Rolf Jacobsen
Encyclopedia
Rolf Jacobsen could be said to be the first modernist
writer in Norway
. Jacobsen's career as a writer spanned more than fifty years. He is one of Scandinavia
’s most distinguished poets, who launched poetic modernism in Norway with his first book, Jord og jern (Earth and Iron) in 1933. Jacobsen's work has been translated into over twenty languages. The central theme in his work is the balance between nature and technology - he was called "the Green Poet" in Norwegian literature.
(then called Kristiania), as the son of Martin Julius Jacobsen, who had completed both medical and dental school, and Marie (Nielsen) Jacobsen, a nurse. At the age of six he moved with his family to Åsnes
, where Martin Jacobsen had obtained a post as a school dentist
. Rolf was educated by his mother, who had completed one year of teacher's training. In 1920 he moved to Oslo and entered a private school. During these years his uncle, who was a railway engineer, looked after him. Jacobson continued his studies at the University of Oslo
for five years without graduating. In 1927 he served in the Norwegian army for six weeks.
From 1937 to 1939 he was a board member of Hedmark Labour Party
.
, introduced the urban world, racing cars, airplanes, and electrical turbines. Because of the choice of his subjects Jacobsen's work was connected to Marinetti and Futurism
, but his view was all but romantic. He did not share the Futurists' euphoria over modern inventions, the beauty of "a roaring motorcar, which runs like a machine-gun," but saw the relationship between machines and human civilization as more complex. Jacobsen's diverse literary and other artistic influences included the Poetic Edda
, Karel Čapek
's play R.U.R., and Carl Sandburg
's poetry. The title of the collection also suggests a cyclic relationship between nature and technology.
In 1934 Jacobsen returned to Åsnes to take care of his father. He had joined a socialist intellectual group, Clarté
, and in Åsnes he became a member of the Labor Party
Leadership for Hedmark
County. In Åsnes Jacobsen worked for the daily newspaper Kongsvinger Arbeiderblad, which was supported by Labor. Jacobsen's second collection of poems, Vrimmel (1935), revealed his underlying dismay at modern civilization. Jacobsen rejected Marinetti's manifesto
, "We wish to glory war...", but predicted the ominous emergence of the gas masks and machine guns. After Vrimmel, Jacobsen was silent as a poet for 16 years.
In 1940 Jacobsen married Petra Tendø; they had two sons. While his parents' marriage did not succeed, Jacobsen's own marriage was harmonious. His wife died in 1985 and in his last book, Nattåpent (1995), Jacobsen published tender and mournful poems about their life together: "Whoever loves for years / hasn't lived in vain."
, when Norway was under German military occupation, Jacobsen signed and published, in Kongsvinger Arbeiderblad, editorial
s that supported the German occupiers. He was also a member of the Norwegian National Socialist Party. After the war, Jacobsen was convicted of treason and sentenced to three and a half years at hard labor.
After the war and hardships, Jacobsen settled at Abelsethgården in the city of Hamar
. He worked as a bookseller for ten years, and then as a journalist and night editor for the newspaper Hamar Stifstidende. In 1950 he converted to Catholicism
, and in 1951, Jacobsen published his third collection of poems, Fjerntog. The poems were traditional in form. In this work and in Hemmelig liv (1954), Jacobsen expressed his troubled compassion for the world around him. A new theme was the rough and lonely Norwegian scenery.
, and praised the blessings of little joys. Sometimes he used humor, sometimes his poems had hymnlike solemnity. In Hamar, Jacobsen lived in an old wooden house near Lake Mjøsa and the railroad. These surroundings he also described in his poems. Jacobsen's later books include Pass for dørene - dørene lukkes (1972), Pusteøvelse (1975), and Tenk på noe annet (1979).
, the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature (1960), the Doubloug Prize (1968), the Aschehoug Prize
(1986) and the Grand Nordic Prize (1989) from the Swedish Academy
.
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
writer in Norway
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...
. Jacobsen's career as a writer spanned more than fifty years. He is one of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
’s most distinguished poets, who launched poetic modernism in Norway with his first book, Jord og jern (Earth and Iron) in 1933. Jacobsen's work has been translated into over twenty languages. The central theme in his work is the balance between nature and technology - he was called "the Green Poet" in Norwegian literature.
Youth
Rolf Jacobsen was born in OsloOslo
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...
(then called Kristiania), as the son of Martin Julius Jacobsen, who had completed both medical and dental school, and Marie (Nielsen) Jacobsen, a nurse. At the age of six he moved with his family to Åsnes
Åsnes
Åsnes is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Solør. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Flisa, which is also the largest town in the municipality with around 2,100 people.-Name:...
, where Martin Jacobsen had obtained a post as a school dentist
Dentist
A dentist, also known as a 'dental surgeon', is a doctor that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity. The dentist's supporting team aides in providing oral health services...
. Rolf was educated by his mother, who had completed one year of teacher's training. In 1920 he moved to Oslo and entered a private school. During these years his uncle, who was a railway engineer, looked after him. Jacobson continued his studies at the University of Oslo
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
for five years without graduating. In 1927 he served in the Norwegian army for six weeks.
From 1937 to 1939 he was a board member of Hedmark Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
.
Early career
Jacobsen's Jord og jern ("Earth and Iron"), written in free verseFree verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
, introduced the urban world, racing cars, airplanes, and electrical turbines. Because of the choice of his subjects Jacobsen's work was connected to Marinetti and Futurism
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
, but his view was all but romantic. He did not share the Futurists' euphoria over modern inventions, the beauty of "a roaring motorcar, which runs like a machine-gun," but saw the relationship between machines and human civilization as more complex. Jacobsen's diverse literary and other artistic influences included the Poetic Edda
Poetic Edda
The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...
, Karel Čapek
Karel Capek
Karel Čapek was Czech writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Born in 1890 in the Bohemian mountain village of Malé Svatoňovice to an overbearing, emotional mother and a distant yet adored father, Čapek was the youngest of three siblings...
's play R.U.R., and Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Carl Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat."-Biography:Sandburg was born in Galesburg,...
's poetry. The title of the collection also suggests a cyclic relationship between nature and technology.
In 1934 Jacobsen returned to Åsnes to take care of his father. He had joined a socialist intellectual group, Clarté
Clarté (Norway)
Clarté was a socialist and pacifist organisation in Norway.It was founded in 1925, and had its roots in a French-based international organization of the same name...
, and in Åsnes he became a member of the Labor Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
Leadership for Hedmark
Hedmark
is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Akershus. The county administration is in Hamar.Hedmark makes up the northeastern part of Østlandet, the southeastern part of the country. It includes a long part of the borderline with Sweden, Dalarna County and Värmland County. The...
County. In Åsnes Jacobsen worked for the daily newspaper Kongsvinger Arbeiderblad, which was supported by Labor. Jacobsen's second collection of poems, Vrimmel (1935), revealed his underlying dismay at modern civilization. Jacobsen rejected Marinetti's manifesto
Futurist Manifesto
The Futurist Manifesto, written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, was published in the Italian newspaper Gazzetta dell'Emilia in Bologna on 5 February 1909, then in French as "Manifeste du futurisme" in the newspaper Le Figaro on 20 February 1909...
, "We wish to glory war...", but predicted the ominous emergence of the gas masks and machine guns. After Vrimmel, Jacobsen was silent as a poet for 16 years.
In 1940 Jacobsen married Petra Tendø; they had two sons. While his parents' marriage did not succeed, Jacobsen's own marriage was harmonious. His wife died in 1985 and in his last book, Nattåpent (1995), Jacobsen published tender and mournful poems about their life together: "Whoever loves for years / hasn't lived in vain."
The Second World War
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when Norway was under German military occupation, Jacobsen signed and published, in Kongsvinger Arbeiderblad, editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
s that supported the German occupiers. He was also a member of the Norwegian National Socialist Party. After the war, Jacobsen was convicted of treason and sentenced to three and a half years at hard labor.
After the war and hardships, Jacobsen settled at Abelsethgården in the city of Hamar
Hamar
is a town and municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Hamar. The municipality of Hamar was separated from Vang as a town and municipality of its own in 1849...
. He worked as a bookseller for ten years, and then as a journalist and night editor for the newspaper Hamar Stifstidende. In 1950 he converted to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, and in 1951, Jacobsen published his third collection of poems, Fjerntog. The poems were traditional in form. In this work and in Hemmelig liv (1954), Jacobsen expressed his troubled compassion for the world around him. A new theme was the rough and lonely Norwegian scenery.
Later years
Jacobsen often expressed ironically his doubts about technologyTechnology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, and praised the blessings of little joys. Sometimes he used humor, sometimes his poems had hymnlike solemnity. In Hamar, Jacobsen lived in an old wooden house near Lake Mjøsa and the railroad. These surroundings he also described in his poems. Jacobsen's later books include Pass for dørene - dørene lukkes (1972), Pusteøvelse (1975), and Tenk på noe annet (1979).
Awards
In the course of his long career, Jacobsen received many honors, among them membership in the Norwegian Academy for Language and LiteratureNorwegian Academy for Language and Literature
The Norwegian Academy for Language and Literature is a Norwegian learned body on matters pertaining to the Dano-Norwegian language. Its primary role is regulating the written standard known as Riksmål ....
, the Norwegian Critics Prize for Literature (1960), the Doubloug Prize (1968), the Aschehoug Prize
Aschehoug Prize
The Aschehoug Prize is published annually by the Norwegian publishing house Aschehoug. The Aschehoug Prize is awarded Norwegian authors on the basis of the merit of a recent publication. It is awarded on merit, irrespective of the publisher, base on a binding recommendation from the Norwegian...
(1986) and the Grand Nordic Prize (1989) from the Swedish Academy
Swedish Academy
The Swedish Academy , founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden.-History:The Swedish Academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III. Modelled after the Académie française, it has 18 members. The motto of the Academy is "Talent and Taste"...
.
- Schæffers legat 1934
- Henrichsens legat 1936
- Den norske Kritikerprisen for litteratur or Kritikerprisen 1960, for Brev til lyset
- Riksmålsforbundets litteraturpris 1965
- Doblougprisen 1968
- Sarpsborgprisen 1969
- Glåmdalens kulturpris 1969
- Ønskediktprisen (NRK) 1970
- Hedmarksprisen 1977
- Aschehougprisen 1986
- Hamarprisen 1986
- Svenska Akademiens nordiske pris 1989
- Æresmedlem av Hamar Natur og ungdom 1989
- Æresmedlem av Hedmark Forfatterlag 1989
- Hedmark fylkeskommunes kulturpris 1990
- Æresmedlem av Naturvernforbundet Hedmark 1992
Other sources
- Aadland, Erling Forundring, Trofasthet: Poetisk tenkning i Rolf Jacobsens lyrikk (Gyldendal norsk forlag. 1996)
- Lillebo, Hanne Ord ma en omvei: En biografi om Rolf Jacobsen (Aschehoug. 1998)
- Røsbak, Ove Rolf Jacobsen: En dikter og hans skygge (Gyldendal - 1998)