Svartedauen i Norge: Ankomst, spredning, dødelighet

Sammendrag

The Black Death's history in Norway was first thoroughly discussed in my doctoral thesis of 1993, and then again in a new, revised and enlarged version in my general Norwegian plague history of 2002. In both cases, I argue for the new view that the Black Death first reached Oslo from south-eastern England in the autumn of 1348, but that the incipient epidemic was suppressed by cold winter weather and re-emerged in early spring around mid-April in a seasonal pattern typical of bubonic plague. Then it started spreading radially out of the town along the main roads from where it fanned out into the countryside. A new independent introduction in Bergen caused an outbreak in the second half of August from where the Black Death spread to western Norway, Trondheim and Trøndelag, while Stavanger, the south-western and southern regions were contaminated by contagion that had originated in Oslo. Earlier, it was generally assumed that the Black Death was introduced only in Bergen as stated in Icelandic Annals, that it spread over Norway from Bergen, and that it all took place in the subsequent part of 1349. For epidemiological reasons alone, this is an untenable account of the arrival and spread of the disease, implying impossible spread rates.