Monopolies were formerly granted to newspapers in Norway. The government allowed only one paper to be published within the limits of an ecclesiastical diocese, or at least only the favored paper was permitted to receive money for the publication of advertisements. Competitors resorted to all sorts of ingenious methods, by issuing pamphlets and 'handbills and such things, that a free discussion of political issues might be had, but it was not until 1786 that the last monopoly, which happened to be in the city of Trondhjem, expired. In 1814 freedom of the press was granted by the new constitution, and from that date the political agitators have found expression in various publications, and partisanship has often risen to a bitterness that would not be permitted in other countries. The Norway newspapers have not known a censor since that date.
Morganbladet, the first daily, was established in 1819, and has played an important part in the political affairs of the. country. It is still very influential, being edited with great ability by Mr. Nils Vogt. Björnson, the author, has been connected with two newspapers—the first, Krydseren, a literary weekly which survived only a few years, and Verdens Gang, which has been published since 1868 as the leading organ of the liberal party. Among its editors and contributors have been other distinguished men, poets, dramatists, and novelists. Nearly every writer of distinction has contributed to its columns, for most of the thinking men of Norway are liberals. Since 1878 Mr. Thommessen has been the editor, and he was the first to modernize the Norwegian press by printing cable dispatches, cartoons, caricatures and other illustrations.
Dagbladet is also a widely read and influential daily, under the editorship of Mr. A.T. Omholt, and has a large circulation. Its list of contributors has included some of the most distinguished writers of the country. There are numerous other dailies of more or less influence and circulation, and all the trades and occupations have organs, as in the United States. In every town and almost every village, a weekly or semi-weekly is published, usually by the liberal party, and sometimes by other parties. Even Hammerfest, the most northerly town in the world, which lies in the Arctic Circle, has two enterprising weeklies.[q]
CHAPTER XVIII
NORWEGIAN FOLK SONGS
If the dwellers of the deep fjords, the somber fir-clad mountain valleys, and the bleak ice-fields do not "open their lips so readily for song" as the people of southern lands where the sun creates an eternal spring, it is not because they are without lyric power, as is clearly apparent from the rich and varied folk-songs and the splendid creative work of Edvard Grieg.
The Norwegian folk-songs, spring dances, hallings, and wedding marches, have been well characterized as the outpourings of the inner lives of the common people, the expression of their dauntless energy, their struggles and aspirations. The folk-song of Norway, more than in any other land, embodies the character and expresses the tendencies of Viking life, ancient and modern. It bears the unmistakable marks of weal and woe of Norse life, the strongly marked and regularly introduced rythms of the developed and developing national character. And while an undercurrent of melancholy runs through most of it, it is, after all, the faithful interpreter of the lives of isolated and solitary occupants of fjords, fjelds, and dalen.
The folk-songs of Norway are singularly typical of the country and its inhabitants. Some "seem to take us into the dense forest among mocking echoes from, the life outside; others show us the trolls tobogganing down the highest peaks of Norway; in some we feel human souls hovering over reefs; in others, memories of the old sun-lit land flit before us; but in none do we meet with sentimentalism, despondency, or disconsolateness." But with their weird and minor strains, and their odd jumps from low tones to high, on first acquaintance they strike the hearer as strange and elusive.
Some of the epic songs, as Telemarken, are of great antiquity. But it was not until the last century that Norse tone artists discovered the wealth that had long been cherished by the peasants of the fjords and mountain valleys. Lindeman (1812-1887) was the first to recognize the musical significance of Norwegian folk-songs. He collected many hundred national ballads, hymns and dances, and called attention to their richness and variety as thematic material for a school of national music. In Lindeman's collection will be found songs which tell of the heroic exploits of old Norse vikings, kings, and earls of the heathen days of Thor and Odin, together with lyrics, deep and ardent, which sing of the loves, the joys, and the sorrows of the humbler Christian folks.
The Hardanger violin, the lur and the langeleik have played a leading role in the development of Norwegian folk-songs and dances. The Hardanger instrument is more arched than the ordinary violin; there are four strings over the finger-board and four underneath, the latter of fine steel wire, acting as sympathetic strings. The men of the Hardanger fjord have long been distinguished for the workmanship and tonal qualities of their violins, and with them the peasants have improvised the rich and varied impressions of nature which we find embodied in folk-songs. The lur is a long wooden instrument, of the trumpet order, and is usually made of birch bark. It is much used in the mountains. The langeleik, or Norwegian harp, is a long, narrow, box-like stringed instrument, something of the character of the ancient zither. It has seven strings and sound holes, but its tone is weak and monotonous.