Alf Brodal (25/01/1910–29/02/1988) was born in Kristiania (now Oslo) and died in Baerum, a small nearby municipality. He was the eldest son of Peter Brodal (1872–1935), an engineering doctorate, and Helene Kathrine Obenauer (1879–1934). Brodal was married to Olivia Hannestad (1910–1986), a physiotherapist. They had one son, Per Alf Brodal (1944–), who is also a neuroanatomist and professor at the University of Oslo, and the present author of The Central Nervous System, first published in 1949 by his father and now in its fourth English edition (2010) [1].

Brodal finished high school in 1929, obtained the candidate medical degree in 1937 and the doctorate medical degree in 1940. Hired as prosector in 1943, Brodal became professor in 1950 and developed his entire career at the University of Oslo, retiring as Professor Emeritus in 1977. He wrote 178 scientific articles and several monographs and textbooks including Neurological Anatomy and Clinical Neurology (first edition in 1943, first English edition in 1948) [2], [3].

Brodal served as dean of the faculty of medicine (1964–1966) and as vice-rector of the University (1967–1969). He was a member of the Norway Main Research Committee (1966–1969 (Fig. 1). Brodal received honorary degrees from other European universities (Paris, Uppsala, and Oxford). He has been decorated as Knight (1969) and later as Commander of the Order of Saint Olav (1980) [2].

Alf Brodal is certainly one of the most significant Norwegian brain researchers of all time [2]. He became internationally renowned after the publication of the English version of his textbook on neuroanatomy and clinical neurology by the Oxford University in 1948.

In April 1972, during a lecture trip, Brodal suffered an acute embolic stroke, with massive hemiplegia as the main manifestation. One year later, he published a remarkable article in Brain, describing his clinical picture and evolution, and analysing several possible clinical-anatomical correlations [4]. I here summarise and discuss Brodal's thoughts about his illness.