Ronald Fangen (29 April 1895 – 22 May 1946) was a Norwegian novelist, essayist, playwright, psalmist, journalist and literary critic.

Biography

Ronald August Fangen was born at

Kragerø Kragerø () is a List of cities in Norway, town and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold og Telemark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Districts of Norway, traditional regions of Grenland and the smaller Vestmar. ...

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

, Norway. His parents were Sten August Fangen (1858-1933) and Alice Maud Lister (1864-1931). Following his parents' divorce when he was five years old, he lived partly with relatives in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

and partly at

Finse Finse is a mountain village area on the shore of the lake Finsevatnet in Ulvik municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is centered on Finse Station, a railway station on the Bergen Line. The village sits at an elevation of above sea ...

. As a child, he was frequently ill. This strongly influenced him as did the death of an older brother who took his own life after being accused of school fraud. Fangen became a journalist with the newspaper ''

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 ...

''in from 1913. Fangen made his literary debut in 1915 with the novel ''De svake''. In 1923 he started the journal ''Vor Verden'', with

Henrik Groth Henrik Johan Florentz Groth (11 October 1903 – 10 August 1983) was a Norwegian publisher and essayist, who was managing director of the Cappelen publishing company from 1947 to 1973. Biography Groth was born and grew up in Kristiania (now Oslo) ...

as editor-in-chief. He served as chairman of the Norwegian Author's Association (''Forfatterforeningen'') from 1928-32. Fangen issued several religious essays and publications during his career. Fangen is most commonly associated with the hymn ''Guds menighet er jordens største under'' (1942). With melody by Arild Sandvold (1895–1984), it was originally a part of the Missionary Canton of the Norwegian Missionary Society's 100th anniversary published in August 1942. The hymn has remained popular in Norway and was included in the ''Norsk salmebok'' in 1985 and 2013. The Christian organization known as the

Oxford Group The Oxford Group was a Christian organization (first known as ''First Century Christian Fellowship'') founded by the American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman in 1921. Buchman believed that fear and selfishness were the root of all problems. Fur ...

came to Norway in 1934 at the invitation of C. J. Hambro, President of the

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years base ...

. Fangen joined it and soon became one of its leading personalities. In October 1934, Fangen took part in an Oxford Group house party, at the invitation of Carl Hambro. The Oxford Group had been founded by founded by the American Lutheran missionary

Frank Buchman Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman (June 4, 1878 – August 7, 1961), best known as Frank Buchman, was an American Lutheran who founded the First Century Christian Fellowship in 1921 (known after 1928 as the Oxford Group) that was transformed un ...

. Hambro invited 120 of his friends to meet Buchman and thirty companions at the Hotel Norge Høsbjør at

Brumunddal Brumunddal is a town in Ringsaker Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The town is the administrative centre of the municipality. It is located on the shores of the lake Mjøsa, about north of the town of Hamar. The town is a small, densely ...

. Garth Lean, Buchman’s biographer writes that: ‘Fangen, the novelist, brought two bottles of whisky and a crate of books, expecting boredom. He did not find time to open either. His change was immediately visible and long remembered. Even twenty years later, poet

Alf Larsen Alf Larsen (22 July 1885 – 12 December 1967) was a Norwegian poet, essayist and magazine editor. Biography Larsen was born at Tjøme in Vestfold, Norway. he was the eldest of seven children born to Alfred Larsen (1859-1905) and Kristi ...

spoke of the “hopeless naivety” of the Group's philosophy as compared with his own

anthroposophy Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

. It had however completely transformed Fangen, who before that, in his opinion, had been the most unpleasant man in Norway.’ He received

Gyldendal's Endowment Gyldendal's Endowment was a literature prize which was awarded in the period 1934–1995 by the Norwegian publisher Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. The prize was awarded to significant authors, regardless of which publisher the author was associated wi ...

in 1940. In November 1940, Fangen was the first Norwegian writer to be arrested by during the

Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

. He arrest was due to an essay published in the periodical ''

Kirke og Kultur ''Kirke og Kultur'' (Norwegian: ''Church and Culture'') is a Norwegian language monthly cultural and clerical magazine published in Oslo, Norway. It has been in circulation since 1894. History and profile ''Kirke og Kultur'' was founded in 1894 ...

''. He was imprisoned at

Møllergata 19 Møllergata 19 is an address in Oslo, Norway where the city's main police station and jail was located. The address gained notoriety during the German occupation from 1940 to 1945, when the Nazi security police kept its headquarters here. This is ...

from October 1940 to January 1941. He was then transferred to Ullevål Hospital, since he was very ill during this period. After the liberation of Norway , Fangen was instrumental in the formation of the newspaper '' Vårt Land'', which was first issued in August 1945. In 1946, he perished in a plane crash on

Snarøya Snarøya is a populated peninsula in the inner Oslofjord in Norway. It belongs to Bærum municipality in Viken (formerly Akershus) county. It is located south of the districts Lysaker, Lagåsen and Fornebu, and has 2,940 inhabitants. History ...

near Oslo Airport Fornebu. Among biographers who have written about Fangen and his writings are

Carl Fredrik Engelstad Carl Johan Fredrik Engelstad (11 November 1915 – 1 October 1996) was a Norwegian writer, playwright, journalist, translator and theatre director. Personal life Engelstad was born in Hadsel as the son of jurist Sigurd Engelstad (1878–1916) ...

, Egil Yngvar Elseth, Reidar Huseby and

Jan Inge Sørbø Jan Inge Sørbø (born 16 September 1954) is a Norwegian philologist, author and poet. He was born at Bru in Rennesøy municipality in Rogaland, and took the cand.philol. degree in the history of literature at the University of Bergen in 1982 ...

Selected bibliography

* ''De svake'' (1915; novel) * ''Slægt føder slægt'' (1916; novel) * ''Streiftog i digtning og tænkning'' (1919; essays) * ''Syndefald'' (1920; play) * ''Fienden'' (1922; play) * ''Duel'' (1932; novel) * ''Dagen og veien'' (1934; essays) *''En kristen verdensrevolusjon. Mitt møte med Oxforgruppebevegelsen'' (1935; essays) * ''Kristen enhet. Gruppebevegelsens økumeniske budskap'' (1937; essays) * ''Kristendommen og vår tid'' (1938 essays) * ''Kristent budskap til vår tid. Nordiske prekener'' (1939; essays) * ''Borgerfesten'' (1939; novel) * ''Krig og kristen tro'' (1940; essays) * ''En lysets engel'' (1945; novel) * ''I nazistenes fengsel'' (1975; notes from prison, posthumously)

Awards

- 1940

Biographies

(1946) ''Ronald Fangen: en mann og hans samtid'' (Oslo : Gyldendal) *Egil Yngvar Elseth (1953) ''Ronald Fangen. Fra humanist til kristen'' (Oslo : Gyldendal Norsk Forl.) *Bernt T. Oftestad (1981) ''Kristentro og kulturansvar hos Ronald Fangen'' (Oslo : Gyldendal) *Reidar Huseby, ed. (1995) ''Frihet, ansvar, tjeneste. Ronald Fangens liv og visjon'' (Verbum) *

(1999) ''Over dype svelg. Eit essay om Ronalds Fangens aktualitet'', (Oslo : Gyldendal) *Stewart D Govig (2005) ''Ronald Fangen : Church and Culture in Norway'' (iUniverse, Inc.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fangen, Ronald 1895 births 1946 deaths People from Kragerø Norwegian essayists Norwegian hymnwriters 20th-century Norwegian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century essayists 20th-century Norwegian novelists Norwegian male dramatists and playwrights Norwegian male novelists 20th-century Norwegian journalists Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1946