Edvard Storm (21 August 1749 – 29 September 1794) was a Norwegian poet, songwriter and educator. His writings were frequently characterized by the

Norwegian romantic nationalism Norwegian romantic nationalism () was a movement in Norway between 1840 and 1867 in art, literature, and popular culture that emphasized the aesthetics of Norwegian nature and the uniqueness of the Norwegian national identity. A subject of much ...

common to the age.

Background

Storm was from

Vågå Vågå () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of ...

Oppland Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. He was the son of Johan Storm (1712–76), the parish priest at

Vågå Church Vågå Church () is a historic stave church. It is a parish church of the Church of Norway in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the village of Vågåmo. It is the church for the Vågå parish which is part of the No ...

, and his second wife, Ingeborg Birgitta Røring (1718–1760). The early years of his life were spent in the Vågå Rectory (''Vågåkyrkja''). He began formal schooling in 1756 in Christiania (now Oslo). In 1765 he took the entry examination for

Copenhagen University The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. The University of Copenhagen c ...

, but waited until later to enter. For a period he was a teacher in

Lesja Lesja is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lesja. Other villages in the municipality include Bjorli, Lesjas ...

, but he returned for 1766–1769 in his childhood home. In July 1769, Storm left home to begin serious study in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. It is commonly thought he pursued theology but he never took the official examination. Despite being from Norway, he did not join the Norske Selskab, a literary club formed in 1772 for Norwegian students in Copenhagen which included authors, poets and philosophers. Storm was an admirer of the Danish poet

Johannes Ewald Johannes Ewald (18 November 174317 March 1781) was a Danish national dramatist, psalm writer and poet. The lyrics of a song from one of his plays are used for one of the Danish national anthems, ''Kong Christian stod ved højen mast'' whic ...

and attached himself to Ewald's circle of friends who were members. While in Denmark he wrote nine songs in his local Norwegian dialect before the beginning of the 1770s. These songs were among the seminal works of Norwegian literature in dialect and are often viewed as the best that Storm wrote.

Career

Storm returned to his home district in about 1785. From this point forward his work with education was of considerable value. In 1786, a circle of the area's more important men created a secondary school for children ('' folk school''). Storm was a member of the group and came to play an important role in the administration of the school. Among the tasks to which the group dedicated its work was the important establishment of a

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

for children, and in this connection popular lectures were presented for older children and young people on topics from various scientific disciplines. Storm lectured four hours a week on lifemanship (),

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

, the

Danish language Danish (, ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are a ...

, linguistics as well as both

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and Norse mythologies. Starting in 1790, his ties to the school were more formal as he became a head inspector of sorts. One month before his death he got appointed to be one of the directing managers of the

Royal Danish Theatre The Royal Danish Theatre (RDT, Danish: ') is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first s ...

. He was buried at

Assistens Cemetery An Assistens Cemetery () is a cemetery that functions as an expansion of another, older cemetery often in relation to a city church. Already by the end of the 17th century, Danish authorities deemed that the conditions for inner-city cemeteries we ...

in Copenhagen. His work included ''Zinklars vise'' ("Ballad of Sinclair") written in 1781, celebrating the defeat of a force of Scottish mercenaries led by George Sinclair, a nephew of the

Earl of Caithness Earl of Caithness is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland, and it has a very complex history. Its first grant, in the modern sense as to have been counted in strict lists of peerages, is now generally held to hav ...

under the commander of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Ramsay. Local forces were in part inspired by a local peasant girl, ''

Prillar-Guri Prillar-Guri or Prillarguri is a legendary figure who according to oral tradition was a woman from Sel, Norway who played a key role in the Battle of Kringen (''Slaget ved Kringen'') in August 1612. Background Sweden and Denmark-Norway were ...

.'' The Scots were ambushed in an engagement referred to as the

Battle of Kringen Battle of Kringen () involved an ambush by Norwegian peasant militia of Scottish mercenary soldiers who were on their way to enlist in the Swedish army for the Kalmar War. The battle has since become a part of folklore in Norway, giving names t ...

.''The Heart of Norway'' by Frank Noel Stagg, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1953.

Selected works

* ''Bræger'', 1774 * ''Adskilligt paa Vers'', 1775 * ''Infødsretten'', 1778 * ''Fabler og Fortællinger i den Gellertske Smag'', 1778 * ''Samlede Digte'', 1785

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Storm, Edvard 1749 births 1794 deaths 18th-century Norwegian poets Norwegian male poets Norwegian educators University of Copenhagen alumni 18th-century Norwegian educators People from Vågå Place of death missing 18th-century male writers Norwegian emigrants to Denmark