Sivert Aarflot



Sivert Knudsen Aarflot (October 23, 1759 – April 14, 1817) was a Norwegian figure in popular education. He worked as a schoolteacher in Volda in the Sunnmøre district and then served as a lensmann.

Life
Aarflot is known for his work in community education and for introducing improvements in agriculture. As a young man, he was taught by the parish priest Hans Strøm in Volda. He became a peripatetic teacher in 1778 and then a lensman in Volda in 1798. In 1800 he moved to the Ekset farm, where he set up a print shop in 1808 and issued the weekly newspaper Norsk Landboeblad. He also established a Sunday school here in 1802, where teaching in the natural sciences had a prominent place, and he made his book collection available to the general public. For these efforts, he was honored with the gold medal of the Danish Society of Agriculture. In 1811 he founded the Welfare Society for the Parish of Volda (Selskabet for Voldens Præstegjælds Vel). His children were the hymn writer and author Berte Canutte Aarflot (1795–1859) and the editor and politician Rasmus Aarflot (1792–1845).

Sivert Aarflot was one of the first Norwegians to write about house marks, in his article "Om nogle af Hovedkaraktererne iblandt de saakaldte gamlævis Bumærkji, som ellers heder Runebogstaver" (Regarding Some of the Main Characteristics among the So-Called Old-Fashioned House Marks, Otherwise Called Runic Characters), published in Norsk Landboeblad in 1811.

The philologist Ivar Aasen (1813–1896) gained much of his first knowledge from the bookshelves at Ekset. The Åsen farm lies only three kilometers from Ekset, and so they were almost neighbors. Aarflot himself had made observations about the relationship between the Sunnmøre dialect and Old West Norse, and this may have inspired the young Aasen.

Aarflot was a member of the Sunnmøre Practical Agricultural Society (Syndmøre practiske Landhuusholdningsselskab).

Print shop owner and newspaper publisher
On December 22, 1807, Aarflot wrote a lengthy request to the king in Copenhagen asking permission to start his own print shop. In his request he listed the handwritten works that he held in his private library and wished to print in thirteen points. In addition, he made it clear that he planned to publish a weekly newspaper called The Village Gazette for Norway ("Et Ugeblad Kaldet: Landboebladet for Norge"). In May 1808, the postal service recommended a postage exemption for the newspaper in Norway and Denmark. On July 15, 1808, Aarflot received permission to engage in printing operations. With the help of a friend from Trondheim engaged in book printing, Aarflot started printing in 1809. This was the first print shop to operate outside of a town in Norway (Ålesund was not a town at that time).