[2] He served as a priest in Kvikne, a secluded village in the Østerdalen district, some sixty miles south of Trondheim, from 1831 to 1838, and it is here that his son was born on December 8, 1832[2] and given the unusual name Bjørnstjern.
[6] Kvikne had a violent reputation, but Bjørnson succeeded in introducing compulsory education and subduing the local opposition to religious authority.
[7] On April 11, 1838, Bjørnson was transferred with his family to the parish of Nesset, outside Molde in Romsdal when Bjørnstjern was six years old.
In 1858, he presided over the marriage of his son at the old church in Søgne, whereupon he wrote in the parish records: "Marriage, September 11: The student and theater director Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson married the single girl Johanne Elisabet Caroline Reimers."
[10][11] Bjørnson died in Kristiania (now Oslo) and was buried at Our Savior's Cemetery.