Ole Pedersen Høiland (c. 1797 – 20 December 1848) was a Norwegian

burglar Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving trespass to land, the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal ...

and jail-breaker. He was arrested several times for theft; he became legendary for his many successful escapes, and for his spectacular robbery of

Norges Bank Norges Bank (, , ) is the central bank of Norway. It is responsible for managing the Government Pension Fund of Norway, which is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, as well as the bank's own foreign exchange reserves. History The histor ...

Personal life

Høiland was born in

Bjelland Bjelland is a village in Lindesnes municipality in Agder county, Norway. The village is located along the river Mandalselva, about southeast of the village of Byremo (in Lyngdal) and about west of the village of Hægeland (in Vennesla). The vil ...

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total popul ...

, the son of farmer Peder Olsen Høiland and Gjertrud Gunlaugsdatter. The family lost their farm after bankruptcy sale, and moved to

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

. Ole worked as a servant on another farm for one year, after which he spent most of his life as a vagabond.

Criminal life

Høiland operated as a thief in the south-western part of Norway. He was arrested and punished physically by slave labour and whipping. While imprisoned, he managed to escape from prison eleven times. His spectacular robbery of the Christiania department of Norges Bank in 1835 earned him the amount of 64,000

speciedaler The rigsdaler specie was a unit of silver currency used in Norway from 1544, renamed as the speciedaler in 1816 and used until 1873. Norway used a common reichsthaler currency system shared with Denmark, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein until 1873 w ...

. He was arrested seven weeks later, and imprisoned at the

Akershus Prison Akershus Fortress (, ) or Akershus Castle ( ) is a medieval castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), mi ...

. After four years he escaped from Akershus, and managed to stay on the run for three years. He was eventually arrested for the last time in 1842, and was extraordinarily heavily guarded during his subsequent imprisonment at Akershus. He ended his life by committing suicide in Akershus in 1848.

Legacy

Poet

Henrik Wergeland Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland (17 June 1808 – 12 July 1845) was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist. He is often described as a leading pioneer in the develop ...

wrote two songs about Høiland, the first "", and another song after his final arrest in 1842. His fellow prisoner Gjest Baardsen wrote a memorial song after Høiland's death, titled "". A biography of Høiland was printed in '' Christiania-Posten'' in 1849, and Jacob Breda Bull wrote about him in 1910. His life was basis for the film '' Ballad of the Masterthief Ole Hoiland'' from 1970, directed by Knut Andersen, where

Per Jansen Per Johan Jansen (14 December 1941 – 8 August 2022) was a Norwegian stage and film actor. Life and career Jansen was born in Bergen on 14 December 1941. He made his stage debut at Det Norske Teatret in 1966. He later had assignments at Oslo ...

played the title character.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoiland, Ole 1790s births 1848 deaths 19th-century Norwegian criminals Norwegian male criminals People from Vest-Agder Norwegian bank robbers Norwegian people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in Norwegian detention Norwegian escapees People who died by suicide in prison custody Suicides by hanging in Norway 1840s suicides