Paul Olaf Bodding (2 November 1865 – 25 September 1938) was a Norwegian

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

folklorist Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

Biography

Paul Olaf Bodding was born at

Gjøvik Gjøvik () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Gjøvik (town), town of Gjøvik. Some of the villages in Gjøvik include Biri, Norway, Biri, Bybrua, ...

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. He was the son of Edward Olsen Bodding (1825–1905) and Betzy Emilie Wennevold (1838–1889). Bodding was the son of a bookseller, and he first met the founder of The Indian Home Mission to the Santals (later developed to the NELC), Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, in his father's bookshop in Gjøvik. Skrefsrud was born just outside the neighbouring town

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the munici ...

, in

. Bodding studied theology at the University of Kristiania (now

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 ...

) and graduated in 1889. In 1890, he arrived in Santalistan (Santal Parganas) as a missionary priest. When Skrefsrud died in 1909, Bodding took over as the leader of the Norwegian missionary organization Santaline Mission (''Den norske Santalmisjon''). He served in India for 44 years (1889–1933), and operated mainly from the town

Dumka Dumka, the headquarters of the Dumka district and Santhal Pargana region, is a city in the state of Jharkhand, India. It was made the headquarters of the Santhal Pargana region, which was carved out of the Bhagalpur and Birbhum district afte ...

in the Santhal Parganas-district. In 1914 Bodding also completed the translation of

the Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writte ...

into the Santali language. He is still well known among the

santal The Santal (or Santhal) are an Austroasiatic languages, Austroasiatic-speaking Munda peoples, Munda ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal in terms of population and are also found ...

living in the states of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

as well as in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

and the Scandinavian countries. After returning from India in 1934, Bodding settled with his Danish-born wife Christine Larsen (1883–1940) in

Odense Odense ( , , ) is the third largest city in Denmark (after Copenhagen and Aarhus) and the largest city on the island of Funen. As of 1 January 2025, the city proper had a population of 185,480 while Odense Municipality had a population of 210, ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, where he died during 1938. Cecil Henry Bompas publishe
''Folklore of the Santal Parganas''
(London: D. Nutt, 1909) compiled from stories collected by P. O. Bodding. In 2006, Olav Hodne issued a biography in his book ''Oppreisning''. A monument to Bodding stands in front of Gjøvik church in Oppland.

Works

* ''Materials for a Santali Grammar I'', Dumka 1922 * ''A Chapter of Santal Folklore'', Oslo 1924 * ''Santal Folk Tales'' (3 volumes), 1925–29 * ''Studies in Santal Medicine and Connected Folklore'' (3 volumes), 1925–40 * ''A Santal Dictionary'' (5 volumes), 1933–36 * ''Santal Riddles and Witchcraft among the Santals'', 1940

References

Other sources

* * Olav Hodne (2006
Misjonæren og vitenskapsmannen Paul Olav Bodding''
(Oslo:Luther forlag)

External links

* .
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod – Christian Cyclopedia
at www.lcms.org
Christine Bodding and Paul Olaf Bodding at Darjeeling, North India, ca. 1930
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bodding, Paul Olaf 1865 births 1938 deaths People from Gjøvik University of Oslo alumni Linguists from Norway Norwegian folklorists Protestant missionaries in India Norwegian Protestant missionaries Missionary linguists Norwegian expatriates in India Norwegian Lutheran missionaries Lutheran missionaries in India