Part 1 (1/2)

Bjornstjerne Bjornson

by William Morton Payne

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

When the date of Bjornson's seventieth birthday drew near at the close of 1902, the present writer, who had been froian, wished to ratitude and affection which the then approaching anniversary was sure to evoke The outco Bjornson's life and work, published in ”The International Quarterly,” March, 1903 The essay then written forh several additions have been made in the way of translation, anecdote, and the consideration of Bjornson's later productions So small a book as this is, of course, hopelessly inadequate to make more than the most superficial sort of survey of the life work of that masterful personality whose recent death is so heavy a loss to all mankind

W M P

Chicago, May, 1910

BJoRNSTJERNE BJoRNSON

1832-1910

Eight years ago, taking a bird's-eye view of thewith particular reference to Bjornson's seventieth birthday, it see remarks about thereatestin the world, the possible claimants to the distinction would hardly be more than five in number If it were a question of poetry alone, Swinburne would have to be named first, with Carducci for a fairly close second But if we take literature in its larger sense, as including all the e, and if we insist, furtherled out for this preeminence shall stand in some vital relation to the intellectual life of his tiht of the present day, the choice iants of the north of Europe, falling, as it iven us such deeplyportrayals of the life of the ian idealist whose finger has so unerringly pointed out the diseased spots in the social organisery the name of pessimist, despite his declared faith in the redeh truth and freedoian, equally fervent in his devotion to the same ideals, and farthem upon his readers, who has just rounded out his scriptural tale of three score years and ten, and, in commemoration of the anniversary, is now rateful and whole-souled admiration as few men have ever won, and none have better deserved It would be certainly invidious, and probably futile, to attempt a nice, comparative estimate of the services of these three men to the common cause of humanity; let us be content with the admission that Bjornstjerne Bjornson is _primus inter pares_, and reat conteht years later, at the tied his country and the world in , it is iroup above designated, Tolstoy alone survives to carry on the great literary tradition of the nineteenth century

It will be well, however, to make certain distinctions between the life work of Bjornson and that of the twointo inevitable association with him These distinctions are chiefly two,--one of theely cosmopolitan in their outlook, Bjornson has hout his career the national, or, at any rate, the racial standpoint The other is that while Tolstoy and Ibsen presently became, the one indifferent to artistic expression, and the other baldly prosaic where he was once deeply poetical, Bjornson preserved the poetic iive it play even in his envisagee a little upon these two theuenieff, described the deceased novelist as ”the incarnation of a whole people” Even ht the phrase be applied to Bjornson, for it would be difficult to find anywhere else in ure so completely and profoundly representative of his race In the frequently quoted words of Dr Brandes, to speak the name of Bjornson in any asse” It has been maliciously added thatin the sight of a considerable proportion of the assehter as well as an artist, and it has been his self-imposed gishness no less than to give creative embodiment to their types of character and their ideal aspirations But whatever the opposition aroused by his political and social radicalism, even his opponents have been constrained to feel that he was the ian before him had been, and that he has voiced whatever is deepest and ian temper Powerful as has been his appeal to the intellect and conscience of the e, it has always had a special note of admonition or of cheer for his own people

With reference to the second of our two theh the for the latter half of his life, the breath of poetry never ceased to exhale from his work, and the lyric exuberance of his later prose still recalls to us the singer of the sixties

Few productions ofas the modest little volume called ”Synnove Solbakken,” which appeared in the book shops of Christiania and Copenhagen in 1857 It was a simple tale of peasant life, an idyl of the love of a boy and a girl, but it was absolutely new in its style, and in its intiian character It must be remembered that until the year 1814, Norway had for centuries been politically united with Denen had been the common literary centre of the two countries

To that city Norwegian writers had gravitated as naturally as French writers gravitate to Paris There had resulted froh it owed ian birth, was essentially a Danish literature, and must properly be so styled That literature could boast, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, an interesting history coreater literatures of Europe, and a brilliant history for at least a hundred years past But old literatures are sure to become more or less sophisticated and trammelled by tradition, and to this rule Danish literature was no exception When the constitution of Eidsvold, in 1814, separated Norway frodom (save for the forced Swedish partnershi+p), the country had practically no literary tradition save that which centred about the Danish capital She ht claim to have been the native country of reatest writer that the Scandinavian peoples have yet produced, but she could point to nothing thateneration were naturally ence of opinion arose as to the ht be furthered, and the aied that the literature should break loose from its traditional past, and aim at the cultivation of an exclusively national spirit The other party declared such a course to be folly, contending that literature radual development rather than of set volition, and that, despite the shi+fting of the political kaleidoscope, the national literature was so firmly rooted in its Danish past that its natural evolution one before

Each of these parties found a vigorous leader, the cause of ultra-Norwegianiseland, an erratic person in whoenius burned, but who never found hi The champion of the conservatives was Welhaven, a polished writer of singular charraceful verse and acute criticism upheld by both precept and practice the traditional standards of culture Each of these men had his followers, who proved in many cases more zealous than their leaders The period of the thirties and forties was doendered , and which constitutes the capital fact in Norwegian literary history before the appearance of Ibsen and Bjornson upon the scene A sort of paralleltwo suchthe for both a sharply pole their respective followers all the other writers of their tiine the issue between them to be drawn not only in the field of letters, but also in the pulpit, the theatre, and the political arena, and soht notion may be obtained of the condition of affairs which preceded the advent of Bjornson and the true birth of Norwegian literature with ”Synnove Solbakken”

The hich was thus destined to ian letters ritten in the twenty-fifth year of its author's life The son of a country pastor, Bjornstjerne Bjornson was born at Kvikne, Decee of six, his father was transferred to a new parish in the Roions in Norway The is was deep and enduring Looking back upon his boyhood he speaks with strong eht play uponwrong, and when, borne down upon my ski into one valley or another I could stand as if spellbound by a beauty, by a longing that I could not explain, but that was so great that along with the highest joy I had, also, the deepest sense of iiven utterance in that wonderful lyric, ”Over the Lofty Mountains,” in which all the ardor and the longings of passionate and i is found in ”Arne,” and lish language

”Often I wonder what there may be Over the lofty mountains

Here the snow is all I see, Spread at the foot of the dark green tree; Sadly I often ponder, Would I were over yonder

”Strong of wing soars the eagle high Over the lofty mountains, Glad of the new day soars to the sky, Wild in pursuit of his prey doth fly; Pauses, and, fearless of danger, Scans the far coasts of the stranger

”The apple-tree, whose thoughts ne'er fly Over the lofty h, Patiently waits for the ti, Yet will know not what they are singing

”He who has yearned so long to go Over the lofty row Dim, with the years that so restless flow-- Knohat the birds are singing, Glad in the tree-tops swinging

”Why, oh bird, dost thou hither fare Over the lofty mountains?

Surely it must be better there, Broader the view and freer the air; Co to wing o Over the lofty hts and wishes so Held in these walls of ice and snow Here be imprisoned forever?

Till death shall I flee them never?

”Hence! I will hence! Oh, so far from here, Over the lofty mountains!

Here 't is so dull, so unspeakably drear; Young isThan here in