Anders Hovden
Encyclopedia
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
writer, priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, author and popular speaker.
Education and career
His parents were Karl Hovden and Johanne Velle. His father died when he was 16, but fellow Ørsta native Ivar AasenIvar Aasen
Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright and poet.-Background:...
helped him get an education: first the teachers' training college
Volda University College
Volda University College is a høgskole, a Norwegian state institution of higher education, in the village of Volda in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It was established on 1 August 1994, when the Møre og Romsdal regional college and the Volda Teachers College were merged together...
in Volda
Volda
Volda is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Volda. The municipality is located about south of the city of Ålesund.-General information:...
, then examen artium
Examen artium
Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1630...
in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. Here Hovden became cand.theol.
Cand.theol.
Candidatus theologiæ , Candidata theologiæ , abbreviated cand. theol. is an academic degree with a long tradition, awarded after a six year higher education in theology in Denmark and Norway. In Norway, the title has remained after the "Quality Reform", though it is equivalent to a Master of...
in 1886 and then worked some years as a teacher. From 1891 he was a Lutheran Minister in Lista, Son
Son, Norway
Son is an old town, and a former municipality. It is located in Vestby municipality in Akershus.- Overview :Son is located at the Oslofjord, 50 kilometres south of the Norwegian capital Oslo, just north of Moss and near the border of Østfold, and is located west of the village of Hølen. Before the...
, Sande
Sande
-Places:Germany* Sande, Lower Saxony, a municipality in Lower Saxony, Germany* Sande, Westphalia, a former municipality, which now forms part of Paderborn in North Rhine-Westphalia, GermanyNorway* Sande, Vestfold, a municipality in Vestfold county...
, Vanse
Vanse
Vanse is a town in Farsund municipality, Norway. Its population is 1,967 by January 1st 2008.The small town is notable for having several references to America due to the high number of inhabitants emigrating to the US from 1825 to 1975...
, Krødsherad
Krødsherad
Krødsherad is a municipality in Buskerud county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Noresund. The municipality of Krødsherad was established when it was separated from the municipality of Sigdal on 1 January 1901.-Name:The Old Norse form of the name was...
, Melhus
Melhus
Melhus is a village and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Gauldalen region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Melhus...
and Østre Toten
Østre Toten
Østre Toten is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Toten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lena.-Name:...
.
Hymnwriter
Most noted for his hymnHymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s, Hovden is the author of over 250 hymns. He debuted in the mid-1890s with a couple of poetry collections, however, it was in 1897 with his third collection, Tungalda that he received popular acclaim in wider circles. His breakthrough came in 1901 with the poetry cycle Bonden (The Farmer). Nynorsk salmebok from 1928 of which he was co-editor contained 128 of his hymns. He was also on the revision board for Landstads kirkesalmebog. Norsk Salmebok contains 23 original hymns by Anders Hovden and 16 translations from nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
, one of these being the national hymn "Fagert er landet" ("Fair is the country").
He received government stipend (Statens kunstnerlønn) from 1931 onwards
Author
Hovden also wrote a number of books, of which the autobiography Attersyn ("Hindsight") is best known. He also wrote the first biography of Per SivlePer Sivle
Per Sivle was a Norwegian poet, novelist and newspaper editor. He is known for his novel Streik from 1891, and for his collections of stories issued between 1887 and 1895, Sogor , Vossa-Stubba, Nye Vossa-stubbar and Sivle-Stubbar...
, one year after his death, thus contributing to the then obscure Sivle's increasing popularity.