Today is the 155th anniversary of the passing of Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, a Norwegian poet and journalist who is remembered for poetry, travel writing, and his pioneering use of of Landsmål, one of two written standards of the Norwegian Language. I'll just add that he had an awesome beard. Vinje was born in 1818 to a poor but well-read family in Vinje, Norway. His poem Våren ("The Last Spring") was set to music by Edvard Grieg. Vinje is credited with coining the most Norwegian of slogans, "Det er saa viktig aa kosa seg!" ("It is so important to enjoy oneself!") Norway had its own written and oral language: Norwegian. After the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (1397-1523), Danish became the official written language of Norway until Norway declared independence in 1814. A conservative, written form of Norwegian, Landsmål, was developed by 1850 by Norwegian linguist Ivar Aasen. Landsmål is now known as Nynorsk. The Danish-influenced language Bokmål is also in use, and both were declared official in 1885. But conflict between the two languages remains: In 2005, a political party made an advertisement where a candidate burned a Nynorsk dictionary. I remain flummoxed by the whole Scandinavian history thing! Credit: https://w.wiki/Etu9 Today I felt like I had no energy, right from the start. Maybe because it was quite warm. But I kept plugging along, and I made it to the milestones I had in mind when I started, so I'm satisfied. In three days, I'll ride the Marin Century metric century route. I'll be up very early that day, because I have a 40-minute drive to check in before the 8 am start.