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BJORNSON, BJORNSTJERNE (1832-1910)
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See also:BJORNSON, BJORNSTJERNE (1832-1910) , See also:Norwegian poet, novelist and dramatist, was See also:born on the 8th of See also:December 1832 at the farmstead of Bjorgen, in Kvikne, in Osterdal, See also:Norway. In 1837 his See also:father, who had been pastor of Kvikne, was transferred to the See also:parish of Noesset, in See also:Romsdal; in this romantic See also:district the childhood of Bjornson was spent. After some teaching at the neighbouring See also:town of See also:Molde, he was sent at the See also:age of seventeen to a well-known school in See also:Christiania to study for the university; his See also:instinct for See also:poetry was already awakened, and indeed he had written verses from his See also:eleventh See also:year. He matriculated at the university of Christiania in 1852, and soon began to See also:work as a journalist, especially as a dramatic critic. In 1857 appeared Synnove Solbakken, the first of Bjornson's See also:peasant-novels; in 1858 this was followed by See also:Arne, in 186o by A Happy Boy, and in 1868 by The See also:Fisher See also:Maiden. These are the most important specimens of his See also:bonde-fortaellinger or peasant-tales--a See also:section of his See also:literary work which has made a profound impression in his own See also:country, and has made him popular through-out the See also:world. Two of the tales, Arne and Synnove Solbakken, offer perhaps finer examples of the pure peasant-See also:story than are to be found elsewhere in literature.
Bjornson was anxious " to create a new See also:saga in the See also:light of the peasant," as he put it, and he thought this should be done, not merely in See also:prose fiction, but in See also:national dramas or folke-stykker. The earliest of these was a one-See also:act piece the See also:scene of which is laid in the 12th See also:century, Between the Battles, written in 1855, but not produced until 1857. He was especially influenced at this See also:time by the study of See also:Baggesen and Oehlenschlager, during a visit to See also:Copenhagen 1856-1857. Between the Battles was followed by Lame See also:Hulda in 1858, and See also: This raised him to the front See also:rank among the younger poets of See also:Europe. His Sigurd the Crusader should be added to the See also:category of these heroic plays, although it was not printed until 1872. At the See also:close of 1857 Bjornson had been appointed director of the See also:theatre at See also:Bergen, a See also:post which he held, with much journalistic work, for two years, when he returned to the See also:capital. From 186o to 1863 he travelled widely throughout Europe. See also:Early in 1865 he undertook the management of the Christiania theatre, and brought out his popular See also:comedy of The Newly Married and his romantic tragedy of See also:Mary See also:Stuart in See also:Scotland. Although Bjornson has introduced into his novels and plays songs of extraordinary beauty, he was never a very copious writer of See also:verse; in 187o he published his Poems and Songs and the epic See also:cycle called Arnljot Gelline; the latter See also:volume contains the magnificent See also:ode called "Bergliot," Bjornson's finest contribution to lyrical poetry. Between 1864 and 1874, in the very See also:prime of See also:life, Bjornson displayed a slackening of the intellectual forces very remarkable in a See also:man of his See also:energy; he was indeed during these years mainly occupied with politics, and with his business as a theatrical manager. This was the See also:period of Bjornson's most fiery propaganda as a See also:radical agitator. In 1871 he began to supplement his journalistic work in this direction by delivering lectures over the length and breadth of the See also:northern countries. He possessed to a surprising degree the arts of the orator, combined.with a magnificent See also:physical See also:prestige. From 1873 to 1876 See also:BLACHFORD 17 Bjornson was absent from Norway, and in the See also:peace of voluntary See also:exile he recovered his imaginative See also:powers. His new departure as a dramatic author began with A See also:Bankruptcy and The Editor in 1874, social dramas of an extremely See also:modern and realistic See also:cast. The poet now settled on his See also:estate of Aulestad in Gausdal. In 1877 he published another novel,' Magnhild—an imperfect See also:production, in which his ideas on social questions were seen to be in a See also:state of See also:fermentation, and gave expression to his republican sentiments in the polemical See also:play called The King, to a later edition of which he prefixed an See also:essay on " Intellectual Freedom," in further explanation of his position. See also:Captain Mansana, an See also:episode of the See also:war of See also:Italian See also:independence, belongs to 1878. Extremely anxious to obtain a full success on the See also:stage, BjOrnson concentrated his powers on a See also:drama of social life, Leonarda (1879), which raised a violent controversy. A satirical play, The New See also:System, was produced a few See also:weeks later. Although these plays of Bjornson's second period were greatly discussed, none of them (except A Bankruptcy) pleased on the boards. When once more he produced a social drama, A See also:Gauntlet, in 1883, he was unable to persuade any manager to stage it, except in a modified See also:form, though this play gives the full measure of his See also:power as a dramatist. In the autumn of the same year, Bjornson published a mystical or symbolic drama Beyond our Powers, dealing with the abnormal features of religious excitement with extraordinary force; this was not acted until 1899, when it achieved a See also:great success. Meanwhile, Bjornson's See also:political attitude had brought upon him a See also:charge of high See also:treason, and he took See also:refuge for a time in See also:Germany, returning to Norway in 1882. Convinced that the theatre was practically closed to him, he turned back to the novel, and published in 1884, Flags are Flying in Town and See also:Port, embodying his theories on See also:heredity and See also:education. In 1889 he printed another See also:long and still more remarkable novel, In See also:God's Way, which is chiefly concerned with the same problems. The same year saw the publication of a comedy, See also:Geography and Love, which continues to be played with success. A number of See also:short stories, of a more or less didactic See also:character, dealing with startling points of emotional experience, were collected in 1894; among them those which produced the greatest sensation were Dust, See also:Mother's Hands, and See also:Absalom's See also:Hair. Later plays were a political tragedy called See also:Paul See also:Lange and Tora Parsberg (1898), a second See also:part of Beyond our Powers (1895), Laboremus (1901), At Storhove (1902), and Daglannet (1904). in 1899, at the opening of the National theatre, Bjornson received an See also:ovation, and his saga-drama of Sigurd the Crusader was performed. A subject which interested him greatly, and on which he occupied his indefatigable See also:pen, was the question of the bondemaal, the adopting of a national See also:language for Norway distinct from the dansk-norsk (Dano-Norwegian), in which her literature has hitherto been written. Bjprnson's strong and sometimes rather narrow patriotism did not See also:blind him to the fatal folly of such a proposal, and his lectures and See also:pamphlets against the maalstraev in its extreme form did more than anything else to See also:save the language in this dangerous moment. BjOrnson was one of the See also:original members of the See also:Nobel See also:committee, and was re-elected in 'coo. In 1903 he was awarded the Nobel See also:prize for literature. Bjornson had done as much as any other man to rouse Norwegian national feeling, but in 1903, on the See also:verge of the rupture between Norway and See also:Sweden, he preached conciliation and moderation to the Norwegians. He was an eloquent See also:advocate of See also:Pan-Germanism, and, See also:writing to the , See also:Figaro in 19o5, he outlined a Pan-Germanic See also:alliance of northern Europe and See also:North See also:America. He died on the 26th of See also:April 19ro. See Bjornson's Samlede Vaerker (Copenhagen, 1900-1902,11 vols.) ; The Novels of Bjornstjerne Bjornson (1894, c.), edited by See also:Edmund See also:Gosse; G. See also:Brandes, See also:Critical Studies (1899); E. See also:Tissot, Le drame norve'See also:gien (189 ); C. D. of Wirsen, Kritiker (1901); Chr. See also:Collin, Bjornstjerne Bjornson (.2 vols., See also:German ed., 1903), the most See also:complete See also:biography and See also:criticism at See also:present available; and B. Halvorsen, Norsk Forfalter Lexikon (1885). (E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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