Norway Trivia
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59 free Norway trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
60 free Norway trivia questions with answers. Sixty questions on Norway, from the obvious to the obscure. The geography round covers the longest fjord, the highest peak, the deepest lake in Europe, Svalbard's treaty oddities and the road tunnel that holds a world record. History runs from Harald Fairhair and Leif Erikson through four centuries under Denmark, the 1814 constitution, the near-unanimous 1905 vote to leave Sweden, the 1940 invasion, Quisling and the heavy-water saboteurs. The rest is the Norway people actually talk about: the oil fund that owns 1.5% of the world's listed companies, electric cars, salmon, lutefisk and brunost, The Scream and its thefts, Ibsen, Grieg, Amundsen, Nansen, Kon-Tiki, a-ha, Magnus Carlsen, Erling Haaland, and the Winter Olympics medal table Norway refuses to give up. There is even a question for Hitchhiker's Guide fans. It works for a pub quiz, a classroom or anyone planning a trip. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its regions, people and events, and the sentence that establishes it is shown under each explanation.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Norway?
Oslo
It spent three centuries as Christiania, named for a Danish king who rebuilt it after a 1624 fire, and only got its old name back in 1925.
Q 02Norway shares its longest land border, 1,619 km, with which country?
Sweden
Sweden shares Norway's longest border, roughly 1,600 km along the Scandinavian Peninsula, far longer than the Finnish border or the 196 km frontier with Russia in the far northeast.
Q 03Norway's population is roughly how large?
5.6 million
Norway counted about 5.6 million residents in 2025, having passed 5.5 million in 2023; neighbouring Sweden has roughly 10.5 million and Denmark about 6 million.
Q 04What is Norway's highest mountain, at 2,469 metres?
Galdhøpiggen
Galdhøpiggen, 2,469 metres high in the Jotunheimen range, is the highest point in Norway, Scandinavia and all of Northern Europe; Glittertind nearby is a close second.
Q 05Which fjord, about 205 km long, is Norway's longest and deepest?
Sognefjord
Sognefjord stretches about 205 km inland and reaches 1,308 metres deep, Norway's longest and deepest fjord; Urnes Stave Church on its inner branch is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Q 06Including its islands, Norway's coastline has been estimated at roughly how long?
100,000 km
Counting every island, Norway's coastline measures roughly 100,000 km; the mainland alone, fjords included, runs about 29,000 km, which is why coastal shipping has always mattered so much.
Q 07Which Arctic archipelago is part of Norway yet outside the Schengen Area and any county?
Svalbard
Svalbard came under Norwegian sovereignty through the 1920 Svalbard Treaty, which gives every signatory equal economic access; that clause is why the Soviet Union and then Russia have run the mining town of Barentsburg since 1932.
Q 08What is the largest settlement on Norway's Arctic archipelago north of the mainland?
Longyearbyen
Longyearbyen, with roughly 2,500 residents, is Svalbard's largest settlement and administrative centre; the midnight sun there lasts from late April to late August.
Q 09Norway's Arctic archipelago hosts a famous 'doomsday' vault. What is stored inside it?
Seeds
Its Arctic location and permafrost keep the deposits cold even if the power fails.
Q 10Which lake is the deepest in Europe?
Hornindalsvatnet
Hornindalsvatnet in western Norway plunges to 514 metres, the deepest lake in Europe; ice-age glaciers carved it out, the same process that gouged Norway's fjords.
Q 11The Lærdal Tunnel in western Norway holds which world record?
Longest for road traffic
At 24.51 km it has lit 'caves' every six kilometres so drivers stay alert.
Q 12Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock, is a flat-topped cliff rising 604 metres above which fjord?
Lysefjord
Preikestolen towers 604 metres above Lysefjord in Rogaland; its nearly square summit measures about 25 metres on each side, with no railing.
Q 13The word 'maelstrom' derives from a system of tidal eddies off which Norwegian island group?
Lofoten
The Moskstraumen, tidal eddies off the southern tip of Lofoten, is the original 'maelstrom' drawn on 16th-century maps; the same islands have hosted the winter cod fishery for over a thousand years.
Q 21From 1537 to 1814 Norway was ruled in union with which country?
Denmark
When Denmark ended up on the losing side of the Napoleonic Wars, it was forced to hand Norway to Sweden while keeping Iceland, Greenland and the Faroes.
Q 22Norway's national day, 17 May, marks the signing of what in 1814?
The Constitution
Norway's Constitution was signed on 17 May 1814, drawing on the American and French models; Constitution Day is celebrated with children's parades rather than military ones.
Q 23What is the Norwegian name for the national costume worn in 17 May parades?
Bunad
Bunad is the Norwegian folk costume, made in hundreds of regional designs; the 17 May parades full of bunad-wearers are famous for their hot dogs, waffles and ice cream.
Q 14The old Hanseatic wharf in Norway's second city, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is called what?
Bryggen
Bryggen, the row of wooden Hanseatic warehouses on Bergen's harbour, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979; German merchants ran it as a state within a state for generations.
Q 15Trondheim, founded in 997 by Olav Tryggvason, was originally known by which name?
Nidaros
It served as Norway's capital through the Viking Age until 1217 and its cathedral is still where kings are consecrated.
Q 16Which city in the far north earned the nickname 'Paris of the North' in the 19th century?
Tromsø
Tromsø, well north of the Arctic Circle, was dubbed the 'Paris of the North' by 19th-century visitors surprised by its fashions and culture; its university, opened in 1972, was then the world's northernmost.
Q 17The Hurtigruten coastal route sails from Bergen to which town near the Russian border?
Kirkenes
Kirkenes, a few kilometres from the Russian border, is the northern terminus of the Hurtigruten coastal route; the full voyage from Bergen calls at 34 ports over roughly a week.
Q 18Oslo was known by what name from 1624 until 1925?
Christiania
Christiania honoured King Christian IV, who rebuilt the fire-ravaged city beside Akershus Fortress in 1624 and named it after himself; the name reverted to Oslo in 1925.
Q 19According to tradition, which king first unified Norway in 872 after the Battle of Hafrsfjord?
Harald Fairhair
Harald Fairhair is credited by the sagas with unifying Norway after winning at Hafrsfjord, traditionally dated 872; the battle site near Stavanger is marked by three giant bronze swords.
Q 20Which son of Erik the Red is thought to have reached North America around 1000 AD?
Leif Erikson
Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, sailed west from Greenland around 1000 AD to a land the sagas call Vinland; the Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland is its likeliest trace.
Q 24Roughly what share voted yes in the 1905 referendum on dissolving the union with its eastern neighbour?
99.95%
Some 99.95% voted yes in August 1905: 368,208 for dissolving the union with Sweden against just 184 no votes, one of the most lopsided referendums in history.
Q 25The Danish prince who became Norway's king in 1905 took which traditional royal name?
Haakon
Prince Carl of Denmark took the name Haakon VII, reviving a medieval royal name, and insisted on a November 1905 referendum, won by nearly 79%, confirming Norwegians wanted a monarchy before he accepted the crown.
Q 26On what date did Nazi Germany invade Norway in 1940?
9 April
Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940 in Operation Weserübung, landing simultaneously at Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik; Norway had declared neutrality, as it had in the First World War.
Q 27Which Norwegian collaborator's surname became a synonym for 'traitor' in several languages?
Quisling
Vidkun Quisling, who led the collaborationist government from 1942, was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress in October 1945; 'quisling' entered English as a word for traitor within weeks of the 1940 invasion.
Q 28Norwegian saboteurs attacked a German-run heavy-water plant at which site in Telemark?
Rjukan
The Vemork plant at Rjukan was hit by Operation Gunnerside in February 1943, when Norwegian commandos blew up the heavy-water cells without a shot being fired.
Q 29Who became King of Norway on 17 January 1991?
Harald V
Harald V succeeded his father Olav V on 17 January 1991, the first Norwegian-born monarch since Olav IV in 1380, a gap of 610 years.
Q 30Norwegians rejected joining the European Union in referendums held in which two years?
1972 and 1994
Norwegians voted no in September 1972 (53.5%) and again in November 1994 (52.2%); Norway instead joined the single market through the European Economic Area in 1994, alongside Iceland and Liechtenstein.