Peder Ås, previously Peder Aas, is a fictional character and

placeholder name Placeholder names are words that can refer to things or people whose names do not exist, are temporarily forgotten, are not relevant to the salient point at hand, are to avoid stigmatization, are unknowable/unpredictable in the context in wh ...

used as an example in legal studies in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. The character is traditionally associated with the

University of Oslo Faculty of Law The Faculty of Law ( no, Det juridiske fakultet) of the University of Oslo is Norway's oldest law faculty, established in 1811 as one of the four original faculties of The Royal Frederick University (renamed the University of Oslo in 193 ...

, where it has occurred on every candidate of law exam since 1897, except in 1917. It continues to be used at all law schools in Norway. He has also been used in advertisements and plays. In the early years he was portrayed as a farmer, fisherman and lumberer, but has later been portrayed more as an Average Joe and sometimes as a businessperson.

Use

The first documented occurrence of Peder Aas dates from the candidate of law at the University of Oslo exam from 1897. Nils Holm and Oline Aas were getting married; Peder Aas was Oline's deceased father who had made an agreement with the former farmer at the Holm homestead regarding use of the forest. Since then, Peder Ås has occurred on every exam at UiO, except once. He was missing from the 1917 exams, which caused chaos among the students as they were worried that part of their exam questions were missing. In the 1960s Dean Birger Stuevold Lassen introduced a new character, Carmen, in the exams. He received many negative comments from students, who were confused and Carmen was therefore not used again. About 1980 Ås appeared in advertisements for bank cards. In 1997 the

Norwegian Language Council The Language Council of Norway ( no, Språkrådet, ) is the consultative body of the Norwegian state on language issues. It was established in 2005 and replaced the Norwegian Language Council (, ) which existed from 1974 to 2005. It is a subsidiar ...

stated that they were concerned that the term "Ola Nordmann", equivalent to "Average Joe" and meaning " Ola Norwegian" was not gender neutral enough, but at the same time explicitly stated that they did not mind "Peder Ås". In a play was put up at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

in which the court case following the

Lillelid murders The Lillelid murders refers to a criminal case in Greene County, Tennessee, United States, where three members of the Lillelid family were murdered on April 6, 1997. Vidar Lillelid (aged 34), Delfina Lillelid (aged 28), and their daughter Tabit ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, United States, was reenacted, the murders were committed against Peder Ås and his family.

Characteristics

Lawyer Ernst G. Hansen conducted a survey of all judicial exams at UiO between 1910 and 1967 and made an assessment of Peder Ås. He was born in 1883 on the coast of

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denma ...

to Oline and Tobias Ås and has four brothers and two sisters. He has been married four times and had a problematic divorce with all of them. In his early years Ås worked as a farmer, fisherman and forester, but in later years he became more of an industrialist and has among other occupations been sheriff, physician, ship-owner and gardener and has been bankrupt many times. However, he has never been a jurist. Ås is normally portrayed as an average person who often comes close to the wind. He typically occurs along with other regular characters, such as Lars Holm, Hans Tastad and Marte Kirkerud. Ås may have various relations with these, and is often married to or divorced from Kirkerud. These people normally live in the fictional village of Lillevik.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peder As Placeholder names Fictional Norwegian people Fictional criminals Male characters in advertising Mascots introduced in 1897 Law of Norway University of Oslo