Paul Olaf Bodding
{{Short description|Norwegian missionary, linguist and folklorist}}
{{Redirect|Bodding|the West German sprinter|Inge Bödding}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
Image:Portrait of Paul Olaf Bodding (1865-1938).jpg
File:Bodding ved Gjøvik kirke.jpg
Paul Olaf Bodding (2 November 1865 – 25 September 1938) was a Norwegian missionary, linguist and folklorist.{{cite web|url = https://snl.no/Paul_Olaf_Bodding|title= Paul Olaf Bodding|publisher= Store norske leksikon|access-date= 1 February 2018}}
Biography
Paul Olaf Bodding was born at Gjøvik in Oppland, Norway. He was the son of Edward Olsen Bodding (1825–1905) and Betzy Emilie Wennevold (1838–1889). Bodding was the son of a bookseller, and he first met the founder of The Indian Home Mission to the Santals (later developed to the NELC), Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, in his father's bookshop in Gjøvik. Skrefsrud was born just outside the neighbouring town Lillehammer, in Oppland. Bodding studied theology at the University of Kristiania (now University of Oslo) and graduated in 1889.{{cite web|url =https://nbl.snl.no/Paul_Olaf_Bodding |title= Paul Olaf Bodding|publisher= Norsk biografisk leksikon|author= Torstein Jørgensen|access-date= 1 February 2018}}
In 1890, he arrived in Santalistan (Santal Parganas) as a missionary priest. When Skrefsrud died in 1909, Bodding took over as the leader of the Norwegian missionary organization Santaline Mission (Den norske Santalmisjon). He served in India for 44 years (1889–1933), and operated mainly from the town Dumka in the Santhal Parganas-district. In 1914 Bodding also completed the translation of the Bible into the Santali language.{{cite web|url = https://snl.no/Den_norske_Santalmisjon
|title= Den norske Santalmisjon|publisher= Store norske leksikon|access-date= 1 February 2018}}
He is still well known among the santal living in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam as well as in Bangladesh and the Scandinavian countries{{fact|date=November 2024}}. After returning from India in 1934, Bodding settled with his Danish-born wife Christine Larsen (1883–1940) in Odense, Denmark, where he died during 1938.{{cite web|url = http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll123/id/98679
|title= Linguist and ethnographer, Rev. Paul Olaf Bodding|publisher= University of Southern California|access-date= 1 February 2018}}
Cecil Henry Bompas published [https://archive.org/details/folkloreofsantal00bomp Folklore of the Santal Parganas] (London: D. Nutt, 1909) compiled from stories collected by P. O. Bodding. In 2006, Olav Hodne issued a biography in his book Oppreisning. A monument to Bodding stands in front of Gjøvik church in Oppland.
Works
- Materials for a Santali Grammar I, Dumka 1922
- A Chapter of Santal Folklore, Oslo 1924
- Santal Folk Tales (3 volumes), 1925–29
- Studies in Santal Medicine and Connected Folklore (3 volumes), 1925–40
- A Santal Dictionary (5 volumes), 1933–36
- Santal Riddles and Witchcraft among the Santals, 1940
{{Lutheranism}}
References
{{reflist}}
Other sources
- {{BBKL|b/bodding_p_o|band=1|autor= Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz|spalte=643}}
- Olav Hodne (2006) [https://www.tanum.no/_oppreisning-olav-hodne-9788253133317Oppreisning, Misjonæren og vitenskapsmannen Paul Olav Bodding] (Oslo:Luther forlag) {{ISBN|8253133316}}
External links
- {{Gutenberg|no=11938|name=Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas}}.
- [http://www.lcms.org/ca/www/cyclopedia/02/display.asp?t1=b&word=BODDING.PAULOLAF The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod – Christian Cyclopedia] at www.lcms.org
- [http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll123/id/98677 Christine Bodding and Paul Olaf Bodding at Darjeeling, North India, ca. 1930]
{{Protestant missions to India}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bodding, Paul Olaf}}
Category:University of Oslo alumni
Category:Linguists from Norway
Category:Norwegian folklorists
Category:Protestant missionaries in India
Category:Norwegian Protestant missionaries
Category:Norwegian expatriates in India