Known in Norwegian historiography as Norgesveldet , the realm consisted of the mainland Norwegian kingdom and a range of island communities at Scotland s northern and western seaboards, as well as the Faeroes, Iceland and Greenland. Within this national historiographic tradition, Norgesveldet is often portrayed as a kind of Norwegian empire. The aim of this project has been to elucidate the relationship between Norwegian kingship and the Crown s tributary lands in the west and the ways in which kingship influenced sociopolitical developments at the margins of the realm. The Scandinavian frontiers, which were never fully integrated into Norway during the Middle Ages, have also figured into this project. Working from the contention that Norgesveldet never developed as a Norwegian empire, we have elected to refer to The Realm of Norway and its dependencies as the Norwegian king s insular realm . In doing so, we challenge the Norwegian national tradition. As twenty-first century observers,