The last few years in Sweden have been a period of political rather than literary activity, yielding comparatively few works of high aesthetic value, Rydborg, a statesman and metaphysician, has produced a powerful work of fiction, "The Last Athenian," and other works of minor importance have been produced in various departments of literature.
LITERATURE OF NORWAY.—Norway cannot be said to have had a literature distinct from the Danish until after its union with Sweden in 1814. The period from that time to the present has been one of great literary activity in all departments, and many distinguished names might be mentioned, among them that of Björnson (b. 1832), whose tales have been extensively translated. Jonas Lie who enjoys a wide popularity, Camilla Collett, and Magdalene Thoresen are also favorite writers. Wergeland and Welhaven were two distinguished poets of the first half of the century. Kielland is an able novelist of the realistic school, and Professor Boyesen is well known in the United States for his tales and poems in English. Henrick Ibsen is the most distinguished dramatic writer of Norway and belongs to the realistic school. Among other writers of the present time are Börjesson whose "Eric XIV." is a masterpiece of Swedish drama; Tekla Knös, a poetess whose claims have been sanctioned by the Academy; and Claude Gérard (nom de plume), very popular as a novelist. Charles XV. and Oscar II. are poets of merit.
GERMAN LITERATURE.
INTRODUCTION.—1. German Literature and its Divisions.—2. The Mythology. —3. The Language.
PERIOD FIRST.—1. Early Literature; Translation of the Bible by Ulphilas; the Hildebrand Lied.—2. The Age of Charlemagne; his Successors; the Ludwig's Lied; Roswitha; the Lombard Cycle.—3. The Suabian Age; the Crusades; the Minnesingers; the Romances of Chivalry; the Heldenbuch; the Nibelungen Lied.—4. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries; the Mastersingers; Satires and Fables; Mysteries and Dramatic Representations; the Mystics; the Universities; the Invention of Printing.
PERIOD SECOND.—From 1517 to 1700.—1. The Lutheran Period: Luther,
Melanchthon.—2. Manuel, Zwingle, Fischart, Franck, Arnd, Boehm.—3.
Poetry, Satire, and Demonology; Paracelsus and Agrippa; the Thirty Years'
War.—4. The Seventeenth Century: Opitz, Leibnitz, Puffendorf, Kepler,
Wolf, Thomasius, Gerhard; Silesian Schools; Hoffmannswaldau, Lohenstein.
PERIOD THIRD.—1. The Swiss and Saxon Schools: Gottsched, Bodmer, Rabener,
Gellert, Kästner, and others.—2. Klopstock, Lessing, Wieland, and Herder.
—3. Goethe and Schiller.—4. The Göttingen School: Voss, Stolberg,
Claudius, Bürger, and others.—5. The Romantic School: the Schlegels,
Novalis; Tieck, Körner, Arndt, Uhland, Heine, and others.—6. The Drama:
Goethe and Schiller; the Power Men; Müllner, Werner, Howald, and
Grillparzer.—7. Philosophy: Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer,
and Hartmann; Science: Liebig, Du Bois-Raymond, Virchow, Helmholst,
Haeckel.—8. Miscellaneous Writings.
INTRODUCTION.
1. GERMAN LITERATURE AND ITS DIVISIONS.—Central Europe, from the Adriatic to the Baltic, is occupied by a people who, however politically divided as respects language and race, form but one nation. The name Germans is that given to them by the Romans; the appellation which they apply to themselves is Deutsch, a term derived from Teutones, by which they were generally known, as also by the term Goths, in the early history of Europe.
In glancing at the various phases of German literature, we see the bards at first uttering in primitive strains their war songs and traditions. The introduction of Christianity brought with it the cultivation of the classic languages, although the people had no part in this learned literature, which was confined to the monasteries and schools. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, letters, so long monopolized by the clergy, passed from their hands to those of the princes and nobles; and in the next century the songs of the minnesingers gave way to the pedantic craft of the mastersingers.