The Norwegian Esperanto League was founded January 27, 1911 after earlier groundwork had been laid some years earlier by Haldor Midthus (1841-1906), Norway's first Esperantist. In 1886 Midthus, a teacher from Os in Hordaland, had learned Volapük, another constructed language. Having been active in the Volapük movement for ten years, he came to prefer Esperanto and became an enthusiastic proponent for Esperanto as the ideal international language. Midthus attended the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905 a few months before his death.