AUKRUST, OLAV

born Jan. 21, 1883, Gudbrandsdalen, Nor. died Nov. 3, 1929, Gudbrandsdalen regional poet whose verse has contributed to the development of Nynorsk (New Norwegian; an amalgam of rural Norwegian dialects) as a literary language. Aukrust was a teacher and later headmaster at a folk high school. As a young man he was an eager student of the language spoken in the countryside and received a government stipend to study Gudbrandsdalen dialects, in which all his verse is written. He drew inspiration from the folk legends, natural surroundings, and peasant life of his native area. As a result, although he wrote about matters of universal interest, he remained a poet of that region. The mystical poem Himmelvarden (1916; Cairn of Heaven) is considered his most important work.