''Vagant'' is a

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 ...

-based, pan-Scandinavian literary magazine, established in 1988. Vagant.no publishes web-articles on a weekly basis, while the paper edition is released 4 times a year. ''Vagant'' is a member of the European cultural journal network ''

Eurozine ''Eurozine '' is a network of European cultural magazines based in Vienna, linking up more than 90 partner journals and just as many associated magazines and institutions from nearly all European countries. ''Eurozine'' is also an online magazin ...

''. ''Vagant'' played an important role for the generation of Norwegian writers making their debut in the nineties, such as Ingvild Burkey, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Pål Norheim, and Linn Ullmann.

History

The journal takes its name from the Norwegian word '' Vaganterne'', which comes from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

'' clerici vagantes'' which describes a group of wandering students from the

middle ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, who performed under the patronage of a wealthy

nobleman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

or woman, and often their poems provoked the strict moral system of the church. With its first publication in 1988, ''Vagant'' established itself as an independent journal in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

. Among the editors of the first couple of volumes were Torunn Borge, Alf van der Hagen, Henning Hagerup, Pål Norheim, and Linn Ullmann. In 1999 a parallel editorial group was established in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, and each of the two editorial groups published two editions a year. In 2002 the

office was shut down and for the next ten years the editorial office was located in

. In 2013 the editorial office moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Since 2007 Audun Lindholm has been the chief editor of ''Vagant''. From 1996 to 2005 ''Vagant'' received economical support from the Norwegian publishing house

Aschehoug H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), commonly known as Aschehoug,() is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway, founded in 1872. Headquartered in Oslo, the publishing house has 480 employees. The Aschehoug group also comprises o ...

. In 2005

terminated the collaboration and the journal found a new sponsor in N.W. Damm & Søn. A few years later ''Vagant'' was integrated into the new publishing house

Cappelen Damm Cappelen Damm AS is a Norwegian publisher established in 2007. The company is Norway's largest publishing company, publishing fiction and non-fiction works, including academic literature. It resulted from the merger of J.W. Cappelens Forlag, fou ...

. In October 2016 it was announced that ''Vagant'' would become its own publisher from January 2017 on. In 2009 the Internet initiative “Vagant Europa” was established, with an intention to publish and translate significant articles from the European literary and cultural debate. In 2013 ''Vagant'' was chosen as the Norwegian journal of the year by Norsk Tidsskriftforening and in 2014 the magazine received the language prize Språkprisen from the national institution Norsk Språkråd, for having been a central force in

Norwegian literature Norwegian literature is literature composed in Norway or by Norwegian people. The history of Norwegian literature starts with the pagan Eddaic poems and skaldic verse of the 9th and 10th centuries with poets such as Bragi Boddason and Eyvindr ...

for the past 26 years, and, as the jury described it, for "its exemplary use of the Norwegian language". In April 2017 ''Vagant'' merged with the Danish journal '' Salon 55'', which then became a part of ''Vagant'', and the editorial staff announced a further commitment to connect the public spheres of the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

Selected previous members of the editorial staff

* Karl Ove Knausgaard * Pål Norheim * Tore Renberg * Bår Stenvik * Henning Hagerup * Sigurd Tenningen * Pedro Carmona Alvarez * Steffen Kverneland * Finn Iunker *

Gunnhild Øyehaug Gunnhild Øyehaug (born 9 January 1975, Volda Municipality, Norway) is a Norwegian poet, writer and lecturer. Literary career She made her literary debut in 1998 with a collection of poems "Slaven av blåbæret" (t: Slave of the Blueberry). He ...

References

External links

''Vagant'' website
{{Authority control Norwegian-language journals