KNUD KNUDSEN (1812–95): ‘NORWAY BEGAN IN 1814’

Biography: work beyond language planning

Knud Knudsen was the man who in theory and practice came to represent the view that the Norwegian language question should be resolved by developing the ideas of Jacob Aall, and even more so those of Henrik Wergeland. Knudsen argued in favour of this solution his entire life.

He was born 1812 in Holt, a parish in the vicinity of Tvedestrand, a small coastal town located in the southernmost region of the country, close to where Aall owned a large iron mill. Aall later supported Knudsen for several years when he was studying philology at university.

Knudsen's father was a local schoolteacher. Knud helped his father at school from the early age of nine years. He graduated from high school in 1832 and went on to study at university in the capital, where he earned a degree in philology in 1840, and then started his career as a teacher. In 1852 he was promoted to Headmaster at the Cathedral School in Christiania, a position he held until his retirement in 1880. Knudsen died in 1895 at the age of eighty-three (Johnsen 2006).

Knudsen remained a bachelor all his life, dedicating himself first and foremost to developing a language standard as well as to addressing various pedagogical issues of the period. As a student in the 1830s, he was already involved in an attempt to reduce the dominance of classical Greek and Latin in higher education (Dahl 1962). For instance, the abolition of the Latin translation exam in high schools in 1857 was regarded as one of Knudsen’s victories. The introduction of science as an elective subject alongside Latin in high schools was also a change for which Knudsen had argued (Johnsen 2006).