Jørund Telnes

Jørund Telnes (10 January 1845 – 3 February 1892) was a Norwegian farmer, teacher, writer and politician. Today he is most commonly associated with his book Soga om Sterke-Nils about no:Sterke-Nils (1722–1800), the legendary strongman from Telemark.^[1]

Jørund Telnes
Born	(1845-01-10)10 January 1845 Seljord, Norway
Died	3 February 1892(1892-02-03) (aged 47)
Nationality	Norwegian
Occupation(s)	farmer, teacher, writer and politician

Telnes was born at Seljord in Telemark, Norway. He was the son of Nils Sigurdsson Forberg (1815–1874) and Ingebjørg Jørgensdotter Telnes (1825–1916). He was educated at the seminary in Kviteseid and later founded a folk high school. In 1874 he took over the Telnes farm (Telnes i Seljord herad). He served as mayor of Seljord from 1878 to 1884.^[2]

From a young age Telnes wrote poems. He debuted his published writing in 1877. Among his literary works was the poetry collection Kvæe from 1878 and the song collection Guro Heddelid which was based on a 14th-century myth.^[3]

Selected works

• Soga om Sterke-Nils (1877)
• Kvæe (1878)
• Rupe-Ber (1878)
• Guro Heddelid (1880)
• Vetle Venehaug (1887)
• Netar (1890)