Helge Kåre Fauskanger (born 17 August 1971) is a Norwegian author and
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
. In Norway he is known as a
crime novelist; elsewhere, he is best known as a
Tolkien scholar
The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have generated a body of research covering many aspects of his fantasy writings. These encompass ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Silmarillion'', along with his legendarium that remained unpublished until after ...
with an interest in
Tolkien's constructed languages.
Education
Fauskanger has studied both
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
and
religious studies, and has taken courses in classical Hebrew, Greek and Coptic.
His main thesis ''The Bible in Norwegian'' (1998) compares selected texts from three widespread Norwegian Bible translations. He describes himself as an agnostic and skeptic.
Career
Fauskanger's satirical debut novel ''Fullmåne over Uroba'' ("Full Moon over Uroba" 2009) describes an alternative reality where a nation resembling the USA is located in Europe instead.
Fauskanger's debut as a crime writer was the
crime novel
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
''Skrinet'' in 2012, published by Baskerville. This is a
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
pastiche where Holmes comes to Norway in 1895, and tracks down the lost reliquary of
St. Sunniva. The novel ''Skarlagenssalen'' (Gyldendal 2013) is a sequel to ''Skrinet'' with the same first-person narrator, who in this story meets the ten-year-old
Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (, ; 18 July 1887 – 24 October 1945) was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Nazi collaborator who nominally headed the government of Norway during the country's occupation by Nazi Germ ...
in 1897. Vidkun is with his father on a paranormal investigation at a dark manor in
Østfold
Østfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in southeastern Norway. It borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other side o ...
. The story is a crime thriller with inspiration from
John Dickson Carr
John Dickson Carr (November 30, 1906 – February 27, 1977) was an American author of detective stories, who also published using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn.
He lived in England for a number of years, and is ...
. Both ''Skrinet'' and ''Skarlagenssalen'' were awarded a
dice throw of 5 by Norway's ''
Verdens Gang
''Verdens Gang'' ("The course of the world"), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norwegian tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, having declined from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. ''VG'' is n ...
'' newspaper.
In 2015 he published a commentary edition of
The New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christi ...
newly translated from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
into Norwegian, observing to the annoyance of the
Norwegian Bible Society
The Norwegian Bible Society (Norwegian: ) is a Norwegian Christian foundation which translates, produces, and distributes the Bible in Norway. It is the official Bible society of Norway. The Norwegian Bible Society is organized as a publishing c ...
that their 2011 version was more polished than the original.
The translation tried to preserve illogicalities and bad language in the original Bible text.
The Society commented that it was almost impossible to give the "real" text as it had mainly been presented orally and then written by people for whom Greek was not their first language; in their view Fauskanger's "polemic oozes with contempt". Fauskanger denied that he held the Bible in contempt.
Tolkien linguistics
Fauskanger is known for his linguistic work on
J.R.R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
's fictional world of
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is t ...
.
Since the early nineties, he has been a regular contributor to ''Angerthas'', the member magazine of Norway's
Tolkien Society
The Tolkien Society is an educational charity and literary society devoted to the study and promotion of the life and works of the author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien.
It began informally in 1969, and held its inaugural meeting in 1970. It h ...
. He started and runs the website ''Ardalambion'', devoted to the study of Tolkien's
constructed language
A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...
s.
The site has been called "one of the principal websites for the study of Tolkien's languages". The website has been translated from English into a number of other languages. In connection with his work with Tolkien's languages, Fauskanger has appeared in the programs ''Typisk Norsk'' and '. A poem he wrote in Tolkien's invented language
Quenya
Quenya ()Tolkien wrote in his "Outline of Phonology" (in ''Parma Eldalamberon'' 19, p. 74) dedicated to the phonology of Quenya: is "a sound as in English ''new''". In Quenya is a combination of consonants, ibidem., p. 81. is a constructed la ...
(''Silmessë'', "In starlight") was set to music by Carvin Knowles and had a music video made for it. Among the topics he has published papers on are
Sindarin
Sindarin is one of the fictional languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his fantasy stories set in Arda, primarily in Middle-earth. Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the Elves. The word is a Quenya word.
Called in Eng ...
and
Black Speech. He has created a 20-lesson course on Quenya, which he states "presuppose
a deep and serious interest on the part of the student".
Reception
The Norwegian national newspaper ''
Aftenposten
( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...
'' describes Fauskanger as having "an aura of 1905 about him", the year in which his book ''Skamtegnet'' is set. It calls the book at once a historical crime novel, a murder mystery, and a streak of supernatural horror. The paper's reviewer
Pål Gerhard Olsen calls the book "an excellent read" with an "exquisitely elegant" plot and a masterfully constructed ending.
The paper writes that with his knowledge of multiple ancient languages "one can safely say that
auskangeris almost unbearably scholarly".
Reviewing Fauskanger's book ''Skrinet'', the Norwegian daily newspaper ''
Dagsavisen
''Dagsavisen'' is a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. The former party organ of the Norwegian Labour Party, the ties loosened over time from 1975 to 1999. It has borne several names, and was called ''Arbeiderbladet'' from 1923 to 1997. ...
'' writes that the novel begins from a sentence by
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...
, which mentions that
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...
visited Norway in 1895, and the last line of ''The Adventure of Black Peter'' where Holmes says that his address will be "somewhere in Norway". Asked if this was just "literary grave robbing", Fauskanger replied that the book has fun with Holmes, St Sunniva, and Jewish
Kabbalah
Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and Jewish theology, school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "rece ...
mysticism, three things that might not seem to be connected until one reads the book.
In ''Arda Philology'', Karolina Kazimierczak writes that Fauskanger's description of Quenya in his ''Quenya Course'' could easily be read as historical
musicology
Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
. She comments that his interpretation seems "
lose
Lose may refer to:
* ''Lose'' (Cymbals Eat Guitars album), the third studio album by American indie rock band Cymbals Eat Guitars
* "Lose" (song), by KSI and Lil Wayne, 2021
*"Lose", a song by Travis Scott from his 2016 album ''Birds in the Trap ...
to Tolkien's own vision of language, music, and their interrelations."
Works
* 2009 ''Fullmåne over Uroba'' (Full Moon over Uroba) – novel
* 2012 ''Skrinet'' (The Casket) – crime novel
* 2013 ''Skarlagenssalen'' (The Scarlet Hall) – crime novel
* 2015 ''Det nye testamente'' (The New Testament) – bible translation and commentary
* 2015 ''Skamtegnet'' (Sign of Shame) – crime novel
* 2021 ''Skorpionbrosjen'' (The Scorpion Brooch) – crime novel
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fauskanger, Helge
Norwegian philologists
Norwegian crime writers
People from Bergen
1971 births
Living people