Note 48. TO AASMUND OLAFSEN VINJE. Vinje, the son of a poor cottager, was born on a farm in Telemarken, April 6, 1818, and died July 30, 1870. Poverty and his peculiar personality made life hard for him from first to last. Bent on testing all things for himself, he came into conflict with the authorities. He was discharged from a school in Mandal in 1848 because of his scoffing criticism of a religious schoolbook. He went then to Heltberg's School (see Note 50) in Christiania, soon after became a student in the University, and passed the state examination in law in 1856. But his life was devoted to literary pursuits, and he was most gifted as a lyric poet. In 1858 Vinje went over completely to the Landsmaal (see Note 80), and in this form of dialect found his natural medium of expression. In October of the same year he began his weekly paper, Dölen, in which he treated all the current interests. Although one of the most advanced thinkers and keenest combatants in his country's spiritual conflicts, he stood very much alone, a great skeptic and satirist, who practiced irony with the highest art. Vinje had no home of his own until after his marriage on June 20, 1869. His wife died immediately after the birth of a son, on April 12, 1870. At her burial on April 16 Björnson was present, and taking Vinje's hand ended an estrangement which had existed for some years because of Vinje's unjustly harsh criticism of Björnson's early peasant tales, and other rather personal attacks. Guests, the angel of life and the angel of death. You stand sick, with the incurable disease which caused his death a few months later. Great and wondrous visions, probably (cf. also the following stanza) of the truth of the orthodox faith, which Björnson at the time still firmly held.
Note 49. GOOD CHEER. This poem stood last in the first edition, with the title "Last Song." It is a vigorous, partly humorous, beautiful, true self-characterization of Björnson's position in the life of Christiania and Norway just prior to 1870, and a statement of his ideals and models in the three Scandinavian countries, Grundtvig, Runeberg, and Wergeland. From the beginning of 1865 to the middle of 1867 he had been director of the Theater, and since March, 1866, as editor no less than as author, active in polemics, political and literary. His election early in December, 1869, as president of the Students' Union, was a demonstration in his favor, shortly after which this poem was written. Compare also the poem, Oh, When Will You Stand Forth?, and note thereto. The twelfth and thirteenth stanzas refer to Grundtvig, for whom see Note 57. The fourteenth stanza refers to the Finnish Swedish poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877), whose lyric, ballad, and epic genius was of national importance for Sweden. He was a champion of true freedom and naturalness in literature and life. Wergeland, see Note 78.
Note 50. OLD HELTBERG. Henrik Anton Schjött Heltberg was born February 4, 1806, and died March 2, 1873. In early life he was an active member of Wergeland's Party in the attack on Danish influence, and this spirit ever controlled him, a "power-genius" of independent originality, grotesque appearance, and odd manners. From 1838 he was teacher in various schools, until in his later years he founded in Christiania a Latin School, continued until after 1870, with a course of two years formature pupils, whose ages ranged between sixteen and thirty-five years, the so-called "Student Factory," a higher cramming-school, chiefly preparing for entrance into the University. It was, however, attended also by those who for other reasons wished to learn Latin and Greek. He was a powerful teacher, a uniquely rousing and educating force. I went to a school, etc. When ten years old Björnson was sent to Molde and entered the "Middel-og Real-skole" there, which had only two classes and, when he left it, twenty-eight pupils. In 1850, seventeen years old, he went to Christiania and the "Factory." Prelims, those who had passed only an examination preliminary to the "Norwegian" (not Latin) official examination. Vinje, see Note 48. Jonas Lie, born November 6, 1833; died July 5, 1908; the noted author of novels and tales. Grammar. Heltberg's method was a grammatical short-cut system, to cram Latin and Greek in the shortest time possible. For twenty years he talked about publishing it, and received a grant from the Storting for this purpose. But it was always to be improved, and nothing was published except a fragment after his death.
Note 51. FOR THE WOUNDED. This song was written in 1871, and sung at bazaars which were held in all the cities of Norway in order to raise funds for sending nurses, bandages, and money to the French wounded.
Note 52.
LANDFALL. Written in 1872 for a musical festival in Trondhjem, the
profits of which were given to aid in the restoration of the
Cathedral there.
Olaf Trygvason, see Note 10.
Note 53. TO HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN. Although Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) traveled frequently and far in the earlier years, he made after 1863 only one journey out of Denmark. This was to Norway, to receive the homage of the brother-nation. Björnson had been quite intimate with him, both personally in Copenhagen and especially in Rome, and by correspondence. Andersen's genius was misjudged and condemned by the Danish critic Heiberg (see Note 7), but his very lack of the then prevailing Danish qualities made Björnson admire and sympathize with him. A fairy-tale. Andersen's chief work, Tales told for Children, appeared in 1835; his New Tales and Stories in 1858-61.
Note 54. To STANG. Fredrik Stang (born March 4, 1808; died June 8, 1884) was an active and successful lawyer from 1834 to 1845. In the latter year he became Secretary of the then established Department of the Interior, beginning a most meritorious career and opening a new era in Norway's internal development. By him industry and trade were made freer, the sea-fisheries and agriculture fostered, roads built, the postal service was improved, the flrst telegraph line and the first railroad were instituted. He retired because of illness in 1854. But after the great minister-crisis of December, 1861, he presided over the Norwegian government until the summer of 1873, when, after the abolition of the viceroyship, he was made Prime Minister and continued as such until 1880. He was a thorough conservative, a member of the Right, and so opposed to the political ideals cherished by Sverdrup (see Note 45) and Björnson. For the opening lines compare the poem Toast for the Men of Eidsvold, and notes thereto.
Note 55. ON A WIFE's DEATH. In memory of Queen Louisa (1828-1871), consort of King Karl XV of Sweden and Norway. A princess of the Netherlands, whose mother was the sister of Emperor William I, she was married in 1850o, and died March 30, 1871. She bore a son on December 4, 1852, who died March 13, 1854. In November, 1870, she was called to her dying mother in The Hague. Karl XV died in September, 1872, after several years of precarious health. Queen Louisa was an unassuming, truly noble woman of deeply religious feeling and large benevolence.
Note 56. AT THE BIER OF PRECENTOR A. REITAN. Anders Jörgensen Reitan, a peasant, was born July 26, 1826, and died August 30, 1872. After attending the Teachers' Seminary, he took up this calling, and in 1853 became precentor (and teacher) in Kvikne, Björnson's birthplace. He remained in this position the rest of his life, making himself, by his influence at meetings, through lectures, and in visits from farm to farm, a pioneer in popular enlightenment, an important bearer of culture. He was a member of the Storting for the term 1871-73, but was seriously ill a large part of the session of 1871, and in April, 1872, received leave of absence. He died in Christiania.
Note 57. ON THE DEATH OF N. F. S. GRUNDTVIG. Few men have so influenced the spiritual development of Denmark, and indeed that of all Scandinavia, as Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig, the noted Danish theologian, historian, and poet (born September 8, 1783; died September 2, 1872). He made a name for himself early by historical, mythological, religious, and poetical writings. He successfully opposed the rationalistic thought of the earlier nineteenth century with his simple exposition of Christianity according to the pure teachings of Jesus. His effort was to present to Scandinavia Christianity in a popular form, closely connected with the national thought of the time. There gathered about him a host of able and enthusiastic followers, through whom his religious and political influence extended over all the North. His characteristic religious views were, as a system, called Grundtvigianism. For the Church his 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.