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NORWEGIAN LITERATURE See also:Early Norse literature is inextricably See also:bound up with Icelandic literature. See also:Iceland was colonized from See also:Norway in the 9th See also:century, and the colonists were See also:drawn chiefly from the upper and cultured classes. They took with them their See also:poetry and See also:literary traditions. Old Norse literature is therefore dealt with under Iceland (q.v.). (See also See also:EDDA, See also:SAGA, See also:RUNES.) The See also:modern literature of Norway bears something of the same relation to that of See also:Denmark that See also:American literature bears to See also:English. In each See also:case the development and separation of a dependency have produced a See also:desire on the See also:part of persons speaking the See also:mother-See also:tongue for a literature that shall See also:express the See also:local emotions and conditions of the new nation. Two notable events led to the See also:foundation of a See also:separate Norwegian literature: the one was the creation of the university of See also:Christiania in 1811, and the other was the separation of Norway from Denmark in 1814. Before this See also:time Norwegian writers had been content, as a See also:rule, to publish their See also:works at See also:Copenhagen. The first name on the See also:annals of Danish literature, Peder See also:Clausen, is that of a Norwegian; and if all Norse writers were removed from that See also:roll, the See also:list would be poorer by some of its most illustrious names, by See also:Holberg, Tullin, See also:Wessel, Treschow, See also:Steffens and See also:Hauch. The first See also:book printed in Norway was an See also:almanac, brought out in Christiania in 1643 by a wandering printer named Tyge Nielsen, who brought his types from Copenhagen. But the first See also:press set up definitely in Norway was that of Valentin See also:Kuhn, brought over from See also:Germany in 165o by the theologian See also:Christian Stephensen See also:Bang (158o--1678) to help in the circulation of his numerous tracts. Bang's Christianiae Stads Beskrifuelse (r65r), is the first book published in Norway. Christen See also:Jensen (d. 1653) was a See also:priest who collected a small glossary or glosebog of the local dialects, published in 1656. See also:Gerhard Milzow (1629—1688), the author of a Presbylerologia Norwegica (1679), was also a Norse priest. The earliest Norwegian writer of any See also:original merit was Dorthe See also:Engelbrechtsdatter (1634—1716), afterwards the wife of the pastor Ambrosius Hardenbech. She is the author of several volumes of religious poetry which have enjoyed See also:great popularity. The hymn-writer Johan Brunsmann (1637—1707), though a Norseman by See also:birth, belongs by See also:education and See also:temper entirely to Denmark. Not so Petter See also:Dass (1647—1708) (q.v.), the most original writer whom Norway produced and retained at See also:home during the See also:period of See also:annexation. Another priest, See also:Jonas See also:Ramus (1649—1718), wrote Norriges Kongers Historic (See also:History of the Norse See also:Kings) in 1719, and Norriges Beskrivelse (1735). The celebrated missionary to See also:Greenland, Hans See also:Egede (1686—1758), wrote several works on his experiences in that See also:country. Peder Hersleb (1689—1757) was the compiler of some popular See also:treatises of Lutheran See also:theology. Frederik Nannestad, See also:bishop of See also:Trondhjem (1693-1774), started a weekly See also:gazette in 176o. 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 See also:interest. The famous Erik See also:Pontoppidan (1698—1764) cannot be regarded as a Norwegian, for he did not leave Denmark until he was made bishop of See also:Bergen, at the See also:age of See also:forty-nine. On the other See also:hand the far more famous See also:Baron Ludvig Holberg (1684—1754), belongs to Denmark by everything but birth, having See also:left Norway in childhood. A few Norsemen of the beginning of the 18th century distinguished themselves chiefly in See also:science. Of these Johan See also:Ernst Gunnerus (1718—1773), bishop of Trondhjem, was the first See also:man who gave See also:close See also:attention to the Norwegian See also:flora. He founded the Norwegian Royal Society of Sciences in 176o, with Gerhard Schoning (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 See also: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 See also:Baggesen presents us with hardly a single figure which is not that of a Norseman. The director of the Danish See also:national See also: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 See also:principal tragedian of the time, in the See also:French See also:taste. It was a Norwegian, J. H. Wessel (1742—1785), who laughed this taste out of See also: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), See also:Peter Harboe Frimann (1752—1839), Claus See also:Fasting (1746—1791), Johan Wibe (1948—1782), Edvard See also:Storm (1749—1794), C. H. See also:Pram (1756—1821), Jonas See also:Rein (1760-1821), Jens Zetlitz (1761—1821), and Lyder Christian Sagen (1771—1850), all of whom, though Norwegians by birth, find their See also: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 See also:form which Norwegian literature took as an See also:independent thing was what was called " Syttendemai-Poesi," or The poetry of the 17th of May, that being the See also:day on which „See also:Trefoil.” Norway obtained her See also:independence and proclaimed
forward her See also: The third member of the Trefoil, Mauritz Kristoffer See also: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 See also: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 See also:volume of Smaadigte (See also:Short Poems) by all three poets, edited by Schwach in 1815, as a semi-See also:political manifesto. These writers, of no great genius in themselves, did much by their See also:industry and patriotism to form a basis for Norwegian literature.
The creator of Norwegian literature, however, was the poet Henrik See also:Arnold See also:Wergeland (1808—1845) (q.v.), a man of great genius and See also:enthusiasm, who contrived within the limits of a See also:life as short as See also:Byron's to concentrate the labours 8n"
of a dozen See also:ordinary men of letters. He held views in wethaven. most respects similar to those pronounced by See also: He published a munch. See also:series of poems and dramas, one of which latter, See also:Kong
Sverres Ungdom (1837), attracted some See also:notice. His popularity commenced with the See also:appearance of his Poems Old and New in 1848. His highest level as a poet was reached by his epic called Kongedatterens Brudef See also:art (The Bridal See also:Journey of the King's Daughter) (1861). Two of his See also:historical dramas have enjoyed a popularity greatly in excess of their merit; these are See also:Solomon de Caus (1854) and See also:Lord See also: In 1882 he left Norway for See also:America as a Unitarian See also:minister, and from this See also:exile he sent home in 1885 what is perhaps the best of his books, The Saga of the See also:Prairie. See also:Superior to all the preceding in the quality of his lyrical See also:writing was the bishop of See also:Christiansand, Jurgen Moe (1813—1882). He is,
however, better known by his labours in See also:comparative See also:mythology, in See also:conjunction with P. C. See also:Asbjornsen (see ASBJORNSEN AND MOE).
The names of the Norwegians See also:Ibsen (q.v.) and See also:Bjornson (q.v.), in the two See also:fields of the drama and the novel, stand out prominently in Modern the See also:European literature of the later 19th century; and novelists two writers of novels who owe much to their example are
and onas See also:Lie (q.v.), and See also: She also wrote some lyrical poetry and successful dramas. The principal historian of Norway is History, Peter Andreas Munch (1810-1863), whose multifarious
writings include a See also:grammar of Old Norse (1847); a See also:col-etc. See also:lection of Norwegian See also:laws until the See also:year 1387 (1846-1849); a study of Runic See also:inscriptions (1848); a history and description of Norway during the See also:middle ages (1849) ; and a history of the Norwegian See also:people in 8 vols. (1852-1863); See also:Jakob Aall (1773-1844) was associated with Munch in this See also:work. Christian See also:Berg (1775-1852) was another worker in the same See also: 1834) has written the history of Christiania, and has traced the See also:chronicles of Norway during the Danish See also:possession. Bernt Moe (1814-185o) was a careful biographer of the heroes of Eidsvold. Eilert See also:Lund Sundt (1817-1875) published some very curious and valuable works on the See also:condition of the poorer classes in Norway. See also:Professor J. A. See also:Friis (b. 1821) published the folk-See also:lore of the Lapps in a series of valuable volumes. The See also:German orientalist, Christian See also:Lassen (18o0-1876) was a Norwegian by birth. Lorentz Dietrichson (b. 1834) wrote voluminously both on See also:Swedish and Norwegian, chiefly on Norwegian art and literature. In See also:jurisprudence the principal Norwegian authorities are Anton See also: In medical science, the great writer of the beginning of the 19th century was See also:Michael Skjelderup (1769-1852), who was succeeded by Frederik Holst (1791-1871). See also:Daniel See also:Cornelius Danielsen (b. 1815) was a prominent dermatologist; but probably the most eminent of modern physiologists in Norway is Carl Wilhelm Boeck (1808-1875). The elder See also:brother of the last-mentioned, Christian Peter Bianco Boeck (1798-1877), also demands recognition as a medical writer. See also:Christopher See also:Hansteen (1784-1873) was professor of See also:mathematics at the university for nearly sixty years. Michael Sars (1805-1869) obtained a European reputation through his investigations in invertebrate See also:zoology. He was assisted by his son Georg See also:Ossian Sars (b. 1837). Baltazar See also:Matthias Keilhau (1797-1858) and Theodor See also:Kjerulf (1825-1888) have been the leading Norwegian geologists. Mathias Numsen Blytt (1789-1862) represents See also:botany. His Norges Flora, part of which was published in 1861, was left incomplete at his death. Niels Henrik See also:Abel (18o2-1829) (q.v.) was a mathematician of extraordinary promise; Ole Jakob Broch (1818-1889) must be mentioned in the same connexion. Among theological writers may be mentioned Hans Nielsen See also:Hauge (1771-1824), author of the See also:sect which bears his name; Svend Borchman Hersleb (1784-1836); Stener Johannes Stenersen (1789-1835); Wilhelm Andreas \\exels (1797-1866); a writer of extraordinary popularity; and Carl See also:Paul See also:Caspari (1814-1892), a German of Jewish birth, who adopted See also:Christianity and became professor of theology in the university of Christiania. The political crisis of 1884-1885, which produced so remarkable an effect upon the material and social life of Norway, was not without its influence upon literature. There had The new movement, followed to the great generation of the 'sixties, led by Ibsen and Bjornson, a See also:race of entirely prosaic writers, of no great talent, much exercised with " problems." The movement which began in 1885 brought back the See also:fine masters of a previous imaginative age, silenced the problem-setters, and encouraged a whole generation of new men, realists of a healthier sort. In 1885 the field was still held by the three main names of 817 modern Norse literature—Ibsen, Bjornson and Lie. Henrik Ibsen proceeded deliberately with his labours, and his name at the same time See also:grew in reputation and influence. The advance of Bjornstjerne Bjornson was not so See also:regular, because it was disturbed by political issues. Moreover, his early peasant tales once more, after having suffered great neglect, grew to be a force, and Bjornson's example has done much to revive an interest in the art of See also:verse in Norway. Jonas Lie, the most popular novelist of Norway, continued to publish his pure, fresh and eminently characteristic stories. His See also:style, colloquial almost to a See also:fault, has neither the See also:charm of Bjornson nor the art of some of the latest generation. Ibsen, Bjornson and Lie continued, however, to be the three representative authors of their country. Kristian See also:Elster (1841-1881) showed great talent in his pessimistic novels Tora Trondal (1879) and Dangerous People (1881). Kristian Gloersen (b. 1838) had many See also:affinities with Elster. See also:Arne Garborg (1851) was brought up under sternly pietistic influences in a remote country parish, the See also:child of peasant parerts, in the See also:south-west corner of Norway, and the gloom of these early surroundings has tinged all his writings. The early novels of Garborg were written in the peasant dialect, and for that See also:reason, perhaps, attracted little attention. It was not until 1890 that he addressed the public in ordinary language, in his extraordinary novel, Tired Men, which produced a deep sensation. Subsequently Gargorg returned, with violence, to the cultivation of the peasant language, and took a foremost part in the maalstrrev. A novelist of considerable crude force was Amalie See also:Skram (1847-1905), wife of the Danish novelist, Erik Skram. Her novels are destitute of literary beauty, but excellent in their local See also:colour, dealing with life in Bergen and the west See also:coast. But the most extravagant product of the prosaic period was Hans Jwger (b. 1854), a sailor by profession, who left the See also:sea, obtained some instruction and embarked on literature. Jwger accepted the naturalistic formulas wholesale, and outdid See also:Zola himself in the harshness of his pictures of life. Several of Jwger's books, and in particular his novel Morbid Love (1893), were immediately suppressed, and can with great difficulty be referred to. Knud Hamsun (b. 186o) has been noted for his egotism, and for the bitterness of his attacks upon his See also:fellow writers and the great names of literature. Hamsun is seen at his best in the powerful romance called See also:Hunger (1888). A writer of a much more pleasing, and in its quiet way of a much more original See also:order, is Hans Aanrud (b. 1863). His See also:humour, applied to the observation of the Ostland peasants—Aanrud himself comes from the Gulbrandsdal—is exquisite; he is by far the most amusing of See also:recent Norwegian writers, a race whose fault it is to take life too seriously. His See also:story, How Our Lord made See also:Hay at Asmund Bergemellum's (1887), is a little masterpiece. Peter Egge (b. 1869), a See also:young novelist and playwright from Trondhjem, came to the front with careful studies of types of Norwegian temperament. In his See also:Jacob and Christopher (1900) Egge also proved himself a successful writer of See also:comedy. Gunnar See also:Heiberg (b. 1857), although older than most of the young generation, has but lately come into prominence. His poetical drama, The See also:Balcony, made a sensation in 1894, but ten years earlier his comedy of Aunt Ulrica should have awakened anticipation. His strongest work is Love's Tragedy (1904). Two young writers of great promise were removed in the very heyday of success, See also:Gabriel Finne (1866-1899) and Sigbjorn Obstfelder (1866-1900). The last mentioned, in The Red Drops and The See also:Cross, published in 1897, gave promise of something new in Norwegian literature. Obstfelder, who died in a See also:hospital in Copenhagen inAugust 1goo, left an important book in MS., A Priest's See also:Diary (1901). Verse was banished from Norwegian literature, during the years that immediately preceded 1885. The See also:credit of restoring it belongs to See also:Sigurd Bodtker, who wrote an extremely naturalistic piece called Love, in the manner of See also:Heine. The earliest real poet of the new generation is, however, Niels Collett See also:Vogt (b. 1864), who published a little volume of Poems in 1887. Arne Dybfest (1868-1892), a young anarchist who committed See also:suicide, was a decadent egotist of the most pronounced type, but a poet of unquestionable talent, and the writer of a remarkably melodious See also:prose. In 1891 was printed in a See also:magazine Vilhelm Krag's (b. 1871) very remarkable poem called Fandango, and shortly afterwards a collection of his lyrics. Vogt and V. Krag continued to be the leading lyrical writers of the period, and although they have many imitators, they cannot be said to have found any rivals. Vilhelm Krag turned to prose fiction, and his novels See also:Isaac Seehuusen (19o0) and Isaac Kapergast (1901) are excellent studies of Westland life. More distinguished as a novelist, however, is his brother, See also: 1864) is the author of a very successful novel, The Barque Franciska (1go1). With him may be mentioned the popular dramatist and memoir-writer, See also: 1835) and Yngvar Nielsen (b. 1843). The great historian of See also:northern jurisprudence was L. M. B. Aubert (1838-1896), and in this connexion T. H. Aschehoug (b. 1822) must also be mentioned. The leading philosopher of Norway in those years was the Hegelian See also:Marcus Jakob Monrad (b. 1816), whose See also:Aesthetics of 1889 is his See also:master-piece. The close of 1899 and the beginning of 1900 were occupied by a discussion, in which every Norwegian author took part, The as to the adoption of the landsmaal, or composite •~maaJ . dialect of the peasants, in place of the rigsmaal or See also:con- Dano-Norwegian. Political See also:prejudice greatly emtroversy. bittered the controversy, but the proposition that the landsmaal, which See also:dates from the exertions of See also:Ivan Aasen (q.v.) in 185o, should oust the language in which all the See also:classics of Norway are written, was opposed by almost every philologist and writer in the country, particularly by Bjornson and Sophus See also:Bugge (b. 1833). On the other See also:side, Arne Garborg's was almost the only name which carried any literary See also:weight. The maal has no doubt enriched the literary tongue of the country with many valuable words and turns of expression, but there the See also:advantage of it ends, and it is difficult to feel the slightest sympathy with a movement in favour of suppressing the language in which every one has hitherto expressed himself, in order to adopt an artificial dialect which exists mainly on See also:paper, and which is not the - natural speech of any one See also:body of persons throughout the whole of Norway. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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