Torvald Tu (22 July 1893 – 15 January 1955) was a Norwegian poet, playwright, novelist and writer of humoresques. He was born in

Klepp Klepp is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kleppe. Other villages in Klepp include Klepp stasjon, Orre, Orstad, Polle ...

as a son of farmers. His literary debut was the 1914 play ''Storbrekkmyri'', and his first poetry collection ''Blomar fraa heid'' came in 1915. He wrote in

Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

with strong hints of his own Jæren

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

. His most successful play was the musical comedy ''Kjærleik på Lykteland'', issued in 1923 and staged at

Det Norske Teatret Det Norske Teatret ( en, Norwegian Theater)Moe, Jens. 2011. ''My America: The Culture of Giving''. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, p. 133. is a theatre in Oslo. The theatre was founded in 1912, after an initiative from Hulda Garborg and Edvard Drabl� ...

. The play had music composed by Per Reidarson, and was produced by

Agnes Mowinckel Agnes Mowinckel (25 August 1875 – 1 April 1963) was a Norwegian actress and theatre director. Born in Bergen into a distinguished family, she became Norway's first professional stage director. A pioneer in bringing painters to the theatre, she ...

, with Lars Tvinde as the elder bachelor, and

Mally Haaland Mally may refer to: * Mally Beauty, U.S. makeup company * 1179 Mally (formerly ''1931 FD'') asteroid named after Ernst Mally People * Ernst Mally (1879–1944), Austrian philosopher * Franziska Mally (born 1916), Austrian swimmer * Komlan Mally (b ...

portraying the anxious-to-be-married Anna Saueland. The play was one of the greatest successes for Det Norske Teatret, and simultaneously went on two parallel tours. In 1929 Tu's comedy ''Friarleik på Liland'', with music by Trygve Stangeland, was staged at Det Norske Teatret. His comedy ''Bertels gjenvordigheter'', was played 133 times in 1933 at ''Komedieteatret'' in Bergen, which also staged several others of his plays. His works became very popular at

amateur theatres throughout the country. In total he issued over fifty books, and some works have been translated to other languages, notably

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

and Faroese. He also contributed to newspapers and magazines. His song ''Sjå Jæren, gamle Jæren'' has later achieved status as a "national" song for the Jæren district, and his popular humoresques have seen new and increasing popularity in later years. After the

German occupation of Norway 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 ...

ended in 1945, a minor controversy arose as Tu was admonished by the Norwegian Authors' Union for not following the union policy to "strike" during the occupation—Tu had released four titles in 1943. From 1937 he lived with musician Trygve Johannes Stangeland (1898–1969). They also cooperated professionally on many occasions. Tu died in January 1955 near his home.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tu, Torvald 1893 births 1955 deaths People from Klepp Nynorsk-language writers Norwegian male poets Norwegian male dramatists and playwrights Norwegian male novelists Norwegian LGBT poets Norwegian LGBT dramatists and playwrights Norwegian LGBT novelists Norwegian gay writers Gay dramatists and playwrights Gay poets Gay novelists Gay journalists 20th-century Norwegian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Norwegian male writers 20th-century Norwegian poets 20th-century Norwegian journalists 20th-century Norwegian LGBT people