Norwegian historian and statesman, born at Porsgrund on the 27th of July 1773. While studying divinity at Copenhagen he became interested in the pursuit of natural science, and in 1797 he set out to make the tour of the scientific schools of Leipsic, Kiel and Göttingen. In Germany he became acquainted with the great geologist, Werner; and in 1799, having spent the winter at the celebrated academy of mines in Freiberg, he returned to Norway and invested his patrimony in the purchase of the immense iron-works of Naes, in the Arendal ore region. In 1814 he took a prominent part in the framing of the free constitution of Norway, and for fourteen years, 1816–30, he was a leading member of the Storthing. In 1832–36 he published, in three volumes, entitled Present and Past, a redaction of his own numerous magazine articles on the history and antiquities of Norway. In 1838–39 appeared his standard translation of Snorre Sturleson’s Heimskringla. His Reminiscences (1844–45) is a repository of data concerning the contemporaneous history of the Scandinavian peninsula. He died on the 4th of August 1844.
