Country profile: Norway

For more than four centuries, Norway was united with Denmark and used the Dannebrog, the Danish flag. In 1814 it came under the rule of the King of Sweden, but adopted its own Constitution on 17 May, and the need for a national flag soon made itself felt.

The current flag was proposed in 1821 by Fredrik Meltzer, a member of the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament). He added a blue cross, edged in white, to the Dannebrog to obtain the three colours of liberty. King Charles XIV John at first refused to make it the ensign of the merchant navy; only from 1838 could Norwegian ships fly it on all seas.

From 1844 to 1899, the flag bore a union mark with Sweden. The Storting finally removed it from the merchant ensign in 1899, despite the King's opposition, and the flag became the symbol of the independence achieved in 1905.

The Norwegian flag combines two legacies, one Nordic and one revolutionary:

• Nordic cross: inherited from the Dannebrog, it recalls Norway's historical ties with Denmark and the other Nordic countries.
• Red, white and blue: these are the colours of liberty and democracy, those of the flags of France, the United Kingdom and the United States, which Fredrik Meltzer regarded as models.

By adding a blue cross to the Danish flag, Meltzer asserted both Norway's place in the Nordic world and its aspiration to a free system of government.

The Norwegian flag is often jokingly described as the ‘mother of all flags’ because, depending on where a rectangle is cut out of it, it contains the patterns of several other flags, such as those of France, the Netherlands or Finland.

On 17 May, the national day, the celebrations stand out for the absence of a military parade: at their heart are the school children's processions, with every child carrying a flag.

The Norwegian flag even flies in Antarctica: Norway claims Queen Maud Land, and the explorer Roald Amundsen planted it at the South Pole on 14 December 1911, becoming the first person to reach it.