The directory «Plots»

Landstad Magnus Brostrup
(1802—1880)

Magnus Brostrup Landstad was a Norwegian minister, psalmist and poet who published the first collection of authentic Norwegian traditional ballads in 1853. This work was critizised for unscientific methods, but today it is commonly accepted that he contributed significantly to the preservation of the traditional ballads. Landstad lived with his father Hans Landstad (1771-1838) who was also a minister, first in 1806 to Øksnes, to Vinje in 1811 and to Seljord in 1819. He took a theological degree (cand. theol) in 1827, and worked after that as the resident chaplain in Gausdal for six years. After that he worked in different parishes in Telemark, Østfold before he became minister of Sandar in Vestfold in 1859. He married Wilhelmine Margrete Marie Lassen, in 1828. He is well known for introducing popular, contemporary Norwegian language into the hymns he wrote, contributing significantly to the spirit of Norwegian romantic nationalism which grew in Norway in this period. His greatest single achievement was the Landstad Hymnbook, which with later revisions was used in Norwegian (bokmål) parishes from 1869 until 1985. The current official church hymnbook contains a lot of his hymns and his translations of foreign hymns.

Norway, 2002, Landstad on the horse

Norway, 2002, Magnus Brostrup Landstad