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

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.