Håkon Melberg
Håkon Melberg | |
---|---|
Born | Halden, Norway | January 1, 1911
Died | November 4, 1990 | (aged 79)
Alma mater | University of Oslo |
Occupation | Linguist |
Relatives | Sam Melberg (brother) |
Håkon Melberg (January 1, 1911 – November 4, 1990) was one of Norway's foremost linguists. He knew 42 languages and could communicate in an additional 20. [citation needed]
Born in
During the occupation years in Norway, Melberg was one of the leaders of XU Pan, a spy organisation that collected secret German information and transmitted it to London. This work is described in the book 'Dobbeltspill – Nazilensmannen som lurte tyskerne' (1988) by T. Brynildsen and H. Melberg.[2]
From 1940 to 1943, Melberg worked as a jiu jitsu instructor at his brother Sam's training institute in Oslo. Melberg wrote the introductory chapter titled "Vitenskapen å slåss" ("The Science of Fighting") to Sam's book, 'Jiu Jitsu'.
In September 1945, Melberg presented the first version of his hypothesis on the origin of the Scandinavian nations to the Norwegian Science Academy in Oslo. It was met with silence. A year later, it was presented to the Danish Science Academy in Copenhagen, where it provoked animated discussion. Due to misunderstandings and the need for background information that became apparent during these discussions, Melberg decided to present his work with all the information required to evaluate the hypothesis. The outcome was the two-volume work, 'Origin of the Scandinavian Nations and Languages' (1953). They are available with searchable text in [3] and [4]
After the publication of that work, Melberg continued his work with Celtic languages for some years. The rest of his active life was spent working with and for children in Halden. In 1945, Melberg and his wife began running an activity center for children called Barnas hus. He wrote the text for a children's opera, 'Nattmannens barn', which was first presented in 1960. Melberg died in 1990.