Paul Olaf Bodding

Bodding was the son of a bookseller, and he first met the founder of The Indian Home Mission to the Santals (later developed to the NELC), Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, in his father's bookshop in Gjøvik.

When Skrefsrud died in 1909, Bodding took over as the leader of the Norwegian missionary organization Santaline Mission (Den norske Santalmisjon).

[3] He is still well known among the santal living in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar and Assam as well as in Bangladesh and the Scandinavian countries[citation needed].

After returning from India in 1934, Bodding settled with his Danish-born wife Christine Larsen (1883–1940) in Odense, Denmark, where he died during 1938.

[4] Cecil Henry Bompas published Folklore of the Santal Parganas (London: D. Nutt, 1909) compiled from stories collected by P. O. Bodding.