User:OnBeyondZebrax/sandbox/Norwegian literature

The earliest preserved examples of Old Norse literature are the Eddic poems, the oldest of which may have been composed in early 9th century. The oldest preserved Norwegian prose works are from the mid-12th century, the earliest are Latin hagiographical and historical texts. At the end of the 12th century writing expanded to the vernacular. Norwegian literature was virtually nonexistent during the period of the Scandinavian Union and the subsequent Dano-Norwegian union (1387—1814). Ibsen characterized this period as "Four Hundred Years of Darkness." The seventeenth century was a period of meager literary activity in Norway, but there were significant contributions. Petter Dass (1647—1707) wrote Nordlands Trompet (The Trumpet of Nordland). Dorothe Engelbretsdotter (1634—1713), was Norways first recognized woman author who wrote religious poetry. Anders Arrebo translated the Psalms into Norwegian and composed the poem, Hexaemeron.

Two major events precipitated a major resurgence in Norwegian literature. In 1811 a Norwegian university was established in Christiania (later named Oslo). Henrik Wergeland is the father of a new Norwegian literature. Norwegian folk tales were penned by Peter Asbjørnsen and Bishop Jørgen Moe. Ivar Aasen documented a written grammar and dictionary for the spoken Norwegian folk language. By the late 19th century, in a flood of nationalistic romanticism, the great four emerged, Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander Kielland, and Jonas Lie. Modernist literature was introduced to Norway through the literature of Knut Hamsun and Sigbjørn Obstfelder in the 1890s. In the 1930s Emil Boyson, Gunnar Larsen, Haakon Bugge Mahrt, Rolf Stenersen and Edith Øberg were among the Norwegian authors who experimented with prose modernism. In 1947 Tarjei Vesaas published a poetry collection Leiken og lynet that led to major debate about the shape and rhythm for Norwegian poetry. In the twentieth century three Norwegian novelists won the Nobel prize in literature. The first was Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, whose prize reflected work of the previous century. The second was awarded to Knut Hamsun for the idealistic novel Markens Grøde (Growth of the Soil, 1917) in 1920 and the third Sigrid Undset for the trilogy of Kristin Lavransdatter and the two books of Olav Audunssøn, in 1927.

The literature in the first years after the Second World War was characterized by a long series of documentary reports from people who had been in German custody, or who had participated in the resistance efforts during the occupation. The period after 1965 represented a sharp expansion of market for Norwegian fiction. The 1970s produced both politicization and empowerment of Norwegian authors. The 1980s generated several major novels that develop a main theme over decades, are centered on a strong-central character person and are built around rural milieu or a local community of a not too distant past. The era has also been labeled the "fantasy decade" in Norwegian literature.