Aslaug Låstad Lygre (12 December 1910 – 19 December 1966) was a Norwegian poet.

Life

Lygre was born in

Lindås Lindås is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the Nordhordland district in the old Hordaland county, Norway. It existed from 1838 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020 when it was merged into the new Alver Munici ...

. When she finished her secondary education at

Voss Voss () is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages inclu ...

in 1932, she had already attended Fana Folk High School. In 1934 she finished commerce school in

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

. She worked in the newspaper '' Gula Tidend'' from 1934 to 1935, and was a member of Vestmannalaget. From 1935 she had an office job, but worked part-time because of sub-par health. However, she also wrote both poems and articles in publications such as ''Gula Tidend'', ''

Bergens Tidende is Norway's fifth-largest newspaper, and the country's largest newspaper outside Oslo. is owned by the public company Schibsted ASA. Norwegian owners held a mere 42% of the shares in Schibsted at the end of 2015. History and profile Founded ...

'', ''Magne'' and ''

Norsk barneblad ''Norsk Barneblad'' ( Norwegian: ''the Norwegian Children’s Magazine'') is a Norwegian children's magazine, issued monthly in Nynorsk. It was founded by Kristen Stalleland in 1887, under the name ''Sysvorti'', was renamed to ''Norskt Barneblad ...

''. Her first poetry collection was 1943's ''No blømer alle rosene'' ("Now All the Roses Bloom"). In her next collection, ''Eld av steinar'' ("Fire From Rocks", 1948) she coined the phrase ''Vi skal ikkje sova bort sumarnatta'' ("We shall not sleep away the summer night"), widely used today even out of its context. She wrote the poem while she was hospitalised with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

at Lyster Sanatorium. The poem was also given melody by

Geirr Tveitt Geirr Tveitt (born Nils Tveit; 19 October 1908 – 1 February 1981) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. Tveitt was a central figure of the national movement in Norwegian cultural life during the 1930s. Life Early years Tveitt was born in Be ...

. Her next releases were ''Den einsame roaren'' (1952), ''Rit di rune'' (1957), ''Fest i september'' (1960) and ''Primulakveld'' (1964). In 1964 she won the

Gyldendal's Endowment The Gyldendal Prize, formerly Gyldendal's Endowment, is a Norwegian literary prize awarded by the Norway, Norwegian publisher Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. Gyldendal's Endowment was awarded from 1934 to 1995. It was superseded by the Gyldendal Prize in ...

. She died on 20 December 1966 in Bergen. A monument to her was erected in Lindås in 1982.

References

1910 births 1966 deaths People from Lindås 20th-century Norwegian poets Norwegian women poets 20th-century Norwegian women writers 20th-century Norwegian journalists {{Norway-writer-stub