Why did Norway develop two official written language forms?

Norway’s two official written language forms, Bokmål and New Norwegian, emerged from a 19th-century desire to establish a distinct national identity following Norway's independence from Denmark in 1814.1

During the union with Denmark (1380–1814), Danish became the standard written language. After independence, the linguistic distance between this Danish-based norm and spoken Norwegian, combined with the ideology of "national Romanticism," prompted a search for a native standard.1

The two forms developed through different approaches:

• New Norwegian (Nynorsk): In 1853, linguist Ivar Aasen constructed this norm by synthesizing various rural dialects, which he viewed as the true descendants of Old Norwegian. It was officially recognized in 1885.12
• Bokmål: Emerging from an urban, bourgeois compromise, this form evolved from a policy of gradual reform initiated by Knud Knudsen in the 1840s. It sought to adapt the existing Dano-Norwegian writing tradition to reflect native Norwegian pronunciation and grammar, rather than replacing it entirely.1

Today, both are official, though Bokmål is the predominant form used in most literature and national media.1