Sivert Knudsen Aarflot (October 23, 1759 – April 14, 1817) was a Norwegian figure in popular education. He worked as a schoolteacher in

Volda Volda is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Volda. Other villages in the municipality include Dravlaus, Fyrde, Straumshamn, Leira, Bjørke, and Gro ...

in the

Sunnmøre Sunnmøre (, en, South- Møre) is the southernmost traditional district of the western Norwegian county of Møre og Romsdal. Its main city is Ålesund. The region comprises the municipalities ( no, kommuner) of Giske, Hareid, Herøy, Norddal ...

district and then served as a ''

lensmann in modern Norwegian or in Danish and older Norwegian spelling (; ) is a term with several distinct meanings in Nordic history. The Icelandic equivalent was a . Fief-holder The term traditionally referred to a holder of a royal fief in Denmark ...

''.

Life

Aarflot is known for his work in community education and for introducing improvements in agriculture. As a young man, he was taught by the parish priest

Hans Strøm Hans Strøm (25 January 1726 – 1 February 1797) was a Norwegian clergyman. He also became a prominent zoologist and naturalist. He is best associated with his topographical description of the traditional district of Sunnmøre. Life Hans S ...

in Volda. He became a peripatetic teacher in 1778 and then a ''lensman'' in Volda in 1798. In 1800 he moved to the Ekset farm, where he set up a print shop in 1808 and issued the weekly newspaper '' Norsk Landboeblad''. He also established a Sunday school here in 1802, where teaching in the natural sciences had a prominent place, and he made his book collection available to the general public. For these efforts, he was honored with the gold medal of the Danish Society of Agriculture. In 1811 he founded the Welfare Society for the Parish of Volda (''Selskabet for Voldens Præstegjælds Vel''). His children were the hymn writer and author Berte Canutte Aarflot (1795–1859) and the editor and politician Rasmus Aarflot (1792–1845). Sivert Aarflot was one of the first Norwegians to write about

house mark A house mark was originally a mark of property, later also used as a family or clan emblem, incised on the facade of a building, on animals, in signet and similar in the farmer and burgher culture of Germany and Scandinavia. These marks have ...

s, in his article "Om nogle af Hovedkaraktererne iblandt de saakaldte gamlævis Bumærkji, som ellers heder Runebogstaver" (Regarding Some of the Main Characteristics among the So-Called Old-Fashioned House Marks, Otherwise Called Runic Characters), published in ''Norsk Landboeblad'' in 1811. The philologist

Ivar Aasen Ivar Andreas Aasen (; 5 August 1813 – 23 September 1896) was a Norwegian philologist, lexicographer, playwright, and poet. He is best known for having assembled one of the two official written versions of the Norwegian language, Nynorsk, from va ...

(1813–1896) gained much of his first knowledge from the bookshelves at Ekset. The Åsen farm lies only three kilometers from Ekset, and so they were almost neighbors. Aarflot himself had made observations about the relationship between the Sunnmøre dialect and

Old West Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

, and this may have inspired the young Aasen. Aarflot was a member of the

Sunnmøre Practical Agricultural Society The Sunnmøre Practical Agricultural Society ( no, Syndmøre practiske Landhuusholdningsselskab was a patriotic and non-profit association with the goal of developing business and agriculture in Norway's Sunnmøre district. The society was establis ...

(''Syndmøre practiske Landhuusholdningsselskab'').

Print shop owner and newspaper publisher

On December 22, 1807, Aarflot wrote a lengthy request to the king in Copenhagen asking permission to start his own print shop. In his request he listed the handwritten works that he held in his private library and wished to print in thirteen points. In addition, he made it clear that he planned to publish a weekly newspaper called ''The Village Gazette for Norway'' ("Et Ugeblad Kaldet: Landboebladet for Norge"). In May 1808, the postal service recommended a postage exemption for the newspaper in Norway and Denmark. On July 15, 1808, Aarflot received permission to engage in printing operations. With the help of a friend from

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

engaged in book printing, Aarflot started printing in 1809. This was the first print shop to operate outside of a town in Norway (Ålesund was not a town at that time).

Bibliography

* ''Naturlige Aarsager til Fiskeriernes Til-og Fragang ved de Nordenfjeldske Kyster: et Forsøg fremlagt til mer Kyndiges Betænkning'' (Natural Causes of Fisheries' Increase and Decline on the

Nordenfjells Nordenfjells or Nordafjells ("North of the Mountains") is currently a name for the area of Norway north of mountain range of Dovrefjell. The term is largely used when referring collectively to Central Norway and Northern Norway. Until around 1800 t ...

Coast: An Essay Submitted to a More Expert Report; in: ''Handels- og Industritidende'', 1804, pp. 195–213) * ''Hampens Dyrkning og Tilberedning: en kort Anviisning for nordenfieldske Landboer'' (Hemp Cultivation and Preparation: A Brief Introduction for Nordenfjells Farmers; Copenhagen,1805) * ''Kort Udsigt over Søndmørs Torskefiskerie, og Tanker i samme Anledning i Foraaret 1805'' (A Brief Overview of the Sunnmøre Cod Fisheries, and Thoughts on the Same Matter in the Spring of 1805; in: ''Handels- og Industritidende'', 1805, pp. 171–204) * ''Norsk Jorddyrkers Almanak'' (Norwegian Farmers' Almanac; Copenhagen, 1805–1806) * ''Efterretning om det svenske Kongehuus, og noget om Tilstanden i Sverrig før og efter sidste Krige med Frankrig, Rusland og Norge'' (Information about the Swedish Royal House and Something about the State of Sweden before and after the Last Wars with France, Russia, and Norway; Ekset, 1809) * ''Hædrende Velkomst-Hilsing til den i Attaqven ved Berby den 12te September 1808 blæsserede, af sine Saar nogenledes restituerede, og i Oktober 1809 til sin Føde-Egn hiemkommen Grenadeer John Andersen Biørdal'' (Honorable Welcome Greetings to the Grenadier John Andersen Biørdal, Wounded in the Attack at Berby on September 12, 1808, Somewhat Recovered from His Injury, and Returned to His Homeland in October 1809; Ekset, 1809) * ''Om anvendte og anvendelige Fødemidler i Kornmangels Tid'' (On Used and Useful Fodder during a Lack of Grain; Ekset, 1813) * ''Billed-ABC-Bog for gode Børn'' (Illustrated ABC Book for Good Children; Ekset, 1815) * ''Dyrerigets første Bog, eller Pattedyrenes Naturhistorie med 90 Afb. og 192 Beskrivelser'' (First Book of Animals, or the Natural History of the Mammals with 90 Illustrations and 192 Descriptions; Ekset, 1815) * ''Dyrerigets anden Bog, eller Fuglenes Naturhistorie med ca. 70 Afb., samt Beskrivelse over mer end 300 Fugle-Slags og Arter'' (Second Book of Animals, or the Natural History of the Birds with about 70 Illustrations and Descriptions of over 300 Types and Species of Birds; Ekset, 1816) * ''Aarflots Nye Regnebog for Bondebrug: ved Specie-Mynts-Beregninger blant flere Slags Penge-forhold. Første Hefte'' (Aarflot's New Registry for Farm Usage: With Specie-Money Calculations in Several Types of Currency. Volume One; Ekset, 1817) * ''Runetrolldom og ringstav: frå etterleivde manuskript og prent'' (Runic Magic and

Runic Calendar A Runic calendar (also Rune staff or Runic Almanac) is a perpetual calendar, variants of which were used in Northern Europe until the 19th century. A typical runic calendar consisted of several horizontal lines of symbols, one above the ot ...

s: From Surviving Manuscripts and Printed Material; Volda, 1949)

Life

Print shop owner and newspaper publisher

Bibliography

References

Further reading