Middle and Northern Norway
Svein
Tore Dahl and Kåre Hasselberg
use the terms Middle Norway and Northern Norway in their books about officials
and clergy. These terms may not be univocal to all, for which reason
an explanation may be relevant.
But the thing is that a single correct definition does not exist. Both
the clerical and administrative division changed several times in the period
from 1536 to 1700. One obvious source for change was the wars between Denmark-Norway
and Sweden, but also a number of internal changes took place.
The most simple definition can be derived from the map to the left.
Middle Norway consists of the present counties Sør-Trøndelag
and Nord-Trøndelag (with a bit of the county Møre og Romsdal),
while Northern Norway consists of the present counties Nordland, Troms
and Finmark.
A more correct - but less descriptive - definition is that the subject
of the books are the areas whose archival material are located in Trondheim.
Most recently updated 28 May 2002
Jan Tuxen