Edvard Storm

Who was Edvard Storm?

Edvard Storm, was a poet from Vågå, Oppland, Norway. He was the son of Johan Storm, the priest in Vågå, and his second wife, Ingeborg Birgitta Røring. The first 7 years of his life were spent in the Vågå rectory, until he began school in 1756 in Christiania. In 1765 he took the entry examination for Copenhagen University, but waited until later to enter. For a period he was a teacher in Lesja, but he returned for the years 1766-1769 in his childhood home. His strong interest in nature and valley life were developed during these years.

In July 1769 Storm left home to begin serious study in Copenhagen; it is thought he pursued theology but he never took the official examination. It is possible that his interest in literature distracted him from his expected studies.

Despite being a Norwegian, he did not join the Norske Selskab, a literary club formed in 1772 for Norwegian students in Copenhagen which included authors, poets and philosophers. Storm was an admirer of the Danish poet Johannes Ewald though, and attached himself to Ewald's circle of friends who were members. But his upbringing in Norway had bound him firmly to the land. While in Denmark he wrote 9 songs in local dialect before the beginning of the 1770s. These songs were not only special as the first works he wrote, they were also among the seminal works of Norwegian literature in dialect, and are viewed as the best that Storm wrote.