Halfdan Kjerulf (17 September 1815 – 11 August 1868) was a Norwegian composer.Kjerulf was born in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was the son of a high government official. His early education was at Christiania University, for a legal career, but his studies ended in 1839 as a result of illness, and the next year he spent some time in Paris. Soon after his return his father and two siblings died and he took a job as a journalist at one of Oslo's main newspapers, Den Constitutionelle where Andreas Munch (1811–1884) was editor and where Kjerulf worked until 1845.