Halfdan Bryn

Recognizing his interest, Colonel Hans Daae made it possible for him to conduct studies in the field, sometimes almost on a full-time basis.

Despite his relatively advanced age, he was extremely productive and provided a number of interesting contributions to the country's anthropology, at a time when industrialization and restructuring of society had not yet managed to put their mark on the population.

He released volume one of the uncompleted work Anthropologia Norwegica in 1925, and Die Somatologie der Norweger together with Kristian Schreiner in 1929.

From 1926 to 1933, he served as praeses of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters,[4] during which time he received an honorary degree from Uppsala University in 1927.

Bryn initially experienced great success and influence through his earlier works; for instance in 1920 he was referred to as "Norway's most famous anthropologist"[5] by Kristian Emil Schreiner.

Toward the later years of his life the same prominent members of that society would develop a more critical attitude towards his research methods; he would become a controversial figure among anthropologists.

This was due to Bryn's contributions to scientific racism; his tendency to promote unorthodox, speculative, anthropological theories from scant and inconclusive evidence.

[6] One of Halfdan Bryn's correspondents for a short period in the early 1920s, who would eventually become a colleague, was Norway's leading eugenicist and racial hygienicist, Jon Alfred Mjøen.