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Orm Øverland

Norwegian professor (1935–2021)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 21, 2025
Entity authorityQ11994106
Source-derived summary

Orm Harald Øverland (17 May 1935 – 1 December 2021) was a Norwegian literary historian.

He was born in Oslo and grew up in that city as well as in Bryne, Montreal, and Aukra. He graduated with the cand.philol. degree from the University of Oslo in 1962, and was employed as a research assistant for one year. He then became a research fellow and took his PhD at Yale University in 1969. He was subsequently hired at the University of Bergen as a docent in 1970 and was promoted to professor in 1975, serving until his retirement in 2005. His fields of research were American literature and the Norwegian-Americans.

At the University of Bergen, Øverland headed the Institute of English Studies from 1974 to 1975 before serving as dean of the Faculty of Humanities from 1979 to 1982. During his period as dean he also sat on the university board (then called the Academic college), which he did again from 1987 to 1989, before heading the Institute of English Studies again in 1991 and 1993–1995. He was engaged in administering the international exchange of postgraduate students to and from the United States, Canada and Lithuania in particular.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Orm Øverland” as norwegian professor (1935–2021). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Øverland, Norwegian and professor.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1935, 2021, 1962, 1969—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1935-05-17. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Øverland, Norwegian and professor providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Orm Øverland”, the useful work is to connect “norwegian professor (1935–2021)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 21, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q11994106. VIAF identifies the subject as 14817201. The Library of Congress control number is n84120642. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 2021, 1962 and 1969.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Orm Øverland”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Orm Øverland primary sources, Orm Øverland archive and Øverland research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Orm Øverland” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.