Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, commonly referred to as Gyldendal, is one of the largest Norwegian

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...

 publishing houses .

Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS

Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS was founded in 1925. It was established after a corporate demerger

Demerger

Demerger is a form of corporate restructuring in which the an entity's business operations are segregated into one or more components. It is the converse of a merger or acquisition....

 brought about when a group of Norwegian investors led by Harald Grieg

Harald Grieg

Harald Grieg was a Norwegian publisher.He was a relative of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Harald's brother Nordahl Grieg was a writer and an active member of the Free Norwegian Forces during the German occupation of Norway...

 "bought home" the works of The Four Greats

The Four Greats

The Four Greats is a term used for four of the most influential Norwegian writers of the late 19th century, namely Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Henrik Ibsen, Alexander Kielland and Jonas Lie. The term was introduced by their publisher, Gyldendal, for advertising purposes...

 and Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun

Knut Hamsun was a Norwegian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. He was praised by King Haakon VII of Norway as Norway's soul....

, which had previously been published by the Danish publishing house Gyldendal

Gyldendal (Denmark)

Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag A/S, in Denmark usually referred to simply as Gyldendal is a Danish publishing house. Founded in 1770 by Søren Gyldendal, it is the oldest and largest publishing house in Denmark, offering a wide selection of books including fiction, non-fiction and...

.

The company publishes both fiction

Fiction

Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

, non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

, school books and children books. Gyldendal owns 50% of Kunnskapsforlaget

Kunnskapsforlaget

Kunnskapsforlaget is a Norwegian publishing company based in Oslo that concentrates on encyclopedias, encyclopedic books, textbooks, and dictonaries. The company, created in 1975, is owned by Gyldendal Norsk Forlag and Aschehoug ....

, along with Aschehoug

Aschehoug

H. Aschehoug & Co , commonly known as Aschehoug, is one of the largest independent publishing companies in Norway. -History:...

, which publishes encyclopedia

Encyclopedia

An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....

s, dictionaries

Dictionary

A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...

 and other reference books, including Store norske leksikon

Store norske leksikon

Store norske leksikon, abbreviated SNL, is currently the second most comprehensive contemporary Norwegian language encyclopedia. The SNL was created in 1978 when the two publishing houses Aschehoug and Gyldendal merged their encyclopedias and created the company Kunnskapsforlaget. The name...

. . Gyldendal also publishes the literary magazine

Literary magazine

A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...

 Vinduet. The company is organised as a division of Gyldendal ASA, a holding company

Holding company

A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...

 which is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange

Oslo Stock Exchange

The Oslo Stock Exchange serves as the main market for trading in the shares of Norwegian companies. It opens at 9:00am and closes 5:30pm local time...

.

Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS consists of the following four divisions: Gyldendal Litteratur, Gyldendal Undervisning, Gyldendal Akademisk and Gyldendal Rettsdata.

Gyldendal ASA

Gyldendal ASA is a Norway-based holding company active within the publishing sector. The Company is operational through Gyldendal Norsk Forlag AS, a wholly owned publishing house plus four other principal subsidiaries: Ark Bokhandel AS, a wholly owned book store; Kunnskapsforlaget ANS, a 50%-owned book company that specializes in dictionaries and encyclopedias; Forlagssentralen ANS, 50%-owned company which manages the Company's logistics and transport operations,and De norske Bokklubbene AS, a 48.5%-owned book club.

Executive officers

Since 1925, Gyldendal has been led by these people:

• 1925-1970: Harald Grieg
  Harald Grieg
  Harald Grieg was a Norwegian publisher.He was a relative of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Harald's brother Nordahl Grieg was a writer and an active member of the Free Norwegian Forces during the German occupation of Norway...
  
  
• 1970-1980: Ingebrikt Jensen
• 1980-1990: Andreas Skartveit
• 1990-1995: Nils Kåre Jacobsen
• 1995 - present: Geir Mork

External links

• Gyldendal Norsk Forlag
• Gyldendal ASA