Norway's Ole Bull led one of the most remarkable and celebrated lives of the nineteenth century. Colorful and charismatic, he was a composer and virtuoso violinist who won acclaim from Moscow to Cairo and from Canada to Cuba, associated with the cultural elite of his day, and promoted himself and the culture of Norway with a flair that rivaled P. T. Barnum's.

Einar Haugen is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Scandinavian and Linguistics, emeritus, at Harvard University. Camilla Cai is assistant professor of music at Kenyon College. They are father and daughter.