List to the forest-voice murmuring low: All that it saw when alone with its laughter, All that it suffered in times that came after, Mournful it tells, that the wind may know.
WHEN COMES THE MORNING? (FROM IN GOD'S WAY) (See Note 77)
When comes the real morning? When golden, the sun's rays hover Over the earth's snow-cover, And where the shadows nestle, Wrestle, Lifting lightward the root enringÈd Till it shall seem an angel wingÈd, Then it is morning, Real, real morning. But if the weather is bad And my spirit sad, Never morning I know. No.
Truly, it's real morning, When blossom the buds winter-beaten, The birds having drunk and eaten Are glad as they sing, divining Shining Great new crowns to the tree-tops given, Cheering the brooks to the broad ocean riven. Then it is morning, Real, real morning. But if the weather is bad And my spirit sad, Never morning I know. No.
When comes the real morning? When power to conquer parries Sorrow and storm, and carries Sun to the soul, whose burning Yearning Opens in love and calls to others: Good to be unto all as brothers. Then it is morning, Real, real morning. Greatest power you know —And most dangerous, lo!— Will you this then possess? Yes.
MAY SEVENTEENTH (1883) (See Note 78)
Wergeland's statue on May seventeenth Saw the procession. And as its rear-guard, Slow marching masses, Strong men, and women with flower-decked presence; Come now the peasants, come now the peasants.
Österdal's forest's magnificent chieftain Bore the old banner. Soon as we see it Blood-red uplifted, Greet it the thousands in thought of its story: That is our glory, that is our glory!
Never that lion bore crown that was foreign, Never that cloth was by Dannebrog cloven. I saw the future, When with that banner by Wergeland's column Peasants stood solemn, peasants stood solemn.
Most of our loss in the times that have vanished, Most of our victories, most of our longing, Most that is vital: Deeds of the past and the future's bold daring Peasants are bearing, peasants are bearing.
Sorely they suffered for sins once committed, But they arise now. Here in the Storting Stalwart they prove it, All, as they come from our land's every region, Peasants Norwegian, peasants Norwegian.
Hold what they won, with a will to go farther; Whole we must have independence and honor! All of us know it: Wergeland's summer bears soon its best flower,— Power in peasants, peasants in power.
FREDERIK HEGEL (See Note 79)
I DEDICATION
You never came here; but I go Here often and am met by you. Each room and road here must renew The thought of you and your form show Standing with helpful hand extended, As when long since in trust and deed My home you from my foes defended.
…
So often, while I wrote this book, The light shone from your genial eye; Then we were one, both you and I And what in silence being took; So here and there the book possesses Your spirit and your heart's fresh faith, And therefore now your name it blesses.
I love the air, when growing colder It, clear and high, The purer sky Broadens with sense of freedom bolder.
I find in forests joy the keenest In autumn days When fancy plays, And not when they are young and greenest.
I knew a man: in autumn clearness His even course,— His heart's fine force Like autumn sky in soft-hued sheerness.
His memory is, as—when a-swarming The cold blasts first Of winter burst— The gentle flame my room first warming.
When all our outward longings falter, And summer's mind Within we find, Is friendship's feast round autumn's altar.
OUR LANGUAGE (1900) (See Note 80)
Thou, who sailest Norse mountain-air, And Denmark's songs by the cradle singest, Who badest in Hald the war-flames flare, And, heard in our children's joy, gently ringest,— Thou treasure of treasures, Our mother-tongue, In pains as in pleasures Our home and our tower, With God our power,— We hallow thee!
Whispering secrets that Holberg stored, Thou borest him home to a brighter morning, Didst serve him with armor and whet his sword For satire's assaults and for laughter's warning. Thou spirit all knowing, Our mother-tongue, The ages foregoing, The future now growing, The present glowing,— We hallow thee!
Kierkegaard thou to the deeps didst bring, Where life's full currents in God he sounded. For Wergeland wert thou the eagle's wing, That lifted him sunward to heights unbounded. Thou treasure of treasures, Our mother-tongue, In pain as in pleasures Our home and our tower, With God our power,— We hallow thee!
Radiant warmth of a May-day Thou to the spring of our freedom gavest. In thy clearness our Norse flags aye With song and honor afar thou wavest. Thou spirit all knowing, Our mother-tongue, The ages foregoing, The future now growing, The present glowing,— We hallow thee!
O'er the ocean unrollest thou Thy carpet of flowers, a bridge that nigher Can bring dear friends to meet even now,— While faith grows greater and heaven higher. Thou treasure of treasures, Our mother-tongue, In pain as in pleasures Our home and our tower, With God our power,— We hallow thee!
Best of friends that I found wert thou; Thou waitedst for me in the eyes of mother. And leave me last of them all wilt thou, Who knewest me better than any other. Thou spirit all knowing, Our mother-tongue, The ages foregoing, The future now growing, The present glowing,— We hallow thee!
NOTES
PREFATORY
BjÖrnstjerne BjÖrnson was born in 1832 and died in 1909. The last edition of his Poems and Songs in his lifetime is the fourth, dated 1903. It is a volume of two hundred pages, containing one hundred and forty-one pieces, arranged in nearly chronological order from 1857, or just before, to 1900. Of these almost two-thirds appeared in the first edition (1870), ending with Good Cheer and including ten pieces omitted in the other editions, eight poems and two lyrical passages from the drama King Sverre; the second edition (1880) added the contents in order through Question and Answer and inserted earlier The Angels of Sleep; the third (1900) extended the additions to include Frederik Hegel.
This translation presents in the same order the contents of the fourth edition, with the exception of the following ten pieces:
Bryllupsvise Nr. I. Bryllupsvise Nr. II. Bryllupsvise Nr. III. Bryllupsvise Nr. IV. Bryllupsvise Nr. V. De norske studenter til fru Louise Heiberg. De norske studenters hilsen med fakkeltog til deres kgl. hÖiheder kronprins Frederik og kronprinsesse Louise. Til sorenskriver Mejdells sÖlvbryllup. Nytaarsrim til rektor Steen. Til maleren Hans Gudes og frues guldbryllup.
Nine of these are occasional longs in the narrowest sense, with little or no general interest, and showing hardly any of the author's better qualities: five Wedding Songs, a Betrothal Song, a Silver-Wedding Song, a Golden-Wedding Song, and a Students' Song of Greeting to Mrs. Louise Heiberg. The tenth, a characteristic, rather long poem of vigor and value, New Year's Epistle in Rhyme to Rector Steen, is extremely difficult to render into English verse.
The translator has thought it best not to include any of BjÖrnson's lyric productions not contained in the collection published with his sanction during his life, the other lyrics in his tales, dramas. and novels, many occasional short poems in periodicals and newspapers which were abandoned by their author to their fugitive fate, two noble lyrical cantatas, and a few fine poems written after the year 1900.
The translation aims to reproduce as exactly as possible the verse-form, meter, and rhyme of the original. This has been judged desirable because music has been composed for so many of these songs and poems, and each of them is, as it were, one with its musical setting. But such reproduction seems also, on the whole, to be most faithful and satisfactory, when the translator is not endowed with poetic genius equal to that of the author. The very numerous double (dissyllabic) rhymes of the Norwegian are not easy to render in English. Recourse to the English present participle has been avoided as much as possible. If it still seems to be too frequent, the translator asks some measure of indulgence in view of the fact that the use here of the English present participle is formally not so unlike that of the inflectional endings and of the post-positive article Norwegian.
The purpose of the Notes is to assist the better understanding and appreciation of the contents of the book, by furnishing the necessary historical and biographical information. Of the persons referred to it is essential to know their dates, life-work, character, influence, and relation to BjÖrnson. The Notes have been drawn from the accessible encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, bibliographies, and histories. The notes of Julius Elias to his edition of German translations of BjÖrnson's poems made by various writers and published in 1908 have been freely and gratefully used.
The Introduction is designed not so much to offer new and original criticism as to present the opinions generally held in Scandinavia, and, of course, chiefly in Norway. The lyric poetry of BjÖrnson has been excellently discussed by Christian Collin in BjÖrnstjerne BjÖrnson. Hans Barndom og Ungdom by Henrik Jaeger in Illustreret norsk literaturhistorie, and by various authors, including Swedes and Danes, in articles of BjÖrnstjerne BjÖrnson. Festskrift I anledning af hans 70 aars fÖdelsdag. To all of these special indebtedness is here acknowledged.
New Haven, Connecticut, June, 1915
Note 1 NILS FINN. "There has hardly been written later so excellent a continuation of the old Norwegian humorous ballad as this poem (from the winter of 1856-57),written originally in the Romsdal dialect with which BjÖrnson wished 'to astonish the Danes.'" (Collin, ii, 147.)
Note 2. VENEVIL. Midsummer Day=sanktehans=Saint John's (Feast), on June 24, next to Christmas the chief popular festival in Norway; the time when nature and human life have fullest light and power.
Note 3. OVER THE LOFTY MOUNTAINS. "Really BjÖrnson's first patriotic song. … Describes one of the main motive forces in all the history of the Norwegian people, the inner impulse to expansion and the adventurous longing for what is great and distant. … Written in the narrow, hemmed-in Eikis valley." (Collin, ii, 308, 309)
Note 4. OUR COUNTRY. Written for the celebration of the Seventeenth of May in Bergen in the year 1859. This is Norway's Constitution Day, corresponding to our Fourth of July, the anniversary of the day in 1814 when at Eidsvold (see Note 5) a representative convention declared the country's independence and adopted a Constitution. The celebration day was instituted as a result of King Karl Johan's proposals for changes in the Constitution during the years 1821 to 1824, especially in favor of an absolute veto. It was taken up in Christiania in 1824, and spread rapidly to all the cities in the land, was opposed by the King and omitted in 1828, taken up by the students of the University in 1829, and soon after 1830 made by Henrik Wergeland (see Note 78) the chief of Norwegian patriotic festivals. In 1870 BjÖrnson conceived and put into practice the "barnetog" or children's procession on this day, when the children march also, each carrying a flag. Bauta, prehistoric, uncut, narrow, tall, memorial stone, from the bronze age. Hows, burial mounds, barrows.
Note 5. SONG FOR NORWAY. Written in the summer of 1859 in connection with the tale Arne, but not included in that book. The people of Norway have adopted this poem as their national hymn, because it is vigorous, picturesque summary of the glorious history of the country in whose every line patriotic love vibrates.
Stanza 2. Harald Fairhair (860-933) was the first to unite all Norway in one kingdom as a sort of feudal state. His success in his struggles with the petty kings who opposed him was made complete by his victory over viking forces in the battle on the waters of Hafursfjord, 872. Many of the rebels emigrated, a movement which led to the settlement of Iceland front 874 on. Haakon the Good (935- 961) was the youngest son of Harald Fairhair, born in the latter's old age. He was reared in England with King Ethelstane, who had him taught Christianity and baptized. When he was well settled on the throne in Norway, he tried to introduce Christianity, but without success. He improved the laws and organized the war forces of the land. Eyvind Finnsson, uncle of Haakon, was a great skald, who sang his deeds and Norway's sorrow over his death. Olaf the Saint (1015-1030) was a man of force and daring, as shown by his going on viking expeditions when only twelve years old. He became a Christian in Normandy. Returning to Norway in 1015, he established himself as King and spread his authority as a stern ruler. With more or less violence he Christianized the whole land. This and his sternness led to an uprising, which was supported by the Danish King, Knut the Great. Olaf died a hero's death in the battle of Stiklestad, and not long after became Norway's patron saint, to whose grave pilgrimages were made from all the North. His son, Magnus the Good, (see Note 6), was chosen King in 1035. Sverre (1182-1202) was a man of unusual physical and mental powers,calm and dignified, and wonderfully eloquent. Yet he was a war king, and the civil conflicts of his time were a misfortune for Norway, although he bravely defended the royal prerogatives and the land against the usurpation of temporal power by the Church of Rome, and put an end to ecclesiastical rule in Norway.
Stanza 3. About five centuries of less renown for Norway are passed over, and this and the following stanza refer to the time of the Great Northern War, 1700-21, and the danger arising from Charles XII of Sweden. From 1319 to 1523 Norway was in union with Denmark and Sweden; from 1523 with Denmark only. In this war, waged by Denmark- Norway, Russia, and Saxony-Poland against Charles XII, in order to lessen the might which Sweden had gained by the Thirty Years' War, Norwegian peasants, men and women, took up arms against the Swedes. Peasant is in this volume the usual rendering of the word "bonde" in the original; for its fuller significance see Note 78. Tordenskjold, Peter (1691-1720), a great Norwegian naval hero, whose original name was Wessel, and who was born in Trondhjem. He received the name Tordenskjold when he was ennobled. By his remarkable achievements he contributed much to the favorable issue of the Great Northern War; he often had occasion to ravage the coast of Sweden and to protect that of Norway.
Stanza 4. Fredrikshald. Here, on September 11, 1718, Charles XII met his death on his second invasion of Norway. The citizens had earlier burned the City, so that it might not afford shelter to the Swedes against the cannon of the fortress Fredriksten.
Stanzas 5 and 6. Again a rather long period of peace is passed over. In 1807 Denmark was induced by Napoleon to join the continental system. England bombarded Copenhagen and captured it and the Danish fleet. The war lasted seven years for Norway also, which was blockaded by the English fleet and suffered sorely for lack of the necessaries of life. But the nations sense of independence grew, and when the Peace of Kiel in January, 1814, separated Norway from Denmark, Norway refused to be absorbed by Sweden, and through a representative assembly at Eidsvold declared its independence, adopted a Constitution on May 17, 1814, and chose as King, Prince Christian Frederik, the later King Christian VIII of Denmark. The Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan led an invasion of Norway in July, and there was fighting until the Convention of Moss, August 14, in which he approved the Norwegian Constitution in return for the abdication of Christian Frederik. Negotiations then led to the federation of Norway as an independent kingdom with Sweden in a union. This was formally concluded on November 4, 1815, by the adoption of the Act of Union, and the election of the Swedish King Karl XIII as King of Norway. The last four lines of stanza 6 refer to "Scandinavism," i.e., a movement beginning some time before 1848 to bring about a close federation or alliance of the three Northern kingdoms (see Note 21).
Note 6. ANSWER FROM NORWAY. First printed in a newspaper, April 7, 1860, with the title "Song for the Common People," this poem refers to a stage of the long conflict over the question of a viceroy in Norway, so important in the history of the union of Sweden and Norway. The Norwegian Constitution gave to the King power to send a viceroy to reside in Norway, and to name as such either a Swede or a Norwegian. Until about 1830 the viceroy had always been a Swede, thereafter always a Norwegian. On December 9, 1859, the Norwegian Storting voted to abolish this article in a proposed revision of the Constitution. The matter was discussed in Sweden with vehemence and passion. The storm of feeling raged most violently in March, 1860, when on the 17th, in Stockholm, this revision was rejected. However, no viceroy was appointed alter 1859, and in 1873 the question was amicably settled as Norwegians desired. While the situation was tense, an unfounded rumor had spread, that on one occasion the Norwegian flag had been raised over the residence of the Swedish-Norwegian Minister in Vienna. This caused loud complaints in Sweden, that "the Norwegian colors had displaced the Swedish," while in the House of Nobles a member declared that Norway ought to be "an accessory" to Sweden; that "young, inexperienced" Norway's demand of equality with Sweden was like a commoner's importunity for equality with a nobleman. He went on to say that the Swedish nation must crave again its (pure) flag: "For in our ancient blue-yellow Swedish flag, that waved over LÜtzen's blood-drenched battlefield, are our honor, our memories, and thousand-fold deaths." The (pure, i.e., without the mark of union) Swedish flag consists of a yellow cross on a blue ground, the (pure) Norwegian flag of a blue cross within a white border on a red ground; in each the cross extends to the four margins. At the date of this poem each flag showed a mark of union, a diagonal combination of the colors of both, in the upper field nearest the staff. (For a brief history of the flag of Norway, see Note 66.)
Stanza 2. Magnus the Good, son of Olaf the Saint, reigned from 1035 till his death in 1047. He was victorious in conflict with the Danish King Knut the Hard, and by agreement received Denmark after his death. Magnus died in Denmark on one of several successful expeditions against the rebellious Svein Jarl. Fredrikshald, see Note 5. Ad(e)ler, Kort Sivertsen (1622-1675), was a distinguished admiral, born in Norway. He reorganized the Danish-Norwegian fleet, which late in the seventeenth century several times defeated the Swedish.
Stanza 3. LÜtzen. In the battle of LÜtzen, November 16, 1632, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed. Grandsire's ancient seat, symbol of Norway's ancient power and glory. In one of the Swedish speeches were these words: "If Norway had had a Gustavus Adolphus, a Torstenson, a Charles the Twelfth, if its name like ours had gone forth victorious in history, no Swede would deny its right to stand before us. This, however, is not the case. …"
Stanza 4. Sverre Priest, see Note 5. When young he was a priest.
Stanzas 5 and 6. Christie, Y. F. K. (1779-1849), was a vice- president of the convention of Eidsvold, April 10-May 20, 1814, and president of the first extraordinary Storting after the convention of Moss, August, 1814. To him more than any other man was due the securing of Norway's independence and welfare in the framing and adoption of the Constitution and the Act of Union. In a sense he was the real founder of Norway's liberty (see Note 5).
Stanza 7. Wessel=Tordenskjold, see Note 5.
Stanza 8. Torgny. At the Ting in Upsala, February, 1018, when the Swedish King Olaf refused peace and his daughter's hand to the Norwegian King, Olaf the Saint, the aged and revered peasant lawman, Torgny, the wisest and most influential man in the land, rebuked the King, declaring that the peasants wished peace with Norway, and concluding thus: "If you will not do what we say, we shall attack and kill you and not suffer from you breach of peace and law." The King yielded, and made a promise which he afterwards broke.
Note 7. JOHAN LUDVIG HEIBERG (December 14, 1791-August 25, 1860), the leading Danish dramatist and critic of his time, an esthetic genius, with, however, the stamp of the man of the world always on his life and works. He early studied mathematics and natural science, medicine and philology, Danish and foreign literature, and was also very musical. He was uncertain whether to become a poet and esthetic critic, a physician, or a natural scientist, or a surveyor, or — a diplomat. From about 1824 he studied and adopted the Hegelian philosophy, on which based his esthetics, and for which he was the first spokesman in Denmark. In the years 1825 to 1836 he founded the Danish vaudeville, in which his aim was to recreate the national drama. His vaudeville was a lighter musical-dramatic genre, a situation-play with loosely-sketched characters and the addition of music to concentrate the mood. In it he sought a union with the national comedy, and like Holberg to treat subjects from his own age and land. From 1830 to 1836 Heiberg was professor of logic, esthetics, and Danish literature in the Military School. From 1839 on, censor of the Royal Theater, of which he was director from 1849 to 1856, without great success because of circumstances beyond his control. In the year 1840 he began to deeply interested in the study of acoustics, optics, and astronomy, and soon fitted up a small astronomical observatory at his residence; he published an astronomical manual, 1844-46. In 1831 Heiberg married Johanne Louise PÄtges (1812-1890). The daughter of poor parents, she became a pupil of the dancing-school of the Royal Theater in 1820, but went over to the drama in 1826. Wonderfully gifted, she developed rapidly and became Denmark's greatest actress. Her last appearance on the stage was in 1864. She favored the performance of BjÖrnson's and Ibsen's earlier dramas on the stage in Copenhagen, with management of which she had official connection from 1867 to 1874. "New Year" ringing o'er the Northland. Shortly before Christmas, 1816, Heiberg published his polemical romantic comedy Yule Jests and New Year's Jokes, a brilliant revelation of his superiority as a wit and a satirist. Attacking the excessive sentimentality of Danish literature and taste at that time, it made a sensation and led to the improvement of both.
Note 8. THE OCEAN. Arnljot Gelline, a man of prowess, from Tiundaland, the Region about Upsala. When Olaf the Saint went from Sweden to Norway in 1030, Arnljot Gelline was present in his army at Stiklestad, and after baptism was assigned to a place nearest in front of the royal standard. He fought stoutly, but fell early in the battle. Vikar, a brother of Arnljot Gelline, who sailed with Olaf Trygvason on the Long Serpent, and died fighting in his post of honor on the prow. (See notes below.)
Note 9. ALONE AND REPENTANT. This poem was first printed in 1865, but was probably written in 1861 or 1862 in Germany or Italy. The friend was Ivar Bye, whom BjÖrnson had saved from distress and social ostracism in Christiania before 1857, when Bye went as an actor with BjÖrnson to the theater in Bergen. He was no great actor but an unusual man, for whom BjÖrnson had deep respect and warm sympathy. BjÖrnson described his character and life-experience in the study "Ivar Bye," first published in 1894, in which he said: "Our literature possesses a memorial of his way of receiving what was confided to him. It lies in the poem: 'A friend I possess.' I wrote it far away from him,—not that he might have it, his name is not mentioned, and he never had it, but because at that time things were hard for me."
Note 10. OLAF TRYGVASON. Grandson of Harald Fairhair, and King from 995 to 1000. On one of his viking expeditions to England he was converted to Christianity. Returning to Norway to win back his ancestral inheritance from Haakon Jarl (see Note 14), he had fortune with him; for as he steered into the Trondhjem Fjord, he received the tidings of the successful uprising of the peasants against Haakon. He founded Nidaros, the present city of Trondhjem, established Christianity in a large part of the country, and soon became dearer to the people than any other Norwegian King. But he had powerful enemies outside of the land: the Danish King, Svein Forkbeard, the Swedish King, Olaf, and Erik, son of Haakon Jarl. By a large sea-force under these he was attacked off the island Svolder (near the island of Ringen), and there lost his life. Erling Skjalgsson, a great chieftain, holding large fiefs from Olaf and married to his sister, lived at Sole in southwestern Norway. With a large number of the smaller ships of Olaf Trygvason he had been allowed to sail away in advance and did not know of the battle at Svolder. Long Serpent was the name of the large fighting ship that Olaf had built for this expedition. It held six hundred men.
Note 11. BERGLIOT. Einar Tambarskelve was one of the most powerful men in Norway during the first half of the eleventh century. His mastery of the bow gave him the epithet Tambarskelve, "bow-string-shaker." He fought, when eighteen years old, on the Long Serpent at Svolder. After Erik and Svein were established in power as a result of that battle, Einar became reconciled and married their sister Bergliot. In 1023 he went to King Knut the Great in England, who was also King of Denmark, and urged him to conquer Norway. Knut did so in 1028 and made his son Svein King of Norway. Einar opposed this, and Magnus the Good (see Note 6) was called to rule, whose most faithful vassal Einar became. He followed King Magnus and his co-regent Harold Hardruler to Denmark, where Magnus died. Here and in Norway Einar, as the champion of all that was good, opposed many of the illegal and unrighteous deeds and plans of Harald, and incurred the latter's bitter enmity. In the year 1055, under the pretext of reconciliation, Harold lured Einar with his wife and son Eindride (pronounced as three syllables) to Nidaros (Trondhjem), where the murder was committed within the hall of the royal residence, as related in the poem. Haakon Ivarson was a man of force and influence. Harald Hardruler was a half brother of Olaf the Saint. Late in the reign of Magnus the Good, after adventurous wanderings in Russia and the Orient, he returned to Norway and demanded a share in the kingdom. By agreement they divided the royal power and their wealth. Before his death Magnus determined that Harald should be King of Norway, but Svein Estridson King of Denmark. Harald, however, tried unsuccessfully to conquer Denmark. He died in England, being slain at the battle of Stanford Bridge in 1066. His harshness as King secured him his epithet. The murder of Einar brought him much hate. Ting-peace. The spelling "ting" is adopted in place of "thing." Peasants, for this word see Note 78. Gimle, the heaven of the new Christian faith. Heath of Lyrskog, in Jutland. Magnus the Good, at the time also King of Denmark, won a decisive victory here in 1043 over a much larger invading army of Wends. (See also Note 23.) TrÖnder, one from the region about Trondhjem. Haakon from HjÖrungavaag. Haakon Jarl (970-995) was the last pagan King in Norway. His defeat in 986 of the Jomsborg vikings, allies of King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark, in a naval engagement at HjÖrungavaag, a bay in western Norway, was the greatest naval battle ever fought in that country. Valhall, the hall where those slain in battle dwell after death.
Note 12. TO MY WIFE. Written in Rome in 1861 or 1862, first printed in 1865. BjÖrnson's wife was Karoline Reimers, born December 1, 1835. They were married on September 11, 1858; she is still living (June, 1915). At the celebration of their golden wedding BjÖrnson addressed touching words of gratitude to her, saying at the close: "I know that you will live longer than I. It will be your lot to cover the sheet over me. There is much in a man that needs to be covered over. Of our life, Karoline, you shall have the honor. See also the poem Those with Me, and notes thereto.
Note 13. IN A HEAVY HOUR. Written in Italy rather late in 1861, after BjÖrnson received tidings of the sharp criticism of his drama King Sverre and of its lack of success on the stage in Christiania, where it was first performed on October 9. In a letter from Hans Christian Andersen BjÖrnson wrote on December 10, 1861: "At a time when I was in a mood to write the following verses, which perhaps tell so much that I need not tell more [the poem is quoted],—at a time when I, the man, nay, the product of friendship, was in a mood to write this, it came just like a Christmas hymn among strangers, to hear that you had dedicated to me your last four Tales. You …, you had a heart to remember me, when many friends from tested times did not."
Note 14. KAARE'S SONG. Helga was the daughter of Maddad, a prominent and wealthy man at Katanes. She came to Orkney, where the ruler, Haakon Earl, fell in love with her and made her his mistress. She bore him a son, Harald, and lived at Orkney sixteen years in spite of the hate and disdain showed her by so many, especially by the Earl's lawful wife. She and her sister Frakark exerted an evil influence over Haakon Earl, inciting him among other things to murder his co- ruler and kinsman Magnus Erlendson. It was believed that Haakon Earl became crazy when he first saw Helga. This song, which Kaare, one of the Earl's men, sings, describes this first meeting and was commonly sung by Helga's enemies.
Note 15. IVAR INGEMUNDSON'S LAY. In the first half of the twelfth century an Icelandic skald of this name lived and sang at the court of King Eystein in Norway. He loved a young Icelandic girl, but had not declared his love. When his brother was going home to Iceland, Ivar asked him to tell her of his love and beg her to wait for him. But on his later coming to Iceland, she met him as that brother's wife. Ivar returned Norway and was thereafter always melancholy and thoughtful. When Harald Gille became King, Ivar lived at his court, but sympathized warmly with the able and bold Sigurd Slembe, who claimed to be Magnus Barefoot's son and Harald Gille's half-brother. After many years of hardship Sigurd came to Harald Gille and asked him to recognize him. Harald was a good-natured, but weak and ignorant man, entirely controlled by his chieftains, who persuaded him to have Sigurd imprisoned, with the intention of killing him. Sigurd, however, escaped and fled.
Note 16. MAGNUS THE BLIND. Magnus was born in 1115, and became King in 1130. He had Harald Gille as co-regent. Their agreement was that Harald could not demand a larger share in the kingdom as long as Magnus lived. But Magnus made himself hated by his own deeds, and in 1131 a breach resulted between the Kings. The chieftains were on Harald's side. He seized Magnus in 1135, had him blinded and castrated, and sent him into the monastery at Nidarholm. Sigurd Slembe, who made war on Harald and conquered him, freed Magnus from the monastery and caused him to fight in his army. He died in the sea-battle of Holmengraa.
Note 17. SIN, DEATH. Written during the latter half of 1862 in Munich, and possibly, according to an oral statement of BjÖrnson's, under impressions received from German ecclesiastical art: "It is only natural that in Munich symbolical poems should present themselves."
Note 18. FRIDA. This poem was first printed March 24, 1863, soon after the death, at the age of twenty-two, of her whom it commemorates. She was a younger sister of the leading Danish literary critic, Clemens Petersen, born 1834. He became BjÖrnson's friend in 1856 and aided greatly in opening the way for him in Denmark. Until 1868 Petersen had much influence on public opinion. Soon after that he came to America, and did not return to Copenhagen until 1904. He was a follower of Heiberg, but more liberal.
Note 19. BERGEN. Written in 1863 for a musical festival in which BjÖrnson and Ibsen took part. Bergen's unusually favorable situation made it for a long time Norway's first city in commerce; it has only recently fallen behind Christiania. It has ever had a large local fleet and great traffic in its harbor. Founded about 1070 by King Olaf the Quiet, Bergen was very important in the older history of the land, as the residence of the Kings, until about 1350, when Hanseatic control began, continuing until late in the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century Bergen was incomparably the first commercial city in the Danish-Norwegian monarchy; in the eighteenth it was surpassed by Copenhagen. The people of Bergen have always been distinctly liberal in thought and feeling. Holberg, Ludvig (1684-1754), was born in Bergen, but resided in most of his life in Denmark. His comedies, which founded modern Danish-Norwegian literature, are indeed immortal. Dahl, John Christian Clausen (1788-1857), a Norwegian landscape painter, who, though born in Bergen, went in 1811 to Copenhagen and from 1818 resided in Dresden. As subjects he preferred water, rock, and strand, and showed a realistic tendency in his light-effects. Welhaven, see Note 36. Ole Bull (1810-1880), a violinist of world-wide renown. In his later life he passed most of his time in the United States, but every year he returned to the home which he maintained near Bergen, at a distance of about two hours by steamer. Carrying out a plan conceived in 1848, he established in Bergen with his own means the first Norwegian National Theater, which was opened January 2, 1850. Collin says that the last line of the poem sums up BjÖrnson's view of Norway's historical memories as motive power for new achievement. This seems realized in Bergen's recent development,—it now had the largest steam-fleet of all the cities in Norway.
Note 20. P. A. MUNCH. Peter Andreas Munch (born in Christiania, December 15, 1810; died in Rome, May 25, 1863) became professor of history in 1841 and Keeper of the Archives in 1861. He was not only one of the greatest historians of Norway, but also a philologist, an ethnographer, an archaeologist, a geographer, and a publicist. His chief field was the prehistoric age and the medieval period. He traveled much in the Scandinavian lands and elsewhere in Europe, made several long stays in Rome, and was buried there. His main and best known work is the History of the Norwegian People, in eight large volumes, published from 1851 to 1863. This and his other writings greatly strengthened the national self-consciousness and sense of independence. Munch had a phenomenal memory, marked talent for music and drawing, playful humor, incredible capacity for work, rare intuition for epoch-making discoveries. In a speech in 1892 BjÖrnson placed Munch by the side of Wergeland (see Note 78) as a fosterer of national self-consciousness and faith in the future: "We can remember when we were young, how P. A. Munch's History came out in parts, and how he fought with the Danish professors, to get Norway brought home again from Danish captivity in history also, —we can remember how eventful it was for us, and how it had its share in molding us. … He had his large share in what our generation has done. I put his work in this way by the side of Wergeland's." Through provincial Asian forests, etc. These lines refer to the so-called "immigration-theory" advanced by Rudolf Keyser and elaborated by Munch, which maintained that the remote ancestors of the Swedes and the Norwegians migrated from the northeast into the Scandinavian peninsula about 300 B.C.: the Swedes from Finland and the Northmen through Lapland. These scholars also held that Old Norse literature, as being the product of Norway and Iceland, was distinctly Norse, and not "Northern" or joint-Scandinavian. When I call, paraphrase of Isaiah xlviii, 13 Who again shall reunite fit? Munch left no peer in international reputation. Coursed the sea-ways toward his standard. Not only was Munch honored throughout Europe, but he was the first to secure for Norwegian history its rightful place in European history.
Note 21. KING FREDERIK THE SEVENTH. His death occurred November 15, 1863, just before the crisis with Prussia and Austria. He was born October 6, 1808, the son of Prince Christian Frederik, later King Christian VIII of Denmark, and his first wife. The early divorce of his parents resulted in his education being neglected; he was left for several years in the hands of relatives and strangers; had unsympathetic teachers and almost no trace of parental guidance. All his life he had less than average attainments in knowledge, except in a practical way in Scandinavian archaeology. He had natural dignity, but a broad, undisciplined nature, and shunned court etiquette and constraint. In 1834, he was in effect banished to Jaegerspris, a royal estate near Frederikssund, and later was sent on a cruise to Iceland. Afterwards he resided in disfavor in Fredericia, where his tendencies to plain, direct intercourse with people of all classes were further developed. When Christian VIII ascended the throne, Frederik's position was somewhat improved, and his free association with officials and commoners made him very popular. It was found that he could show at times surprisingly clear and sure insight into practical conditions. His interest continued active in archaeological investigations, sea- voyaging, and fishing. During the increasing national and political difficulties Frederik, because of his pronounced Danish feeling and sympathy with the common people, was disposed to take a stand more national and constitutionally liberal than could please the government circles. This became known among the people and made him a still greater favorite. In 1847 he submitted a proposal for the introduction of a joint Constitution for the entire monarchy, but King Christian died before action could be taken. Frederik VII ascended the throne January 20, 1848. The change of ministry which he made in March as a result of the Schleswig revolt, his opposition to the division of Schleswig, and his establishment of really constitutional government made his popularity forever secure, although he was not a sure and purposeful ruler. Frederik's character played an important part in the relations of Denmark with Sweden and Norway. The personal friendship between the two Kings united the countries more closely and lifted political "Scandinavism" to the height it reached shortly before the war of 1864 with Prussia and Austria over Schleswig-Holstein. This "Scandinavism" is referred to in the poem by the words "to the North," "his course," and similar expressions. It was the name given to the sense of kinship of the three Northern peoples and the desire of closer union, whether in spiritual or material or political relations. It was evoked first by poets and scholars, and gathered strength from 1843 on in meetings of university students. In 1848 there was warm sympathy in both Sweden and Norway with the cause of Denmark; the assistance of volunteers and even of Swedish- Norwegian troops was given. Towards 1864 the three countries came more closely together politically, promises of help to Denmark were made by Sweden and Norway, and there was even talk of a treaty of alliance. But the end of the war of 1864, and Germany's victory over France in 1870-71, destroyed the hopes of political Scandinavism, and thereafter it became rather cultural and practical, at least until 1905, when Norway's full independence of Sweden led to emphasis on individual nationality. The war of 1914-15 may bring about a revival of political Scandinavism. (See also Note 38.)
Note 22. TO SWEDEN. This poem and several following breathe the spirit of Scandinavism described above. Yellow-blue. The flag of Sweden shows a yellow cross on a blue ground. Christian Fourth, King of Denmark and Norway, 1588-1648. Haakon Earl, see Note 14. Palnatoki, the legendary leader of the Jomsborg vikings. Ancient enemies are now allies, and so also Tordenskjold (see Note 5) fights by the side of, not against, Charles XII. Jenny=the famous singer, Jenny Lind, 1820-1887. LÜtzen. Gustavus Adolphus prayed and his troops sang hymns before the battle. Narwa, where Charles XII, in November, 1700, was victorious over the Russians under Peter the Great.
Note 23. OUR FOREFATHERS. A festival, memorial poem, written just before the outbreak of the Danish-German war. Danish troops were stationed along the river Eider, which the Germans crossed on February 1, 1864. The last lines of the poem refer to what is told in the saga of Magnus the Good about the battle of Lyrskog Heath (see Note 11): "The night before the battle Magnus was wakeful and prayed to God for victory. Towards morning he fell asleep and dreamed that his father, King Olaf the Saint, came to him and said: 'You are now very sick at heart and full of fear, because the Wends are coming against you with a great army; but you must not be afraid of the heathen host, though they be many together. I shall follow you into this battle and join in the fight, when you hear my horn.' At dawn the King wakened, and then all heard up in the air the ringing of a bell, and those of the King's men who had been in Nidaros [Trondhjem] recognized by its sound the bell which King Olaf had given to the church of St. Clement. Then Magnus had the signal for battle blown, and his men made such a furious onset on the Wends, that fifteen thousand fell and the rest fled."
Note 24. WHEN NORWAY WOULD NOT HELP. Written upon the adjournment of the extraordinary meeting of the Norwegian Storting, called in March, 1864. The action of the Storting providing for Norway's participation with Denmark in the war coupled this with conditions which made it equivalent to a refusal to help. Wessel, see Note 5. Dannebrog, see next note.
Note 25. TO THE DANNEBROG. The original title was "The 19th of April, 1864." DybbÖl [DÜppel]. This strongly fortified Danish place in Schleswig was taken by the Germans on April 18, 1864. Dannebrog, the traditional name of the Danish flag, consisting of a red ground whereon is a broad white cross, extending to all four margins. According to an old legend the original Dannebrog ("broge" is an old Danish word, meaning a piece of colored cloth) soared down from Heaven during the battle of Reval in 1219 and brought victory to the Danes, while a voice was heard promising the Danes a complete victory as often as they raised this banner against their enemies.
Note 26. TOAST FOR THE MEN OF EIDSVOLD. First called "Toast for the 17th of May;" written for the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution (see Note 5).
Note 26. THE NORRÖNA-RACE. Written for the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Act of Union with Sweden. NorrÖna= Northern. Surtr. According to Norse mythology there were in the beginning two worlds, the first of which, called Muspell, was filled with fire, light, and warmth; over this Surtr ruled, sitting with a sword of flame at its border. The other world was Niflheim, cold and dark. Yggdrasil. The tree Yggdrasil is a symbol of the present world. Dragons, warships with carved dragons as figure-heads. Poland's night. For Gustavus Adolphus the Polish War, which he waged before he took part actively in the Thirty Years' War in Germany, was also undertaken for the defense of Protestantism. Saga, here=History.
Note 27. LECTOR THAASEN. Johan Edvard Thaasen (born in 1825; died February 17, 1865) was a classical philologist and a man of broad culture, well versed in Old Norse and in modern French and German literature. From 1852 he was teacher in the Cathedral School in Christiania, and from 1860 lecturer in Greek at the University, where he treated chiefly the Greek poets and archaeology. He came from a poor family and passed his early life under hard conditions. During the last few years he was sickly, and he died of consumption. In 1858 he was president of the Students' Union, and spokesman for the Norwegians at the Student Meeting in Copenhagen in 1862.
Note 28. DURING A JOURNEY IN SWEDEN. Written in the summer of 1866, BjÖrnson's speeches then made a sensation by reason of the warmth of his feeling for Sweden. Ellen Key has written with approval of his characterization of the Swedes here, which agrees with that of SchÜck in his History of Swedish Literature, i, 325, 326.
Note 29. SONG FOR THE STUDENTS' GLEE CLUB. Written in 1863 for the journey of the Club to Bergen (see Note 19). Hald, Fredrikshald, see Note 5. Arendal. This city is an important shipping center. Sverre, see Note 5.
Note 30. MRS. LOUISE BRUN. Louise Gulbrandsen was born in Bergen, December 16, 1831, and died in Christiania, January 21, 1866. In childhood she knew the narrowness and darkness of poverty. Made her first appearance as an actress at the opening performance of Ole Bull's theater in Bergen, January 2, 1850, when she also recited the Prologue. An attractive personality, a voice clear and flexible both in speech and song, and unusual mentality made her the most talented actress of her time in Norway. Her power was comprehensive; she began with romantic parts and always liked these best, though later she was distinguished in conversation-plays. In 1851 she married Johannes Brun, Norway's most gifted comedian. They came to Christiania in April, 1857. A picture drawn from life, etc., refers to the romantic drama, The Sisters at Kinnekullen, of the Dane, Carsten Hauch (1790-1872). It was his most frequently performed play, dealing with the mysterious power of gold over the human mind, as something demonic in the servitude it imposes. It had recently been played with Mrs. Brun in the part of Ulrika. He, who from fairy-tale, etc. Ole Bull, see Note 19. Thus is introduced here a poetical history and eulogy of Ole Bull's Norwegian Theater.
Note 31. TO JOHAN DAHL, BOOKDEALER. Johan Fjeldsted Dahl was born in Copenhagen, January 1, 1807, and died in Christiania, March 16, 1877. He came to Christiania in 1829, and established in 1832 a business of his own, both publishing and selling. In the mercantile, social, literary, and artistic life of the city he came to have an important place and influence. Dahl had published Norway's Dawn, by Welhaven, and in the time of the Wergeland-Welhaven conflict (see Note 36, and as to Wergeland, Note 78) a violent personal quarrel developed between Wergeland and Dahl about an entirely unimportant matter. Dahl had provided his porter with a green livery having red borders. Wergeland, who regarded Dahl as the leading representative of the "Copenhagenism" (Danish, anti-Norwegian tendencies) he was contending against, had an epigram printed, The Servant in Livery, and insulted the porter on the street. This led to a slashing newspaper feud between Wergeland and Dahl. After everybody's feelings had grown calmer, Wergeland wrote about the burlesque occurrence in a farce entitled The Parrot, and Dahl had humor enough, himself to publish this satirical skit. The light from his shop. Wergeland derisively styled Dahl's store "the first slander-shop of the city;" it was, in face, the meeting- place of the "party of intelligence," those interested in European culture and esthetic criticism, i.e., it was the resort of those opposed to Wergeland.
Note 32. TO SCULPTOR BORCH. Christopher Borch (1817-1896) was a lifelong friend, of whom in 1857 BjÖrnson wrote in letter: "The most childlike, natural man I know, with his even, light walk, and his fine, small hands," and "there is poetry in that man. Oh, how you have misunderstood him!" It was this friend who, about the same time as these letters were written, helped BjÖrnson open his spirit to the influence of Grundtvig (see Note 57). Borch for many years gave free instruction to convicts in the Akershus prison in drawing and other subjects, and so helped them to a future when they came out.
Note 33. CHOICE. A Danish publisher issued a calendar with poems on the months by different Scandinavian poets. When BjÖrnson was invited to contribute, all the other months were already written up or assigned, and only April was left.
Note 34. NORWEGIAN SEAMEN'S SONG. Saint Olaf's Cross. Of the insignia of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olaf, founded in 1847 by King Oskar I; the characteristic feature is a white cross. Hafursfjord's great day (see Note 5), near Stavanger.
Note 35. HALFDAN KJERULF was born September 15, 1815, and died August 11, 1868. He early showed talent for music, and though he had to study law from 1834 on, he yet studied and wrote music with a crushing sense of lack of knowledge and opportunity. He was dangerously ill in 1839, and always weak physically. His father died in 1840, and Kjerulf then began to earn his living by music. A stipend received in 1850 enabled him to go to Leipzig for a year. In 1851 he settled in Christiania as a teacher of music, where for the rest of his life his influence as a composer was most important. His compositions are all of the lesser forms; his best work was done from 1860 to 1865. He was in general a pioneer of modern Norwegian music, and one of the first to draw from the inexhaustible fountain of folk-music. He wrote exquisite music for many songs of Welhaven, Wergeland, Moe, BjÖrnson, and others.
Note 36. NORWEGIAN STUDENTS' GREETING TO PROFESSOR WELHAVEN. Johan Sebastian Cammermeyer Welhaven was born December 22, 1807, lived from 1828 in Christiania, was lector from 1840 to 1846, and from 1846 to 1868 professor of philosophy in the University; he died October 21, 1873. His poetical works were: Norway's Dawn, 1834; Poems, 1839; New Poems, 1845; Half a Hundred Poems, 1848; Pictures of Travel and Poems, 1851; A Collection of Poems, 1860. A polemical writer, gifted with wit and fine taste, and a social-political author, Welhaven represented in his earlier period the "party of intelligence"" over against the chauvinism of the radical Peasant party of Wergeland (see Note 78). He was an adherent of Danish culture and of the esthetic view of art and life, who hated all national exclusiveness and showed a love of his country no less true and intense than Wergeland's by chastising the Norwegians of his time for their big, empty words and their crass materialism. For this he was rewarded with abuse, and called "traitor to his country" and "matricide." In reality Welhaven was a dreamer, a worshiper of nature, a man of tender feeling. His subjective lyric poetry is not surpassed in richness of content and beauty of form by that of any other Norwegian. Outside of his ordinary University duties Welhaven was also active; he was a favorite speaker at student festivities and musical festivals, notably at the Student Meetings in Upsala, 1856, and in Copenhagen, 1862. But early in 1864 his health failed and he was unable thereafter to lecture regularly. In August, 1868, he requested to be retired; on September 24, the University Authorities granted his request and a pension at the highest rate; but the Storting, on November 12, reduced this to two-thirds of the amount proposed. The same day the students brought to Professor Welhaven their farewell greeting, marching with flags to his residence, where this poem of homage was sung.
Note 37. FORWARD. The composer Grieg and his wife spent Christmas Eve, 1868, with BjÖrnson's family in Christiania. Grieg, who then gave to BjÖrnson a copy of the first part of his Lyriske Smaastykker, has written the following account of the origin of this poem: "Among these was one with the title 'Fatherland's Song.' I played this for BjÖrnson, who liked it so well that he said he wanted to write words for it. That made me glad, although afterwards I said to myself: It probably will remain a want, he has other things to think of. But the very next day I met him in full creative joy: 'It's going excellently. It shall be a song for all the youth of Norway. But there is something at the beginning that I haven't yet got hold of — a certain wording. I feel that the melody demands it, and I shall not give it up. It must come.' Then we parted. The next forenoon, as I was giving a piano lesson to a young lady, I heard a ring at the entry-door, as if the whole bell apparatus would rattle down; then a noise as of wild hordes breaking in and a roar; 'Forward! Forward! Now I have it! Forward!' My pupil trembled like an aspen leaf. My wife in the next room was frightened out of her wits. But when the door flew open and BjÖrnson stood there, glad and shining like a sun, there was a general jubilee, and we were the first to hear the beautiful new poem."
Note 38. THE MEETING. The Student Meetings, i.e., conventions of university students in the three countries, were originally an important part of "Scandinavism" (see Note 21). The first was held in 1843; that of 1862 was the last to have a distinctly political character. After 1864 the chief aim of these gatherings was to improve the position and strengthen the influence of the student in the community. In 1869 Christiania invited the Danish students to meet there with their Swedish and Norwegian comrades, in the interest of culture, better acquaintance with one another, people, and land, and cooperation in general for the future of the kingdoms. Gjallar-horn, Heimdall's horn, to be blown especially at the beginning of Ragnarok, symbolical here of the painful passing of the old order, which ushers in a new world.
Note 39. NORSE NATURE. See note to the preceding poem. King Halfdan the Black (died 860) was the father of Harald Fairhair. It was said of him that he once dreamed he had the most beautiful hair one could see, luxuriant locks of various lengths and colors, but one of them larger, brighter, and fairer than all the others. This was interpreted to mean that King Halfdan would have many descendants, and they would rule Norway with great honor; but one of them would surpass the others, and later this was said to be Olaf the Saint. Nore, the largest mountain of Ringerike.
Note 40. I PASSED BY THE HOUSE. Written in 1869. The translator has not been able to verify the statement that the poem refers to a cousin, to whom BjÖrnson was devoted from his student days.
Note 41. THOSE WITH ME. This poem of tender homage to his wife (see Note 12) and home was written during the summer of 1869, while BjÖrnson was on a lecture tour, which took him to northernmost Norway. His fourth child, and first daughter, Bergliot, was born June 16, 1869, in Christiania. When their golden wedding was celebrated in 1908, BjÖrnson said to his wife: "You knew me and knew how ungovernable I was, but you loved me, and there was a holy joy in that. To you always came back from much wildness and many wanderings. And with all my heart I give you the honor. To you I wrote the poem: 'As on I drive, in my heart joy dwells'. It was not poetical and not sentimental, but just plain and direct. I wrote it to glorify my home and you. And I believe that no more beautiful and deep poem in praise of home has been written. For there is life's wisdom in it. It is yours, Karoline, and your honor."
Note 42. TO MY FATHER. Written in 1869. Peder BjÖrnson was settled as a pastor at Kvikne in Österdal at the time of the poet's birth. Originally he was an independent farmer, like his father and grandfather, on the large farm Skei on the Randsfjord, where he was born in 1797. He completed his theological training in 1829, came to Kvikne in 1831, to Nes in Romsdal in 1837, and to Sogne in 1852. On retiring in 1869 he moved to Christiania, where he died, August 25, 1871. His large frame and great physical strength were hereditary in his father's family. Our race. Allusion to the tradition of the descent of the BjÖrnsons from ancient kings through the poet's great-grandmother, Marie Öistad. The Norwegian peasant, see Note 78.
Note 43. TO ERIKA LIE (-NISSEN) (1847-1903). One of the great pianists in Norway, she was born in Kongsvinger on the river Glommen, where her parents resided also when this poem was written in 1869. She gained European fame by her concerts from 1866 on, married the physician Oskar Nissen in 1874, and after 1876 resided in Norway. She was distinguished for the poetic quality of her playing, for warmth and fullness of tone, and for faultless technique.
Note 44. AT MICHAEL SARS'S GRAVE. He was born in Bergen, August 30, 1805, and died in Christiania, October 22, 1869. In 1823 he became a student of the University in Christiania, where for a time he devoted himself to natural science, continuing his boyhood's lively interest. But the necessity for self-support turned him to theology. In 1830 he was appointed pastor at Kinn in the SÖndfjord, married in 1831 a sister of Welhaven, and in 1839 was transferred to Manger, near Bergen. Both the places mentioned were very convenient for zoÖlogical study, which Sars resumed at once and continued unbrokenly. His earliest published work appeared in 1829; it was of first-rate importance, and his reputation was soon established everywhere in the world of learning. In 1853 he sought retirement from the Church, and in 1854 was professor of zoÖlogy in the University, where he continued his remarkable researches until his death. He was a pioneer in his special field, the lower marine fauna, and his aim from the beginning was not merely to discover new species, but to trace the physiological processes and the development of these lower, minuter forms of life,—ovology, embryology, organology. It was his work that led to the deep-sea expeditions of The Challenger and other similar voyages.
Note 45. TO JOHAN SVERDRUP. Written in November, 1869. Johan Sverdrup (1816-1892) was the greatest political leader and statesman of Norway in the nineteenth century, and left the deepest traces in all its recent history. He settled in Laurvik in 1844 as a lawyer, was soon active in municipal politics, laboring for the interests of the working-class, was elected to the Storting in 1851. ReËlected in 1854, and regularly thereafter till 1885, his authority in the Storting and his power in public life steadily increased. From 1871 on he was President of the Storting, except in 1881 for reasons of health; from 1884 to 1889 he was Prime Minister. A consistent democrat, he created and led the party of the Left, or "Peasant- Left," and contended all his active life for the establishment of real government by the people, i.e., a constitutional democracy with parliamentary rule. This, the fulfillment of his famous saying, "All power ought to be gathered in this hall [i.e., in the Storting]," was consummated in June, 1884. Few men in Norway have been so bitterly assailed by political opponents, and few so idolized by followers. He was a masterful orator, inferior only to BjÖrnson. Assassination. An allusion to Ibsen's The Young Men's Union, first performed in Christiania on September 30, 1869. BjÖrnson regarded the drama as directed against himself and his political friends. In 1881 he wrote: "With the word assassination I did not mean that conditions and well-known men were aimed at. What I meant was, that The Young Men's Union tried to make our young liberal party into a band of ambitious speculators, whose patriotism could be carried off with their phraseology, and especially that prominent men were first made recognizable, and that then false hearts and base characters were fictitiously given them and spurious alliances pasted on them." The words of Einar. For Einar Tambarskelve, see Note 11, and for Magnus the Good, Note 6. Immediately after the death of Magnus in Denmark, Harald proposed to make himself King over all Denmark, but Einar arose and spoke, ending with the words: "It seems to me better to follow King Magnus dead, than any other King living." Nearly all the Norwegians joined Einar, and Harald was left with too small a force to carry out his plan. My childhood's faith unshaken stands. BjÖrnson was at the time With full conviction an orthodox Christian; Sverdrup was for himself a free thinker in religion. Brotherhood in all three lands. Sverdrup was always opposed to any close federation of the three countries, and to Scandinavism, see Note 21. What ought just now to be. The whole political programme of the Left, as it was gradually wrought out during the next two decades. Sverre, see Note 5. One nation only and one will, Sverdrup's ideal, as outlined above. That impelled the viking, see note on Harald Fairhair, Note 5. At HjÖrung, see Note 11. Wesssel's sword, seeTordenskjold, Note 5. Wesssel's pen. Johan Herman Wessel (1742-1785) was a grand-nephew of Peder Wessel Tordenskjold. He was the leader and most popular member of the "Norwegian Society" in Copenhagen, in spirit and style the most Norwegian of the writers born in Norway in the eighteenth century. That in faith so high, etc., refers to the teaching of Grundtvig (see Note 57), who looked upon the Edda-gods as representing a religion originally akin to Christianity. Brun. Johan Nordal Brun (1745-1816) became bishop in 1804. A popular poet, he was the creator of the older national hymn and other patriotic songs; an ardent lover of his country, opposed to Danish influences in politics and culture; strictly orthodox and a powerful orator. Hauge. Hans Nilsen Hauge (1771-1824), a peasant lay-preacher, of whom a biographer has said: "Since the Reformation no single man has had so profound an influence on ecclesiastical and Christian life in Norway." The "Haugian revival" of the emotional religious life is proverbial. Its value was great in every way; directly and also by his widely distributed writings it fostered intellectual enlightenment. The peasant political movement started soon after 1830 among his followers. This explains BjÖrnson's great sympathy with Hauge and his school. Modern bishop-synod's letter, the dogmatic literalism of the State Church, seeking to impose itself on free popular religions faith. Chambers, reference to proposals to revise the Act of Union with Sweden, in particular to the plan of a Union-Parliament, all of which were rejected by Norway. Folk-high-school's, see Note 65.
Note 46. OLE GABRIEL UELAND (born October 28, 1799; died January 9, 1870) was the son of a farmer. He was self-taught, reading all the books he could find in the region about his home; became a school teacher in 1817. His marriage in 1827 brought to him the farm Ueland, whose name he took. He early became foremost in his district, and from 1833 to 1869 was member of the Storting for Stavanger. He organized and led the Peasant party. In his time one of Norway's most remarkable men, the most talented peasant and most powerful member of the Storting, belonging to the generation before Sverdrup, he prepared the way for the latter, with whom he then coÖperated. Sverdrup once said: "All of us who are engaged in practical politics are Ueland's pupils."
Note 47. ANTON MARTIN SCHWEIGAARD, jurist and statesman, was born in KragerÖ, April 11, 1808, and died in Christiania, February 1, 1870. After five years as lecturer in the University he was, in 1840, made professor of law, political economy, and statistics. Regarded as the most representative Norwegian of his age and its aspirations, he was called by his countrymen "Norway's best son." Though interested in the reform of education and the introduction of European culture, and hence favorable to Danish literature, standing with Welhaven and against Wergeland, it was in economics that his influence was greatest, and indeed greater than that of any other one man in all Scandinavia. He was the soul of the organizing labor that accompanied and conditioned Norway's surprisingly rapid material advance in the decades before and after the middle of the nineteenth century. A friend of Scandinavism, in politics a liberal conservative, but never a party man, he was member of the Storting for Christiania from 1842 to 1869. Schweigaard's personality contributed most to the high esteem in which he was universally held; his character was open and direct, actively unselfish, loftily ideal. His wife died on January 28, 1870. On a walk the next day he suddenly was seized with intense pains, had to go home and to bed, and died on February 1. An autopsy showed that his heart had ruptured. Their joint funeral was held on February 5.
Note 48. TO AASMUND OLAFSEN VINJE. Vinje, the son of a poor cottager, was born on a farm in Telemarken, April 6, 1818, and died July 30, 1870. Poverty and his peculiar personality made life hard for him from first to last. Bent on testing all things for himself, he came into conflict with the authorities. He was discharged from a school in Mandal in 1848 because of his scoffing criticism of a religious schoolbook. He went then to Heltberg's School (see Note 50) in Christiania, soon after became a student in the University, and passed the state examination in law in 1856. But his life was devoted to literary pursuits, and he was most gifted as a lyric poet. In 1858 Vinje went over completely to the Landsmaal (see Note 80), and in this form of dialect found his natural medium of expression. In October of the same year he began his weekly paper, DÖlen, in which he treated all the current interests. Although one of the most advanced thinkers and keenest combatants in his country's spiritual conflicts, he stood very much alone, a great skeptic and satirist, who practiced irony with the highest art. Vinje had no home of his own until after his marriage on June 20, 1869. His wife died immediately after the birth of a son, on April 12, 1870. At her burial on April 16 BjÖrnson was present, and taking Vinje's hand ended an estrangement which had existed for some years because of Vinje's unjustly harsh criticism of BjÖrnson's early peasant tales, and other rather personal attacks. Guests, the angel of life and the angel of death. You stand sick, with the incurable disease which caused his death a few months later. Great and wondrous visions, probably (cf. also the following stanza) of the truth of the orthodox faith, which BjÖrnson at the time still firmly held.
Note 49. GOOD CHEER. This poem stood last in the first edition, with the title "Last Song." It is a vigorous, partly humorous, beautiful, true self-characterization of BjÖrnson's position in the life of Christiania and Norway just prior to 1870, and a statement of his ideals and models in the three Scandinavian countries, Grundtvig, Runeberg, and Wergeland. From the beginning of 1865 to the middle of 1867 he had been director of the Theater, and since March, 1866, as editor no less than as author, active in polemics, political and literary. His election early in December, 1869, as president of the Students' Union, was a demonstration in his favor, shortly after which this poem was written. Compare also the poem, Oh, When Will You Stand Forth?, and note thereto. The twelfth and thirteenth stanzas refer to Grundtvig, for whom see Note 57. The fourteenth stanza refers to the Finnish Swedish poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877), whose lyric, ballad, and epic genius was of national importance for Sweden. He was a champion of true freedom and naturalness in literature and life. Wergeland, see Note 78.
Note 50. OLD HELTBERG. Henrik Anton SchjÖtt Heltberg was born February 4, 1806, and died March 2, 1873. In early life he was an active member of Wergeland's Party in the attack on Danish influence, and this spirit ever controlled him, a "power-genius" of independent originality, grotesque appearance, and odd manners. From 1838 he was teacher in various schools, until in his later years he founded in Christiania a Latin School, continued until after 1870, with a course of two years formature pupils, whose ages ranged between sixteen and thirty-five years, the so-called "Student Factory," a higher cramming-school, chiefly preparing for entrance into the University. It was, however, attended also by those who for other reasons wished to learn Latin and Greek. He was a powerful teacher, a uniquely rousing and educating force. I went to a school, etc. When ten years old BjÖrnson was sent to Molde and entered the "Middel-og Real-skole" there, which had only two classes and, when he left it, twenty-eight pupils. In 1850, seventeen years old, he went to Christiania and the "Factory." Prelims, those who had passed only an examination preliminary to the "Norwegian" (not Latin) official examination. Vinje, see Note 48. Jonas Lie, born November 6, 1833; died July 5, 1908; the noted author of novels and tales. Grammar. Heltberg's method was a grammatical short-cut system, to cram Latin and Greek in the shortest time possible. For twenty years he talked about publishing it, and received a grant from the Storting for this purpose. But it was always to be improved, and nothing was published except a fragment after his death.
Note 51. FOR THE WOUNDED. This song was written in 1871, and sung at bazaars which were held in all the cities of Norway in order to raise funds for sending nurses, bandages, and money to the French wounded.
Note 52. LANDFALL. Written in 1872 for a musical festival in Trondhjem, the profits of which were given to aid in the restoration of the Cathedral there. Olaf Trygvason, see Note 10.
Note 53. TO HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN. Although Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) traveled frequently and far in the earlier years, he made after 1863 only one journey out of Denmark. This was to Norway, to receive the homage of the brother-nation. BjÖrnson had been quite intimate with him, both personally in Copenhagen and especially in Rome, and by correspondence. Andersen's genius was misjudged and condemned by the Danish critic Heiberg (see Note 7), but his very lack of the then prevailing Danish qualities made BjÖrnson admire and sympathize with him. A fairy-tale. Andersen's chief work, Tales told for Children, appeared in 1835; his New Tales and Stories in 1858-61.
Note 54. To STANG. Fredrik Stang (born March 4, 1808; died June 8, 1884) was an active and successful lawyer from 1834 to 1845. In the latter year he became Secretary of the then established Department of the Interior, beginning a most meritorious career and opening a new era in Norway's internal development. By him industry and trade were made freer, the sea-fisheries and agriculture fostered, roads built, the postal service was improved, the flrst telegraph line and the first railroad were instituted. He retired because of illness in 1854. But after the great minister-crisis of December, 1861, he presided over the Norwegian government until the summer of 1873, when, after the abolition of the viceroyship, he was made Prime Minister and continued as such until 1880. He was a thorough conservative, a member of the Right, and so opposed to the political ideals cherished by Sverdrup (see Note 45) and BjÖrnson. For the opening lines compare the poem Toast for the Men of Eidsvold, and notes thereto.
Note 55. ON A WIFE's DEATH. In memory of Queen Louisa (1828-1871), consort of King Karl XV of Sweden and Norway. A princess of the Netherlands, whose mother was the sister of Emperor William I, she was married in 1850o, and died March 30, 1871. She bore a son on December 4, 1852, who died March 13, 1854. In November, 1870, she was called to her dying mother in The Hague. Karl XV died in September, 1872, after several years of precarious health. Queen Louisa was an unassuming, truly noble woman of deeply religious feeling and large benevolence.
Note 56. AT THE BIER OF PRECENTOR A. REITAN. Anders JÖrgensen Reitan, a peasant, was born July 26, 1826, and died August 30, 1872. After attending the Teachers' Seminary, he took up this calling, and in 1853 became precentor (and teacher) in Kvikne, BjÖrnson's birthplace. He remained in this position the rest of his life, making himself, by his influence at meetings, through lectures, and in visits from farm to farm, a pioneer in popular enlightenment, an important bearer of culture. He was a member of the Storting for the term 1871-73, but was seriously ill a large part of the session of 1871, and in April, 1872, received leave of absence. He died in Christiania.
Note 57. ON THE DEATH OF N. F. S. GRUNDTVIG. Few men have so influenced the spiritual development of Denmark, and indeed that of all Scandinavia, as Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, the noted Danish theologian, historian, and poet (born September 8, 1783; died September 2, 1872). He made a name for himself early by historical, mythological, religious, and poetical writings. He successfully opposed the rationalistic thought of the earlier nineteenth century with his simple exposition of Christianity according to the pure teachings of Jesus. His effort was to present to Scandinavia Christianity in a popular form, closely connected with the national thought of the time. There gathered about him a host of able and enthusiastic followers, through whom his religious and political influence extended over all the North. His characteristic religious views were, as a system, called Grundtvigianism. For the Church his ideal was a church of the people with wholly independent congregations. For the nations his ideal was a free, vigorous civic life. As member of the Danish parliament for many years he showed his intense patriotism by his liberal activity and by his participation in the struggle with Germany for Schleswig-Holstein. He rendered great service also in the reform of education, in particular as founder of the uniquely valuable "folk-high-schools" (see Note 65). BjÖrnson was a Grundtvigian until 1877, having heard Gruntvig speak in Christiania in 1851, and having come under his personal influence in Copenhagen during the winter of 1856-57 and the following spring. It was Grundtvig's writings on history and mythology that led BjÖrnson to deeper study of the Old Norse sagas and poetry. It was Gruntvigianism that, especially through its faith in the power of renewal and in the resurrection of what must first die away, vitalized BjÖrnson's religious faith and practical philosophy of life. BjÖrnson once said: "Grundtvig and Goethe are my two poles," and in a speech in 1902: "There is a poet who has exerted the greatest influence on my development—old Grundtvig." Sibyl. In The Sibyl's Prophecy, a poem of the Elder Edda, she (according to one reading of the text) sinks from sight after foretelling the passing away of this world and the coming of a new and better one.
Note 58. AT A BANQUET FOR PROFESSOR LUDV. KR. DAA. The historian, geographer, ethnologist, publicist, editor, and political leader, Ludvig Kristensen Daa, was born August 19, 1809, and died June 12, 1877. As a friend of Wergeland he was a liberal of the old stamp, later an ardent supporter of the Sverdrup-BjÖrnson policies, and elected three times to the Storting. He was early a leader of the National party among the students. Too independent ever to submit wholly to party control, he was always more or less in opposition. In the flourishing times of Scandinavism he was prominent and of excellent influence. Because of his political opposition to the Conservative government of Stang, he did not receive the merited University professorship of history until 1863. Although feared as a caustic writer by all, he was warm-hearted and in reality a noble personality, one of the most original and best figures in the modern history of Norway. This poem must have been written soon after 1870.
Note 59. OH, WHEN WILL YOU STAND FORTH? Written early (in February?) in 1872. For the mood of this poem compare the poem Good Cheer, and notes thereto, and some of the notes to the poem To Johan Sverdrup. The years just before and after 1870 were a time of intense conflicts, in all of which BjÖrnson had a large part. His personality was fanatically admired by many adherents, but was also bitterly attacked even with misrepresentation and slander, by those who supported the party of the Right. He was almost persecuted by the leading Conservative newspaper in Christiania, whose editor was in large measure the model for the title-hero of BjÖrnson's drama, The Editor, written soon after. Hafur, see Note 5.
Note 60. AT HANSTEEN'S BIER. The astronomer and physicist, Christopher Hansteen, was born September 26, 1784, and died April 15, 1873; he was buried April 21. Made lecturer in 1814, he was professor of astronomy and applied mathematics in the University until his retirement in 1861. He was the leader of the world's study of magnetism, and made Christiania the clearing-house of the labors in this field of science. The earliest Norwegian scientist of world- wide fame, he was a member of many learned societies and the recipient of many Orders.
Note 61. RALLYING SONG FOR FREEDOM IN THE NORTH. "The United Left' is here the liberal, democratic party of the Lower House (Folketing) of the Danish Parliament. As earlier, 1868-69, in Norway, a constitutional conflict had now begun in Denmark, which continued with acute crises at intervals until the compromise of 1894 and the accession of the Left to control of the government in 1901. The theme of the poem is the parallel between the political movements in the two countries, the union of the peasant opposition with that of the town-people in favor of a liberal policy. The power of truth to prevail is also set forth by BjÖrnson in his later drama, The New System.
Note 62. AT A BANQUET. The coronation was that of Oskar II, as King of Norway. Olaf, Olaf Trygvason, see Note 10.
Note 63. SONG OF FREEDOM. See the poem, Rallying Song, etc., and notes thereto.
Note 64. TO MOLDE. This poem, begun in 1878, was finished the next year in Copenhagen. BjÖrnson attended a school in Molde from his eleventh to his eighteenth year. The varied beauty, not too grand and not too somber, of the scenery about Molde left on him indelible impressions.
Note 65. HAMAR-MADE MATCHES. To this poem BjÖrnson appended a note: "The founder of Norway's first folk-high-school, Herman Anker, built later in Hamar a match factory [the first large one in the country], the product of which was quickly distributed in Norway and offered for sale on the street with the cry: 'Here your Hamar-made matches!' The poem is a sort of allegorical comparison of these two 'works of enlightenment' from the hand of the same man." Herman Anker (1839-96) studied theology, and after the death of his father, a wholesale merchant, inherited a very comsiderably fortune, which he applied mostly to cultural purposes. With O. Arvesen he founded in 1864 the first Norwegian folk-high-school at Sagatun, near Hamar. Folk-high-schools are schools for adult men and women, where the instruction aims directly at making good citizens. The method of instruction is "historical," but the teacher's personality is all- important in relation to the pupil's individuality. The subjects are the country's language and history, history of the world, mathematics and physics, besides the elementary subjects; physical exercise is also made important. The home of these schools is Denmark, whence they spread to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Danes in North America. Originated by N. F. S. Grundtvig (see Note 57), who began to plan them early in the nineteenth century as part of the national restoration of Denmark after 1813-14, the first was opened in 1844 at RÖdding in Jutland. Since 1861 these schools have received women during the summer, May to August, and men from November to April. Many were established after 1864, which have flourished in the country, but not in the cities. Quite a few were started in Norway, and all were highly successful for some years.
Note 66. THE PURE NORWEGIAN FLAG. The poems here grouped were written in 1879 during the active beginning of the so-called "Flag-conflict" in behalf of the removal from the flag of Norway the mark of union with Sweden. For a description of the flags of Norway and Sweden, see Note 6. The history of the flag of Norway is briefly this: In 1748 the use of the Dannebrog (see Note 25) was fixed by law for Denmark and Norway. In February, 1814, a decree of Prince Regent Christian Frederik made Norway's flag to be the Dannebrog with Norway's arms (a crowned lion bearing an axe) in the upper square nearest the staff. Article 11 of the Constitution of 1814 declared: Norway shall have its own merchant-flag; its war-flag shall be a union-flag. Because of the Barbary Coast pirates, however, the Swedish flag with the mark of union was used south of Cape Finisterre, and north of it Christian Frederik's Norwegian flag. In 1821 the present pure Norwegian flag was established by Royal resolution as the merchant-flag, to be used north of Cape Finisterre; in 1838 its use was extended by the King to all waters. The war-flag was still the Swedish flag with a union-mark consisting of a white diagonal cross on a red ground. In 1844 King Oskar I by resolution decreed that both the merchant-flag and the war-flag of Norway should be the flag of 1821, with the addition of a mark of union. There was at once some criticism of the union-mark in the merchant-flag, but in general the situation was quietly accepted for a generation. This was due to Scandinavism, which began to flourish soon after 1844. Towards 1870, however (i.e., after 1864), Scandinavism lost its force, and the pure flag began to be used within Norway more and more. The real conflict began in 1879 with a motion in the Storting on February 17 to reËnact the flag-law of 1821. There was bitter opposition from Conservatives in Norway, and naturally from Sweden, and the conflict gradually broadened to embrace everything involved in the union with Sweden, in proportion as the national spirit of Norway was quickened and strengthened. The famous flag-meeting in Christiania on March 13, 1879, and BjÖrnson's speech there were the first decisive blow. Essentially the law of 1821 was passed by three Stortings, in 1893, 1896, and 1898, and proclaimed as law without the King's sanction. Thor's hammer-mark. Thor's weapon was a hammer=the blue lightning. The symbol of this was the T-mark, to which shape the name cross has also been given; this mark was much used in the viking period as a sign of Thor's protection. In the flag the blue cross is within a white cross on a red ground. Colors of freedom. On the institution of the flag of 1821, its red, white, and blue were especially acceptable in Norway, as being the colors characteristic of free states, typified by the French tricolor. Torgny, see Note 6. Ridderstad. The author and journalist, Karl Fredrik Ridderstad (1807-1886), who had published in his newspaper a conciliatory poem in defense of the Swedish view, to which BjÖrnson here makes answer.
Note 67. TO MISSIONARY SKREFSRUD IN SANTALISTAN. Written in 1879. Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, born in Gudbrandstal in 1840, at first a metal worker, led for a time a wild life, and was committed under a sentence of four years to a penitentiary, where he remained from February, 1859, to October, 1861. Here he underwent a complete inner transformation and resolved to become a Christian missionary. Rejected by the Norwegian missionary institutions, he went in 1862 to Berlin, and entered a School for Missions there. He supported himself by work as an engraver, and by unflagging private study acquired learning and the knowledge of languages. He went to a German Mission in India, which he left in January, 1866. In 1867 he began his independent work in Santalistan. Here his persistence and success attracted the attention and support of the English, and thus he gradually became known and esteemed in his native land, where a Santalistan Society was formed to aid his undertakings. In 1882 he was duly ordained as clergyman by a bishop of the State Church. In 1873 he published a grammar and in 1904 a dictionary of the language of Santalistan. I do not share your faith. The memorable speech which BjÖrnson delivered to the students in Christiania on October 31, 1877, the anniversary of Luther's posting his theses in Wittenberg, revealed that after a hard inner struggle he had freed himself from the religious faith of his early life. The theme of his speech "Be in the truth!" showed that for him henceforth the supreme thing was freedom of thought and fidelity to the truth as expanding development might manifest it to the individual. Liberal in thought from the beginning, BjÖrnson departed more and more, not least through the influence of Grundtvig, from the strict dogmatic orthodoxy of the State Church. The study of Darwin, Spencer, Mill, and Comte led him still farther on to a position which may be called that of the agnostic theist, that of Spencer, who does not deny God, but says ignoramus. We may recall the late utterance of BjÖrnson, quoted above: "Grundtvig and Goethe are my two poles." It was the dogma of Hell, the teaching of eternal damnation and punishment, that began BjÖrnson's breach with the Church. He saw how this doctrine enslaved and dwarfed the souls of the peasants, and blighted all liberal development, both personal and political.
Note 68. POST FESTUM. BjÖrnson was a decided opponent of the whole system of decorations and orders, royal and other. Here he attacks the Swedish polar explorer, A. E. von NordenskjÖld (November 18, 1832-August 20, 1901), who earlier had taken the same stand. After NordenskjÖld had successfully made the Northern Passage, there was a great formal reception for him on his return to Stockholm, April 24, 1880, at which King Oskar II decorated him. He also received similar honors from most of the rulers of Europe.
Note 69. ROMSDAL. Written in 1880 on a lecture tour along the western coast. The scenery and the people described BjÖrnson knew intimately from his boyhood's years at Nes and in Molde, and from later visits to his parents at the former place. Collin says: "The whole poem fits like a frame about the poet and his life-work . … Both with its [Norway's scenery's] violence and brusqueness and with its surprising gentleness BjÖrnson has kinship." The last line of the poem includes the poet himself.
Note 70. HOLGER DRACHMANN. Probably written in 1879. This Danish productive author (and painter), best known as lyric poet and novelist, was born in 1846 and died in 1908. Here he received from BjÖrnson a reply to verses of homage addressed by him to the latter in 1878. Drachmann's early years were turbulent and revolutionary, full of feuds with everybody. He belonged to the literary and esthetic Left, opposing all existing institutions. BjÖrnson's characterization exhibits Drachmann at the height of his poetic production. His most popular prose book had recently stirred the Danish national heart and roused the spirit of Scandinavism. The collections of his poems: Songs by the Sea, Tendrils and Roses, Youth in Poem and Song, he never surpassed. Perhaps the best were the group of Venetian Songs, written in Venice in the spring of 1876, to which time belongs also his finest story, Two Shots. During the next decade Drachmann underwent an extreme conservative reaction, but about 1890 returned again to his youthful passion for rebellion, romantic radicalism, and the religion of esthetic freedom.
Note 71. A MEETING. Hans Thorvald Brecke was born December 1, 1847, and died June 9, 1875. As student from 1864 to 1870 he wrote several witty student comedies, and is described as a remarkably charming personality. In 1871 he became judge's clerk in Molde, and here had one bright and happy year. Against the disease which showed itself in the fall of 1872 he contended in vain. This poem was probably written in the latter part of 1875.
Note 72. THE POET. This poem, the following Psalms, and Question and Answer conclude the second edition of Poems and Songs, which was published April 29, 1880. They were probably written late in 1879 or very early in 1880. In a crisis of renewed litetary and political attacks upon him, the poet BjÖrnson, under the inspiration of his motto "Be in the truth!" (see Note 67), proclaims the mission to which he is called: To be in religion and life, political and social, the liberator of his people from falsehood and ignorance, and the comforting helper of all who suffer.
Note 73. SONG FOR NORWAY'S RIFLEMEN. In 1881 the constitutional conflict between the Left and the Right over the nature of the King's veto had become acute. The question was whether the veto-power was suspensive or absolute as to amendments of the Constitution. The Left maintained that it was only suspensive, and the conflict was ended in favor of this view by the Supreme Court in 1884; an amendment enacted by three independently elected Stortings is valid without the King's sanction. This poem shows that the people were preparing to defend their right by force in the spirit of BjÖrnson's often quoted words in his electoral campaign speech about the same time at Sticklestad: "If any one says that the monarchy [the King] declares it [he] cannot give up the absolute veto, you must answer openly: 'Then the Norwegian people must give up the monarchy [the King].'"
Note 74. WORKMEN'S MARCH. Published in the third edition of 1890, and written not long before for the Workmen's Union in Christiania. It is a plea for the universal franchise and party organization. VardÖ = northernmost, Viken and Vinger = southernmost Norway.
Note 75. THE LAND THAT SHALL BE. See the poem Hamar-made Matches, and notes thereto.
Note 76. NORWAY, NORWAY! First published in the edition of 1890. The poet has himself stated that he wrote it at Aulestad, on being asked to furnish a song for the flag-procession of boys and girls on the 17th of May (see Note 4). Runes in the woodlands, as it were written records of the labors of past generations.
Note 77. WHEN COMES THE MORNING? From the novel, ln God's Way, published in 1889.
Note 78. MAY SEVENTEENTH. In memory of the unveiling of Henrik Wergeland's statue in Christiania on the 17th of May, 1881, when BjÖrnson also delivered a great oration. Henrik Arnold Wergeland was born June 17, 1808, in Christiansand, and died August 12, 1845, in Christiania. Though he studied theology, he devoted his life to poetry and politics. His earliest writings, farces and poems, showed powerful, but uncontrolled, genius. His great popularity began in 1829 with his active entrance into public life. He labored for the enlightemnent of his people through his writings and his personal influence in journeyings all over the land, and especially through speeches at political meetings. His chief poetic work, the rationalistic-republican didactic poem, Creation, Man, and Messiah, appeared in 1830. It was severely criticised in a special, polemical writing by Welhaven (see Note 36), who continued his attack on all Wergeland's views and teachings in his Norway's Dawn. Thus arose the Wergeland-Welhaven conflict, which was carried on hotly for many years by their adherents, and contributed much to the intellectual development of the nation. Wergeland was very productive as editor, publicist, and poet. In 1840 he was appointed Keeper of the Archives, and held this government office until his death. In his own time Wergeland was in spirit the head of the radical- national "Peasant party," which was indeed patriotic and democratic, but too narrowly Norwegian, in opposition to all that was Danish, European, foreign. During the years preceding 1881 he had come to be in the constitutional conflict a national hero, the idol of the peasants, as their political power increased. Come now the peasants. In this volume of translations "peasant" is the rendering of the Norwegian word "bonde." The meaning is "farmer," i.e., in general the independrnt owner of land, which he cultivates and on which he lives. In Norway the conditions have for many centuries been more favorable for the "peasant" than in any other European country; this is due to the topography and to the absence of a powerful nobility. At the present time scarcely one- twentieth of the tilled area in Norway is cultivated by tenants. The Norwegian "peasants" have always had great self-consciousness in the best sense, and importance in the political, economic, and social life of the country, especially since the adoption of the democratic Constitution of 1814. Very often the "peasants" have an aristocratic pride in a lineage traced back to ancient "kings," and in their own distinctively "Norse" culture. Österdal's … chieftain, a peasant of large stature, named Hjelmstad, a radical member of the Storting. The old banner. A flag much used in earlier times as specifically Norwegian, dating back to King Erik (1280-1299), before the union with Demnark, showed on a red ground a lion wearing a golden crown and bearing an axe. As late as 1698 it flew over the fortress Akershus in Christiania. The future, i.e., the independence realized in 1905 through the dissolution of the union with Sweden.
Note 79. FREDERIK HEGEL. This poem is the last in the third edition (1890), for which it seems to have been written. Hegel (1817-1887) was from 1850 the head of the Gyldendal publishing house in Copenhagen. BjÖrnson made his acquaintance in 1860, and, beginning with King Sverre in 1861, Hegel became BjÖrnson's publisher. In 1865 BjÖrnson's influence secured to him Ibsen's works, and later those of Lie and many other Norwegian authors. The cultural dependence of Norway upon Denmark for centuries had prevented the prosperous growth of the publishing business in the former country, whose leading publisher went into bankruptcy soon after 1860. That BjÖrnson thus went to Copenhagen with his books may seem to have been a blow to the cause of Norwegian independence, and to have delayed the rise of a thriving, stable business, but on the other hand BjÖrnson's action and influence contributed greatly to establish for perhaps half a century a certain dominance of the Norwegian spirit in all Scandinavia. For BjÖrnson personally, as his correspondence with Hegel shows, it was certainly a great good fortune to gain Hegel as his publisher and later as his friend. This Hegel was to all his authors in the most faithful, self-sacrificing way, and no less their valued financial adviser.
Note 80. OUR LANGUAGE. Written in defense of the Norwegian-Danish speech of the cultured classes and of the cities in Norway, the result of development and tradition through several centuries, the so-called Riksmaal (language of the kingdom) or Bymaal (city-language). This, and with it the higher spiritual interests of the nation, seemed to BjÖrnson to be endangered by the agitation in behalf of the Landsmaal (rural language). The Landsmaal arose from a movement after 1814, to make Norway independent of Denmark in language also. The rural dialects were regarded as more purely Norwegian; on them and the Old Norse as a basis was constructed somewhat artificially this standard rural language. It has been gradually perfected, and is now, in fact, spoken and written a good deal. BjÖrnson advocated rather the natural process of making the language of the country more national by gradually introducing dialect words and reforming the orthography. He thought that the Riksmaal thus modified alone could preserve, increase, and transmit the treasures of culture. Hald=Fredrikshald, see Note 5. Holberg, see Note 19. Kierkegaard. SÖren Aaby Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was the most subtle and profound thinker produced by Denmark, with a prose style noble, poetic, and eloquent. His writings deal with religion, ethics, and esthetics, and present his individual, ideal conception of Christianity. Wergeland, see Note 78.
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Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
eBooks Year Month
1 1971 July 10 1991 January 100 1994 January 1000 1997 August 1500 1998 October 2000 1999 December 2500 2000 December 3000 2001 November 4000 2001 October/November 6000 2002 December* 9000 2003 November* 10000 2004 January*
We need your donations more than ever!
As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones that have responded.
As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
In answer to various questions we have received on this:
We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, just ask.
While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to donate.
International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are ways.
Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment method other than by check or money order.
We need your donations more than ever!
You can get up to date donation information online at:
/donation.html
***
Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
We would prefer to send you information by email.
**The Legal Small Print**
(Three Pages)
***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that time to the person you received it from. If you received it on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement copy. If you received it electronically, such person may choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to receive it electronically.
THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you may have other legal rights.
[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, including any form resulting from conversion by word processing or hypertext software, but only so long as *EITHER*:
[*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and does *not* contain characters other than those intended by the author of the work, although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may be used to convey punctuation intended by the author, and additional characters may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays the eBook (as is the case, for instance, with most word processors); OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this "Small Print!" statement.
If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: hart@pobox.com
*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
