Video narration
If you picture Norway, do you see Vikings-and think that's most of its story? Flip through a family photo album: the first pages show early kingdoms on a rugged coast, and seafarers traveling far beyond it. During the Viking Age, Norway's rulers helped shape a world of voyages and trade across northern Europe. For centuries, Norway was under the Danish crown; later, it entered a separate union with Sweden. The Viking Age was only the beginning: Norway spent centuries governed from elsewhere before becoming independent in 1905. Germany occupied Norway from 1940 to 1945, during World War II. After the war, North Sea oil helped fund prosperity, but it did not create it alone. So, are Vikings most of Norway's story? No. Viking kingdoms began it; outside rule, independence, occupation, and oil-era change shaped the modern nation.