Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/848

 was a priest who collected a small glossary or glosebog of the local dialects, published in 1656. Gerhard Milzow (1629–1688), the author of a Presbyterologia Norwegica (1679), was also a Norse priest. The earliest Norwegian writer of any original merit was Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter (1634–1716), afterwards the wife of the pastor Ambrosius Hardenbech. She is the author of several volumes of religious poetry which have enjoyed great popularity. The hymn-writer Johan Brunsmann (1637–1707), though a Norseman by birth, belongs by education and temper entirely to Denmark. Not so (1647–1708) (q.v.), the most original writer whom Norway produced and retained at home during the period of annexation. Another priest, Jonas Ramus (1649–1718), wrote Norriges Kongers Historie (History of the Norse Kings) in 1719, and Norriges Beskrivelse (1735). The celebrated missionary to Greenland, Hans Egede (1686–1758), wrote several works on his experiences in that country. Peder Hersleb (1689–1757) was the compiler of some popular treatises of Lutheran theology. Frederik Nannestad, bishop of Trondhjem (1693–1774), started a weekly gazette in 1760. The missionary Knud Leem (1697–1774) published a number of works on the Lapps of Finmark, one at least of which, his Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper (1767), still possesses considerable interest. The famous Erik Pontoppidan (1698–1764) cannot be regarded as a Norwegian, for he did not leave Denmark until he was made bishop of Bergen, at the age of forty-nine. On the other hand the far more famous Baron Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754), belongs to Denmark by everything but birth, having left Norway in childhood.

A few Norsemen of the beginning of the 18th century distinguished themselves chiefly in science. Of these Johan Ernst Gunnerus (1718–1773), bishop of Trondhjem, was the first man who gave close attention to the Norwegian flora. He founded the Norwegian Royal Society of Sciences in 1760, with Gerhard Schöning (1722–1780) the historian and Hans Strom (1726–1797) the zoologist. Peder Christofer Stenersen (1723–1776), a writer of occasional verses, merely led the way for Christian Braumann Tullin (1728–1765), a lyrical poet of exquisite genius, who is claimed by Denmark but who must be mentioned here, because his poetry was not only mainly composed in Christiania, but breathes a local spirit. Danish literature between the great names of Evald and Baggesen presents us with hardly a single figure which is not that of a Norseman. The director of the Danish national theatre in 1771 was a Norwegian, Niels Krog Bredal (1733–1778), who was the first to write lyrical dramas in Danish. A Norwegian, Johan Nordahl Brun (1745–1816), was the principal tragedian of the time, in the French taste. It was a Norwegian, J. H. Wessel (1742–1785), who laughed this taste out of fashion. In 1772 the Norwegian poets were so strong in Copenhagen that they formed a Norske Selskab (Norwegian Society), which exercised a tyranny over contemporary letters which was only shaken when Baggesen appeared. Among the leading writers of this period are Claus Frimann (1746–1829), Peter Harboe Frimann (1752–1839), Claus Fasting (1746–1791), Johan Wibe (1748–1782), Edvard Storm (1749–1794), C. H. Pram (1756–1821), Jonas Rein (1760–1821), Jens Zetlitz (1761–1821), and Lyder Christian Sagen (1771–1850), all of whom, though Norwegians by birth, find their place in the annals of Danish literature. To these poets must be added the philosophers Niels Treschow (1751–1833) and Henrik Steffens (1773–1845), and in later times the poet Johannes Carsten Hauch (1790–1872).

The first form which Norwegian literature took as an independent thing was what was called “Syttendemai-Poesi,” or poetry of the 17th of May, that being the day on which Norway obtained her independence and proclaimed her king. Three poets, called the “Trefoil,” came forward as the inaugurators of Norwegian thought in 1814.

Of these Conrad Nicolai Schwach (1793–1860) was the least remarkable. Henrik Anker Bjerregaard (1792–1842), born in the same hamlet of Ringsaker as Schwach, had a much brighter and more varied talent. His Miscellaneous Poems, collected at Christiania in 1829, contain some charming studies from nature, and admirable patriotic songs. He brought out a tragedy of

Magnus Barfods Sönner (Magnus Barefoot’s Sons) and a lyrical drama, Fjeldeventyret (The Adventure in the Mountains) (1828). He became judge of the supreme court of the diocese of Christiania. The third member of the Trefoil, Mauritz Kristoffer Hansen (1794–1842), was a schoolmaster. His novels, of which Ottar de Bretagne (1819) was the earliest, were much esteemed in their day, and after his death were collected and edited (8 vols., 1855–1858), with a memoir by Schwach. Hansen’s Poems, printed at Christiania in 1816, were among the earliest publications of a liberated Norway, but were preceded by a volume of Smaadigte (Short Poems) by all three poets, edited by Schwach in 1815, as a semi-political manifesto. These writers, of no great genius in themselves, did much by their industry and patriotism to form a basis for Norwegian literature.

The creator of Norwegian literature, however, was the poet (1808–1845) (q.v.), a man of great genius and enthusiasm, who contrived within the limits of a life as short as Byron’s to concentrate the labours of a dozen ordinary men of letters. He held views in most respects similar to those pronounced by Rousseau

and Shelley. His obscurity and extravagance stood in the way of his teaching, and his only disciples in poetry were Sylvester Sivertson (1809–1847), a journalist of talent whose verses were collected in 1848, and Christian Monsen (1815–1852).

A far more wholesome and constructive influence was that of (1807–1873) (q.v.), who was first brought to the surface by the conservative reaction in 1830 against the extravagance of the radical party. A savage attack on Henrik Wergeland’s Poetry, published in 1832, caused a great sensation, and produced an angry pamphlet in reply from the father, Nikolai Wergeland. The controversy became the main topic of the day, and in 1834 Welhaven pushed it into a wider arena by the publication of his beautiful cycle of satirical sonnets called Norges Dæmring (The Dawn of Norway), in which he preached a full conservative gospel. He was assisted in his controversy with Wergeland by Henrik Hermann Foss (1790–1853), author of Tidsnornerne (The Norns of the Age) (1835) and other verses.

Andreas Munch (1811–1884) took no part in the feud between Wergeland and Welhaven, but addicted himself to the study of Danish models independently of either. He published a series of poems and dramas, one of which latter, Kong Sverres Ungdom (1837), attracted some notice. His popularity commenced with the appearance of his Poems Old and New in 1848.

His highest level as a poet was reached by his epic called Kongedatterens Brudefart (The Bridal Journey of the King’s Daughter) (1861). Two of his historical dramas have enjoyed popularity greatly in excess of their merit; these are Solomon de Caus (1854) and Lord William Russell (1857).

A group of minor poetical writers may now be considered. Magnus Brostrup Landstad (1802–1880) was born on Maasö, an island in the vicinity of the North Cape, and, therefore, in higher latitudes than any other man of letters. He was a hymn-writer of merit, and he was the first to collect, in 1853, the Norske Folkeviser or Norwegian folk-songs. Landstad was ordered by the

government to prepare an official national hymn-book, which was brought out in 1861; Peter Andreas Jensen (1812–1867) published volumes of lyrical poetry in 1838, 1849, 1855 and 1861, and two dramas. He was also the author of a novel, En Erindring (A Souvenir), in 1857. Aasmund Olafsen Vinje (1818–1870) was a peasant of remarkable talent, who was the principal leader of the movement known as the “maalstræv,” an effort to distinguish Norwegian from Danish literature by the adoption of a peasant dialect, or rather a new language arbitrarily formed on a collation of the various dialects. Vinje wrote a volume of lyrics, which he published in 1864, and a narrative poem, Storegut (Big Lad) (1866), entirely in this fictitious language, and he even went so far as to issue in it a newspaper, Dölen (The Dalesman), which appeared from 1858 to Vinje’s death in 1870. In these efforts he was supported by Ivar Aasen and by Kristoffer Janson (b. 1841) the philologist, the author of an historical tragedy, Jon Arason (1867); several novels: Fraa Bygdom (1865); Torgrim (1872); Fra Dansketidi (1875); Han og Ho (1878); and Austanfyre Sol og Vestanfyre Maane (East of the Sun and West of the Moon) (1879); besides a powerful but morbid drama in the ordinary language of Norway, En Kvindeskjebne (A Woman’s Fate) (1879). In 1882 he left Norway for America as a Unitarian minister, and from this exile he sent home in 1885 what is perhaps the best of his books, The Saga of the Prairie. Superior to all the preceding in the quality of his lyrical writing was the bishop of Christiansand, Jörgen Moe (1813–1882). He is,