Bj�rnstjerne Martinius Bj�rnson was a Norwegian writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1903 "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished by both the freshness of its inspiration and the rare purity of its spirit". He was the first Norwegian Nobel laureate, a prolific polemicist with significant influence in Norwegian public life and Scandinavian cultural debate. Bj�rnson is regarded as one of the four great Norwegian writers, with Ibsen, Lie, and Kielland. He is well known for his words to Norway's national song, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet". Bj�rnson was born at the homestead of Bj�rgan in Kvikne, an isolated settlement in the �sterdalen district, some 60 miles south of Trondheim. In 1837, Bj�rnson's father, Peder Bj�rnson, pastor of Kvikne, was transferred to the parish of Nesset, just outside Molde in Romsdal. Bj�rnson grew up at the Nesset Parsonage in the picturesque district. Bj�rnson attended Heltberg Latin School in Christiania at the age of 17, after studying in Molde for a few years. This was the same school that taught Ibsen, Lie, and Vinje.
