Kåre Holt

Kåre Holt's office in Holmestrand

Kåre Holt (born October 27, 1916 in Våle , † March 15, 1997 in Holmestrand ) was a Norwegian writer; his main work is a historical novel trilogy about the controversial Norwegian King Sverre .

life and work

Kåre Holt came from a working class family. In his 1949 book Det store veiskillet (The Great Road Crossing) , he explored the reasons why some Norwegians became National Socialists and traitors during World War II. The story is told by three people, each with variations of the same person, and shows the different possibilities of a career, depending on the genetic makeup or milieu conditions in childhood.

The occupation literature also includes Hevnen hører mig til ( Revenge is mine , 1953), in which Holt describes the mental tensions under which the people of Norway were under German occupation .

“ The problems of betrayal and revenge appear in a new light. This novel about courage versus cowardice, betrayal versus honesty is written with the density and fullness of the crime novel. "

- Nordic literary history '

Holt was best known for his two trilogies of novels . The first appeared from 1956 to 1960 with the titles The proud defeat , Storm under the morning star and Rioters by the sea and deals with the history of the Norwegian labor movement, in which he uses documentary material.

His main work, the second trilogy that came out between 1965 and 1969 and has become very popular, is about the Middle Ages. In the volumes Mannen fra utskjæret (The Man from the Outer Cliff ) , Fredløse menn (Peaceful Men) and Hersker og trell (Ruler and Slave) he writes about the powerful and controversial King Sverre , who ruled Norway from 1177 to 1202.

“ In Sverre's picture, the poet reveals traits that leaders have in common at all times: Sverre becomes a slave to the conditions he created as a ruler - a slave not least to his own dreams of rulership. "

- Nordic literary history '

Holt wrote a book about the race of the polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott to the South Pole ( Kappløpet ), translated into several languages , as well as novels about the naval commander Peter Wessel Tordenskiold and about the Norwegian pastor Hans Egede, known as the "Apostle of the Greenlanders", and his autobiography in 1982 . He has received many awards; He was nominated three times for the Nordic Council's Literature Prize, including the Critics' Prize in 1954 , the Gyldendal Scholarship in 1967 and the Dobloug Prize in 1970 .

Publications (selection)

Original Norwegian editions

• Det store veiskillet (1949)
• Hevnen hearer meg til (1953)
• Det stolte nederlag (1956)
• Storm under Morgenstjerne (1958)
• Opprørere ved havet (1960)
• Mannen fra utskjæret (1965)
• Fredløse menn (1967)
• Hersker and Trell (1969)
• Kappløpet (1974)
• Sjøhelten (1975)
• Sons of the north and the sky
• Gjester fra det ukjente (1980)
• Sannferdig beretning om mitt liv som løgner (1982)
• Skoggangsmann. En fortelling om Rottenikken (1984)

German-language editions

• The measure of love was not full . Translated from the Norwegian by Tabitha von Bonin. Wancura, Vienna and Stuttgart 1956.
• Scott, Amundsen. Race to the pole . From the Norwegian by Monika Hack. Zsolnay, Vienna and Hamburg 1976, ISBN 3-552-02802-1 . (most recently: Frederking and Thaler, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-89405-151-5 )

literature

• J. Thon: Kåre Holt. Arbeiderdikteren i det evige borgerlige univers . In: Helge Rønning (ed.): Linjer i nordisk prosa . UniPax, Oslo 1977.
• Øystein Rottem: Kåre Holt . In: Store norske leksikon. Oslo 2001.
• Philip Houm: Kåre Holt . In: Nordic literary history . Volume II. Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2105-6 .
• Holt, Kåre . In: Gero von Wilpert (ed.): Lexicon of world literature LZ . Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-59050-5 .

Web links

• Kåre Holt in the store norske leksikon

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nordic literary history . Volume II. 1984, p. 630.
2. ↑ Nordic literary history . Volume II. 1984, p. 631