Background

Hans Andreas Johanneson Seland grew up on the farm Seland near Nes

Nes, Vest-Agder

Nes is a former municipality in Vest-Agder county in Norway. It is located in the southwestern part of the present-day municipality of Flekkefjord.-Name:...

 in Flekkefjord

Flekkefjord

is a town and municipality in the county of Vest-Agder, Norway.The town of Flekkefjord was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . The rural municipalities of Bakke, Gyland, Hidra, and Nes were merged with Flekkefjord on 1 January 1965.Flekkefjord is the westernmost town of the...

 in the county of Vest-Agder

Vest-Agder

In the 16th century, Dutch merchant vessels began to visit ports in southern Norway to purchase salmon and other goods. Soon thereafter the export of timber began, as oak from southern Norway was exceptionally well suited for shipbuilding...

, 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...

. Seland attended Stend Agricultural School (1884–1886). He was editor in Nordmands in Christiania

Oslo

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...

 (1893–96) and before 1896 went back to Nes

Nes, Vest-Agder

Nes is a former municipality in Vest-Agder county in Norway. It is located in the southwestern part of the present-day municipality of Flekkefjord.-Name:...

 to take over father's farm. He was deputy to the Parliament of Norway for the Norwegian Liberal Party (1915–18) and for the Norwegian Agrarian Association

Norwegian Agrarian Association

The Norwegian Agrarian Association is the largest Norwegian interest organization for farmers.It functions both as a labour union and as a trade union. It negotiates with the Norwegian Farmers and Smallholders Union and the Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion about agricultural...

 (1921–24). Locally he was a member of Nes council board and bank auditor for 30 years. Hans Seland, together with Hans Haga

Hans Haga

Hans Haga was a Norwegian agrarian leader.He spent most of his career in the Norwegian Agrarian Association. He was first hired as a secretary for the county chapter in Oppland in 1952, and became press consultant nationally in 1954...

 and Nils Trædal

Nils Trædal

Nils Trædal was a Norwegian cleric and politician for the agrarian party Bondepartiet and leader of the party from 1938 to 1948...

, were among the most influential politicians in the Agrarian Party (Norges Bondelag) to prevent this group from joining the fascist Nasjonal Samling of Vidkun Quisling

Vidkun Quisling

Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'etat that garnered him international infamy. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying...

.

Literary career

Seland reached out to a broad audience as the author of over 50 books. Almost all literature written by or about him is only available in Norwegian, reducing a potential international audience. He may not be among 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...

’s most known authors, but is certainly among the most celebrated ones within such diverse circles as Norwegian emigrants in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. His fame as a wandering storyteller eventually led him to the States in 1904, where he visited several of the Norwegian immigrant communities which had grown up after the great migration from Norway. In 1925, he represented the Norwegian Farmers' Union at the Norse-American Centennial

Norse-American Centennial

The Norse-American Centennial celebration was held at the Minnesota State Fair from June 7–9, 1925.The event served to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival during 1825 of the Norwegian immigrant ship Restauration. The arrival of this ship is generally considered the first organized...

, the 100th anniversary of Norwegian emigration to America.

He writes in his autobiography Aar og Dagar how stunned he was to see how faithfully the Norwegian immigrants had preserved their dialects and the formal church language, and at the same time successfully accommodated to the American way of living. His travels inspired him to write several complimentary articles of the United States and the preservation of Norwegian history, literature, and culture in general among the emigrants living there. His fame led him to meet with President Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

.

Seland chose to write in his native tongue, Nynorsk

Nynorsk

Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...

, at a time when most Norwegian authors still hung on to the Danish-inspired Bokmål

Bokmål

Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....

. This and the quality of his writings, led him to the friendship with several other combatants of the new language, including such well-known authors as Ivar Aasen

Ivar Aasen

Ivar Andreas Aasen was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright and poet.-Background:...

, Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Arne Garborg

Arne Garborg

Arne Garborg, born Aadne Eivindsson Garborg was a Norwegian writer.Garborg championed the use of Landsmål , as a literary language; he translated the Odyssey into it...

, Jonas Lie

Jonas Lie

Jonas Lauritz Idemil Lie was a Norwegian novelist, poet, and playwright who is considered to have been one of the Four Greats of 19th century Norwegian literature, together with Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Alexander Kielland.-Background:Jonas Lie was born at Hokksund in Øvre Eiker, in...

, and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson was a Norwegian writer and the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. Bjørnson is considered as one of The Four Greats Norwegian writers; the others being Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, and Alexander Kielland...

 .

Seland was, above all, a humorist. Many of his books are in a genre that may be called stubs of fun, or in his own words; Morostubbar. They consist of many small humorous stories, the normal ones averaging about 1-2 pages each. These he wrote out of his own imagination, or based them on actual situations experienced on his travels. He traveled all around telling his tales, and was a frequent and popular voice on the radio of his days. Among the Norwegian comedians of the pre-war era, Seland would be counted among the greatest.

As Norway sought independence from the Kingdom of Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Seland in 1904 gave out his book Prinsesse Gullsko og systerne hennar. As all adults were discussing how to find a peaceful solution to end the union with Sweden, Seland thought of the children. His book was a welcome breath of childish fun and imagination to the lives of thousands, and by using New Norwegian he reached a broader audience as the children finally got to read stories in their own dialect, as New Norwegian were, and still is, spoken by most Norwegians. He published several more books for children, and by 1908 he was involved in creating schoolbooks teaching children how to read in the new language. Illustrations to his books were by the noted artist Theodor Kittelsen

Theodor Kittelsen

Theodor Severin Kittelsen was a Norwegian artist. He is one of the most popular artists in Norway. Kittelsen became famous for his nature paintings, as well as for his illustrations of fairy tales and legends, especially of trolls.-Biography:Kittelsen was born in the coastal town of Kragerø in...

among others.

Selected works

• I straumen (1892)
• Hikstorier (1893)
• Andror (1898)
• Eikeli (1900)
• Norskt maal. Kvi strævar me? (1900)
• Prinsesse Gullsko og systrene hennar (1901)
• Høgsumar (1903)
• Um Amerika og frendefolket i Vesterheim (1904)
• Bygdefolk. Utvalde Skjemte-soger (1907)
• Dagros og andre dyr (1907)
• Frukthagen (1908)
• Stavebok for skule og heim (1908)
• Hetlesaki. Eit bilæte or norsk rettssoga (1908)