Isaac Olsens kopibok- en kilde til tidlig misjon i Norge

Abstract

The article "Isaac Olsen's copy book - a source to the early mission in Finnmark, Northern Norway" deals with the contents of a hand-written copy book by the teacher and preacher Isaac Olsen during the period 1703-1717. Isaac Olsen was a Norwegian who came to Finnmark just after 1700 and travelled among the sami people, teaching them in their home villages. Isaac Olsen learned the Sami language orally and in written form shortly after he came to Finnmark, and he taught the Sami people in their mother tongue. Isaac Olsen met Thomas von Westen in 1716, when von Westen was on his first trip to Finnmark, and Olsen went back to Trondheim together with von Westen in the summer of 1716. Isaac Olsen became an important co-operator when it came to the early mission in Finnmark. He worked at Thomas von Westen's teaching institution in Trondheim from 1716 until 1718. After that, he was called to Copenhagen by the Mission College [Missionkollegiet]. There he worked with translations of religious texts into the Sami language, as well as informing the Mission College about the condition of the Sami people in Finnmark.