Olaf Bull

Norwegian poet

Olaf Jacob Martin Luther Breda Bull (10 November 1883 – 29 June 1933) was a Norwegian poet. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.

Olaf Bull was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. His parents were author Jacob Breda Bull (1853–1930) and his second wife Maria Augusta Berglöf (1854–1922). Bull grew up and was mostly raised in Kristiania. At the age of 13, he lived for some time in Hurum in Buskerud, where his father worked as a journalist and editor. In 1899, he started gymnasium at Aars og Voss' skole. He attended Kristiania Cathedral School prior to his graduation from private school in 1902. After his graduation he lived with his family in Rome before returning to Kristiania in 1903 to begin his studies at the university. Olaf Bull could be considered a polymath because in addition to both modern and classical literature, he mastered philosophy, history, politics, art and science. He spent several years as a journalist for Posten and Dagbladet He was known as the “Oslo poet,” but he lived for extended periods in both Italy and in France where his son, poet Jan Bull (1927–1985) was born. Olaf Bull was married three times and divorced twice. Economic issues coupled with abuse of alcohol had a strong impact on his life. He had a nervous disposition and developed signs of depression. His last year was characterized by illness and alcoholism. He had physical ailments, including partial paralysis and liver damage. Olaf Bull died at age 49 at Ullevål Hospital in Oslo. His urn was placed at Vår Frelsers gravlund.

While James Joyce was working on Finnegans Wake, he wanted to insert references to Scandinavian languages and literature, hiring five teachers of Norwegian. Bull was the first one. Joyce wanted to read Norwegian works in the original language, including Peter Andreas Munch's Norrøne Gude og Heltesagn (Norse Tales of Gods and Heroes). He was looking for puns and weird associations across the barriers of language, which was something Bull well understood. Lines from Bull's poems echo through "this spider's web of words", as Joyce himself called Finnegans Wake, and Bull himself materializes under the name "Olaph the Oxman", a pun on his surname. In his letters home, Bull mentioned nothing about Joyce, most likely because he often asked his family for money, which would sound unconvincing with him at the same time being a teacher for a world famous author. It is not known how Joyce got in contact with Bull, but both frequented the bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris which was run by Sylvia Beach, who may have brought them in contact with each other. In 1926 Ulysses was issued as an unlicensed copy in the United States, meaning that Joyce would receive no money for it. Together with Beach he wrote a protest letter, intending it to be signed by well known writers from the whole of Europe. Beach mentions in her memoirs that Joyce was particularly eager to have Bull sign it. Beach tracked Bull, who had left Paris to live in the French countryside. On behalf of Joyce she sent a man there to have the protest signed. Bull's wife Suzanne provided him with a copy of Bull's signature.

Kjærlighetens farse:tre akter (Love's Farce: Three Acts), Aschehoug, 1919, published 1948. Written together with Helge Krog.

Ekko og regnbue: notater fra en dikters verksted (Echo and Rainbow: Notes From a Poet's Workplace), Gyldendal, 1987. Edited by Frans Lasson. Olaf Bull: brev fra en dikters liv (Olaf Bull: Letters from a Poets Life), 2 vols., Gyldendal, 1989. Edited by Frans Lasson
Ild og skygger: spredte notater fra et dikterliv (Fire and Shadows: Scattered Notes from a Poet's Life), Nørhaven, Viborg, 1991. Edited by Frans Lasson