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Bjornstjerne Bjornson >> Poems and Songs
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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.
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