Aasmund Olavsson Vinje

Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (1818-1879) was a famous Norwegian poet and journalist who is remembered for poetry, travel writing, and his pioneering use of nynorsk.

Vinje was born into a poor but well-read family in Vinje, Telemark. He had a voracious appetite for learning and supported himself in part by teaching. He earned his university entrance exam after attending the same school as Henrik Ibsen, studied law, and became an attorney. He founded the periodical Dølen, in which he published travel accounts that serve as records for the period in which he lived.

Vinje did much to articulate the difference between city life and rural life in Norway and was among the sophisticated exponents of Norwegian romantic nationalism. He was politically active to the extent that the government fired him from his work as an attorney for criticizing its foreign policy.

Dying from stomach cancer, Vinje decided to spend his last days in the countryside. He died as a guest of his friend, minister (later bishop) A. Chr. Bang in Gran in Hadeland on July 30, 1870 and is buried nearby.