The Norwegian language had two official written forms, Nynorsk and Bokmål. From about 1525 to 1814 Norwegian as a written language vanished; only Danish was used. After separation from Denmark the question of creating an official Norwegian language was raised. 

In 1864 Ivar Aasen published a grammar book, and later a dictionary, based upon his survey of Norwegian spoken dialects. The language he created is now called Nynorsk which, some argue, was an amalgamation of dialects that accurately reflected none of them. Unhappy with this, Knud Knudsen created a Danish-Norwegian hybrid now called Bokmål. No consensus was ever reached on which version to use, and in 1885 the two standards were declared equal.