Ole Tobias Olsen

[1][2] Olsen was a teacher in Tromsø during 1851 followed by service in Hadsel Municipality in Vesterålen and Kristiania, now Oslo in 1855.

In 1870, he received a scholarship to collect local fairy tales, folklore and folk tunes from Rana Municipality.

[3][4] In early 1870, he had undertaken a preliminary study of a proposed railway line eastwards from Mo i Rana.

[5][6] Ole Tobias Olsen was from the Dunderlandsdalen valley in Rana Municipality in Nordland county, Norway.

He was born on the Bjøllånes farm, the son of farmer Ole Pedersen Bjellånes (1774–1849) and Milda Nilsdotter (1800–1878).