________________________________________________
_ 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. _
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