Johan Falkberget

Johan Falkberget was a Norwegian author, journalist, farmer and politician. He was born on the Lillebakken farm in the Rugldal valley in the Norwegian copper mining municipality of Røros. He started working as a miner at the age of seven, and his experiences in the mining community influenced his later writings. He changed his surname from Lillebakken to Falkberget, the name of the farm he lived on, in 1893. He published his first work, a short story, in 1902. He quit his job as a miner in 1906 and became an editor of various newspapers. He received a government-sponsored scholarship and traveled around Norway. He settled in Oslo (then Kristiania) from 1909 to 1922, where he wrote several novels and stories. He returned to Røros in 1922 and lived on the Ratvolden farm, which is now a museum. He represented the Norwegian Labour Party for Sør-Trøndelag in the Parliament from 1931 to 1933. He was also a Freemason and a member of the Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. He died on 5 April 1967 and is buried in the family plot in the upper churchyard at Røros. His works are mainly historical novels and short stories, set in the mining culture and the rural society of his native region. He also wrote some fairy tales and legends. His breakthrough work was Den fjerde nattevakt (The Fourth Night Watch), published in 1923, which depicts the life and struggles of the miners in the first half of the 19th century. He also wrote the Christianus Sextus trilogy, set in the 1720s, which portrays the political and social conflicts of the time. His other notable works include Nattens brød (The Bread of the Night), An-Magritt, and Bør Børson. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential Norwegian authors of the 20th century. [1](^1^) [2](^2^) [3](^3^)