He became a student in 1862 at Porvoo high school, and graduated in 1866 as a forester from Evo Forestry College.

Young Edvard Lang often accompanied Norrlin on his botanical excursions around Lake Vesijärvi in the summers of 1868 and 1869, helping him collect samples of plants and cryptogams (mosses and lichens).

[3] Norrlin was William Nylander's foremost student, and he became the first expert on Finnish lichens.

While travelling in different parts of Finland and Lapland, he discovered a large number of interesting or new species that would be formally described by Nylander.

He showed that Aunus, Karelia and the Kola Peninsula belong to the Finnish natural science area (even though they are geographically in Russia),[2] a conclusion that was later verified with geological surveys.

He was named honorary member of the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica in 1912.

His ideas were used in the later work of Aimo Kaarlo Cajander, and by phytogeographers of future generations.