Glacial action
In the Hardanger district Sandven, Eidfjord, and Graven lakes are examples. Here, too, are rock basins of the typical fjord form filled with river-water, answering to the erosion caused by the extremities of the shorter glaciers in the valleys.
The inland ice during the great glacial period must have extended above even the highest peaks in the interior of the country; but during the lesser or later glacial period, when the extremities of the glaciers only extended to the above-mentioned series of lakes at the heads of the fjords, the higher mountain-tops—at any rate near the coast—and the highest peaks, say, of Jötunheimen, have stood above the great glacier, and have thus escaped the general process of grinding.
They appear, however, to have been considerably affected by natural forces in quite a different manner. Their surface is frequently broken up into loose fragments, and we find at their base long lines of rocky débris. We also constantly find them developed into characteristic Alpine forms.
Small glaciers in their hollows gradually wear down as they recede into semicircular corries, which cut up the original mountain forms into rugged ridges and peaks. These corries can only be developed above the snow limit, and outside the greater region of inland ice, or in among the rocky peaks above the glaciers' surface, and we see quite Alpine forms lifting their sharp peaks above the undulating snow-field on the extensive mountain plateaux.
CHAPTER III
THE SOGNE FJORD
From the brilliant and heroic Viking age originate those priceless gems of early literature, the "Eddas" and "Sagas," poems and prose of the greatest beauty.