Chapter I: Dedication (2)

Note 41. THOSE WITH ME. This poem of tender homage to his wife (see Note 12) and home was written during the summer of 1869, while Björnson was on a lecture tour, which took him to northernmost Norway. His fourth child, and first daughter, Bergliot, was born June 16, 1869, in Christiania. When their golden wedding was celebrated in 1908, Björnson said to his wife: "You knew me and knew how ungovernable I was, but you loved me, and there was a holy joy in that. To you always came back from much wildness and many wanderings. And with all my heart I give you the honor. To you I wrote the poem: 'As on I drive, in my heart joy dwells'. It was not poetical and not sentimental, but just plain and direct. I wrote it to glorify my home and you. And I believe that no more beautiful and deep poem in praise of home has been written. For there is life's wisdom in it. It is yours, Karoline, and your honor."

Note 42. TO MY FATHER. Written in 1869. Peder Björnson was settled as a pastor at Kvikne in Österdal at the time of the poet's birth. Originally he was an independent farmer, like his father and grandfather, on the large farm Skei on the Randsfjord, where he was born in 1797. He completed his theological training in 1829, came to Kvikne in 1831, to Nes in Romsdal in 1837, and to Sogne in 1852. On retiring in 1869 he moved to Christiania, where he died, August 25, 1871. His large frame and great physical strength were hereditary in his father's family. Our race. Allusion to the tradition of the descent of the Björnsons from ancient kings through the poet's great-grandmother, Marie Öistad. The Norwegian peasant, see Note 78.

Note 43. TO ERIKA LIE (-NISSEN) (1847-1903). One of the great pianists in Norway, she was born in Kongsvinger on the river Glommen, where her parents resided also when this poem was written in 1869. She gained European fame by her concerts from 1866 on, married the physician Oskar Nissen in 1874, and after 1876 resided in Norway. She was distinguished for the poetic quality of her playing, for warmth and fullness of tone, and for faultless technique.

Note 44. AT MICHAEL SARS'S GRAVE. He was born in Bergen, August 30, 1805, and died in Christiania, October 22, 1869. In 1823 he became a student of the University in Christiania, where for a time he devoted himself to natural science, continuing his boyhood's lively interest. But the necessity for self-support turned him to theology. In 1830 he was appointed pastor at Kinn in the Söndfjord, married in 1831 a sister of Welhaven, and in 1839 was transferred to Manger, near Bergen. Both the places mentioned were very convenient for zoölogical study, which Sars resumed at once and continued unbrokenly. His earliest published work appeared in 1829; it was of first-rate importance, and his reputation was soon established everywhere in the world of learning. In 1853 he sought retirement from the Church, and in 1854 was professor of zoölogy in the University, where he continued his remarkable researches until his death. He was a pioneer in his special field, the lower marine fauna, and his aim from the beginning was not merely to discover new species, but to trace the physiological processes and the development of these lower, minuter forms of life,--ovology, embryology, organology. It was his work that led to the deep-sea expeditions of The Challenger and other similar voyages.

Note 45. TO JOHAN SVERDRUP. Written in November, 1869. Johan Sverdrup (1816-1892) was the greatest political leader and statesman of Norway in the nineteenth century, and left the deepest traces in all its recent history. He settled in Laurvik in 1844 as a lawyer, was soon active in municipal politics, laboring for the interests of the working-class, was elected to the Storting in 1851. Reëlected in 1854, and regularly thereafter till 1885, his authority in the Storting and his power in public life steadily increased. From 1871 on he was President of the Storting, except in 1881 for reasons of health; from 1884 to 1889 he was Prime Minister. A consistent democrat, he created and led the party of the Left, or "Peasant- Left," and contended all his active life for the establishment of real government by the people, i.e., a constitutional democracy with parliamentary rule. This, the fulfillment of his famous saying, "All power ought to be gathered in this hall [i.e., in the Storting]," was consummated in June, 1884. Few men in Norway have been so bitterly assailed by political opponents, and few so idolized by followers. He was a masterful orator, inferior only to Björnson. Assassination. An allusion to Ibsen's The Young Men's Union, first performed in Christiania on September 30, 1869. Björnson regarded the drama as directed against himself and his political friends. In 1881 he wrote: "With the word assassination I did not mean that conditions and well-known men were aimed at. What I meant was, that The Young Men's Union tried to make our young liberal party into a band of ambitious speculators, whose patriotism could be carried off with their phraseology, and especially that prominent men were first made recognizable, and that then false hearts and base characters were fictitiously given them and spurious alliances pasted on them." The words of Einar. For Einar Tambarskelve, see Note 11, and for Magnus the Good, Note 6. Immediately after the death of Magnus in Denmark, Harald proposed to make himself King over all Denmark, but Einar arose and spoke, ending with the words: "It seems to me better to follow King Magnus dead, than any other King living." Nearly all the Norwegians joined Einar, and Harald was left with too small a force to carry out his plan. My childhood's faith unshaken stands. Björnson was at the time With full conviction an orthodox Christian; Sverdrup was for himself a free thinker in religion. Brotherhood in all three lands. Sverdrup was always opposed to any close federation of the three countries, and to Scandinavism, see Note 21. What ought just now to be. The whole political programme of the Left, as it was gradually wrought out during the next two decades. Sverre, see Note 5. _One_ nation only and _one_ will, Sverdrup's ideal, as outlined above. That impelled the viking, see note on Harald Fairhair, Note 5. At Hjörung, see Note 11. Wesssel's sword, seeTordenskjold, Note 5. Wesssel's pen. Johan Herman Wessel (1742-1785) was a grand-nephew of Peder Wessel Tordenskjold. He was the leader and most popular member of the "Norwegian Society" in Copenhagen, in spirit and style the most Norwegian of the writers born in Norway in the eighteenth century. That in faith so high, etc., refers to the teaching of Grundtvig (see Note 57), who looked upon the Edda-gods as representing a religion originally akin to Christianity. Brun. Johan Nordal Brun (1745-1816) became bishop in 1804. A popular poet, he was the creator of the older national hymn and other patriotic songs; an ardent lover of his country, opposed to Danish influences in politics and culture; strictly orthodox and a powerful orator. Hauge. Hans Nilsen Hauge (1771-1824), a peasant lay-preacher, of whom a biographer has said: "Since the Reformation no single man has had so profound an influence on ecclesiastical and Christian life in Norway." The "Haugian revival" of the emotional religious life is proverbial. Its value was great in every way; directly and also by his widely distributed writings it fostered intellectual enlightenment. The peasant political movement started soon after 1830 among his followers. This explains Björnson's great sympathy with Hauge and his school. Modern bishop-synod's letter, the dogmatic literalism of the State Church, seeking to impose itself on free popular religions faith. Chambers, reference to proposals to revise the Act of Union with Sweden, in particular to the plan of a Union-Parliament, all of which were rejected by Norway. Folk-high-school's, see Note 65.

Note 46. OLE GABRIEL UELAND (born October 28, 1799; died January 9, 1870) was the son of a farmer. He was self-taught, reading all the books he could find in the region about his home; became a school teacher in 1817. His marriage in 1827 brought to him the farm Ueland, whose name he took. He early became foremost in his district, and from 1833 to 1869 was member of the Storting for Stavanger. He organized and led the Peasant party. In his time one of Norway's most remarkable men, the most talented peasant and most powerful member of the Storting, belonging to the generation before Sverdrup, he prepared the way for the latter, with whom he then coöperated. Sverdrup once said: "All of us who are engaged in practical politics are Ueland's pupils."

Note 47. ANTON MARTIN SCHWEIGAARD, jurist and statesman, was born in Kragerö, April 11, 1808, and died in Christiania, February 1, 1870. After five years as lecturer in the University he was, in 1840, made professor of law, political economy, and statistics. Regarded as the most representative Norwegian of his age and its aspirations, he was called by his countrymen "Norway's best son." Though interested in the reform of education and the introduction of European culture, and hence favorable to Danish literature, standing with Welhaven and against Wergeland, it was in economics that his influence was greatest, and indeed greater than that of any other one man in all Scandinavia. He was the soul of the organizing labor that accompanied and conditioned Norway's surprisingly rapid material advance in the decades before and after the middle of the nineteenth century. A friend of Scandinavism, in politics a liberal conservative, but never a party man, he was member of the Storting for Christiania from 1842 to 1869. Schweigaard's personality contributed most to the high esteem in which he was universally held; his character was open and direct, actively unselfish, loftily ideal. His wife died on January 28, 1870. On a walk the next day he suddenly was seized with intense pains, had to go home and to bed, and died on February 1. An autopsy showed that his heart had ruptured. Their joint funeral was held on February 5.

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.

Note 58. AT A BANQUET FOR PROFESSOR LUDV. KR. DAA. The historian, geographer, ethnologist, publicist, editor, and political leader, Ludvig Kristensen Daa, was born August 19, 1809, and died June 12, 1877. As a friend of Wergeland he was a liberal of the old stamp, later an ardent supporter of the Sverdrup-Björnson policies, and elected three times to the Storting. He was early a leader of the National party among the students. Too independent ever to submit wholly to party control, he was always more or less in opposition. In the flourishing times of Scandinavism he was prominent and of excellent influence. Because of his political opposition to the Conservative government of Stang, he did not receive the merited University professorship of history until 1863. Although feared as a caustic writer by all, he was warm-hearted and in reality a noble personality, one of the most original and best figures in the modern history of Norway. This poem must have been written soon after 1870.

Note 59. OH, WHEN WILL YOU STAND FORTH? Written early (in February?) in 1872. For the mood of this poem compare the poem Good Cheer, and notes thereto, and some of the notes to the poem To Johan Sverdrup. The years just before and after 1870 were a time of intense conflicts, in all of which Björnson had a large part. His personality was fanatically admired by many adherents, but was also bitterly attacked even with misrepresentation and slander, by those who supported the party of the Right. He was almost persecuted by the leading Conservative newspaper in Christiania, whose editor was in large measure the model for the title-hero of Björnson's drama, The Editor, written soon after. Hafur, see Note 5.

Note 60. AT HANSTEEN'S BIER. The astronomer and physicist, Christopher Hansteen, was born September 26, 1784, and died April 15, 1873; he was buried April 21. Made lecturer in 1814, he was professor of astronomy and applied mathematics in the University until his retirement in 1861. He was the leader of the world's study of magnetism, and made Christiania the clearing-house of the labors in this field of science. The earliest Norwegian scientist of world- wide fame, he was a member of many learned societies and the recipient of many Orders.

Note 61. RALLYING SONG FOR FREEDOM IN THE NORTH. "The United Left' is here the liberal, democratic party of the Lower House (Folketing) of the Danish Parliament. As earlier, 1868-69, in Norway, a constitutional conflict had now begun in Denmark, which continued with acute crises at intervals until the compromise of 1894 and the accession of the Left to control of the government in 1901. The theme of the poem is the parallel between the political movements in the two countries, the union of the peasant opposition with that of the town-people in favor of a liberal policy. The power of truth to prevail is also set forth by Björnson in his later drama, The New System.

Note 62. AT A BANQUET. The coronation was that of Oskar II, as King of Norway. Olaf, Olaf Trygvason, see Note 10.

Note 63. SONG OF FREEDOM. See the poem, Rallying Song, etc., and notes thereto.

Note 64. TO MOLDE. This poem, begun in 1878, was finished the next year in Copenhagen. Björnson attended a school in Molde from his eleventh to his eighteenth year. The varied beauty, not too grand and not too somber, of the scenery about Molde left on him indelible impressions.

Note 65. HAMAR-MADE MATCHES. To this poem Björnson appended a note: "The founder of Norway's first folk-high-school, Herman Anker, built later in Hamar a match factory [the first large one in the country], the product of which was quickly distributed in Norway and offered for sale on the street with the cry: 'Here your Hamar-made matches!' The poem is a sort of allegorical comparison of these two 'works of enlightenment' from the hand of the same man." Herman Anker (1839-96) studied theology, and after the death of his father, a wholesale merchant, inherited a very comsiderably fortune, which he applied mostly to cultural purposes. With O. Arvesen he founded in 1864 the first Norwegian folk-high-school at Sagatun, near Hamar. Folk-high-schools are schools for adult men and women, where the instruction aims directly at making good citizens. The method of instruction is "historical," but the teacher's personality is all- important in relation to the pupil's individuality. The subjects are the country's language and history, history of the world, mathematics and physics, besides the elementary subjects; physical exercise is also made important. The home of these schools is Denmark, whence they spread to Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Danes in North America. Originated by N. F. S. Grundtvig (see Note 57), who began to plan them early in the nineteenth century as part of the national restoration of Denmark after 1813-14, the first was opened in 1844 at Rödding in Jutland. Since 1861 these schools have received women during the summer, May to August, and men from November to April. Many were established after 1864, which have flourished in the country, but not in the cities. Quite a few were started in Norway, and all were highly successful for some years.

Note 66. THE PURE NORWEGIAN FLAG. The poems here grouped were written in 1879 during the active beginning of the so-called "Flag-conflict" in behalf of the removal from the flag of Norway the mark of union with Sweden. For a description of the flags of Norway and Sweden, see Note 6. The history of the flag of Norway is briefly this: In 1748 the use of the Dannebrog (see Note 25) was fixed by law for Denmark and Norway. In February, 1814, a decree of Prince Regent Christian Frederik made Norway's flag to be the Dannebrog with Norway's arms (a crowned lion bearing an axe) in the upper square nearest the staff. Article 11 of the Constitution of 1814 declared: Norway shall have its own merchant-flag; its war-flag shall be a union-flag. Because of the Barbary Coast pirates, however, the Swedish flag with the mark of union was used south of Cape Finisterre, and north of it Christian Frederik's Norwegian flag. In 1821 the present pure Norwegian flag was established by Royal resolution as the merchant-flag, to be used north of Cape Finisterre; in 1838 its use was extended by the King to all waters. The war-flag was still the Swedish flag with a union-mark consisting of a white diagonal cross on a red ground. In 1844 King Oskar I by resolution decreed that both the merchant-flag and the war-flag of Norway should be the flag of 1821, with the addition of a mark of union. There was at once some criticism of the union-mark in the merchant-flag, but in general the situation was quietly accepted for a generation. This was due to Scandinavism, which began to flourish soon after 1844. Towards 1870, however (i.e., after 1864), Scandinavism lost its force, and the pure flag began to be used within Norway more and more. The real conflict began in 1879 with a motion in the Storting on February 17 to reënact the flag-law of 1821. There was bitter opposition from Conservatives in Norway, and naturally from Sweden, and the conflict gradually broadened to embrace everything involved in the union with Sweden, in proportion as the national spirit of Norway was quickened and strengthened. The famous flag-meeting in Christiania on March 13, 1879, and Björnson's speech there were the first decisive blow. Essentially the law of 1821 was passed by three Stortings, in 1893, 1896, and 1898, and proclaimed as law without the King's sanction. Thor's hammer-mark. Thor's weapon was a hammer=the blue lightning. The symbol of this was the T-mark, to which shape the name cross has also been given; this mark was much used in the viking period as a sign of Thor's protection. In the flag the blue cross is within a white cross on a red ground. Colors of freedom. On the institution of the flag of 1821, its red, white, and blue were especially acceptable in Norway, as being the colors characteristic of free states, typified by the French tricolor. Torgny, see Note 6. Ridderstad. The author and journalist, Karl Fredrik Ridderstad (1807-1886), who had published in his newspaper a conciliatory poem in defense of the Swedish view, to which Björnson here makes answer.

Note 67. TO MISSIONARY SKREFSRUD IN SANTALISTAN. Written in 1879. Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, born in Gudbrandstal in 1840, at first a metal worker, led for a time a wild life, and was committed under a sentence of four years to a penitentiary, where he remained from February, 1859, to October, 1861. Here he underwent a complete inner transformation and resolved to become a Christian missionary. Rejected by the Norwegian missionary institutions, he went in 1862 to Berlin, and entered a School for Missions there. He supported himself by work as an engraver, and by unflagging private study acquired learning and the knowledge of languages. He went to a German Mission in India, which he left in January, 1866. In 1867 he began his independent work in Santalistan. Here his persistence and success attracted the attention and support of the English, and thus he gradually became known and esteemed in his native land, where a Santalistan Society was formed to aid his undertakings. In 1882 he was duly ordained as clergyman by a bishop of the State Church. In 1873 he published a grammar and in 1904 a dictionary of the language of Santalistan. I do not share your faith. The memorable speech which Björnson delivered to the students in Christiania on October 31, 1877, the anniversary of Luther's posting his theses in Wittenberg, revealed that after a hard inner struggle he had freed himself from the religious faith of his early life. The theme of his speech "Be in the truth!" showed that for him henceforth the supreme thing was freedom of thought and fidelity to the truth as expanding development might manifest it to the individual. Liberal in thought from the beginning, Björnson departed more and more, not least through the influence of Grundtvig, from the strict dogmatic orthodoxy of the State Church. The study of Darwin, Spencer, Mill, and Comte led him still farther on to a position which may be called that of the agnostic theist, that of Spencer, who does not deny God, but says ignoramus. We may recall the late utterance of Björnson, quoted above: "Grundtvig and Goethe are my two poles." It was the dogma of Hell, the teaching of eternal damnation and punishment, that began Björnson's breach with the Church. He saw how this doctrine enslaved and dwarfed the souls of the peasants, and blighted all liberal development, both personal and political.

Note 68. POST FESTUM. Björnson was a decided opponent of the whole system of decorations and orders, royal and other. Here he attacks the Swedish polar explorer, A. E. von Nordenskjöld (November 18, 1832-August 20, 1901), who earlier had taken the same stand. After Nordenskjöld had successfully made the Northern Passage, there was a great formal reception for him on his return to Stockholm, April 24, 1880, at which King Oskar II decorated him. He also received similar honors from most of the rulers of Europe.

Note 69. ROMSDAL. Written in 1880 on a lecture tour along the western coast. The scenery and the people described Björnson knew intimately from his boyhood's years at Nes and in Molde, and from later visits to his parents at the former place. Collin says: "The whole poem fits like a frame about the poet and his life-work . ... Both with its [Norway's scenery's] violence and brusqueness and with its surprising gentleness Björnson has kinship." The last line of the poem includes the poet himself.

Note 70. HOLGER DRACHMANN. Probably written in 1879. This Danish productive author (and painter), best known as lyric poet and novelist, was born in 1846 and died in 1908. Here he received from Björnson a reply to verses of homage addressed by him to the latter in 1878. Drachmann's early years were turbulent and revolutionary, full of feuds with everybody. He belonged to the literary and esthetic Left, opposing all existing institutions. Björnson's characterization exhibits Drachmann at the height of his poetic production. His most popular prose book had recently stirred the Danish national heart and roused the spirit of Scandinavism. The collections of his poems: Songs by the Sea, Tendrils and Roses, Youth in Poem and Song, he never surpassed. Perhaps the best were the group of Venetian Songs, written in Venice in the spring of 1876, to which time belongs also his finest story, Two Shots. During the next decade Drachmann underwent an extreme conservative reaction, but about 1890 returned again to his youthful passion for rebellion, romantic radicalism, and the religion of esthetic freedom.

Note 71. A MEETING. Hans Thorvald Brecke was born December 1, 1847, and died June 9, 1875. As student from 1864 to 1870 he wrote several witty student comedies, and is described as a remarkably charming personality. In 1871 he became judge's clerk in Molde, and here had one bright and happy year. Against the disease which showed itself in the fall of 1872 he contended in vain. This poem was probably written in the latter part of 1875.

Note 72. THE POET. This poem, the following Psalms, and Question and Answer conclude the second edition of Poems and Songs, which was published April 29, 1880. They were probably written late in 1879 or very early in 1880. In a crisis of renewed litetary and political attacks upon him, the poet Björnson, under the inspiration of his motto "Be in the truth!" (see Note 67), proclaims the mission to which he is called: To be in religion and life, political and social, the liberator of his people from falsehood and ignorance, and the comforting helper of all who suffer.

Note 73. SONG FOR NORWAY'S RIFLEMEN. In 1881 the constitutional conflict between the Left and the Right over the nature of the King's veto had become acute. The question was whether the veto-power was suspensive or absolute as to amendments of the Constitution. The Left maintained that it was only suspensive, and the conflict was ended in favor of this view by the Supreme Court in 1884; an amendment enacted by three independently elected Stortings is valid without the King's sanction. This poem shows that the people were preparing to defend their right by force in the spirit of Björnson's often quoted words in his electoral campaign speech about the same time at Sticklestad: "If any one says that the monarchy [the King] declares it [he] cannot give up the absolute veto, you must answer openly: 'Then the Norwegian people must give up the monarchy [the King].'"

Note 74. WORKMEN'S MARCH. Published in the third edition of 1890, and written not long before for the Workmen's Union in Christiania. It is a plea for the universal franchise and party organization. Vardö = northernmost, Viken and Vinger = southernmost Norway.

Note 75. THE LAND THAT SHALL BE. See the poem Hamar-made Matches, and notes thereto.

Note 76. NORWAY, NORWAY! First published in the edition of 1890. The poet has himself stated that he wrote it at Aulestad, on being asked to furnish a song for the flag-procession of boys and girls on the 17th of May (see Note 4). Runes in the woodlands, as it were written records of the labors of past generations.

Note 77. WHEN COMES THE MORNING? From the novel, ln God's Way, published in 1889.

Note 78. MAY SEVENTEENTH. In memory of the unveiling of Henrik Wergeland's statue in Christiania on the 17th of May, 1881, when Björnson also delivered a great oration. Henrik Arnold Wergeland was born June 17, 1808, in Christiansand, and died August 12, 1845, in Christiania. Though he studied theology, he devoted his life to poetry and politics. His earliest writings, farces and poems, showed powerful, but uncontrolled, genius. His great popularity began in 1829 with his active entrance into public life. He labored for the enlightemnent of his people through his writings and his personal influence in journeyings all over the land, and especially through speeches at political meetings. His chief poetic work, the rationalistic-republican didactic poem, Creation, Man, and Messiah, appeared in 1830. It was severely criticised in a special, polemical writing by Welhaven (see Note 36), who continued his attack on all Wergeland's views and teachings in his Norway's Dawn. Thus arose the Wergeland-Welhaven conflict, which was carried on hotly for many years by their adherents, and contributed much to the intellectual development of the nation. Wergeland was very productive as editor, publicist, and poet. In 1840 he was appointed Keeper of the Archives, and held this government office until his death. In his own time Wergeland was in spirit the head of the radical- national "Peasant party," which was indeed patriotic and democratic, but too narrowly Norwegian, in opposition to all that was Danish, European, foreign. During the years preceding 1881 he had come to be in the constitutional conflict a national hero, the idol of the peasants, as their political power increased. Come now the peasants. In this volume of translations "peasant" is the rendering of the Norwegian word "bonde." The meaning is "farmer," i.e., in general the independrnt owner of land, which he cultivates and on which he lives. In Norway the conditions have for many centuries been more favorable for the "peasant" than in any other European country; this is due to the topography and to the absence of a powerful nobility. At the present time scarcely one- twentieth of the tilled area in Norway is cultivated by tenants. The Norwegian "peasants" have always had great self-consciousness in the best sense, and importance in the political, economic, and social life of the country, especially since the adoption of the democratic Constitution of 1814. Very often the "peasants" have an aristocratic pride in a lineage traced back to ancient "kings," and in their own distinctively "Norse" culture. Österdal's ... chieftain, a peasant of large stature, named Hjelmstad, a radical member of the Storting. The old banner. A flag much used in earlier times as specifically Norwegian, dating back to King Erik (1280-1299), before the union with Demnark, showed on a red ground a lion wearing a golden crown and bearing an axe. As late as 1698 it flew over the fortress Akershus in Christiania. The future, i.e., the independence realized in 1905 through the dissolution of the union with Sweden.

Note 79. FREDERIK HEGEL. This poem is the last in the third edition (1890), for which it seems to have been written. Hegel (1817-1887) was from 1850 the head of the Gyldendal publishing house in Copenhagen. Björnson made his acquaintance in 1860, and, beginning with King Sverre in 1861, Hegel became Björnson's publisher. In 1865 Björnson's influence secured to him Ibsen's works, and later those of Lie and many other Norwegian authors. The cultural dependence of Norway upon Denmark for centuries had prevented the prosperous growth of the publishing business in the former country, whose leading publisher went into bankruptcy soon after 1860. That Björnson thus went to Copenhagen with his books may seem to have been a blow to the cause of Norwegian independence, and to have delayed the rise of a thriving, stable business, but on the other hand Björnson's action and influence contributed greatly to establish for perhaps half a century a certain dominance of the Norwegian spirit in all Scandinavia. For Björnson personally, as his correspondence with Hegel shows, it was certainly a great good fortune to gain Hegel as his publisher and later as his friend. This Hegel was to all his authors in the most faithful, self-sacrificing way, and no less their valued financial adviser.

Note 80. OUR LANGUAGE. Written in defense of the Norwegian-Danish speech of the cultured classes and of the cities in Norway, the result of development and tradition through several centuries, the so-called Riksmaal (language of the kingdom) or Bymaal (city-language). This, and with it the higher spiritual interests of the nation, seemed to Björnson to be endangered by the agitation in behalf of the Landsmaal (rural language). The Landsmaal arose from a movement after 1814, to make Norway independent of Denmark in language also. The rural dialects were regarded as more purely Norwegian; on them and the Old Norse as a basis was constructed somewhat artificially this standard rural language. It has been gradually perfected, and is now, in fact, spoken and written a good deal. Björnson advocated rather the natural process of making the language of the country more national by gradually introducing dialect words and reforming the orthography. He thought that the Riksmaal thus modified alone could preserve, increase, and transmit the treasures of culture. Hald=Fredrikshald, see Note 5. Holberg, see Note 19. Kierkegaard. Sören Aaby Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was the most subtle and profound thinker produced by Denmark, with a prose style noble, poetic, and eloquent. His writings deal with religion, ethics, and esthetics, and present his individual, ideal conception of Christianity. Wergeland, see Note 78.