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though permission was given for ships of the Norwegian-Amer- ican Line, as from Nov. 7, to go that way. In 1915 and 1916 a . considerable quantity of corn, meal, sugar, forage and fertilizing stuffs was bought in and contracted for by the Victualling Com- mission, which took over the whole trade in these articles. In 191 5 a special commission was set up for dealing with the question of the national corn-supply in the event of the creation of a State monopoly. From 1916 all prices began to increase tremendously. The rise in prices kept pace with the ever-advancing increase in wages and salaries, and the pressure of high prices was rendered more acute by the high freights on all supplies from abroad. Thus from 1916 steadily increasing difficulties arose for most of the industries of the country, and the greater part of the popula- tion was affected, though an exception was found in the case of shipowners, whose profits were large. From March 8 1916, the Bank of Norway once again became obliged to redeem its bills with gold, but practically no advantage was taken of this, the population remaining passive as regards the facility of again obtaining gold. In 1916 it became necessary to introduce ration- ing of all the more important food-stuffs, especially all grain and meal products, meat, sugar, coffee and tea. The increasing diffi- culties of transport from abroad during 1917 rendered it neces- sary on Jan. 13 1918 to introduce a complete rationing of sugar, coffee, corn and meal goods. In the spring of 1919 the abolition of emergency regulations commenced, but it was carried out very slowly and with great caution, as all economic and social condi- tions had been deranged.

In June 1916 a heavy struggle in the labour market arose. It involved 120,000 industrial and transport workers and gave rise to some very frenzied demonstrations. On July 9 1916 the Storthing, as an urgent measure, and against Socialist protest, adopted a law compelling arbitration in industrial disputes. The last of the great labour conflicts of that time (mine-workers) was settled under the new Arbitration Law on July 22 1916.

The destruction of Norwegian merchant shipping by sinking and torpedoing commenced in the first days of the war, and increased steadily later until nearly the close of the war. In the autumn of 1916 even the Arctic Ocean became involved in the danger zone. Nevertheless, from the first day of the war till the last, Norwegian shipowners and seamen maintained their shipping on all the seas, though for a long time the heavy losses in ships could not nearly be replaced by new tonnage. The total loss of the country on the sea was 831 ships, of which 652 were steam or motor and 179 sailing ships, making a total of 1,238,300 regis- tered tons. One thousand two hundred men were slain by torpedo or mine. These facts made a great impression in the Entente countries, and testimony hereto was provided by the presentation of a commemorative tablet for the Norwegian , seamen lost through the war, which was placed on the masonry of the old fortress in Bergen. The memorial tablet was unveiled with great ceremony on Oct. 2 1921 by the vice-president of the Norwegian Club in London, Mr. Slingsby. The inscription reads: " To honour the memory of that great Company of free Norsemen, who, though at peace with all men, dared to defy the perils and horrors of War, and in rightful service endured fearlessly to the end, this monument is set up by their friends and admirers in Great Britain." (S. C. H.)

NORWEGIAN LITERATURE

The first decade of the twentieth century was memorable in Norwegian literature for the passing away of the four great classics of the preceding epoch: Ibsen, Bjornson, Lie and Kiel- land. After their death Knut Hamsun (b. 1857), Hans E. Kinck (b. 1865), Arne Garborg (b. 1851) and, Gunnar Heiberg (b. 1857) became the leading literary figures, the-first two chiefly as novel- ists, Garborg as a social and religious philosopher and poet, Heiberg chiefly as a dramatist and essayist. After the constitu- tional crisis of 1905, economic and social problems came to the forefront in Norwegian public life, and new ideas became prom- inent also in the field of fiction. There was a continuation, too, of the maal controversy (see 19.818), i.e. the effort to create an entirely independent Norwegian literary language based upon the

peasant dialect (landsmaal), descended from the old Norse, in place of the Dano-Norwegian rigsmaal.

Hamsun had now become the most prominent representative of autobiographic fiction in Norwegian literature. His earlier productions in novels (especially Victoria, 1898), and particu- larly in his trilogy of dramas, Rikets port (1895), Divets Spil (1896) and Aftcnrode (1898), were more especially occupied by the play and problems of eroticism, while his volume of verse; Det Vilde Kot (1904), contained emotional lyrics, including elegant poems of homage to Bjornson and Byron. He then turned back again to self-absorbing psychological analysis in a series of narratives, Under hoststjernen (1906), Benoni (1907), and Rosa (1908), which combine a curious bitter-sweet irony of life with cool epic presentation. These narrati vres formed a stepping- stone to his cycle of social romances, Den siste glaede (1912), a satire on tourist traffic which he denounces as demoralizing the Norwegian people, Born av tiden (1913), Segelfoss By (1915), Markens grade (1917), Nyjord (1918) and Konerne vedvandposten (1920). In these mature works, Hamsun has unrolled his picture of modern Norway; he here finds that industrialism has displaced agriculture, unhealthy speculation the honest, unassuming, but ethically invigorating toil of the day. Many of his books have been translated in England and America, such as Growth of the Soil (1920), Pan and Mothwise (1921; originally published in 1904 under the title of Svarmere). Markens grade (Growth of the Soil) in 1920 secured him the Nobel prize. Hamsun's collected works have appeared in many editions, but the most complete is in the Jubilee Issue, published during the winter of 1921-2.

In Hans E. Kinck a strange, sombre, bitter and mocking romanticism is accompanied by a distinct strain of mystic horror. But no writer has excelled him in knowledge of the characteristics of the people of Norway. He himself grew up in Setesdalen and Hardanger, where tradition is still fresh and living. He displays his talents best in small peasant stories; one of his chief types is a man who is half dreamer, half horse- dealer. His series of romances, Sncskavlen Brast (1919), is re- markable for its weird realism. His dramas exhibit a fantasy which suggests the inspiration of Victor Hugo; Den sissle gjaest (1911) and Mot Karneval (1915) introduce Aretino and Machi- avelli respectively, and his interest in historical personalities is also shown in the arresting essays Reconnaissancemennesker (1916). Kinck 's profuse use of dialect words and self -coined expressions makes his works somewhat difficult even to his own countrymen; but he has found an inspired American interpreter and translator in Alfred E. Henderson, whose version of Dr. Gabriel Jahr was published in New York in 1921.

Arne Garborg had already written a cycle of lyrics in the landsmaal, Haugtussa (1895), which cleverly pictured a young peasant girl's natural emotions, her belief in subterranean and supernatural beings. In later years he showed his poetic ability in masterly translations into that tongue, Odysseuskvcedet (1918), a selection from the Mahabharata (1921), Holberg's classical comedy Jeppe paa Berget (1921). The last named was for presentation at a theatre established for the landsmaal, in the founding of which he took part together with his wife, Hulda Garborg (b. 1862), who has also written a volume of romance (Frau Evas Dagbog, 1905) and several plays. A jubilee edition of Arne Garborg's collected works, Skrifter i sanding, was appear- ing in 1921-2.

Gunnar Heiberg has produced a series of effective dramatic works, mostly dealing with scenes in Norway. In a series of political and social plays, with relentless mockery, he pursues rhetoric when he encounters it, the Bjornson ethical imperative in Kong Midas (1890), nationalism in Folkeraadet, journalistic self-importance in Harold Svan's mor, philanthropy in Kjaer- lighet til naesten, patriotism in Jeg ml verge mil land (a play on Norwegian politics at the dissolution of the union between Nor- way and Sweden in 1905), and, above all, with Aristophanic mockery in the comedy Paradesengen, which aroused a great sensation by aiming directly at Bjornstjerne Bjornson and his family. Some of his journalistic articles from Paris, where he resided for many years, were later collected in Parisbreve (1909),