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History Seemingly, Archaeological finds indicate that there were people in Norway as early as the tenth millennium BC (twelve thousand years ago). Archaeological research shows that they came from either southern regions (northern Germany), or from the north-east (northern Finland or Russia). From there they settled along the coastline. In the ninth century it seems that Norway consisted of a number of petty kingdoms. According to tradition, Harald Fairhair gathered the small kingdoms into one in 872 with the Battle of Hafrsfjord. He became the first king of a united Norway. The Viking age (eighth to eleventh centuries) was one of unification and expansion. Norwegians established settlements on Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and parts of Britain and Ireland, and attempted to settle at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada (the "Vinland" of the Saga of Eric the Red). Norwegians founded the modern-day Irish cities of Limerick, Dublin, and Waterford[citation needed] and established trading communities near the Celtic settlements of Cork and Dublin[citation needed] which later became Ireland's two most important cities. The spread of Christianity in Norway in this period is in large part attributed to the missionary kings Olav Trygvason (995–1000) and Saint Olav (1015–1028), although Haakon the Good was Norway's first Christian king. Norse traditions were slowly replaced during the (ninth and tenth centuries). Geography Norway comprises the western part of Scandinavia in Northern Europe. The rugged coastline, broken by massive fjords and thousands of islands, stretches over 25,000 km. Norway shares a 2,542 km land border with Sweden, Finland, and Russia to the east. To the west and south, Norway is bordered by the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea, and Skagerak. The Barents Sea washes on Norway's northern coasts. At 385,155 km² (including Jan Mayen, Svalbard), Norway is approximately the size of Germany, but much of the country is dominated by mountainous or high terrain, with a great variety of natural features caused by prehistoric glaciers and varied topography. The most noticeable of these are the fjords, deep grooves cut into the land flooded by the sea following the end of the ice age; the longest is Sognefjorden. Norway also contains many glaciers and waterfalls. The land is mostly made of hard granite and gneiss rock, but slate, sandstone and limestone are also common, and the lowest elevations have marine deposits. Due to the Gulf Stream and prevailing westerlies, Norway experiences warmer temperatures and more precipitation than expected at such northern latitudes, especially along the coast. The mainland experiences four distinct seasons, with colder winters and less precipitation inland. The northernmost part has a mostly maritime subarctic climate, while Svalbard has an arctic tundra climate. There are large seasonal variations in daylight. In areas north of the Arctic Circle, the summer sun may never completely descend beneath the horizon, hence Norway's description as the "Land of the Midnight Sun." During summer, inhabitants south of the Arctic Circle still experience sunlight nearly 20 of the day's 24 hours. Administrative divisions Norway is divided into nineteen first-level administrative regions known as fylker ("counties"; singular fylke) and 431 second-level kommuner ("municipalities"; singular kommune). The fylke is the intermediate administration between state and municipality. The King is represented in every county by a "Fylkesmann". There is ongoing debate as to whether the nineteen fylker should be replaced with five to nine larger regions.[citation needed] Some expect this to happen by 2010, whereas others expect the intermediate administration to disappear entirely. Another option would probably require consolidating the municipalities into larger entities and delegating greater responsibility to them. The counties of Norway are: Akershus, Aust-Agder, Buskerud, Finnmark, Hedmark, Hordaland, Møre og Romsdal, Nordland, Nord-Trøndelag, Oppland, Oslo, Østfold, Rogaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Sør-Trøndelag, Telemark, Troms, Vest-Agder, Vestfold. Part of the information are from www.wikipedia.org respecting the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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