You have got to be joking ...

If it were possible, Alfred Nobel must be spinning in his grave. His will states:

"The whole of my remaining realisable estate shall be disposed of in the following way:
the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually awarded as prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The interest shall be divided into five equal parts, to be apportioned as follows: one part to the person ... in the field of physics; one part to the person (in the field of chemistry); one part to the person ... within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person ... in the field of literature ...; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."

At what were those five people looking? "(T)he person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."

"(D)uring the preceding year," hmmmm, -- let's see -- that would be 2008 because nominations closed on February 1, 2009, right?

Maybe in Norway "and" does not mean inclusion when referring to a list -- as in "everything on the list must be present."

"(S)hall have done ..." -- a past continuous perfect of obligation or requirement (in English grammar, at least) -- would seem to me to indicate some tangible accomplishment begun in the past and at least continuing into the present.

And maybe "most" and "best" mean something else in Norwegian than they do in English. I think "or" still means the same thing, but maybe not.

But I'm not a professor of English grammar nor a qualified translator of Norwegian into English. I'm just saying ...



btw: all emphasis is mine, italics are in the source page here.