Johan Nordahl Brun

Johan Nordahl Brun (born March 21, 1745, Byneset, Norway—died July 26, 1816, Bergen) was a poet, dramatist, bishop, and politician who aroused national consciousness in Norway before it became independent of Denmark.

Brun was an indifferent student at the University of Copenhagen but, briefly, a prominent member of the so-called Norske Selskab (Norwegian Society), a group of younger Norwegian litterateurs in the Danish capital. In 1774 he returned to Norway to become a pastor in Bergen. He wrote the first Norwegian national anthem, “For Norge, kjæmpers fødeland” (1771; “For Norway, Land of Heroes”), forbidden until independence in 1814. The beginning and high point of his literary career was the French-inspired drama Zarine (1772), which won a prize offered by a well-known theatre director and was then parodied successfully by the playwright Johan Herman Wessel. Zarine was followed in the same year by another patriotic drama, Einar Tambeskielver. Brun’s primary interest, however, lay in the church. His ambition was satisfied when he became bishop and leading citizen of Bergen in 1804. A conservative clergyman, he was famous as a preacher and is remembered for his many hymns.