Chapter XI: Part II: Aylmer Writes of Norway and Denmark 175 (10)

You will not find the full charm of seventeenth-century Norway until you get up here in the Sætersdal. It is an interesting trip, too, from Odda on the Hardanger Fjord overland by the Telemarken route to Skien, the birthplace of the famous Henrik Ibsen, and from there down to Christiansand, and up here through the Sætersdal to Bredvik. Not far from Odda we pass a hotel in the Seljestad glen where, as a certain guide book proudly points out, Mr. Gladstone, Lady Brassey, and the rest of the party of The _Sunbeam_ greatly enjoyed the view in 1885. Certainly Mr. Gladstone and Lady Brassey and the others were justified in their admiration, for there is no more beautiful spot in all the Hardanger district. At the top of the pass there is a mountain chalet called Haukeli Sæter, and here the snow falls in such immense quantities that even in summer the road passes through a tunnel dug through a snow drift.

Farther on, near Dalen, there is a precipice nine hundred feet high called the Ravnegjuv, under which a wild, mad river tears along. Whether this river is responsible I cannot say, but there is here a strong draft, blowing upward and back over the precipice. Throw over paper or leaves, or something equally light, and it will come sailing back to you like a boomerang. It is also stoutly claimed that the breeze is strong enough to blow back a hat, but I never heard of anyone who wanted to risk it. It would be an interesting experiment, and even if it failed the hat might not be a total loss; probably it would fall into the torrent below and go whirling down toward the Skager-Rack. The hatless experimenter could then hurry down to the mouth of the stream by carriage and train and there lie in wait for his wandering hat. This draft over the Ravnegjuv sinks into insignificance compared with the draft which swirls against certain parts of the Nærö _dal_ in the Sogne district. Here the farmhouses are surrounded by earthworks to protect them from the blasts of air caused by avalanches descending _on the other side of the valley_.

Farther down the Telemark route from Ulefos there is a fine excursion up the Saur River and the Nordsjö to Notodden and the Rjukan Falls. This Saur River is erroneously called the “Norwegian Rhine.” The Rhine should be called the “Swiss-German-Dutch Saur,” for I maintain that Norway is the fatherland of natural scenery, and the mere fact that the Rhine is situated within easy access of all Europe does not justify the implication that it is the last word in river scenery and that the Saur is rather a poor, second-rate, Norwegian imitation of it.

Opposite Notodden there is a romantic mountain called Helgenotra, from an old heroine named Helga Tveiten. As she was walking over this mountain, she met a _trold_ disguised as a handsome cavalier. She allowed herself to be beguiled by him, and together they strolled into a cave, which immediately closed behind them, leaving the girl entombed in the mountain. However, the ringing of church bells broke the spell; she was released from her prison, and had nearly reached home when the bell rope broke. The spell came back in full force, and she was dragged by magic back to her mountain tomb, where she is to this day buried.

I may say, as the comforting guide book says of Bishop Pontoppidan’s monstrous sea serpent with a back “an English mile and a half in circumference,” that “there seems to be no doubt that the whole thing is purely an illusion.”

However, there is a story connected with the Rjukan Falls, a little farther on, which is perhaps a trifle less mythical. A maiden named Mary had a lover named Eystein. On the face of the precipice over which the Rjukan plunges was a narrow path called Mari-sti, or “Mary’s Path.” Along this path Mary went to warn her lover of danger, for enemies were plotting against his life. He fled for safety, but returned after many years along the selfsame path to claim his bride. In his haste he ran, and slipped and plunged down into the foaming abyss of the Rjukan. The story runs that “for many years after this a pale form, in whose eyes a quiet madness spoke, wandered daily on the Mari-sti and seemed to talk with someone in the abyss below. Thus she went, until a merciful voice summoned her to joy and rest in the arms of her beloved.”

The Rjukan Falls are still wonderful to behold, and formerly vied with Skjeggedalsfos for the honor of being the finest waterfall in Norway, but electric plants and other industrial developments have robbed it of any claim to true greatness, and the Mari-sti has become a busy thoroughfare. Along the way between Notodden and the Rjukan we meet many peasants in the ancient Telemark costume, white stockings, green vests, and silver buttons being predominant features. At Hitterdal, a village not far from Notodden, there is an old _stave-kirke_, or stock church, dating from the thirteenth century. There are very few of these ancient churches now left in Norway, as fire has destroyed most of them. In the last century and a half at least forty Norwegian churches have been struck by lightning and destroyed, and of course lightning is only one method out of many of setting fire to a church.

The finest example of a medieval _stave-kirke_ is at Borgund in the Valdres district. It is built of logs of timber and the roof is arranged in several tiers like a pagoda. The walls are shingled with pieces of wood cut into the shape of the scales of a fish, and the many pinnacles and gables are surmounted by the most curious wooden gargoyle dragons, pointing their tongues skyward.

Returning to Ulefos we are within a few miles of Skien. Skien is in itself a dull, brick and stone town, devoted largely to the wood-pulp industry, but its honor of being the birthplace of Norway’s greatest literary genius is enough distinction for one town.

Here Henrik Ibsen was born on March 20, 1828. This great genius, the first to raise Norwegian literature to a standard as high as anything in all Europe, was strangely slow in discovering his talent. For seven dreary years, “which set their mark upon his spirit,” he was apprenticed to an apothecary in Grimstad. One of his companions says of him during this period that he “walked about Grimstad like a mystery sealed with seven seals.” He lived for awhile a most precarious, hand-to-mouth existence as a Christiania journalist. Then he became stage poet at the Bergen theater and studied the drama at Copenhagen and at Dresden. He wrote some poems, which began to earn for him a wide reputation. But soon his Bergen theater failed; he applied for a poet’s pension at Christiania and was refused, though one was at the same time granted to Björnson. Sick and discouraged and fighting against poverty, and above all burning with bitterest rage, he went to Berlin and Trieste and then to Rome.

In this tempestuous mood he wrote at Rome a poem called _Brand_ in which he let himself go and poured out his bitterness against his native land. Brand was a Norwegian priest who tried to live like Christ and “was snubbed and hounded by his latitudinarian companions.” It was a magnificent poem, and verily Norway must have trembled at its ferocity, for in Brand’s “latitudinarian companions” the poet had typified the current religious and moral sentiment of his native land.

Soon he wrote the dramatic satire _Peer Gynt_, in which the hero typified Ibsen’s conception of Norwegian egotism, vacillation, and luke-warmness. He commenced this splendid work in all the fiery anger with which he had written _Brand_, but in spite of himself he soon forgot his anger and developed the great piece of literature which critics say is as fine as anything produced in the nineteenth century.

Four years later he did receive a poet’s pension, for his country could not longer ignore his genius.

He had phenomenal success in many lines, but finally turned his attention to simple conversational drama. He is one of the most widely discussed dramatists of recent times. He fearlessly, almost morbidly, braved convention, and was venomously attacked as an immoral writer. Hjalmar Ekdal, the main character of one of his plays, _The Wild Duck_, has earned the name of being the most abominable villain in all the world’s drama. Certainly Ibsen revelled in the sins and faults of society, but only, as he himself says, as a diagnosist, and not, like Tolstoy, as a healer.

On his seventieth birthday the great dramatist was received with the highest marks of honor by the native land which he had so bitterly abused, and it must have been soothing to his fiery, cynical nature to thus come into his own during the last days of his life.

Henrik Ibsen, and all Norwegian literature in general, should be of especial interest to Americans, for it bears the same relation to Danish literature that our own bears to English. It is only within the last century that Norway has had any real, national literature. The great Holberg, who lived in the seventeenth century, was really a Norwegian, but he hardly thought of his own country as being a fitting home for literature, and he devoted his talents to Denmark, and is generally regarded as a Dane.

You will be ready now to make your way to Christiansand and then up this most peaceful of _dals_ to Brevik. On the way you will see many country scenes, becoming more and more unconsciously primitive and rustic as you leave the outside world behind. You will see swarms of children along the way, or should I say “prides” or “nides” of them? At any rate, there is no race suicide in rural Norway. These children are now in the midst of their summer holidays, which for many of them last nine months in the year. Education is compulsory from the ages of seven to fourteen for every child in Norway, but many of the farms, particularly in the lonely Sætersdal, are so far apart that it would be impossible to maintain any regular public-school system. Accordingly itinerant schoolmasters must travel over the length and breadth of Norway, imparting instruction to every child within the specified ages, for at least twelve weeks in the year. Sometimes he must devote his twelve weeks to a single child or a single family, and in this case he becomes the farmer’s guest. Sometimes two or three neighboring farmers combine and appoint one house as the common schoolhouse and the home of the itinerant pedagog. The Norwegian school-teacher’s life is thus one of pleasurable variety. Very often the farmer’s grown-up daughter assists the teacher in his labors, and many a tender passage occurs between them while the children are studying and the fond, hoping mother peeks through the crack of the door.

As I have said before, Sætersdal is the most charmingly peaceful spot in all Norway. There is nothing strenuous about the scenery or the life. Both continue as they have continued for ages and as they will continue for ages to come, unless the ubiquitous railway finds its way here. The cares of life for these peasants are reduced to a minimum. No problems perplex them. Perhaps their simple minds are hardly capable of being perplexed, but they live a calm, God-fearing, happy life. While their fellow countrymen in the towns are wrestling year in and year out with problems, they scarcely know what the word means. Perhaps you think this is a deplorable mental stagnation, but you would not and could not think so if you saw the people. They are noble and generous and honest and good, and as long as they possess these qualities they certainly do not need problems. These fine Norwegian peasants have done as much as all the fjords and mountains and waterfalls and valleys to fill me with the charm of Norway.

I had intended to visit the “Sand Hills of Jutland” and to write to you about them, but after all they are just what Hans Christian Andersen called them, sand hills, and, charming as some parts of Jutland doubtless are, I fear it would be an anticlimax to the varied glories of Norway. Denmark would not have so much interest for a lover of Norway were it not for the historical associations inseparably linking the two countries together, so I base my strongest plea on the land of the fjord. You have been very obliging, Judicia, in performing these sudden chess-metamorphoses from your natural queenliness to knighthood and castlehood and bishophood (I have never reduced you to the rank of a pawn), as the nature of your imaginary move might demand. However, I will refrain from further compliments, lest you should think I am trying to bribe you.

Trusting that the charm of Norway will take possession of you as it has of me, I await your Judicia-l decision.

Yours hopefully,

AYLMER.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Honorable W. W. Thomas: _Sweden and the Swedes_.

[2] Emil Svensen: _Sweden’s Place in History_.

[3] Quoted by Honorable W. W. Thomas in _Sweden and the Swedes_.

[4] Honorable W. W. Thomas: _Sweden and the Swedes_.

[5] Ernest Young: _Finland_.

INDEX

Åbo, 123, 128, 129, 134, 139, 141
Castle of, 135
Marketing in, 137

Absalon, Bishop, 188, 189

Alexander II, 170

Alexius, Emperor, 282

Alfvesta, 4, 7

Almenningen, 217

Ambassador Long Legs, 103, 104

Amundsen, 263

Andersen, Hans Christian, 204, 207

Atterdag, Valdemar, 105, 210

Aurora Borealis, 59

Baltic, 129

Bellman, 118

Bennett, 266, 267

Bergen, 273, 276

Bernadotte, Prince, 68

Birchlegs, 281

Birger, Jarl, 70

Birgitta, 71, 98

Bishop Absalon, 188, 189

Bishop Henrik, 140

Bishop Ulphilas, 86

Björnsen, Björnstjerne, 291, 292

Bohus, 112

Bothnia, Gulf of, 130

Boyesen, Hjalmar, 238

Brahe, Ebba, 83, 84

Bremer, Frederika, 119

Bull, Ole, 275

Bye, Fru, 268

Canon Wieselgren, 29

Canute, 183

Cederstrom, 115

Charles XI, 16

Charles XII, 17, 69, 75, 78, 115

Christian II, 37, 38

Christian IV, 191

Christiania, 257
Holmenkollen, 258
Liquor Stores, 272
Winter Sports, 258

Christmas Day, 1520, 42

Codex Argenteus, 50, 87, 115

Copenhagen, 177
Frue Kirke, 190
Grand Hotel, 185
Pillar of Shame, 195
Promenade, 192
Raadhus, 189
Taxameters, 184
Thorvaldsen Museum, 202
Tivoli, 196
Vesterbrogade, 186

Dal, 34
Dalecarlia, 20, 33, 34, 35, 40, 43
Dalen, 312

Djupvand, 290

Domaas, 295

Dovre, 296

Drottningholm, 82

Du Chaillu, 263

Edelfelt, 135

Elfsson, Sven, and wife, 41

Eric, XI, 124

Ericsson, John, 78

Finland,
Art, 157
Bathing Customs, 148
Bear Hunt, 161
“Church Boat,” 160
Coffee, 155
Coinage, 126, 155
Education, 166
Four Estates in, 166
Lakes, 143
Railway Restaurants, 155
Russia’s Domination of, 126
Suffrage in, 164
Trains, 153
Wedding, 149

Fosterbrödralag, 101

Frederick VIII, 196

Frederiksborg, 208

Frey, 89

Geiranger Fjord, 286, 288

Gilchrist, Harold, 242

Glipping, Erik, 210

Gogstad Ship, 269

Gorm, 183

Göta, Canal, 94, 96, 100

Gothenburg, 93, 97, 100

Goths and Vandals, 8

Gotland, 8, 102, 108, 110

Grieg, 275

Gudbrandsdal, 290

Gulf of Bothnia, 130

Gustavus Adolphus, 69, 73, 75, 83, 86, 98

Gustavus Vasa, 37, 40, 42, 44, 50, 73, 75, 88, 90, 97, 98, 140

Gyda, 240, 241

Haakon Haakonsson, 283

Haakon, King, 245, 247

Haakon Sverresson, 283

Haakon VII, 260, 309

Halfdan the Swarthy, 221

Hamlet, 211, 212

Hammerfest, 304, 305

Hangö, 134

Hanseatic House, 277

Haparanda, 154

Harald Bluetooth, 182, 183

Harald Fairhair, 221, 240, 244

Harald Hardruler, 264

Hardanger, 289, 307, 308, 309

Hasting, 239, 249

Helsingfors, 128, 134, 150, 163, 168, 169

Henrik, Bishop, 140

Hönefos, 273

Hornvik Bay, 305

Hospitset, 253, 254

Ibsen, 311, 315, 317

Iron Mines, 60

Isala, 41

Jarl Birger, 70

Jungfrutornet, 106

Jutland, 319

Kalevala, 145, 149, 172

Katherine, Queen, 140

Kattegat, 201

Kiruna, 46, 56, 59, 60, 61

Kjöge, 181

Lapland, 46, 50

Lapps, 66

Larsson, Carl, 116

Leijonhufvred, Ebba, 97

Lemmings, 298

Lind, Jenny, 121

Linnæus, 29, 76, 88

Littlegirl, Eystein, 281

Lödingen, 230

Loen, 299

Lofotens, 218, 226

Longfellow, Henry W., 118, 145

Louis XIV, 16

Luleå, 62, 107, 154, 237

Luther, 73

Maelström, 225

Magnus, 70

Magnus Barefoot, 242

Majstang, 107

Månsdotter, Karin, 140

Marok, 289

Matthias, Bishop, 38

Molde, 290, 291, 293

Mounds of Odin, Thor and Frey, 89

Müller, Max, 172

Narvik, 61, 62
Hotel, 235
Iron, 231
Shops, 234
Temperature, 220

Nillson, Christine, 121

Nobel, 121

Norrland, 9

North Cape, 305

Notodden, 313

Odda, 311

Odense, 204

Odin, 89, 245

Olaf, St., 71, 224, 252, 264

Oscar, King, 15

Oslo, 264

Oxenstjerna, Axel, 74

Peasants’ Independence, 10

Plowpenny, Erik, 210

Polcirkeln, 54

Prince Bernadotte, 68

Rabbing, Lindom, 39

Riksgränsen, 7

Rime, 51, 66

Rjukan Falls, 314

Romsdalshorn, 293

Roskilde, 182

Rügen, 2

Runeberg, 172

Russia, 125
Domination of Finland, 126

Sætersdal, 285, 303, 308

Sampo, 132

Sassnitz, 2

Scandinavia, 8

Sigtuna, 82

Skager-Rack, 201

Skansen, 53

Skokloster, 82, 114

Smith, Harald, 262

Sognefjord, 288, 300, 301

Steyper, Peter, 283

St. Nicholas, Church of, 171

St. Nikolaus, 110

Stockholm, 13, 23, 33, 38, 69, 81, 107
“Automatic City,” The, 23
“Blood Path,” 38
Great Lift, 18

Stoddard, John L., 266, 306

Suffrage, 164

Suomi, 143

Svealand, 9

Sverresborg, 280

Sweden,
Art, 114
Church Life, 21
Farm Statistics, 25
Fires and Insurance, 30
Honesty, 95
Independence Day, 36
Lakes, 92, 96
Language, 49
Lavishness, 6
Parliament, 18
Politeness, 89
Railway Restaurant, 4
Sleeping Cars and Fares, 7
Smörgåsbord, 1, 5, 94
Stoves, 27
Temperance in, 28
Tips, 49
Trains, 46, 49
Unified Cattle, 25

Swedenborg, 72, 88

Sweyn Forkbeard, 183

Tammerfors, 153, 156
Cathedral, 157
The “Manchester” of Finland, 157

Taylor, Bayard, 56, 59

Tegnér, 118

Thangbrand, 222

Thirteen Nations, 85

Thirty Years’ War, 74, 83, 98, 115

Thomas, Hon. W. W., 10, 31, 47, 119

Thor, 89

Thorvaldsen, Bertel, 202, 203

Thyra, 209

Torg’s Hat, 218, 219

Trelleborg, 2, 7

Trollhätten, 99

Trondhjem, 214, 215, 217, 237
Cathedral, 250

Tryggvesson, Olaf, 209, 221, 223, 238, 243, 254

Uleå, 151

Ulphilas, Bishop, 86

Upsala, 50, 84, 103
Cathedral, 88, 139
Gamla Upsala, 88
University of, 85

Valdemar, 180

Vanniman, 307

Venern, Lake, 96

Vettern, Lake, 97

Viborg, 134

Visby, 102, 108, 110

Von Heidenstam, 96, 116

Voss, 273

Vreta Klostenkyrka, 97

Wainemann, Paul, 147

Warnemünde, 178, 181

Wellamo, 131, 132

Wellman, 307

Wieselgren, Canon, 29

Young, Ernest, 125, 138, 167

* * * * * *

Transcriber’s note:

The following probable printing errors were corrected:

Page
xi “Alymer” changed to “Aylmer”
44 duplicate word “of” removed from “the George Washington of Sweden”
61 duplicate word “miles” removed from “one hundred miles farther”
72 “abby” changed to “abbey”
76 “more that double” changed to “more than double”
121 “every crossed the ocean” changed to “ever crossed the ocean”
162 “you, and Alymer, too” changed to “you, and Aylmer, too”
178 “Copengahen” changed to “Copenhagen”
193 “concete” changed to “concrete”
195 “geat lovers” changed to “great lovers”
202 “Bertel Thorvalsden” changed to “Bertel Thorvaldsen”
212 “Encyclopædia Brittanica” changed to “Encyclopædia Britannica”
237 “Ostersundand” changed to “Ostersund and”
240 “tryant” changed to “tyrant”
289 “Norangsdal” changed to “Norangdal” (both spellings do seem to be
valid, but the inconsistency on the same page was jarring)
312 “Skagger-Rack” changed to “Skager-Rack”

Accents have been standardised, and punctuation amended where needed without further note. Authorial errors and inconsistencies have been left as is.