VIKTOR RYDBERG.
DEXIPPOS.
The poem bears as its title the name of a Grecian historian, who flourished at the time of the invasion of the Goths, one episode of which is here described, the poet dating the event 267 A.D.
1. Pallas' stad, i.e. Athens, whose tutelary goddess was Pallas Athene.
8. örnar, the eagle-shaped figures used as standards in the Roman army. That emblem of imperialism had been the ensign of the kings of Babylon and of the Ptolemies. The Romans adopted it in conjunction with other devices, but Marius made it the ensign of the legion, and confined the other devices to the cohorts. It has remained to this day the preëminent sign of power in coats of arms, whether of monarchies, empires or republics. See U.S. seal and ensigns.
järn, here, the swords and lances of the legions.
24. The Corybant priests of the goddess Cybele in Phrygia, Asia Minor, worshiped by means of boisterous music and frantic dances.
27. Befriarn Dionysos. Dionysus, the god of wine and vineyards and of dramatic poetry, was styled Liberator (from care). Note the effective application of the same epithet in the personifications following.
39. som Dodonas gamla ek. The simile refers to the famous oracle at Dodona, in Epirus, dedicated to Zevs. The oracular answers were supposed to be derived from the whispering of the breezes in the crown of a great sacred oak.
Dodonas ekar talade fordomdags,
ur helga skuggor stammades ödets dom.
(Dodona's oaks aforetime their message spake;
Prom sacred shadows stammering Fate's decree.)
TEGNÉR'S "Träden."
42. The three great commanders and statesmen here named flourished about 500-450 B.C. and their achievements were still fresh in the memory of the Athenians after more than two hundred years, hence, (43) de leva ännu—de stå mig när. Great as these heroes were, the hyperbole in line 41, då en värld befriades, is obvious.
45. Kerameikos, the old Potters' Quarter in Athens, transformed into one of the finest parts of the city, with a wide square or plaza which is here specifically meant.
46. pyrririsk vapendans—the ancient Pyrrhic dance was performed to the music of flutes, by armed men simulating a hand to hand battle.
63. ett panateneiskt festtåg—the Panathenaea was the most ancient and important festival of Athens, celebrated in honor of the goddess Athena, in part by a festive procession to her temple in the center of the Acropolis.
75. falang—the Greek phalanx was a body of heavily armed infantry formed in close ranks and files varying from four to twenty-five ranks deep.
76. tyrteiska hymnen, a martial hymn by the ancient Spartan poet Tyrtaeus who flourished in the seventh century B.C.
81 ff. The Song of the Athenians is written in distich form, a strophic group of two lines; this was a favorite form for elegiac and other solemn poetry.
93 ff. The Song of the Goths is characterized both by the irregularity of old German verse and the alliteration of the Eddic poetry of Scandinavia. It forms a striking contrast to the careful chiseling of the Greek verse.
94. nickar here implies not only a nodding or swaying motion but a command, as expressed in what follows. Thus, the pine tree of the North, like the oak of Dodona, is voicing the decree of destiny.
112. lekt Maraton. The beating off of the Goths on this occasion, however, did not prove as decisive a battle as that of Marathon. Not until their defeat by Claudius in the battle of Naissus two years later did the Goths cease to harass and devastate Greece and other territories of the Roman empire inadequately protected by its legions (see line 8).
I KLOSTERCELLEN.
4. kodex, manuscript in text hand on parchment, usually containing some portion of Scripture or of classic literature.
19-20. By conserving classic learning the monks during medieval times nurtured the seeds of culture from which was to spring the Reformation of the Church and its concomitant, the civilization of the modern age. Cf. lines 14-16.
24. Platos himmel och Perikles' republik.—What the poet here refers to as "Plato's heaven" may be briefly defined as the ideal world (as conceived in his philosophy), dominated by the highest of all ideas, that of absolute good. But the ideal good in Plato's philosophy did not mean a personal God, hence a purely religious conception of heaven was not a part of his system.
Pericles, though himself of aristocratic birth, was the protagonist of democracy in Greece, in opposition to Cimon, who through his influence was exiled 460 B.C. The republic subsequently established by Pericles was in fact, according to the contemporary historian Thucydides, an autocracy by common consent.—-The line has reference to the activity of the learned friars, especially of the Renaissance period, in reduplicating copies of the remnants of the old Greek literature, thereby saving to the world the knowledge of Greek thought and Greek institutions.
30-32. The closing lines present, as does the poem as a whole, a picture of the entire period known as the Middle Ages.
SNÖFRID.
Snöfrid is a mythical being idealized by Rydberg into a guiding genius pointing the way of ambition, strife and self-sacrifice, while most poets dealing with similar characters, so common in literature, make them out wanton and seductive agencies of destruction, like the sirens.
35. troll i dvärgaham, dwarflike trolls. Hamn, shape, apparition, is sometimes, and probably more correctly, written ham; so also by LEVERTIN in En gammal nyårsvisa:
som en svart och spöklik ham sorgens fåle dröjer.
99. ju himlen närmare, for ju närmare himlen, is a poetic innovation; ju and desto, as conjunctions, immediately precede the comparative form of the adjective.
109-10. Allusion to the Eddic song Voluspá, stanzas 8 and 63, where it is said of the gods:
8. Guldtavel på gården de glade lekte —allt av guld de i överflöd hade.
63. Därefter varda de underbara guldtavlorna i gräset funna, dem de i urtiden ägt hade.
TOMTEN.
9. Står där så grå—the frequent omission of the subject (cf. lines 17, 21, 25, 33), in imitation of an ancient manner, lends quaintness and an antiquated air to the poem.
67. Rhyming and stressing the pronoun som is a breach of the rules of good style rare in the polished and precise diction of Rydberg.
75-76. Prose order: blott bruset av forsens fall höres helt sakta från fjärran.
85. Månen sänker sin tysta ban—a poetic ellipse; supply sig på after sänker.
I NATTEN.
11-15. A poetic vision of rare beauty, exquisitely expressed. Note the hush in the onomatopoetic line, sövd av sorlande källans sus.