Poems and Songs by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (classic books for 11 year olds TXT) 📖

/> 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