Hartvig Kiran (3 November 1911 – 15 August 1978) was a Norwegian author, lyricist and composer. He was most commonly associated with his broadcasts on the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

Biography

Kiran was born at

Ålesund Ålesund () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of Ålesund Municipality. The centre of the town of Ålesund lies on the islands of Hessa, Aspøya, Ålesund, Asp� ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in the northernmost part of Western Norway, Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the Molde (town), town of M ...

, Norway. His parents were Hartvig Nikolaisen Kiran (1876-1953) and Elisabeth Pettersson (1886-1967). After artium in 1931, he studied philology at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

. In 1938, he took employment in the news room of the

(NRK). Following the

Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until th ...

, Kiran went into exile to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

from 1941 to 1945. He worked as a

newscaster A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news broadcasting, news program on televisio ...

for the Norwegian section of the

British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...

(BBC). After the liberation of Norway in 1945, he continued at NRK and in 1958 he became head of NRK's Information Department. Kiran was brought in to introduce culture to listeners. He was central in ''Visens Venner'' and presented ''Ønskediktet'' where people were introduced to Kiran's

nynorsk Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

version of ''

Auld Lang Syne "Auld Lang Syne" () is a Scottish song. In the English-speaking world, it is traditionally sung to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on Hogmanay/New Year's Eve. It is also often heard at funerals, graduations, and as a far ...

''. He was the chairman of

Noregs Mållag Noregs Mållag (literally "Language Organisation of Norway") is the main organisation for Norwegian Nynorsk (New Norwegian), one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from th ...

from 1957 to 1958. In addition to writing his own

plays Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

, he translated many works for

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

and

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

s such as ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' and ''

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

''. In 1960, he was awarded the

Bastian Prize The Bastian Prize () is a prize awarded annually by the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators. The prize, established in 1951, is given for translating a published work into Norwegian language. The award is a statue made by Ørnulf Bast, ...

(''Bastianprisen'') on the basis of his translations of published works into the Norwegian language. He died in Oslo at the age of 66 in 1978.

References

1911 births 1978 deaths People from Ålesund Nynorsk-language writers Noregs Mållag leaders 20th-century Norwegian poets Norwegian male poets NRK people Norwegian people of World War II 20th-century Norwegian male writers Translators to Norwegian 20th-century Norwegian translators {{Norway-writer-stub