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Johannes Andreas Martin Heggland was born in Tysnes, Hordaland, Norway. Heggland grew up as the youngest of 11 children in a family with a living oral tradition. His home region of Sunnhordland is a traditional district, consisting of the southern, coastal regions of the county of Hordaland, near the mouth of the Hardangerfjord.

He participated in local politics for nearly 30 years. Heggland was mayor in Tysnes from 1956 to 1959, and again from 1968 to 1971. He was chairman of Norwegian Authors' Union from 1982 to 1985 and member of the Nordic Council's literary prize committee from 1983 to 1986. He was also a member of the Norwegian Language Council and board member for Riksteatret.

Heggland made his literary debut in 1941 with Folk under fjell, and later wrote more than sixty books. Nearly half of his books are based on extensive historical studies, from the Bronze Age to the present time, with emphasis on the time around the Black Death.

Mostraspelet, a play in 3 acts with music by Kjell Habbestad, had its world premiere in 1984. Set on the island of Moster in Sunnhordland during the years 995, 997 and 1024, the play deals with the introduction of Christianity in Norway by King Olaf Tryggvason. Between 1995-1996, he wrote a series of plays based upon the reign of King Håkon I of Norway. The plays have been performed annual as part of the Håkonarspelet summer festival.

His prose is in the broad epic tradition with a Sunnhordland dialect and great insight into Norwegian rural society. Heggland insisted all along on the epic realism and traditionalism, he stood outside modernism, social realism and metaphysical literature.

Heggland received a number of literary awards for his writing, including the Nynorsk Literature Prize in 1988. He was proclaimed a Knight, First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for his cultural work.

Novels

• Folk under fjell (1941)
• Guds åkerland (1943
• Menneskebrunnen (1949)
• Gard (1951)
• Kvinnfolkgarden (1955)
• Dagen før domedag (1961)
• Gabriel (1969)
• Rusdøler (1971)
• Brødet frå havet, four volumes (1981—84)
• Seglet og vinden, three volumes (1985—87)
• Det saltlause saltet (1999)

Plays

• Kongen med gullhjelmen (1996)
• Håkon Adelsteinsfostre (1996)
• Håkon Adelsteinfostre i Gula (1996)
• Håkonarvarde (1995)