grigórievna, de «relativa pobreza». Dostoyevski recibió el dinero convenido por El Mensajero Ruso y El idiota, y pudieron —a pesar de verse obligados a utilizar parte de este para pagar deudas— vivir con algo más de tranquilidad que en años anteriores.
En 1870 el autor se dedicó a escribir una nueva novela, El eterno marido, que fue publicada en la revista Zariá. Algunos pasajes de la obra son de carácter autobiográfico. Específicamente, en el capítulo «En casa de los Zajlebinin», Dostoyevski recuerda el verano de 1866 pasado en una casa de campo en Liublin, cerca de Moscú, junto con una de sus hermanas.
En 1871, terminó Los endemoniados, publicada en 1872. La novela refleja las inquietudes políticas de Dostoyevski en esa época. Al respecto, escribió a su amigo Strájov:
Espero mucho de lo que escribo ahora en El Mensajero Ruso, no sólo desde el punto de vista artístico, sino también en lo que respecta a la calidad del tema: desearía expresar algunos pensamientos, aunque por su causa debe sufrir el arte; pero estoy de tal modo fascinado por las ideas que se han acumulado en mi espíritu y en mi corazón, que debo expresarlas aunque sólo pueda lograr un opúsculo; es lo mismo, debo expresarme.
Poco antes de que Dostoyevski comenzara a escribir la novela, la pareja recibió la visita del hermano de Anna, que vivía en San Petersburgo. Este les habló del agitado clima político que se vivía en la ciudad y, especialmente, acerca de un asesinato que había tenido gran repercusión. Ivánov, un estudiante perteneciente al grupo extremista de Sergéi Necháyev, había sido asesinado en una gruta por orden de este, tras alejarse del grupo por rechazar sus métodos de acción. Dostoyevski decidió tomar como protagonista para su nueva novela a Ivánov bajo el nombre de Shátov y describió, siguiendo el relato del hermano de Anna, el parque de la Academia de Pedro y la gruta en la que fue asesinado Ivánov.
Hacia 1871, Dostoyevski y Anna Grigórievna habían cumplido cuatro años de residencia en el extranjero y estaban resueltos a volver a Rusia. Como Anna estaba embarazada, decidieron partir cuanto antes para no tener que viajar con un niño recién nacido. Luego de recibir la parte del pago de El Mensajero Ruso y la correspondiente a la publicación de El eterno marido, partieron hacia San Petersburgo haciendo escala en Berlín.
A los ocho días de su llegada a Rusia nació Fiódor. Dostoyevski hizo un viaje rápido a Moscú, donde cobró lo correspondiente a la parte publicada de Los demonios en El mensajero ruso. Con este dinero les fue posible alquilar una casa en San Petersburgo. Pronto se vio el autor nuevamente asediado por acreedores, especialmente algunos que reclamaban deudas de la época de Tiempo, que le correspondían por la muerte de su hermano. Los acreedores se presentaban algunas veces sin documento probatorio y Dostoyevski, ingenuo, les firmaba letras de cambio.
En 1872 partieron hacia Stáraya Rusa, donde permanecerían hasta 1875. Tras finalizar la novela Los demonios, Dostoyevski aceptó la propuesta de encargarse de la redacción del semanario El ciudadano. En 1873 editó la versión completa de Los demonios, publicada por la pequeña editorial que había fundado con medios propios, ayudado por Anna. El éxito de esta edición fue abrumador. Luego reeditó también varias de sus obras anteriores y comenzó a publicar la revista Diario de un escritor, en la que escribía solo, recopilando historias cortas, artículos políticos y crítica literaria. Esta publicación, aunque muy exitosa, se vio interrumpida en 1878, cuando Dostoyevski comenzó Los hermanos Karamázov, que aparecería en gran parte en la revista El Mensajero Ruso.
En 1874 Dostoyevski abandonó la redacción de El Ciudadano, tarea que no satisfizo sus aspiraciones, para dedicarse completamente a escribir una nueva novela. Luego de evaluar las ofertas editoriales de El Mensajero Ruso y Memorias de la Patria (del poeta Nikolái Nekrásov), decidió aceptar esta última. La novela sería titulada El adolescente y comenzaría a publicarse ese mismo año. Por aquella época, Dostoyevski tuvo fuertes crisis asmáticas, y estuvo un tiempo en Berlín y Ems tratando su afección.
En 1875 nació su cuarto hijo, Alekséi, y el matrimonio decidió volver a San Petersburgo. Durante esa época vivieron del dinero que obtenían por El adolescente. Mientras tanto, Dostoyevski continuaba reuniendo material para Diario de un escritor y frecuentaba con asiduidad reuniones literarias, donde se encontraba y debatía con viejos amigos y enemigos. En 1877, la publicación de Diario de un escritor tuvo gran éxito y, aunque el autor estaba muy satisfecho tanto con los resultados económicos como con la simpatía que el público manifestaba en su correspondencia, sentía gran necesidad de crear algo nuevo. Decidió entonces interrumpir por dos o tres años la publicación de la revista para ocuparse de una nueva novela.
Nekrásov, amigo de Dostoyevski —el primero en reconocer su talento con Pobres gentes y que más tarde editó El adolescente— se encontraba muy enfermo. Una de las veces que fue a verlo, el poeta le leyó una de sus últimas composiciones, «Los infelices», y le dijo: «La escribí para usted». El poeta murió a finales de 1877. Durante su funeral, Dostoyevski pronunció un emotivo discurso, que más tarde ampliaría e incluiría en el último número de Diario de un escritor de ese año, dividido en cuatro capítulos: «La muerte de Nekrásov», «Pushkin, Lérmontov y Nekrásov», «El poeta y el ciudadano: Nekrásov hombre» y «Un testigo a favor de Nekrásov». Al dolor de Dostoyevski por esta pérdida se le agregaría, al año siguiente, el causado por la muerte de su hijo Alekséi. El niño fue sepultado en el cementerio de Bolsháia Ojta.
Dostoyevski y su esposa, consternados, pensaron que no tenían más que hacer en San Petersburgo y regresaron con sus hijos a Stáraya Rusa. Dostoyevski acordó con El mensajero ruso la publicación de una nueva novela para 1879: se trataba de la futura Los hermanos Karamázov. De una bendición recibida por un sacerdote de la ermita de Óptina, tras contarle Dostoyevski lo sucedido con su hijo, surgiría la escena del capítulo Las mujeres creyentes, en la que el starets Zosima bendice a una madre tras la muerte de su hijo, también llamado Alekséi. Por otra parte, la figura del starets Zosima sería creada a partir de las figuras de este sacerdote y de otro a quien el autor admiraba, Tijon Zadonski.
Apenas comenzó a publicarse, Los hermanos Karamázov atrajo fuertemente la atención de lectores y críticos. Dostoyevski solía leer algunos fragmentos de ella en reuniones literarias con una excelente respuesta por parte del público. Muy pronto se la consideró una obra maestra de la literatura rusa y hasta logró que Dostoyevski se ganara el respeto de varios de sus enemigos literarios. El autor la consideró su magnum opus. A pesar de esto, la novela nunca se terminó. Originalmente, según los esquemas del autor, consistiría en dos partes, y los sucesos de la segunda ocurrirían trece años más tarde que los de la primera. Esta segunda parte nunca llegó a escribirse.
En 1880, Dostoyevski participó en la inauguración del monumento a Aleksandr Pushkin en Moscú, donde pronunció un discurso sobre el destino de Rusia en el mundo. El 8 de noviembre de ese mismo año, terminó Los hermanos Karamázov en San Petersburgo.
Dostoyevski murió en su casa de San Petersburgo, el 9 de febrero de 1881, de una hemorragia pulmonar asociada a un enfisema y a un ataque epiléptico. Fue enterrado en el cementerio Tijvin, dentro del Monasterio de Alejandro Nevski, en San Petersburgo. El vizconde E. M. de Vogüé, diplomático francés, describió el funeral como una especie de apoteosis. En su libro Le Roman russe, señala que entre los miles de jóvenes que seguían el cortejo, se podía distinguir incluso a los nihilistas, que se encontraban en las antípodas de las creencias del escritor. Anna Grigórievna señaló que «los diferentes partidos se reconciliaron en el dolor común y en el deseo de rendir el último homenaje al célebre escritor».
En su lápida sepulcral puede leerse el siguiente versículo de San Juan, que sirvió también como epígrafe de su última novela, Los hermanos Karamázov:
En verdad, en verdad os digo que si el grano de trigo que cae en la tierra no muere, queda solo; pero si muere produce mucho fruto. Evangelio de San Juan 12:24
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiódor_Dostoyevski
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Novelas_de_Fiódor_Dostoyevski
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский) (11 November 1821 – 9 February 1881), sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Dostoevsky's oeuvre consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories, and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature.[3] His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.
Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age through fairy tales and legends, and through books by Russian and foreign authors. His mother died in 1837 when he was 15, and around the same time, he left school to enter the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. After graduating, he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. In the mid-1840s he wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, which gained him entry into St. Petersburg's literary circles. Arrested in 1849 for belonging to a literary group that discussed banned books critical of Tsarist Russia, he was sentenced to death but the sentence was commuted at the last moment. He spent four years in a Siberian prison camp, followed by six years of compulsory military service in exile. In the following years, Dostoevsky worked as a journalist, publishing and editing several magazines of his own and later A Writer's Diary, a collection of his writings. He began to travel around western Europe and developed a gambling addiction, which led to financial hardship. For a time, he had to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers.
Dostoevsky was influenced by a wide variety of philosophers and authors including Pushkin, Gogol, Augustine, Shakespeare, Dickens, Balzac, Lermontov, Hugo, Poe, Plato, Cervantes, Herzen, Kant, Belinsky, Hegel, Schiller, Solovyov, Bakunin, Sand, Hoffmann, and Mickiewicz. His writings were widely read both within and beyond his native Russia and influenced an equally great number of later writers including Russians like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anton Chekhov as well as philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre. His books have been translated into more than 170 languages.
Dostoevsky's parents were part of a multi-ethnic and multi-denominational noble family, its branches including Russian Orthodox Christians, Polish Roman Catholics and Ukrainian Eastern Catholics. The family traced its roots back to a Tatar, Aslan Chelebi-Murza, who in 1389 defected from the Golden Horde and joined the forces of Dmitry Donskoy, the first prince of Muscovy to openly challenge the Mongol authority in the region, and whose descendant, Danilo Irtishch, was ennobled and given lands in the Pinsk region (for centuries part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, now in modern-day Belarus) in 1509 for his services under a local prince, his progeny then taking the name "Dostoevsky" based on a village there called Dostoïevo
Dostoevsky's immediate ancestors on his mother's side were merchants; the male line on his father's side were priests. His father, Mikhail Andreevich, was expected to join the clergy but instead ran away from home and broke with the family permanently.
In 1809, the 20-year-old Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky enrolled in Moscow's Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy. From there he was assigned to a Moscow hospital, where he served as military doctor, and in 1818, he was appointed a senior physician. In 1819 he married Maria Nechayeva. The following year, he took up a post at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor. In 1828, when his two sons, Mikhail and Fyodor, were eight and seven respectively, he was promoted to collegiate assessor, a position which raised his legal status to that of the nobility and enabled him to acquire a small estate in Darovoye, a town about 150 km (100 miles) from Moscow, where the family usually spent the summers. Dostoevsky's parents subsequently had six more children: Varvara (1822–1892), Andrei (1825–1897), Lyubov (born and died 1829), Vera (1829–1896), Nikolai (1831–1883) and Aleksandra (1835–1889).
Fyodor Dostoevsky, born on 11 November [O.S. 30 October] 1821, was the second child of Dr. Mikhail Dostoevsky and Maria Dostoevskaya (born Nechayeva). He was raised in the family home in the grounds of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, which was in a lower class district on the edges of Moscow. Dostoevsky encountered the patients, who were at the lower end of the Russian social scale, when playing in the hospital gardens.
Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age. From the age of three, he was read heroic sagas, fairy tales and legends by his nanny, Alena Frolovna, an especially influential figure in his upbringing and love for fictional stories. When he was four his mother used the Bible to teach him to read and write. His parents introduced him to a wide range of literature, including Russian writers Karamzin, Pushkin and Derzhavin; Gothic fiction such as Ann Radcliffe; romantic works by Schiller and Goethe; heroic tales by Cervantes and Walter Scott; and Homer's epics. Although his father's approach to education has been described as strict and harsh, Dostoevsky himself reports that his imagination was brought alive by nightly readings by his parents.
Some of his childhood experiences found their way into his writings. When a nine-year-old girl had been raped by a drunk, he was asked to fetch his father to attend to her. The incident haunted him, and the theme of the desire of a mature man for a young girl appears in The Devils, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and other writings. An incident involving a family servant, or serf, in the estate in Darovoye, is described in "The Peasant Marey": when the young Dostoevsky imagines hearing a wolf in the forest, Marey, who is working nearby, comforts him.
Although Dostoevsky had a delicate physical constitution, his parents described him as hot-headed, stubborn and cheeky. In 1833, Dostoevsky's father, who was profoundly religious, sent him to a French boarding school and then to the Chermak boarding school. He was described as a pale, introverted dreamer and an over-excitable romantic. To pay the school fees, his father borrowed money and extended his private medical practice. Dostoevsky felt out of place among his aristocratic classmates at the Moscow school, and the experience was later reflected in some of his works, notably The Adolescent.
On 27 September 1837 Dostoevsky's mother died of tuberculosis. The previous May, his parents had sent Dostoevsky and his brother Mikhail to St Petersburg to attend the free Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute, forcing the brothers to abandon their academic studies for military careers. Dostoevsky entered the academy in January 1838, but only with the help of family members. Mikhail was refused admission on health grounds and was sent to the Academy in Reval, Estonia.
Dostoevsky disliked the academy, primarily because of his lack of interest in science, mathematics and military engineering and his preference for drawing and architecture. As his friend Konstantin Trutovsky once said, "There was no student in the entire institution with less of a military bearing than F.M. Dostoevsky. He moved clumsily and jerkily; his uniform hung awkwardly on him; and his knapsack, shako and rifle all looked like some sort of fetter he had been forced to wear for a time and which lay heavily on him." Dostoevsky's character and interests made him an outsider among his 120 classmates: he showed bravery and a strong sense of justice, protected newcomers, aligned himself with teachers, criticised corruption among officers and helped poor farmers. Although he was solitary and inhabited his own literary world, he was respected by his classmates. His reclusiveness and interest in religion earned him the nickname "Monk Photius".
Signs of Dostoevsky's epilepsy may have first appeared on learning of the death of his father on 16 June 1839, although the reports of a seizure originated from accounts written by his daughter (later expanded by Sigmund Freud.) which are now considered to be unreliable. His father's official cause of death was an apoplectic stroke, but a neighbour, Pavel Khotiaintsev, accused the father's serfs of murder. Had the serfs been found guilty and sent to Siberia, Khotiaintsev would have been in a position to buy the vacated land. The serfs were acquitted in a trial in Tula, but Dostoevsky's brother Andrei perpetuated the story. After his father's death, Dostoevsky continued his studies, passed his exams and obtained the rank of engineer cadet, entitling him to live away from the academy. He visited Mikhail in Reval, and frequently attended concerts, operas, plays and ballets. During this time, two of his friends introduced him to gambling.
On 12 August 1843 Dostoevsky took a job as a lieutenant engineer and lived with Adolph Totleben in an apartment owned by Dr. Rizenkampf, a friend of Mikhail. Rizenkampf characterised him as "no less good-natured and no less courteous than his brother, but when not in a good mood he often looked at everything through dark glasses, became vexed, forgot good manners, and sometimes was carried away to the point of abusiveness and loss of self-awareness". Dostoevsky's first completed literary work, a translation of Honoré de Balzac's novel Eugénie Grandet, was published in June and July 1843 in the 6th and 7th volume of the journal Repertoire and Pantheon, followed by several other translations. None were successful, and his financial difficulties led him to write a novel.
Dostoevsky completed his first novel, Poor Folk, in May 1845. His friend Dmitry Grigorovich, with whom he was sharing an apartment at the time, took the manuscript to the poet Nikolay Nekrasov, who in turn showed it to the renowned and influential literary critic Vissarion Belinsky. Belinsky described it as Russia's first "social novel". Poor Folk was released on 15 January 1846 in the St Petersburg Collection almanac and became a commercial success.
Dostoevsky felt that his military career would endanger his now flourishing literary career, so he wrote a letter asking to resign his post. Shortly thereafter, he wrote his second novel, The Double, which appeared in the journal Notes of the Fatherland on 30 January 1846, before being published in February. Around the same time, Dostoevsky discovered socialism through the writings of French thinkers Fourier, Cabet, Proudhon and Saint-Simon. Through his relationship with Belinsky he expanded his knowledge of the philosophy of socialism. He was attracted to its logic, its sense of justice and its preoccupation with the destitute and the disadvantaged. However, his relationship with Belinsky became increasingly strained as Belinsky's atheism and dislike of religion clashed with Dostoevsky's Russian Orthodox beliefs. Dostoevsky eventually parted with him and his associates.
After The Double received negative reviews, Dostoevsky's health declined and he had more frequent seizures, but he continued writing. From 1846 to 1848 he released several short stories in the magazine Annals of the Fatherland, including "Mr. Prokharchin", "The Landlady", "A Weak Heart", and "White Nights". These stories were unsuccessful, leaving Dostoevsky once more in financial trouble, so he joined the utopian socialist Betekov circle, a tightly knit community which helped him to survive. When the circle dissolved, Dostoevsky befriended Apollon Maykov and his brother Valerian. In 1846, on the recommendation of the poet Aleksey Pleshcheyev,[41] he joined the Petrashevsky Circle, founded by Mikhail Petrashevsky, who had proposed social reforms in Russia. Mikhail Bakunin once wrote to Alexander Herzen that the group was "the most innocent and harmless company" and its members were "systematic opponents of all revolutionary goals and means". Dostoevsky used the circle's library on Saturdays and Sundays and occasionally participated in their discussions on freedom from censorship and the abolition of serfdom.[43][44]
In 1849, the first parts of Netochka Nezvanova, a novel Dostoevsky had been planning since 1846, were published in Annals of the Fatherland, but his banishment ended the project. Dostoevsky never attempted to complete it.
The members of the Petrashevsky Circle were denounced to Liprandi, an official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Dostoevsky was accused of reading works by Belinsky, including the banned Letter to Gogol,[46] and of circulating copies of these and other works. Antonelli, the government agent who had reported the group, wrote in his statement that at least one of the papers criticised Russian politics and religion. Dostoevsky responded to these charges by declaring that he had read the essays only "as a literary monument, neither more nor less"; he spoke of "personality and human egoism" rather than of politics. Even so, he and his fellow "conspirators" were arrested on 23 April 1849 at the request of Count A. Orlov and Tsar Nicolas I, who feared a revolution like the Decembrist revolt of 1825 in Russia and the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe. The members were held in the well-defended Peter and Paul Fortress, which housed the most dangerous convicts.
The case was discussed for four months by an investigative commission headed by the Tsar, with Adjutant General Ivan Nabokov, senator Prince Pavel Gagarin, Prince Vasili Dolgorukov, General Yakov Rostovtsev and General Leonty Dubelt, head of the secret police. They sentenced the members of the circle to death by firing squad, and the prisoners were taken to Semyonov Place in St Petersburg on 23 December 1849 where they were split into three-man groups. Dostoevsky was the third in the second row; next to him stood Pleshcheyev and Durov. The execution was stayed when a cart delivered a letter from the Tsar commuting the sentence.
Dostoevsky served four years of exile with hard labour at a katorga prison camp in Omsk, Siberia, followed by a term of compulsory military service. After a fourteen-day sleigh ride, the prisoners reached Tobolsk, a prisoner way station. Despite the circumstances, Dostoevsky consoled the other prisoners, such as the Petrashevist Ivan Yastrzhembsky, who was surprised by Dostoevsky's kindness and eventually abandoned his decision to commit suicide. In Tobolsk, the members received food and clothes from the Decembrist women, as well as several copies of the New Testament with a ten-ruble banknote inside each copy. Eleven days later, Dostoevsky reached Omsk together with just one other member of the Petrashevsky Circle, the poet Sergei Durov. Dostoevsky described his barracks:
In summer, intolerable closeness; in winter, unendurable cold. All the floors were rotten. Filth on the floors an inch thick; one could slip and fall ... We were packed like herrings in a barrel ... There was no room to turn around. From dusk to dawn it was impossible not to behave like pigs ... Fleas, lice, and black beetles by the bushel ...
Classified as "one of the most dangerous convicts", Dostoevsky had his hands and feet shackled until his release. He was only permitted to read his New Testament Bible. In addition to his seizures, he had haemorrhoids, lost weight and was "burned by some fever, trembling and feeling too hot or too cold every night". The smell of the privy pervaded the entire building, and the small bathroom had to suffice for more than 200 people. Dostoevsky was occasionally sent to the military hospital, where he read newspapers and Dickens novels. He was respected by most of the other prisoners, and despised by some because of his xenophobic statements.
After his release on 14 February 1854, Dostoevsky asked Mikhail to help him financially and to send him books by Vico, Guizot, Ranke, Hegel and Kant.[55] The House of the Dead, based on his experience in prison, was published in 1861 in the journal Vremya ("Time") – it was the first published novel about Russian prisons. Before moving in mid-March to Semipalatinsk, where he was forced to serve in the Siberian Army Corps of the Seventh Line Battalion, Dostoevsky met geographer Pyotr Semyonov and ethnographer Shokan Walikhanuli. Around November 1854, he met Baron Alexander Egorovich Wrangel, an admirer of his books, who had attended the aborted execution. They both rented houses in the Cossack Garden outside Semipalatinsk. Wrangel remarked that Dostoevsky "looked morose. His sickly, pale face was covered with freckles, and his blond hair was cut short. He was a little over average height and looked at me intensely with his sharp, grey-blue eyes. It was as if he were trying to look into my soul and discover what kind of man I was."
In Semipalatinsk, Dostoevsky tutored several schoolchildren and came into contact with upper-class families, including that of Lieutenant-Colonel Belikhov, who used to invite him to read passages from newspapers and magazines. During a visit to Belikhov, Dostoevsky met the family of Alexander Ivanovich Isaev and Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva and fell in love with the latter. Alexander Isaev took a new post in Kuznetsk, where he died in August 1855. Maria and her son then moved with Dostoevsky to Barnaul. In 1856 Dostoevsky sent a letter through Wrangel to General Eduard Totleben, apologising for his activity in several utopian circles. As a result, he obtained the right to publish books and to marry, although he remained under police surveillance for the rest of his life. Maria married Dostoevsky in Semipalatinsk on 7 February 1857, even though she had initially refused his marriage proposal, stating that they were not meant for each other and that his poor financial situation precluded marriage. Their family life was unhappy and she found it difficult to cope with his seizures. Describing their relationship, he wrote: "Because of her strange, suspicious and fantastic character, we were definitely not happy together, but we could not stop loving each other; and the more unhappy we were, the more attached to each other we became". They mostly lived apart. In 1859 he was released from military service because of deteriorating health and was granted permission to return to Russia, first to Tver, where he met his brother for the first time in ten years, and then to St Petersburg.
"A Little Hero" (Dostoevsky's only work completed in prison) appeared in a journal, but "Uncle's Dream" and "The Village of Stepanchikovo" were not published until 1860. Notes from the House of the Dead was released in Russky Mir (Russian World) in September 1860. "The Insulted and the Injured" was published in the new Vremya magazine, which had been created with the help of funds from his brother's cigarette factory.
Dostoevsky travelled to western Europe for the first time on 7 June 1862, visiting Cologne, Berlin, Dresden, Wiesbaden, Belgium, and Paris. In London, he met Herzen and visited the Crystal Palace. He travelled with Nikolay Strakhov through Switzerland and several North Italian cities, including Turin, Livorno, and Florence. He recorded his impressions of those trips in Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, in which he criticised capitalism, social modernisation, materialism, Catholicism and Protestantism.
From August to October 1863, Dostoevsky made another trip to western Europe. He met his second love, Polina Suslova, in Paris and lost nearly all his money gambling in Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden. In 1864 his wife Maria and his brother Mikhail died, and Dostoevsky became the lone parent of his stepson Pasha and the sole supporter of his brother's family. The failure of Epoch, the magazine he had founded with Mikhail after the suppression of Vremya, worsened his financial situation, although the continued help of his relatives and friends averted bankruptcy.
The first two parts of Crime and Punishment were published in January and February 1866 in the periodical The Russian Messenger, attracting at least 500 new subscribers to the magazine.
Dostoevsky returned to Saint Petersburg in mid-September and promised his editor, Fyodor Stellovsky, that he would complete The Gambler, a short novel focused on gambling addiction, by November, although he had not yet begun writing it. One of Dostoevsky's friends, Milyukov, advised him to hire a secretary. Dostoevsky contacted stenographer Pavel Olkhin from Saint Petersburg, who recommended his pupil, the twenty-year-old Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina. Her shorthand helped Dostoevsky to complete The Gambler on 30 October, after 26 days' work. She remarked that Dostoevsky was of average height but always tried to carry himself erect. "He had light brown, slightly reddish hair, he used some hair conditioner, and he combed his hair in a diligent way ... his eyes, they were different: one was dark brown; in the other, the pupil was so big that you could not see its color, [this was caused by an injury]. The strangeness of his eyes gave Dostoyevsky some mysterious appearance. His face was pale, and it looked unhealthy."
On 15 February 1867 Dostoevsky married Snitkina in Trinity Cathedral, Saint Petersburg. The 7,000 rubles he had earned from Crime and Punishment did not cover their debts, forcing Anna to sell her valuables. On 14 April 1867, they began a delayed honeymoon in Germany with the money gained from the sale. They stayed in Berlin and visited the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, where he sought inspiration for his writing. They continued their trip through Germany, visiting Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe. They spent five weeks in Baden-Baden, where Dostoevsky had a quarrel with Turgenev and again lost much money at the roulette table. The couple travelled on to Geneva.
In September 1867, Dostoevsky began work on The Idiot, and after a prolonged planning process that bore little resemblance to the published novel, he eventually managed to write the first 100 pages in only 23 days; the serialisation began in The Russian Messenger in January 1868.
Their first child, Sonya, had been conceived in Baden-Baden, and was born in Geneva on 5 March 1868. The baby died of pneumonia three months later, and Anna recalled how Dostoevsky "wept and sobbed like a woman in despair". The couple moved from Geneva to Vevey and then to Milan, before continuing to Florence. The Idiot was completed there in January 1869, the final part appearing in The Russian Messenger in February 1869. Anna gave birth to their second daughter, Lyubov, on 26 September 1869 in Dresden. In April 1871, Dostoevsky made a final visit to a gambling hall in Wiesbaden. Anna claimed that he stopped gambling after the birth of their second daughter, but this is a subject of debate.
After hearing news that the socialist revolutionary group "People's Vengeance" had murdered one of its own members, Ivan Ivanov, on 21 November 1869, Dostoevsky began writing Demons. In 1871, Dostoevsky and Anna travelled by train to Berlin. During the trip, he burnt several manuscripts, including those of The Idiot, because he was concerned about potential problems with customs. The family arrived in Saint Petersburg on 8 July, marking the end of a honeymoon (originally planned for three months) that had lasted over four years.
Back in Russia in July 1871, the family was again in financial trouble and had to sell their remaining possessions. Their son Fyodor was born on 16 July, and they moved to an apartment near the Institute of Technology soon after. They hoped to cancel their large debts by selling their rental house in Peski, but difficulties with the tenant resulted in a relatively low selling price, and disputes with their creditors continued. Anna proposed that they raise money on her husband's copyrights and negotiate with the creditors to pay off their debts in installments.
Dostoevsky revived his friendships with Maykov and Strakhov and made new acquaintances, including church politician Terty Filipov and the brothers Vsevolod and Vladimir Solovyov. Konstantin Pobedonostsev, future Imperial High Commissioner of the Most Holy Synod, influenced Dostoevsky's political progression to conservatism. Around early 1872 the family spent several months in Staraya Russa, a town known for its mineral spa. Dostoevsky's work was delayed when Anna's sister Maria Svatkovskaya died on 1 May 1872, either from typhus or malaria, and Anna developed an abscess on her throat.
The family returned to St Petersburg in September. Demons was finished on 26 November and released in January 1873 by the "Dostoevsky Publishing Company", which was founded by Dostoevsky and his wife. Although they only accepted cash payments and the bookshop was in their own apartment, the business was successful, and they sold around 3,000 copies of Demons. Anna managed the finances. Dostoevsky proposed that they establish a new periodical, which would be called A Writer's Diary and would include a collection of essays, but funds were lacking, and the Diary was published in Vladimir Meshchersky's The Citizen, beginning on 1 January, in return for a salary of 3,000 rubles per year. In the summer of 1873, Anna returned to Staraya Russa with the children, while Dostoevsky stayed in St Petersburg to continue with his Diary.
In March 1874, Dostoevsky left The Citizen because of the stressful work and interference from the Russian bureaucracy. In his fifteen months with The Citizen, he had been taken to court twice: on 11 June 1873 for citing the words of Prince Meshchersky without permission, and again on 23 March 1874. Dostoevsky offered to sell a new novel he had not yet begun to write to The Russian Messenger, but the magazine refused. Nikolay Nekrasov suggested that he publish A Writer's Diary in Notes of the Fatherland; he would receive 250 rubles for each printer's sheet – 100 more than the text's publication in The Russian Messenger would have earned. Dostoevsky accepted. As his health began to decline, he consulted several doctors in St Petersburg and was advised to take a cure outside Russia. Around July, he reached Ems and consulted a physician, who diagnosed him with acute catarrh. During his stay he began The Adolescent. He returned to Saint Petersburg in late July.
Anna proposed that they spend the winter in Staraya Russa to allow Dostoevsky to rest, although doctors had suggested a second visit to Ems because his health had previously improved there. On 10 August 1875 his son Alexey was born in Staraya Russa, and in mid-September the family returned to Saint Petersburg. Dostoevsky finished The Adolescent at the end of 1875, although passages of it had been serialised in Notes of the Fatherland since January. The Adolescent chronicles the life of Arkady Dolgoruky, the illegitimate child of the landowner Versilov and a peasant mother. It deals primarily with the relationship between father and son, which became a frequent theme in Dostoevsky's subsequent works.
In early 1876, Dostoevsky continued work on his Diary. The book includes numerous essays and a few short stories about society, religion, politics and ethics. The collection sold more than twice as many copies as his previous books. Dostoevsky received more letters from readers than ever before, and people of all ages and occupations visited him. With assistance from Anna's brother, the family bought a dacha in Staraya Russa. In the summer of 1876, Dostoevsky began experiencing shortness of breath again. He visited Ems for the third time and was told that he might live for another 15 years if he moved to a healthier climate. When he returned to Russia, Tsar Alexander II ordered Dostoevsky to visit his palace to present the Diary to him, and he asked him to educate his sons, Sergey and Paul. This visit further increased Dosteyevsky's circle of acquaintances. He was a frequent guest in several salons in Saint Petersburg and met many famous people, including Princess Sophia Tolstaya, Yakov Polonsky, Sergei Witte, Alexey Suvorin, Anton Rubinstein and Ilya Repin.
Dostoevsky's health declined further, and in March 1877 he had four epileptic seizures. Rather than returning to Ems, he visited Maly Prikol, a manor near Kursk. While returning to St Petersburg to finalise his Diary, he visited Darovoye, where he had spent much of his childhood. In December he attended Nekrasov's funeral and gave a speech. He was appointed an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, from which he received an honorary certificate in February 1879. He declined an invitation to an international congress on copyright in Paris after his son Alyosha had a severe epileptic seizure and died on 16 May. The family later moved to the apartment where Dostoevsky had written his first works. Around this time, he was elected to the board of directors of the Slavic Benevolent Society in Saint Petersburg. That summer, he was elected to the honorary committee of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, whose members included Victor Hugo, Ivan Turgenev, Paul Heyse, Alfred Tennyson, Anthony Trollope, Henry Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Leo Tolstoy. Dostoevsky made his fourth and final visit to Ems in early August 1879. He was diagnosed with early-stage pulmonary emphysema, which his doctor believed could be successfully managed, but not cured.
On 3 February 1880 Dostoevsky was elected vice-president of the Slavic Benevolent Society, and he was invited to speak at the unveiling of the Pushkin memorial in Moscow. On 8 June he delivered his speech, giving an impressive performance that had a significant emotional impact on his audience. His speech was met with thunderous applause, and even his long-time rival Turgenev embraced him. Konstantin Staniukovich praised the speech in his essay "The Pushkin Anniversary and Dostoevsky's Speech" in The Business, writing that "the language of Dostoevsky's [Pushkin Speech] really looks like a sermon. He speaks with the tone of a prophet. He makes a sermon like a pastor; it is very deep, sincere, and we understand that he wants to impress the emotions of his listeners." The speech was criticised later by liberal political scientist Alexander Gradovsky, who thought that Dostoevsky idolised "the people" and by conservative thinker Konstantin Leontiev, who, in his essay "On Universal Love", compared the speech to French utopian socialism. The attacks led to a further deterioration in his health.
On 25 January 1881, while searching for members of the terrorist organisation Narodnaya Volya ("The People's Will") who would soon assassinate Tsar Alexander II, the Tsar's secret police executed a search warrant in the apartment of one of Dostoevsky's neighbours. On the following day, Dostoevsky suffered a pulmonary haemorrhage. Anna denied that the search had caused it, saying that the haemorrhage had occurred after her husband had been looking for a dropped pen holder. After another haemorrhage, Anna called the doctors, who gave a poor prognosis. A third haemorrhage followed shortly afterwards. While seeing his children before dying, Dostoevsky requested that the parable of the Prodigal Son be read to his children. The profound meaning of this request is pointed out by Frank:
It was this parable of transgression, repentance, and forgiveness that he wished to leave as a last heritage to his children, and it may well be seen as his own ultimate understanding of the meaning of his life and the message of his work.
Among Dostoevsky's last words was his quotation of Matthew 3:14–15: "But John forbad him, saying, I have a need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness", and he finished with "Hear now—permit it. Do not restrain me!" When he died, his body was placed on a table, following Russian custom. He was interred in the Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Convent, near his favourite poets, Nikolay Karamzin and Vasily Zhukovsky. It is unclear how many attended his funeral. According to one reporter, more than 100,000 mourners were present, while others describe attendance between 40,000 and 50,000. His tombstone is inscribed with lines from the New Testament:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit. — John 12:24
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoevsky
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Water, saturated with dissoluted Calciumhydrogencarbonate forms dripstones. Drop for drop a little quanitity of calcite (or aragonite) is left (when carbondioxide vanishes in the air of the cave) and accumulates to a dripstone.
Former military training ground Scharpenacken, Wuppertal
Ehemaliger Truppenübungsplatz Scharpenacken, Wuppertal
When we moved to the mountains of NC in 2019, I didn't realize how cool a place it would be for lichens. If these lichens were 1 foot tall, everyone would want them as decorative plants. As it is, they are there for those who look.
When I woke that morning, I mean very early, and saw the fog, I got out right away without taking my coffee. I was hoping for sunshine so I could capture spiderwebs. It never lasts long so one needs to be there before the sun dries everything out.