Magnus B. Landstad
1802–1880 · Classical
Norwegian Lutheran pastor and poet, editor of the Norwegian church hymnal of 1869 and collector of Norwegian folk ballads.
Life
Magnus Brostrup Landstad was born in 1802 at Måsøy in Finnmark, in Norway's far north, one of ten children of a parish priest whose ministry took the family to Øksnes, Vinje and Seljord. He took his theology degree in 1827, served six years as resident chaplain in Gausdal, then in parishes in Telemark and Østfold, and from 1859 as pastor at Sandar near Sandefjord. In 1853 he published the first collection of authentic Norwegian traditional ballads. He died in 1880.
As a Hymn Writer
Landstad's great work was the hymnal commissioned for the Church of Norway, Kirkesalmebog (1869), known as 'Landstad's hymnal', which served Norwegian Lutherans for generations, in Norway and among immigrants in America. He wrote, translated and revised hymns for it, bringing contemporary Norwegian into the language of worship. His own hymns are sober and Scriptural, on death and the last things, repentance, and the Word.
In The Lutheran Hymnal and Lutheran Service Book (6)
- When Sinners See Their Lost Condition
- Before Thee, God, Who Knowest All
- I Come to Thee, O Blessed Lord
- Lo, Many Shall Come from the East and the West
- I Know of a Sleep in Jesus' Name
- O Blessed Home Where Man and Wife
Sources: Wikipedia, 'Magnus Brostrup Landstad'.