Allvittende

Allvittende is an adjective used in Norwegian and Danish to denote someone who possesses complete or unlimited knowledge, essentially an omniscient or all-knowing figure. It can describe a person, a character, or a narrator who appears to know the thoughts, motives, and events of all involved.

Etymology and variants: The term is built from elements meaning all and knowledge. The more common modern spellings are allvitende in Norwegian and allvidende in Danish. The form allvittende appears in older texts or dialectal usage and may occur in historical or linguistic discussions. The concept it expresses is parallel to the English “omniscient.”

Usage: Allvittende is relatively rare in everyday speech and tends to be found in literary, philosophical, or critical contexts. It is often used rhetorically or descriptively to discuss someone who claims or who is attributed with complete knowledge, or to describe a narrative voice with universal insight into all characters and events. In theology or philosophy, it can be used to discuss omniscience as a property of a deity or an abstract concept.

In literature and criticism: The idea of an all-knowing narrator, sometimes referred to in Norwegian or Danish analyses as an allvittende narrator, is a common topic in narratology. Such narrators provide insight into characters’ internal states and events beyond the reach of ordinary witnesses, shaping readers’ understanding of the story.

See also: Omniscience; Omniscient narrator; Narratology; Knowledge.