Rasmus Flo was a Norwegian teacher, philologist, magazine editor and translator. He was a noted proponent of the use of the Nynorsk language.
Biography
Rasmus Flo was born in Stryn near the northern border of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. He was a farmer's son from the small village of Flo, in the traditional district of Nordfjord. At the age of 20, he ventured from his home to go to Stord in Hordaland. He worked as a substitute teacher while studying liberal arts for the "atrium examen," an entrance exam for studying liberal arts at university in Norway. He took the test in 1873 earned a degree in philosophy in 1881. From 1878 to 1885 he was a teacher at the town of Kongsvinger between school. Later he was an intern at the graduate school in Tromsø and then spent two more years teaching in the Valdres municipal schools. During his years as a student, Flo lived near Olaus Fjørtoft. The two conversed frequently and shared many views and opinions on various social, polictical, and linguistic issues. Like Fjørtoft, he wrote extensively about dialect. In 1892, he helped Molkte Moe in writing Nordahl Rolfsen's reading book. He helped Moe with spelling and styling in the nynorskedition of the reading book. The work he did on this book fit very well with Flo's own natural sense of style, and he translated many skaldic poems into nynorsk for the book. Flo was also responsible for a great deal of the work in volumes two and three of Austild's reading books. Flo wrote frequently in various journals and magazines, mostly concerning language issues, as well as about related social issues. In 1899, he was included in the first official orthography committee for the national idiom, which focused on spelling in Nynorsk. He was the first editor of the magazine Syn og Segn. He also served as director of Det Norske Samlaget from 1894-1903. As a result of his involvement with Rolfsen and Austild's reading books and his work on Det Norske Samlaget, Flo had a considerable amount of influence on the development of Nynorsk. Flo died in Kristiana, Norway in 1905.
