Editing Henrik Ibsen (section)

===The Paus family of Rising and Altenburg House===
[[File:Colorized version of an older black-and-white image of a painting on ivory of Ole Paus, circa 1790s.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] (1766–1855), Ibsen's social grandfather; an ancestor of [[Ole Paus|the singer]]]]

Ibsen's parents, [[Knud Ibsen|Knud]] and [[Marichen Altenburg|Marichen]], grew up as close relatives, sometimes referred to as "near-siblings," and both belonged to the tightly intertwined [[Paus family]] of [[Rising, Norway|Rising]] and [[Altenburg House]] – that is, the extended family of the sibling pair [[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] (1766–1855) and [[Hedevig Paus]] (1763–1848).<ref name=Haave/>
[[File:Altenburg2.png|thumb|A [[silhouette]] (ca. 1820) of the Altenburg/Paus family in [[Altenburggården]], with Ibsen's mother (far right), maternal grandparents (centre) and other relatives. It is the only existing portrait of either of Ibsen's parents.]]
[[File:Rising i Gjerpen.jpg|thumb|[[Rising, Norway]], [[Knud Ibsen]]'s childhood home. The farm was bought by his stepfather [[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] in 1799, on the same day he sold the Ibsen house in Løvestrædet, which he had inherited from his wife [[Johanne Plesner|Johanne's]] first husband [[Henrich Ibsen]]. Rising was the home of Henrik Ibsen's grandparents during his childhood and, along with Venstøp, stands as one of the two most significant preserved landmarks of his childhood environment.]]

After Knud's father [[Henrich Johan Ibsen]] (1765–1797) died at sea when Knud was newborn in 1797, his mother Johanne Plesner (1770–1847) married captain [[Ole Paus (shipowner)|Ole Paus]] (1766–1855) the following year. Like Henrich Johan Ibsen before him, Paus thus became the brother-in-law of Skien's wealthiest man, [[Diderik von Cappelen]]. In 1799, Ole Paus sold the Ibsen House in Skien's Løvestrædet (Lion's Street), which he had inherited from his wife's first husband, and bought the estate [[Rising, Norway|Rising]] outside Skien from a sister of his brother-in-law von Cappelen. Knud grew up at Rising with most of his many half-siblings, among them the later governor [[Christian Cornelius Paus]] and the shipowner [[Christopher Blom Paus]]. In the 1801 census the Paus family of Rising had seven servants.<ref name="Haave" />

Marichen grew up in the stately [[Altenburg House]] in the center of Skien with her parents Hedevig Paus and [[Johan Andreas Altenburg]]. Altenburg was a shipowner, timber merchant, and owned a large liquor distillery at Lundetangen and a farm outside of town, and after his death, Hedevig took over the business in 1824.<ref name="Haave" />

The siblings Ole and Hedevig Paus were born in [[Lårdal]] in [[Upper Telemark]], where the [[Paus family]] belonged to the region's elite, the  "[[aristocracy of officials]]," and had moved to Skien at a young age with their oldest sister, joining Skien's merchant elite with the support of their relatives in the family [[Blom (family from Skien)|Blom]]. The children from Ole's and Hedevig's homes maintained close contact throughout Knud's and Marichen's childhood; notably, Ole's oldest son, Knud's half-brother [[Henrik Johan Paus]], was raised in Hedevig's home. The Paus family reflects a meritocratic elite defined by education, priesthood, and public office.<ref name=Nygaard2013/>