
Magnus Brostrup Landstad (7 October 1802 – 8 October 1880) was a Norwegian parish priest and
provost, hymn writer, and poet who published the first collection of authentic Norwegian traditional ballads in 1853.
Biography
Landstad was born in the village of
Måsøy
Måsøy ( sme, Muosát; fkv, Moseija) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Havøysund. Other villages include Bakfjord, Gunnarnes, Ingøy, Måsøy, Slåtten, ...
in
Finnmark
Finnmark (; se, Finnmárku ; fkv, Finmarku; fi, Ruija ; russian: Финнмарк) was a county in the northern part of Norway, and it is scheduled to become a county again in 2024.
On 1 January 2020, Finnmark was merged with the neighbouri ...
, Norway. He was one of ten children born to the parish priest Hans Landstad (1771–1838) and Margrethe Elisabeth Schnitler (1768–1850). His father was a minister, who first worked in
Øksnes
Øksnes is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is located on the northwestern part of the large island of Langøya, which is a part of the traditional region of Vesterålen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village o ...
in 1806, then relocated to
Vinje
Vinje is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Ã…mot.
General in ...
in 1811 and to
Seljord
Seljord is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Seljord. The parish ...
in 1819. His grandfather was
Peter Schnitler Peter Schnitler (17 January 1690 – 23 January 1751) was a Danish/Norwegian jurist and military officer. He was born in Copenhagen, and was a nephew of landowner and civil servant Hans Nobel. He is particularly remembered for his work with the ...
(1690–1751). He was a cousin of the priest and local historian Hans Peter Schnitler Krag (1794–1855).
Landstad received a theology degree (''
cand.theol.
Candidatus theologiæ (male), Candidata theologiæ (female), abbreviated cand. theol. is an academic degree with a long tradition, awarded after a six-year higher education in theology in Iceland, Denmark, and Norway. In Norway, the title has r ...
'') in 1827, and worked after that as the resident chaplain in
Gausdal
Gausdal 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 Segalstad bru. Other villages in Gausdal include Follebu, Forset, ...
for six years. After that he worked in various parishes in
Telemark
Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...
and
Østfold
Østfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in southeastern Norway. It borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other sid ...
before he became the minister of
Sandar in
Vestfold
Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered t ...
in 1859.
He is well known for introducing popular, contemporary Norwegian language into the hymns he wrote, contributing significantly to the spirit of
Norwegian romantic nationalism
Norwegian romantic nationalism ( no, Nasjonalromantikken) 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 ident ...
, which grew in Norway during this period. Although criticized at the time for the use of unscientific methods, today it is commonly accepted that he contributed significantly to the preservation of traditional ballads.
His single greatest achievement was the Landstad hymnal (''
Landstads kirkesalmebog ''Landstads kirkesalmebog'' (Landstad's Church Hymnal), often simply known as ''Landstads salmebok'' (Landstad's Hymnal), was the most important hymnal for the Church of Norway from 1870 to 1926.
In 1852, Magnus Brostrup Landstad (1802–1880) sta ...
''). He included about 50 of his own hymns in it and completed the editing in 1861. Later revisions were used in Norwegian (''bokmål'') parishes until 1985. The current official church hymnal contains a number of his hymns as well as his translations of foreign-language hymns.
Personal life
He married Wilhelmine Margrete Marie Lassen (1808–1892) in 1828. They were the parents of twelve children, of whom six died in early childhood. He died in 1880 at
Kristiania
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of i ...
(now Oslo) and was buried at
VÃ¥r Frelsers gravlund
The Cemetery of Our Saviour ( no, VÃ¥r Frelsers gravlund) is a cemetery in Oslo, Norway, located north of Hammersborg in Gamle Aker district. It is located adjacent to the older Old Aker Cemetery and was created in 1808 as a result of the great ...
.
Publications
* 1852: ''Norske Folkeviser''. 3 vols. Christiania: C. Tönsberg,
852–
85 may refer to:
* 85 (number)
* one of the years 85 BC, AD 85, 1885, 1985, 2085
See also
*
* M85 (disambiguation), including "Model 85"
* 1985 (disambiguation)
* List of highways numbered
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List o ...
853.
* 1869: ''Kirkesalmebok: efter offentlig Foranstaltning''. Kristiania: J. W. Cappelens Forlag, 1871
References
Further reading
*Amundsen, Arne Bugge. 2012. "The Folk in the Church: Magnus Brostrup Landstad (1812–1880) as a Clerical Folklore Collector." ''Arv: Nordic Yearbook of Folklore'' 67-90.
External links
Utstilling om Landstad Karin Helene Hognestad, UBiT.
1802 births
1880 deaths
19th-century Norwegian poets
Norwegian male poets
Norwegian folk-song collectors
19th-century Norwegian composers
19th-century Norwegian male writers
Burials at the Cemetery of Our Saviour
19th-century musicologists
{{Norway-poet-stub