Hans Børli

Hans Børli (8 December 1918 – 26 August 1989) was a Norwegian poet and writer, who besides his writings worked as a lumberjack all his life. He was born in Eidskog, in South-Eastern Norway, close to the Norwegian border to Sweden. He was buried at Eidskog Church.

Hans Børli was raised on a small farm in a road-less area in the forests in Eidskog Kommune. The experience of poverty and hardship would leave a deep imprint on his later art. However, the positive effects of living close to nature, the wisdom of tradition and the solidarity between workers also had significant bearing on his writings. Extensive reading spawned an early urge to write. This was both a way of expressing personal feelings, frowned upon in a masculine work environment, and possibly a way of literally escaping the economic and social inferiority. His mother's father, one of the last great oral narrator of legends and stories of the area, Ole Gundersen Børli, is also considered an important influence on the young writer-to-be, Hans Børli. A strict Christian upbringing would leave Børli forever struggling with the counteractive forces of rebellion and a deeply embedded sense of religious awe.

In a social setting where education beyond mandatory schooling was rare, the young Hans, considered a gifted boy, was given a free place in Talhaug Mercantile School, in Kongsvinger which a he later left when he was admitted to a military academy in Oslo, but his education was aborted by the outbreak of the Second World War. Børli fought the Germans, and was involved in some intense battles in Vardal, and was captured in Verdal. After being released, he went back to Eidskog and worked as a teacher and forest worker for the remaining of the war. He was also involved in illegal activity, such as guiding refugees across the Swedish border, all the while he was preparing his first collection of poetry "Tyrield" (Pine Passion) (1945)

Hans Børli was by his own account (ref) heavily influenced by the Norwegian poet Olav H. Hauge.

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