Fritiofs Saga

by Esaias Tegnér

I.

In the personality of Esaias Tegnér the vigor and idealism of the Swedish people find their completest and most brilliant incarnation. A deep love of the grandeurs of nature, keen delight in adventure and daring deeds, a charming juvenility of spirit that at least in the prime of his life caused him to battle bravely and hopefully for great ideas, a clearness of perception and integrity of purpose that abhor shams and narrow prejudices and with reckless frankness denounce evils and abuses, a disposition tending at times to brooding and melancholy, all these elements, combined in Tegnér, have made him the idealized type of the Swedish people. He was cast in a heroic mold and his countrymen continue to regard him as the completed embodiment of their national ideals. And in the same measure that Tegnér stands forth as an expression of Swedish race characteristics it may be said that Fritiofs Saga is the quintessence of his own sentiments and ideals.

Tegnér, according to his own words, "was born and reared in a remote mountain region where nature herself composes noble but wild music, and where the ancient gods apparently still wander about on winter evenings." His ancestry went back for several generations through the sturdy bonde class, though his father was a preacher and his mother the daughter of a preacher. The father's people dwelt in the province of Småland and the mother's ancestors had lived in the picturesque province of Värmland. The future poet was born on the 13 of November, 1782, at Kyrkerud, Värmland, his father holding a benefice in that province. While he was yet a mere child of nine the father died and the family was left in poverty. A friend of the Tegnér family, the judicial officer Branting, gave the young Esaias a home in his house. The lad soon wrote a good hand and was given a desk and a high, three-legged chair in the office. Branting took a fancy to the young clerk and soon fell into the habit of inviting him to accompany the master upon the many official journeys that had to be made through the bailiwick. Thus Esaias came to see the glories of nature in his native province, and deep and lasting impressions were left upon his mind. His quick imagination was further stirred by the heroic sagas of the North, in the reading of which he at times became so absorbed that the flight of the hours or the passing events were entirely unnoticed by him.

Branting, who had become convinced that his young clerk was by nature endowed for a much higher station than a lowly clerkship offered, generously provided Esaias with an opportunity for systematic study. In 1796 he wrote a good friend in whose home an elder brother of Esaias was then acting as tutor, suggesting that the younger brother be given a home there also and thus have the advantage of the brother's tutelage. A ready acquiescence meeting this proposal, Esaias now went to Malma, the home of Captain Löwenhjelm, and at once plunged into the study of Latin, French and Greek under the brother's guidance. Independently of the instructor he at the same time acquired a knowledge of English and read principally the poems of Ossian, which greatly delighted him.

The following year the elder brother accepted a more profitable position as tutor in the family of the great iron manufacturer Myhrman at Rämen in Värmland and thither Esaias accompanied him. Here he could drink deep from the fountain of knowledge for at Rämen he found a fine library of French, Latin and Greek classics. He worked prodigiously and this, coupled with a remarkably retentive memory, enabled him to make remarkably rapid progress in his studies. He would have remained in the library all the time poring over his dear classic authors but for the fortunate intervention of the young members of the Myhrman family, seven in all, who frequently would storm into his room and carry him off by sheer force to their boisterous frolics. To one of these playmates, Anna Myhrman, the youngest daughter of the family, he soon became attached by the tender ties of love.

In 1799 Tegnér was enabled, through the generosity of Branting and Myhrman, to repair to Lund and enter the university of that place. Here he made a brilliant record as a student, particularly in the classics, and after three years he was awarded the master's degree. In recognition of his remarkable scholarship he was soon after made instructor in aesthetics, secretary to the faculty of philosophy and assistant librarian. In 1806 he claimed Anna Myhrman as his bride.

We have the testimony of Tegnér himself that already as a child he began to write poetry, in fact these efforts began so early in his life that he could not remember when he for the first time exercised the power that later was to win him an abiding fame. As early as his clerkship days in the office of Branting he wrote a poem in Alexandrine verse with the subject taken from the Old Norse sagas. His numerous productions before 1808 attracted little attention and failed to get any prize for the young author. But in the above mentioned year he sprang into immediate popularity by the stirring "War Song of the Scanian Reserves" (Krigssång för skånska lantvärnet), the Marseillaise of the Swedish nation. Sweden had just suffered great reverses in war, her very existence as an independent power seemed to hang in the balance, and confusion and discouragement were evident on every hand. Then came Tegnér's patriotic bugle blast, stirring the nation to renewed hope and courage. Speaking of this poem Professor Boyesen says: "As long as we have wars we must have martial bards and with the exception of the German Theodore Körner I know none who can bear comparison with Tegnér. English literature can certainly boast no war poem which would not be drowned in the mighty music of Tegnér's 'Svea', 'The Scanian Reserves', and that magnificent dithyrambic declamation, 'King Charles, the Young Hero'. Tennyson's 'Charge of the Light Brigade' is technically a finer poem than anything Tegnér has written, but it lacks the deep, virile bass, the tremendous volume of breath and voice, and the captivating martial lilt which makes the heart beat willy nilly to the rhythm of the verse" (Essays on Scandinavian Literature, 233).

The ability evinced by Tegnér as an instructor, but principally the enthusiasm aroused by his "Song to the Scanian Reserves", gave him in 1810 a call to the Greek professorship at Lund. He did not, however, enter into this position until 1812.

In the meantime Tegnér had given to his native land the solemn didactic poem "Svea". In stately Alexandrine verse he scathingly rebukes his countrymen for their foolish aping after foreign manners and depending on foreign goods to satisfy their desires. The people, says the poet, can become strong again only by a return to the simple life and homely virtues of the great past. Not on the arena of war but through faithful endeavor in industry, science and art may the Swedish people restore to their fatherland its former power and glory. As though transported by this noble thought into a state of ecstasy, the bard then, in the concluding portion of the poem, pictures in magnificent dithyrambic song the titanic struggle that ensues and enthrones Peace as the beneficent ruler of the land. "Svea" won the prize of the Swedish Academy and firmly established Tegnér in the affection of his countrymen.

The most productive and brilliant period of Tegnér's literary activity is contemporaneous with his incumbency of the Greek professorship at Lund (1812-1824). In this period he enriches Swedish literature with a series of lyrics which still rank among the best both in point of lucidity of thought and brilliance of diction. Only a few that stand out most prominently in a list of about one hundred poems from this period can receive mention here.

The intolerance and bitterness of the reaction that followed close upon the downfall of Napoleon and found its cruel instrument of oppression in the Holy Alliance aroused the bitter opposition of Tegnér. His vision was not obscured, a fate that befell so many in that day, but he saw clearly the nobility and necessity of tolerance, freedom and democracy. It is to the great glory of Tegnér that he consistently used his brilliant powers in battling against the advancing forces of obscurantism and tyranny. His enlightened and humanitarian ideas find a beautiful utterance in the poem "Tolerance" (Fördragsamhet) which dates from 1808, but later was rewritten and appeared under the title "Voices of Peace" (Fridsröster). In "The Awakened Eagle" (Den vaknade örnen), 1815, he celebrates the return of Napoleon from Elba, The Union of Norway and Sweden stirs Tegnér to write a poem "Nore", a high-minded protest against politics of aggression and a plea for justice and a spirit of fraternity.

In "The New Year 1816" (Nyåret 1816) he scores the Holy Alliance in bitter and sarcastic terms. The liberal ideas of Tegnér are further elucidated in a famous address, delivered in 1817 at the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. In this event the poet saw the unfolding of the great forces that led to the spiritual and intellectual emancipation of man, and ushered in a new era of freedom and progress. The reactionaries in the realm of literature become the object of his attack in "Epilogue at the Master's Presentation" (Epilog vid magisterpromotionen). Other poems of this period, as "The Children of the Lord's Supper" (Nattvardsbarnen), admirably translated by Longfellow, "Axel", the tragic tale of one of the warriors of Charles XII., and his fair Russian bride, "Karl XII", which breathes the defiant spirit not only of the hero king but of the nation, "Address to the Sun" (Sång till solen), an eloquent eulogy to the marvelous beauty of the King of Day, merely served to establish Tegnér more firmly in the affection of the people. But his fame was to be placed on a still firmer foundation when the greatest creation of his fertile mind, Fritiofs Saga, appeared.