Hallvard Trætteberg was the leading Norwegian heraldic

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

 artist and the expert adviser on heraldry to the Government of Norway and the Norwegian Royal Family

Norwegian Royal Family

The Royal Family of Norway is the family of King Harald V of Norway. In Norway there is a distinction between the Royal House and the Royal Family. The Royal House includes only the King and his spouse, the Queen, the King's eldest son with spouse, being the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, and the...

 for much of the 20th century. From about 1930 he played a central role in the renewal of public heraldry in Norway with an emphasis on simplification. He gave the Coat of arms of Norway

Coat of arms of Norway

The coat of arms of Norway is a crowned, golden lion rampant holding an axe with an argent blade, on a crowned, triangular and red escutcheon. Its elements originate from personal insignias for the royal house in the High Middle Ages, thus being among the oldest in Europe...

 its modern design and designed several county and municipal coats of arms, seals of the bishops of the Church of Norway

Church of Norway

The Church of Norway is the state church of Norway, established after the Lutheran reformation in Denmark-Norway in 1536-1537 broke the ties to the Holy See. The church confesses the Lutheran Christian faith...

, and monogram

Monogram

A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series of uncombined initials is properly referred to as a...

s. He also wrote several books.

He was a Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav and a member of L'Académie Internationale d'Héraldique. He was employed at the National Archives of Norway

National Archives of Norway

The National Archives of Norway is the institution responsible for preserving archive material from Norwegian state institutions, as well as contributing to the preservation of private archives. It does this work in cooperation with the regional state archives, together with which it forms the...

 from 1924.

Publications

• Fylkesmerker. Forslag fra Norges Bondelags fylkesmerkenevnd, Oslo 1930
• Norges våbenmerker - Norske by- og adelsvåben, Kaffe Hag AS, Oslo 1933
• "Norges statssymboler inntil 1814", Historisk Tidsskrift, vol. 29, no. 8 and 9, Oslo 1933
• "Norges krone og våpen". I Festskrift til Francis Bull, Oslo 1937
• "Heraldiske farvelover", Meddelanden från Riksheraldikerämbetet, bind 7, Stockholm
  Stockholm
  Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
  
  1938
• "Statens forhold til heraldikken i Norge", Meddelanden från Riksheraldikerämbetet, bind 7, Stockholm 1938
• "Måne- og stjernevåpen", Meddelelser til slekten Mathiesen, Oslo 1946
• "The Coat of Arms of Norway", The American-Scandinavian Review, June 1964
• Borg i segl, mynt og våpen, Oslo 1967
• "A History of the Flags of Norway", The Flag Bulletin, (XVIII:3), 1978

Literature

• Hallvard Trætteberg - Offentlig heraldikk i Norge 1921-1975 - Våpen flagg segl symboler