Roald Amundsen (1872-1928): Great Norwegian explorer, the first man to reach the South Pole, a month ahead of his English rival Scott.

Ole Bull (1810-1880): Violin virtuoso and the first Norwegian superstar, praised for his revival of Norwegian folk music.

Sonja Henie (1912-1969): Top figure skater with three Olympic gold medals and 10 world championships to her name. Later became a Hollywood actress.

Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002): Modern time explorer famous for his Kon-Tiki expedition, which proved there had been migrations from southern America to Polynesia.

Edvard Munch (1863-1944): Norway’s most famous painter, and a pioneer of expressionism, whose painting The Scream has become an icon in its own right.

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907): Norway’s most famous composer, his most acclaimed work include Piano Concerto in A minor and the score he wrote for Ibsen’s Peer Gynt.

Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930): Polar explorer who crossed Greenland on skis, and the Arctic Ocean onboard the ship Fram. Also a famous diplomat, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922.

Knut Hamsun (1859-1952): The author of Hunger and Growth of the Soil (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature). His reputation was tarnished in later life when he became a Nazi sympathiser.

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906): Norway’s most famous playwright, and the author of Peer Gynt and A Doll’s House among other works. Hailed by many as the father of modern drama.

Petter Northug (1986-): Norwegian cross-country skiier and Olympic and world champion. The most popular and talented of the new generation of winter sport athletes in Norway.

Max Manus (1914-1996): Norwegian resistance fighter and famed saboteur during WW2. His life was recently turned into a film of the same name that was a huge box office success.

Gro Harlem Brundtland (1939-): Famous Labour politician and diplomat, and Norway’s only female Prime Minister to date. Brundtland, who was educated as a medical doctor, was also for several years the director of WHO (World Health Organisation).

Alexander Rybak (1986-): Norwegian singer, composer and violinist of Belarus descent, who famously won the Eurovision song contest in 2009 with a record 387 points — the highest any country has scored in the history of the competition.

Bjørn Kjos (1946-): Popular businessman, owner and CEO of Norwegian Air Shuttle (aka Norwegian), Scandinavia’s second largest airline.

Sverre Fehn (1924-2009): The most talented architect of the post-war generation, he received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1997.

Liv Ullman (1938-): Norwegian actress and film director, who starred in several of Ingmar Bergman’s films, with whom she also had a daughter.

Jan Garbarek (1947-): Talented saxophonist and composer, whose atmospheric tunes have been much used in films. Garbarek is the child of a Polish prisoner and a Norwegian farmer’s daughter.