Johan Austbø


Johan Austbø was a Norwegian teacher, dancer, poet, composer, singer, and proponent of Nynorsk.

Life and work

Austbø was born in Ikjefjord in the municipality of Lavik in Sogn og Fjordane County. His feelings for poetry and Nynorsk were awakened when he was a student at the folk high school in Sogndal. One of his teachers, Jens Kvåle, published the Nynorsk periodical Ungdom, in which Austbø published his first poem. After graduating from folk high school, he attended the teachers' college in Elverum, where he passed his teaching exam in 1901. Soon afterwards he was hired as a teacher, and he taught his first year in Frønningen and Fresvik. In 1906 he moved to the island of Lepsøya in Hordaland County, before establishing himself in Skotselv in Buskerud County in 1912. There he served as a teacher at the army school and the Skotselv school for several decades.
Austbø was a central figure in establishing the Norwegian Folk Ballad Society in the early 1920s. In the book Folkedansen i 20 år 1903–1923, he described a journey to the Faroe Islands in 1911, where a delegation of 70 Norwegians traveled to better understand traditional Faroese dance. After this, he established youth societies in several places in the country to promote folk dance. Austbø served as the head of the Norwegian Folk Ballad Society for many years. He also assisted Torstein Høverstad in efforts to create a teachers' college in Bondi in the municipality of Asker.
Austbø wrote extensively for the magazine Nynorsk Vekeblad from its inception in 1934 until his death. He wrote many articles for it, and published several of his own poems in it. In addition, he created a large body of literary work, which included stories, poetry collections, children's books, and biographies of Svend Foyn and Olav Bjaaland. According to Anna Ellefsen of Kongsberg, who taught with Austbø, it was he that wrote the well-known folk song "Bind deg ein blomekrans".
He died in Hokksund in the municipality of Øvre Eiker.

"Den svalande vind"

Austbø wrote a variety of songs and melodies. His best-known song is "Den svalande vind", which he also sang on the radio program Folkemusikkhalvtimen in 1939. The song has been recorded by numerous artists, such Lillebjørn Nilsen, Finn Kalvik, and Helene Bøksle. The song is based on an old folk song, and Austbø's lyrics relate the unhappy love story "Attom fjella her sør". Austbø was surprised that a few decades after he had written the song that the lyrics were referred to as a "folk song from Telemark" because the melody was from Sogn and the lyrics were his own.

Family

Johan Austbø was the son of the farmer and builder Hans Einarson Østerbø and Sigrid Botolfsdatter Måren. He was the grandfather of the pianist Håkon Austbø, and the great-grandfather of the photographer Frode Fjerdingstad and the artist Bard Ash.

Selected works