Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg
Encyclopedia
Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg, known as Nordahl Grieg, (born 1. November 1902 in Bergen
– shot down above Berlin
2. December 1943) was a Norwegian poet
, novelist, dramatist, journalist
and political activist. He was a popular poet and a controversial public figure in his lifetime. A convinced stalinist
, he served as chairman of the political organization Friends of the Soviet Union
(1935-40). He was the brother of publisher Harald Grieg
.
, Norway
. He was related to the famous composer Edvard Grieg
, and brother of the powerful Norwegian publisher Harald Grieg
. Grieg studied at King Frederick’s University (now the University of Oslo
). Grieg made his debut in 1922 with first book of poetry Omkring Kap det gode Haab ("Around the Cape of Good Hope"), which was followed by Skibet gaar videre ("The Ship Sails On") in 1924. Grieg spent 1927 as a newspaper correspondent in China
, where he witnessed firsthand the civil war between the Kuomintang
and the Communists. The same year saw the production of Grieg's plays En ung manns Kjaerlighet ("A Young Man's Love") and Barabbas.
From 1933 to 1935, he lived in the Soviet Union
. He was officially invited to study the techniques of Soviet stage and film. Upon returning to Norway, he became known as an ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin
's policies, and became the chairman of the Friends of the Soviet Union
in the same year. In 1937, he famously wrote a defence for the Moscow Trials
, attacking a number of Norwegian authors who had criticized these trials. His novel Ung må verden ennu være was also a defence for Stalin and the Moscow Trials. In many articles, he also criticized the supporters of Leon Trotsky
, whom he viewed as a traitor.
His 1935 play Vår ære og vår makt (Our Honor and Our Glory) was an attack on shipping industry's exploitation of seafarers. From 1936 to 1937, Grieg published the magazine Veien Frem, which initially succeeded in attracting a number of prominent writers, but as the magazine adopted an increasingly Stalinist position in the discussion relating to the Moscow Trials, most of them severed ties with it and it ceased publication. His 1937 dramatic play Nederlaget ("The Defeat") was about the Paris Commune.
From 1940 onwards, he committed himself toward the struggle against the occupation following the Nazi invasion of Norway. In 1940, he escaped to England
in the same vessel carrying the Norwegian Royal family and the National Gold reserves
.
in the Atlantic Ocean
, writing the poem Øya i Ishavet ({The Island in the Ice Sea). Like other war correspondents he joined operational missions over occupied Europe, and it was in the course of one of these that he lost his life.
On the night of 2–3 December 1943, Captain Grieg was attached to 460 Squadron
, an Australian squadron based at RAF Binbrook
, as one of several observers for a raid on Berlin. Grieg joined the crew of a Lancaster
Mk.III, serial number LM.316 and letter codes "AR-H2", captained by Flying Officer A.R. Mitchell, RAAF. Berlin was always a tough target as it was the capital city and so was well-defended, but also because it lay far in the east of the country, which meant that crews were not only flying on the limits of fuel and of their own endurance, but had to pass over many night-fighter bases on the way to the target, and all the way back home again. 460 Sqn. lost five aircraft that night and one of them was Lancaster LM.316. 37 airmen had been on board these aircraft and only eight survived being shot down, to spend the rest of the war in a POW camp. None of the eight survivors came from aircraft LM.316. So, in addition to the distinguished Norwegian supernumerary, all seven crew-members: four Australians and three Britons, went down with the aircraft.
Grieg was neither the only war-correspondent shot down that night, nor the only Norwegian. An Australian correspondent also flying with 460 Sqn. was killed, and a British correspondent with another squadron became a POW. Among the 44 'RAF' aircraft and nearly 300 aircrew lost on this single raid were two Norwegians in a Halifax that was part of the elite Pathfinder Force
(PFF). The captain of this Halifax was a Norwegian Lieutenant who managed to maintain control long enough to allow his compatriot, and all five British members of the crew, to bail out successfully and become prisoners of war, at the cost of his own life. For a population as small as that of Norway, the attrition of losses such as this on each raid was quite significant, but the loss of a figure as famous as the poet Nordahl Grieg was the extra blow on this night.
In 1945, a collection of Nordahl Grieg's war poems, Friheten ("Freedom") was published which remained a best selling Norwegian poetry collection. In 1957, a statue Nordahl Grieg by Roar Bjorg was unveiled at Den Nationale Scene
in Bergen. In 1990, the musical Nordahl Grieg i våre hjerter ("Nordahl Grieg in our hearts") , written by Erling Gjelsvik with music by Knut Skodvin debuted in Bergen. In November 2003, a memorial stone was unveiled at the site where Nordahl Grieg died near Berlin, Germany, when the Lancaster bomber in which he was flying hit the ground on 2 December 1943. In 2010, Nordahl Grieg High School (Nordahl Grieg videregående skole) in Rådal
was opened in the Rådal
neighborhood in Bergen.
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
– shot down above Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
2. December 1943) was a Norwegian poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, novelist, dramatist, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and political activist. He was a popular poet and a controversial public figure in his lifetime. A convinced stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, he served as chairman of the political organization Friends of the Soviet Union
Friends of the Soviet Union (Norway)
Friends of the Soviet Union was an organization in Norway, promoting relations with the Soviet Union. The organization was founded in 1928. It worked closely with the Communist Party of Norway.Adam Egede-Nissen was chairman of the organization 1933-1935...
(1935-40). He was the brother of publisher 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...
.
Background
Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg was born in BergenBergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
, 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...
. He was related to the famous composer Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
, and brother of the powerful Norwegian publisher 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...
. Grieg studied at King Frederick’s University (now the University of Oslo
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
). Grieg made his debut in 1922 with first book of poetry Omkring Kap det gode Haab ("Around the Cape of Good Hope"), which was followed by Skibet gaar videre ("The Ship Sails On") in 1924. Grieg spent 1927 as a newspaper correspondent in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, where he witnessed firsthand the civil war between the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
and the Communists. The same year saw the production of Grieg's plays En ung manns Kjaerlighet ("A Young Man's Love") and Barabbas.
From 1933 to 1935, he lived in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. He was officially invited to study the techniques of Soviet stage and film. Upon returning to Norway, he became known as an ardent supporter of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's policies, and became the chairman of the Friends of the Soviet Union
Friends of the Soviet Union (Norway)
Friends of the Soviet Union was an organization in Norway, promoting relations with the Soviet Union. The organization was founded in 1928. It worked closely with the Communist Party of Norway.Adam Egede-Nissen was chairman of the organization 1933-1935...
in the same year. In 1937, he famously wrote a defence for the Moscow Trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
, attacking a number of Norwegian authors who had criticized these trials. His novel Ung må verden ennu være was also a defence for Stalin and the Moscow Trials. In many articles, he also criticized the supporters of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, whom he viewed as a traitor.
His 1935 play Vår ære og vår makt (Our Honor and Our Glory) was an attack on shipping industry's exploitation of seafarers. From 1936 to 1937, Grieg published the magazine Veien Frem, which initially succeeded in attracting a number of prominent writers, but as the magazine adopted an increasingly Stalinist position in the discussion relating to the Moscow Trials, most of them severed ties with it and it ceased publication. His 1937 dramatic play Nederlaget ("The Defeat") was about the Paris Commune.
From 1940 onwards, he committed himself toward the struggle against the occupation following the Nazi invasion of Norway. In 1940, he escaped to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in the same vessel carrying the Norwegian Royal family and the National Gold reserves
Flight of the Norwegian National Treasury
The National Treasury of Norway consisted of in 1940 value worth of gold weighing around 50 tons. The entire gold deposit was stored at Norges Bank's main vault at their headquarters in Oslo. During the increasing tension of the 1930s, plans were made to make the deposit more mobile...
.
Wartime activities
Once in Britain, Grieg served in Norway's government-in-exile and participated in making patriotic radio programs in England. He was commissioned into the Norwegian Armed Forces and served as a war correspondent. At the time of his death he was a Captain. His work involved visiting Norwegian units around Britain and experiencing their duties, in order to make his reports. He also travelled outside Great Britain to meet Norwegian servicemen on duty in Iceland and other more remote outposts. In the summer of 1942 Grieg spent several weeks on the Norwegian island of Jan MayenJan Mayen
Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and part of the Kingdom of Norway. It is long and 373 km2 in area, partly covered by glaciers . It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus wide...
in the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, writing the poem Øya i Ishavet ({The Island in the Ice Sea). Like other war correspondents he joined operational missions over occupied Europe, and it was in the course of one of these that he lost his life.
On the night of 2–3 December 1943, Captain Grieg was attached to 460 Squadron
No. 460 Squadron RAAF
No. 460 Squadron is an Royal Australian Air Force intelligence unit active within the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation . It was first formed as a heavy bomber squadron during World War II on November 15, 1941 and disbanded on 10 October 1945 after seeing extensive combat over Europe. The...
, an Australian squadron based at RAF Binbrook
RAF Binbrook
RAF Binbrook was a Bomber Command station during World War II. After the war it was amongst others the home of the Central Fighter Establishment...
, as one of several observers for a raid on Berlin. Grieg joined the crew of a Lancaster
Avro Lancaster
The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...
Mk.III, serial number LM.316 and letter codes "AR-H2", captained by Flying Officer A.R. Mitchell, RAAF. Berlin was always a tough target as it was the capital city and so was well-defended, but also because it lay far in the east of the country, which meant that crews were not only flying on the limits of fuel and of their own endurance, but had to pass over many night-fighter bases on the way to the target, and all the way back home again. 460 Sqn. lost five aircraft that night and one of them was Lancaster LM.316. 37 airmen had been on board these aircraft and only eight survived being shot down, to spend the rest of the war in a POW camp. None of the eight survivors came from aircraft LM.316. So, in addition to the distinguished Norwegian supernumerary, all seven crew-members: four Australians and three Britons, went down with the aircraft.
Grieg was neither the only war-correspondent shot down that night, nor the only Norwegian. An Australian correspondent also flying with 460 Sqn. was killed, and a British correspondent with another squadron became a POW. Among the 44 'RAF' aircraft and nearly 300 aircrew lost on this single raid were two Norwegians in a Halifax that was part of the elite Pathfinder Force
Pathfinder (RAF)
The Pathfinders were elite squadrons in RAF Bomber Command during World War II. They located and marked targets with flares, which a main bomber force could aim at, increasing the accuracy of their bombing...
(PFF). The captain of this Halifax was a Norwegian Lieutenant who managed to maintain control long enough to allow his compatriot, and all five British members of the crew, to bail out successfully and become prisoners of war, at the cost of his own life. For a population as small as that of Norway, the attrition of losses such as this on each raid was quite significant, but the loss of a figure as famous as the poet Nordahl Grieg was the extra blow on this night.
Legacy
After the end of World War II, Grieg became a hero in Norway because of his resistance to the Nazi Occupation, both during the invasion itself and in the continuation of the fight in the forces in exile in Britain. Grieg is still popular in Norway today, especially his anti-fascist poetry.In 1945, a collection of Nordahl Grieg's war poems, Friheten ("Freedom") was published which remained a best selling Norwegian poetry collection. In 1957, a statue Nordahl Grieg by Roar Bjorg was unveiled at Den Nationale Scene
Den Nationale Scene
Den Nationale Scene is the largest theatre in Bergen, Norway. Den Nationale Scene is also one of the oldest permanent theatre in Norway.-History:...
in Bergen. In 1990, the musical Nordahl Grieg i våre hjerter ("Nordahl Grieg in our hearts") , written by Erling Gjelsvik with music by Knut Skodvin debuted in Bergen. In November 2003, a memorial stone was unveiled at the site where Nordahl Grieg died near Berlin, Germany, when the Lancaster bomber in which he was flying hit the ground on 2 December 1943. In 2010, Nordahl Grieg High School (Nordahl Grieg videregående skole) in Rådal
Rådal
Rådal is a neighborhood in Bergen, Norway, located at the border between the boroughs of Fana and Ytrebygda. The center of the area is the shopping center Lagunen Storsenter. While the area has no official borders, it is regarded as the common name for the basic statistical units of Krohnåsen in...
was opened in the Rådal
Rådal
Rådal is a neighborhood in Bergen, Norway, located at the border between the boroughs of Fana and Ytrebygda. The center of the area is the shopping center Lagunen Storsenter. While the area has no official borders, it is regarded as the common name for the basic statistical units of Krohnåsen in...
neighborhood in Bergen.
Selected works
- Rundt Kap det gode Håp, 1922 - Around the Cape of Good Hope
- Skibet gaar videre, 1924 - The Ship Sails On
- Stene i strømmen, 1925 - Stone in the stream
- Kinesiske dage, 1927 - Chinese Day
- En ung manns Kjærlighet, 1927 - A Young Man's Love
- Barabbas, 1927
- Norge i våre hjerter, 1929 - Norway in our hearts
- Atlanterhavet, 1932 - The Atlantic
- De unge døde, 1932 - The youth died
- Vår ære og vår makt, 1935 - Our Honor and Our Glory
- Men imorgen, 1936 - But Tomorrow
- Nederlaget, 1937 - The Defeat
- Til UngdommenTil UngdommenTil Ungdommen , also known by the words of the first line Kringsatt av Fiender , is a poem from 1936 by Norwegian poet and writer Nordahl Grieg. It was set to music in 1952 by the Danish composer Otto Mortensen. The song has been recorded by various artists and has been sung at meetings held by...
(Kringsatt av Fiender), 1936 - For the Youth - Spansk sommer, 1938 - Spanish Summer
- Ung må verden ennu være, 1938 - May the World Stay Young
- Øya i Ishavet, 1942 - The Island in the Ice Sea
- Friheten, 1945 - Freedom
- Flagget, 1945 - The Flag
- Håbet, 1946 - Hope
Other sources
- Andreassen, Jostein (1992) Nordahl Grieg pa Sørlandet: Et studieheft om forfatterskap og miljø (J. Andreassen) ISBN 978-8291188010
- Borgen, Johan (1945) Nordahl Grieg (Oslo: Gyldendal)
- Boyson, Emil (1961) Norsk poesi fra Henrik Wergeland til Nordahl Grieg: En antologi (Oslo: Gyldendal)
- Gustafson, Alrik (1944) Scandinavian plays of the twentieth century (American-Scandinavian Foundation)
- Hoem, Edvard (1989) Til ungdommen : Nordahl Griegs liv (Oslo: Gyldendal) ISBN 82-05-29946-3
- Mjoberg, Joran ( 1947) Nordahl Grieg; Fosterlandsvannen och Revolutionaren (C. W. K. Gleerups)
- Nag, Martin (1989) Ung ma Nordahl Grieg enna være (Solum) ISBN 978-8256006557