Ivar Eskeland (30 November 1927 – 23 December 2005) was a Norwegian philologist, publisher, translator, biographer, literary critic, newspaper editor, theatre worker, radio personality and organizational leader.

Career

He was born in

Stord Stord is a municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since i ...

as a son of headmaster Severin Eskeland (1880–1964) and Olga Dorothea Olsen (1886–1975). He was a nephew of Lars Eskeland. He finished his secondary education at Valler, graduated from Stord Teachers' College in 1949 and from 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 1955 with the cand.philol. degree. He was hired as secretary-general 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 ...

in 1955, then worked for the publishing house Fonna Forlag from 1956 to 1960, for

Det Norske Teatret Det Norske Teatret ()Moe, Jens. 2011. ''My America: The Culture of Giving''. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, p. 133. is a theatre in Oslo. The theatre was founded in 1912, after an initiative from Hulda Garborg and Edvard Drabløs. It opened in 19 ...

from 1960 to 1965 before editing the newspaper ''

Dag og Tid ''Dag og Tid'' () is a national weekly newspaper in Norway that uses the Nynorsk standard of the Norwegian language. ''Dag og Tid'' was founded in 1962. Contrary to most other Norwegian newspapers, its circulation has recently increased signific ...

'' from 1965 to 1966. He was also a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

teacher at the

Norwegian National Academy of Theatre The Oslo National Academy of the Arts (, ''KHiO'') is a tertiary institution in Oslo, Norway, that provides education in visual arts, design and performing arts. It is one of two public institutes of higher learning in Norway that teaches in v ...

in the 1960s. In language organizations, he was the deputy chairman of Noregs Mållag from 1957 to 1960 and chairman from 1960 to 1963, and member of the

Vogt Committee An , sometimes simply advocate, (German, ), or (French, ), was a type of medieval office holder, particularly important in the Holy Roman Empire, who was delegated some of the powers and functions of a major feudal lord, or for an institutio ...

between 1965 and 1967. From 1968 to 1972 he was the director of the Nordic House in Iceland, and from 1972 to 1974 he directed the Secretariat for Nordic Cultural Cooperation. He translated

Halldór Laxness Halldór Kiljan Laxness (; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and sh ...

and

William Heinesen Andreas William Heinesen (15 January 1900 – 12 March 1991) was a poet, writer, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands. His writing The Faroese capital Tórshavn is always the centre of Heinesen's writing and he is famous for having onc ...

, wrote a textbook in Icelandic and biographies of Gisle Straume and

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

. For this he was decorated with the

Order of the Falcon The Order of the Falcon () is the only order of chivalry in Iceland, founded by Christian X of Denmark, King Christian X of Denmark and Iceland on 3 July 1921. The award is awarded for merit for Iceland and humanity and has five degrees. Nowaday ...

in 1971 and 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, ...

in 1972. He was also chairman of the Broadcasting Council from 1963 to 1968, the

Norwegian Association of Literary Translators Norwegian Association of Literary Translators () is an association for Norwegian literary translators, founded in 1948. The association has awarded the annual Bastian Prize from 1951, for best literary translation into the Norwegian language. The p ...

from 1965 to 1968 and 1978 to 1986, and the

Norwegian Critics' Association The Norwegian Critics' Association (''Norsk litteraturkritikerlag'') is an organization for Norwegian critics in the newspaper and broadcasting professions. Former independent critic teams merged into Norwegian Critics Association in 1998. The ...

from 1975 to 1981. He was an honorary member of the Norwegian Association of Literary Translators and Noregs Mållag. He was also a radio personality known for his

causerie Causerie (from French, "talk, chat") is a literary style of short informal essays mostly unknown in the English-speaking world. A causerie is generally short, light and humorous and is often published as a newspaper column (although it is not defi ...

s, and a literary critic. From 1985 to 1986 he was director in the publishing house Forlaget Atheneum. Eskeland was married twice. He died in December 2005 in Oslo. He was decorated as a Grand Knight with Star of the Icelandic

Selected works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eskeland, Ivar 1927 births 2005 deaths People from Stord Noregs Mållag leaders Stord/Haugesund University College alumni University of Oslo alumni Norwegian male biographers Translators from Icelandic Norwegian expatriates in Iceland Grand Knights with Star of the Order of the Falcon Norwegian expatriates in Denmark Norwegian publishers (people) Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian radio personalities NRK people Norwegian literary critics 20th-century Norwegian biographers 20th-century Norwegian translators 20th-century Norwegian male writers 20th-century Norwegian philologists