The directory «Plots»

Øverland Arnulf
(1889—1968)

Arnulf Øverland was a Norwegian author born in Kristiansund and raised in Bergen. His works include Berget det blå (1927) and Hustavler (1929). Øverland was a communist from the early 1920s, but changed his stand in 1937 partly as a reaction to the Moscow Trials. He was an avid opposer to nazism and in 1936 he wrote the poem "Du må ikke sove!" ("You must not sleep") printed in the journal Samtiden. It ends with "Jeg tenkte: Nu er det noget som hender. Vår tid er forbi - Europa brenner" ("I thought: Now something is happening - Our time is past - Europe is in flames"). In 1933 Øverland was tried for blasphemy after giving a speech named Kristendommen - den tiende landeplage ("Christianity - the tenth plague"), but was acquitted. After the German occupation of Norway in 1940 in World War II, he wrote a series of poems which were clandestinely distributed, leading to his arrest. He was held first in the prison camp at Grini before being transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany. The poems were later collected in Vi overlever alt (1945). After the war, Øverland became a noted supporter for the conservative written form of Norwegian called Riksmål, he was president of Riksmålsforbundet (an organization in support of Riksmål) from 1947-1956, playing an important role in the Norwegian language struggle in the post-war era. In addition, Øverland adhered to the traditionalist style of writing, criticising modernist poetry on several occasions.

Norway, 1989, Arnulf Overland