Johan Nordahl Brun

Johan Nordahl Brun was a Norwegian-Danish poet, dramatist, bishop of Bergen, and politician who contributed significantly to the growth of national romanticism in Norway, contributing to the growing national consciousness. He was born on 21 March 1745 in Byneset, just outside the city of Trondheim, to a businessman and a farmer's daughter. He traveled to Copenhagen in 1767, where he passed his theological examinations and became a prominent member of The Norwegian Society, a group of younger Norwegian authors, poets and philosophers. He wrote the first Norwegian romantic nationalistic play, Einer Tambeskielver, in 1772, and also composed several poems and hymns, including Norway's first (unofficial) national anthem, For Norge, Kiempers Fødeland, in 1771. He also published a book of Lutheran Hymns in 1786, and wrote the city of Bergen's anthem, Jeg Tog Min Nystæmte, in 1790. He worked as a priest in various parishes in Norway, and became the bishop of Bergen in 1804. He was also involved in politics, and supported the Norwegian independence movement in 1814. He died on 26 July 1816 in Bergen, and was buried in the Bergen Cathedral. He is regarded as one of the most influential figures in Norwegian literature and culture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.