From the oldest times has Dovrefjell been the border region between the northern and southern parts of Norway, and the road over the mountain was well known. The expression til Dovre faller ('until the Dovre mountains fall') is widely used in Norwegian. It was used in the oath sworn during the Norwegian Constituent Assembly in 1814, when Norway formed an independent nation after being in union with Denmark. At this time it was assumed that Snøhetta in Dovrefjell was the highest mountain in Norway, since the higher peaks in Jotunheimen were fairly unresearched.