Henrik Grytnes Rytter was a Norwegian dramatist, lyricist and translator.

He was born in Bjørnør

Bjørnør

Bjørnør is a former municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. It encompassed the present-day municipalities of Roan and Osen, plus the Stoksund area in present-day Åfjord, all in the western part of the Fosen peninsula...

. He made his debut in 1907, with the drama Dømde. Later plays include Bråhamaren (1917), Herman Ravn (1924), Våren (1926), Elva (1937) and Prestegarden og øya (1941). All were staged at Det Norske Teatret

Det Norske Teatret

Det Norske Teatret is a theatre in Oslo. The theatre was founded in 1912, after an initiative from Hulda Garborg and Edvard Drabløs. It opened in 1913, touring with two plays, Ervingen by Ivar Aasen and Rationelt Fjøsstell by Hulda Garborg...

. As a lyricist, Rytter's works include Båra (1919), Øya (1920), the trilogy Jordsonen (1925), Skålene (1926) and Vokune (1927), as well as Eros (1928) and Likevel -! (1950).

Rytter also made a mark as a translator. He translated works of Shakespeare as well as Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt

Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...

and the Divine Comedy into 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...

; and The Decameron

The Decameron

The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....

into 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....

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He was also the headmaster of Nordmøre folk high school from 1913 to 1916.

He was the father of Olav Rytter

Olav Rytter

Olav Rytter was a Norwegian newspaper editor, radio personality, foreign correspondent, philologist and translator....

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