彼得·克利斯登·亚柏容森

彼得·克里斯滕·阿斯比约恩森（Peter Christen Asbjørnsen，1812年1月15日—1885年1月5日），又译亚柏容森，是一位挪威作家。他与约尔根·穆厄合编《挪威民话集》。

彼得·克里斯滕·阿斯比约恩森出生于奥斯陆，曾就读于奥斯陆大学。毕业后他与约尔根·莫伊结识，两人致力于记载挪威民间传奇故事，1841年出版了第一版《挪威民话集》。此外，阿斯比约恩森也是一名生物学家，曾与耶奥格·奥西安·萨尔斯一同研究挪威动植物。他在1885年去世。

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (15 January 1812 – 5 January 1885) was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore. They were so closely united in their lives' work that their folk tale collections are commonly mentioned only as "Asbjørnsen and Moe".

Background

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was descended from a family originating at Otta in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal, which is believed to have come to an end with his death. He became a student at the University of Oslo in 1833, but as early as 1832, in his twentieth year, he had begun to collect and write down fairy tales and legends. He later walked on foot the length and breadth of Norway, adding to his stories.

Jørgen Moe, who was born in Ringerike, met Asbjørnsen first when he was fourteen years old, while they were both attending high school at Norderhov Rectory. The building today houses Ringerikes Museum, the local museum for the Ringerike region, and contains memorabilia from both Asbjørnsen and Moe. They developed a lifelong friendship. In 1834 Asbjørnsen discovered that Moe had started independently on a search for the relics of national folklore; the friends eagerly compared their results, and determined to work in concert in the future.

Career

Asbjørnsen became by profession a zoologist, and with the aid of the University of Oslo made a series of investigative voyages along the coasts of Norway, particularly in the Hardangerfjord, during the 1840s and 1850s. He worked with two of the most famous marine biologists of their time: Michael Sars and his son Georg Ossian Sars. Moe, meanwhile, having left the University of Oslo in 1839, had devoted himself to the study of theology, and was making a living as a tutor in Christiania. In his holidays he wandered through the mountains, in the most remote districts, collecting stories. In these years he laid the foundation for the great literary its output.

In 1842–1843 the first instalment of Asbjørnsen and Moe's work appeared, under the title of Norske Folkeeventyr (Norwegian Folk Tales), which was received at once all over Europe as a most valuable contribution to comparative mythology as well as literature. A second volume was published in 1844 and a new collection in 1871. Many of the Folkeeventyr were translated into English by George Dasent in 1859.

In 1845 Asbjørnsen also published, without help from Moe, a collection of Norwegian fairy tales (Huldre-Eventyr og Folkesagn). He was awarded the gold Memoriæ Pignus medal from King Oscar I in recognition of his work on literature and folklore in 1848.

He also wrote popular science articles on Carl Linnaeus' work and Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He named a new species of sea pen in 1851, and the sea star, Brisinga endecacnemos in 1856. He collected the Brisinga at a depth of 380 metres in Hardangerfjord using a tool he created, a bottom scraper. At this time of this discovery, it was not widely accepted that organism could live at that depth.

In 1856 Asbjørnsen called attention to the deforestation of Norway, and he induced the government to act on this issue. He attended the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry and was appointed forest-master, and was sent through Norway to examine in various countries of the north of Europe the methods observed for the preservation of timber. He retired from these duties with a pension in 1876.

He was a member of The Society for Special, and in Particular Nationalistic Natural History in Dresden, The Saxon Society for the Preservation and Research of National Antiquities, The Society for German Cultural History in Weimar, The Research Society for Natural Science in Leipzig, a corresponding member of The Natural Science Society in Hamburg, and a member of The Imperial Royal Zoological and Botanical Society in Vienna. In 1876, he was appointed one of only 13 honorary member of the British Scandinavian Society.