Kristian Kristiansen

Kristian Kristiansen was born in Tromsø. His mother was from Budalen in Gauldal, and this eventually brought the family to Hovin initially, and then to Trondheim in the early 1920s. Here the family settled down at Stavne.

Kristian made his living as a clerk and by doing miscellaneous odd jobs. He had versatile artistic talents, and gradually the author in him blossomed. He had some books published in the late 1930s. But then the war came. Kristiansen was involved in the resistance movement, and was forced to flee to Sweden. But he continued to write, and returned to Trondheim in 1945, now as a married man.

Kristiansen's most accomplished literary achievements are found in his novels set in a historical Trondheim: These are the trilogy about Adrian posepilt [Adrian beggar boy], 1950; Vårherres blindebukk [The Lord's blind man's bluff], 1952; and I den sorte gryte [Into the black pot], 1954), and the three free-standing novels Jesper nattmann [Jesper the sanitation man] (1957), Jomfru Lide [The Spinster] (1960) and Klokken på Kalvskinnet [The Bells in Kalvskinnet] (1966). The plots in all these novels are set in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, often focusing on outsiders and social rejects.

Kristiansen's house Adrianstua in Ringvebukta is used today by Trøndersk forfattersentrum [society of authors]. Here annual events are held to celebrate the memory of a well-loved author from Trondheim.
Recommended reading: Helge Normann Nilsen: Et forsvar for de utstøtte [In defence of the outsiders]. Trondheim folkebibliotek, 1998.