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SWEDISH LITERATURE Swedish literature, as distinguished from compositions in the See also:common norraena tunga of old Scandinavia, cannot be said to exist earlier than the 13th See also:century. Nor until the See also:period of the See also:Reformation was its development in any degree rapid or copious. The See also:oldest See also:form in which Swedish exists as a written See also:language (see SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGE) iS the See also:series of See also:manuscripts known as Landskapslagarne, or " The Common See also:Laws." These are supposed to be the See also:relics of a still earlier See also:age, and it is hardly believed that we even possess the first that was put down in See also:writing. The most important and the most See also:ancient of these codes is the " See also:Elder See also:West See also:Gota See also:Law," reduced to its See also:present form by the law-See also:man Eskil about 1230. Another of See also:great See also:interest is See also:Magnus Eriksson's " See also:General Common Law," which was written in 1347. These ancient codes have been collected and edited by the learned jurist, K. J. Schlyter (1795—1888) as Corpus See also:juris Sveo-Gotorum antiqui (4 vols., 1827—1869). The See also:chief See also:ornament of See also:medieval Swedish literature is See also:Urn styrilse kununga ok hofdinga (" On the Conduct of See also:Kings and Princes "), first printed by command of Gustavus II. See also:Adolphus, in 1634. The writer is not known; it has been conjecturally dated 1325. It is a See also:hand-See also:book of moral and See also:political teaching, expressed in terse and vigorous language. St See also:Bridget, or Birgitta (1303—1373), an See also:historical figure of extraordinary interest, has See also:left her name attached to several important religious See also:works, in particular to a collection of Uppenbarelser (" Revelations "), in which her visions and ecstatic
meditations are recorded, and a version, the first into Swedish, of the five books of See also:Moses. This latter was undertaken, at her See also:desire, by her See also:father-See also:confessor Mattias (d. 1350), a See also:priest at See also:Linkoping. The See also:translation of the See also:Bible was continued a century later by a See also: The collection of rhymed romances which bears the name of See also:Queen Euphemia's Songs must have been written before the See also:death of the See also:Norwegian queen in 1312. They are versions of three medieval stories taken from See also:French and See also:German See also:sources, and dealt with the See also:Chevalier au See also:lion, of See also:Chrestien de See also:Troyes, with See also:Duke See also:Frederick of See also:Normandy, and with See also:Flores and Blancheflor. They possess very slight poetic merit in their Swedish form. A little later the romance of See also: Olaus, who is one of the noblest figures in Swedish See also:annals, was of the executive rather than the meditative class. He became See also:chancellor to Gustavus See also:Vasa, but his reform- See also:ing zeal soon brought him into disgrace, and in 1540 he was condemned to death. Two years later he was pardoned, and allowed to resume his See also:preaching in See also:Stockholm. He found See also:time, however, to write a Swedish See also:Chronicle, which is the earliest See also:prose See also:history of Sweden, a See also:mystery-See also:play, Tobiae comedia, which is the first Swedish See also:drama, and three See also:psalm-books, the best known being published in 1J30 under the See also:title of Nd.gre gudhelige vijsor (" Certain Divine Songs "). His Chronicle was based on a number of sources, in the treatment of which he showed a discrimination which makes the work still useful. Laurentius Petri, who was a man of calmer temperament, was See also:archbishop of all Sweden, and edited or superintended the translation of the 1 Skanska folkvisor, edited by E. G. See also:Geijer and A. A. See also:Afzelius (3 vols., Stockholm, 1879). 2 See Cederschiold, Otn Erikskronikan (1899). 2 See also:Editions of these chronicles and romances have been issued by the " Svenska Fornskrift Sallskapet " (Stockholm) : See also:Ivan Lejonriddaren (ed. See also:Stephens), Hertig Fredrik of Normandie (ed. Ahlstrand) Flores och Blancheflor (ed. G. E. Klemming), Alexander (ed. Klemming), Carl Magnus (ed. Klemming, in Prosadikter Fran medeltiden). Bible published at Upsala in 1540. He also wrote many psalms. Laurentius Andreae, 1552, had previously prepared a translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1526. He was a polemical writer of prominence on the See also:side of the Reformers. Finally, Petrus See also:Niger (Peder Svart), bishop of See also:Vesteras (d. 1562), wrote a chronicle of the See also:life of Gustavus I. up to 1533, in excel-See also:lent prose. The same writer left unpublished a history of the bishops of Vesteras,' his predecessors. The latter See also:half of the 16th century is a See also:blank in Swedish literature.
With the See also:accession of See also: Being discovered plotting against the See also:government during the See also:absence of Gustavus in See also:Russia, he was condemned to imprisonment for life—that is, for twenty years. Before this disaster he had been See also:professor of See also:jurisprudence in Upsala, where his first historical comedy Disa was performed in 1611 and the tragedy of Signill in 1612. The See also:design of Messenius was to write the history of his country in fifty plays; he completed and produced six. These dramas 5 are not particularly well arranged, but they form a little See also:body of theatrical literature of singular interest and value. Messenius was a genuine poet; the lyrics he introduces have something of the See also:charm of the old See also:ballads. He wrote abundantly in See also:prison; his magnum See also:opus was a history of Sweden in Latin, but he has also left, in Swedish, two important See also:rhyme-chronicles. Messenius was imitated by a little See also:crowd of playwrights. Nikolaus Holgeri Catonius (d. 1655) wrote a See also:fine tragedy on the Trojan See also:War, Troijenborgh, in which he excelled Messenius as a dramatist. Andreas Prytz, who died in 16J5 as bishop of Linkoping, produced several religious chronicle plays from Swedish history. Jacobus Rondeletius (d. 1662) wrote a curious " See also:Christian tragi-comedy " of Judas redivivus, which contains some amusing scenes from daily Swedish life. Another See also:good play was an anonymous Holofernes and See also:Judith (edited at Upsala, 1895, by O. Sylwan). These plays were all acted by schoolboys and university youths, and when they went out of See also:fashion among these classes the drama in Sweden almost entirely ceased to exist. Two historians of the reign of Charles IX., Erik Goransson Tegel (d. 1636) and Aegidius Girs (d. 1.639), deserve mention. The chancellor Magnus See also:Gabriel de la Gardie (1622-1686) did much to promote the study of Swedish antiquities. He founded the College of Antiquities at Upsala in 1667, and bought back the See also:Gothic Codex argenteus which he presented to the university library. The reign of Gustavus Adolphus was adorned by one great writer, the most considerable in all the See also:early history of Sweden. The title of " the Father of Swedish See also:poetry " hasSt/ernhIetm. been universally awarded to Goran Lilja, better known by his adopted name of Georg Stjernhjelm (q.v.; 1598–1672). Stjernhjelm was a man of almost universal attainment, but it is mainly in verse that he has left his See also:stamp upon 4 Selections from his writings were edited by G. E. Klemming, (Upsala, 1883-1885). 5 Edited for a learned society (Upsala, 1886, &c.) by H. See also:Schack. the literature of his country. He found the language rough and halting, and he moulded it into perfect smoothness and See also:elasticity. His See also:master, Buraeus, had written a few Swedish hexameters by way of experiment. Stjernhjelm took the form and made it See also:national. The claim of Stjernhjelm to be the first Swedish poet may be contested by a younger man, but a slightly earlier writer, Rosennane.Gustaf Rosenhane (1619-1684), who was a reformer on quite other lines. If Stjernhjelm studied Opitz, Rosenhane took the French poets of the Renaissance for his See also:models, and in 165o wrote a See also:cycle of one See also:hundred sonnets, the earliest in the language; these were published under the title Venerid in 1680. Rosenhane printed in 1658 a " Complaint of the Swedish Language " in thirteen hundred rattling rhyming lines, and in 1682 a collection of eighty songs. He was a metrist of the See also:artistic See also:order, skilful, learned and unimpassioned. His zeal for the improvement of the literature of his country was beyond question. Most of the young poets, however, followed Stjernhjelm rather than Rosenhane. As See also:personal See also:friends and pupils of the former, the brothers See also:Columbus deserve See also:special See also:attention. They were sons of a musician and poet, See also:Jonas Columbus (1586-1663). Each wrote copiously in verse, but Johan (164o-1684), who was professor of poetry at Upsala, almost entirely in Latin, while See also:Samuel (1642-1679), especially in his Odae sveticae, showed himself an See also:apt and fervid imitator of the Swedish hexameters of Stjernhjelm, to whom he was at one time secretary, and whose See also:Hercules he dramatized. His works were included by P. Hanselli in vol. ii. of Samlade vitterhets arbeten, &c. Of a rhyming See also:family of Hjarne, it is enough to mention one member, See also:Urban Hjarne (1641-1724), who introduced the new form of classical tragedy from See also:France, in a See also:species of transition from the masques of Stjernhjelm to the later See also:regular rhymed dramas. His best play was a Rosimunda. Lars Johansson (1642-1674), who called himself "Lucidor the Unfortunate," has been the subject of a whole See also:tissue of romance, most of which is fabulous. It is true, however, that he was stabbed, like See also:Marlowe, in a midnight brawl at a See also:tavern. His poems were posthumously collected as See also:Flowers of See also:Helicon, Plucked and Distributed on various occasions by Lucidor the Unfortunate. Stripped of the myth which had attracted so much attention to his name, Lucidor proves to be an occasional rhymester of a very See also:low order. Haquin Spegel (1645-1714), the famous See also:arch-bishop of Upsala, wrote a long didactic epic in alexandrines, See also:God's Labour and See also:Rest, with an See also:introductory See also:ode to the Deity in rhymed hexameters. He was also a good writer of See also:hymns. Another ecclesiastic, the bishop of Skara, Jesper Svedberg (1653-1735), wrote sacred verses, but is better remembered as the father of See also:Swedenborg. See also:Peter Lagerlof (1648-1699) cultivated a See also:pastoral vein in his ingenious lyrics Elisandra "and Lyci!lis; he was professor of poetry, that is to say, of the See also:art of writing Latin verses, at Upsala. Olof Wexionius (1656-169o?) published his Sinne-Afvel, a collection of graceful See also:miscellaneous pieces, in 1684, in an edition of only too copies. Its existence was presently forgotten, and the name of Wexionius had dropped out of the history of literature, when Hanselli recovered a copy and reprinted its contents in 1863. We have hitherto considered only the followers of Stjernhjelm; we have now to speak of an important writer who followed in t)adtsyeroathe footsteps of Rosenhane. Gunno Eurelius, afterwards ennobled with the name of See also:Dahlstjerna (q.v.; 1661-1709), early showed an interest in the poetry of See also:Italy. In 1690 he translated See also:Guarini's Pastor Fido, and in or just after 1697 published, in a See also:folio See also:volume without a date, his Kunga=Skald, the first See also:original poem in ottava rima produced in Swedish. This is a bombastic and vainglorious epic in See also:honour of Charles XI., whom Eurelius adored; it is not, however, without great merits, richness of language, flowing See also:metre, and the breadth of a genuine poetic See also:enthusiasm. He published a little collection of lamentable sonnets when his great master died. Johan See also:Paulinus Liljenstedt (1655-1732), a Finn, was a graceful imitator of See also:Ronsard and Guarini. Johan Runius (1679-1713), called the " See also:Prince of Poets," published a collection entitled Dudaim, in which there is nothing to praise, and with him the See also:generation of the 17th century closes. See also:Talent had been shown by certain individuals, but no healthy school of Swedish poetry had been founded, and the latest imitators of Stjernhjelm had lost every vestige of See also:taste and See also:independence. In prose the 17th century produced but little of importance in Sweden. Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632) was the most polished writer of its earlier half, and his speeches take an important See also:place in the development of the language. The most original mind of the next age was See also:Olaf Rudbeck (1630-1702), the famous author of Atland eller Manhem. He spent nearly all his life in Upsala, See also:building anatomical laboratories, conducting musical concerts, laying out botanical gardens, arranging medical lecture rooms—in a word, expending ceaseless See also:energy on the See also:practical improvement of the university. He was a genius in all the known branches of learning; at twenty-three his physiological discoveries had made him famous throughout See also:Europe. His Atland (or Atlantika) appeared in four folio volumes, in Latin and Swedish, in 1675-1698; it was an See also:attempt to summon all the authority of the past, all the sages of See also:Greece and the bards of See also:Iceland, to prove the inherent and indisputable greatness of the Swedish nation, in which the fabulous See also:Atlantis had been at last discovered. It was the See also:literary expression of the See also:majesty of Charles XI., and of his autocratical dreams for the destiny of Sweden. From another point of view it is a monstrous hoard or See also:cairn of rough-hewn antiquarian learning, now often praised, sometimes quoted from, and never read. Olof Verelius (1618-1682) had led the way for Rudbeck, by his See also:translations of Icelandic sagas, a work which was carried on with greater intelligence by Johan Peringskjold (1654-1720), the editor of the Heimskringla (1697), and J. Hadorph (1630-1693). The French philosopher See also:Descartes, who died at See also:Christina's See also:court at Stockholm in 165o, found his chief, though See also:posthumous, See also:disciple in Andreas Rydelius (1671-1738), bishop of See also:Lund, who was the master of Dalin, and thus connects us with the next See also:epoch. His chief work, Nodiga fornuftsofningar ... (5 vols.) appeared in 1718. Charles XII., under whose special patronage Rydelius wrote, was himself a metaphysician and physiologist of merit.
A much more brilliant period followed the death of Charles XII. The See also:influence of France and See also:England took the place of that of See also:Germany and Italy. The taste of See also: See also:Atterbom pronounces Frese the best Swedish poet between Stjernhjelm and Dalin. Samuel von Triewald (1688-1743) played a very imperfect See also:Dryden to Dalin's Pope. He was the first Swedish satirist, and introduced Boileau to his country-men. His See also:Satire upon our Stupid Poets may still be read with entertainment.' Both in verse and prose Olof von Dalin (q.v.; 1708-1763) takes a higher place than any See also:Dan writer since Stjernhjelm. He was inspired by the study of his great See also:English contemporaries. His Swedish See also:Argus (1733-1734) was modelled on Addison's Spectator, his Thoughts about Critics (1736) on Pope's See also:Essay on See also:Criticism, his See also:Tale of a See also:Horse on See also:Swift's Tale of a Tub. Dalin's See also:style, ' The works of the chief writers between Sternhjelm and Dalin were edited by P. Hanselli (Upsala, 1856, &c.) as Samlade vitterhetsarbeten-af svenska forfattare. Rudbeck. whether in prose or verse, was of a finished elegance. As a prose writer Dalin is chiefly memorable for his History of the Swedish See also:Kingdom (4 vols., 1746–1762). His great epic, Swedish Freedom (1742) was written in alexandrines of far greater smoothness and vigour than had previously been attempted. When in 1737 the new Royal Swedish See also:Theatre was opened, Dalin led the way to a new school of dramatists with his Brynhilda, a regular tragedy in the style of See also:Crebillon pere. In his comedy of The Envious Man he introduced the manner of See also:Moliere, or more properly that of See also:Holberg. His songs, his satires, his occasional pieces, without displaying any real originality, show Dalin's tact and skill as a workman with the See also:pen. He See also:stole from England and France, but with the See also:plagiarism of a man of genius; and his multifarious labours raised Sweden to a level with the other literary countries of Europe. They formed a basis upon which more national and more scrupulous writers could build their various structures. A See also:foreign critic, especially an English one, will never be able to give Dalin so much See also:credit as the Swedes do; but he was certainly an unsurpassable master of pastiche. His works were collected in 6 vols., 1767. The only poet of importance who contested the laurels of Dalin was a woman. Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718 1763) was the centre of a society which took the Fratvorden-name of Tankeb are Orden and ventured to See also:rival ftycht. Ygg that which Queen Louise Ulrica created and Dalin adorned. Both See also:groups were classical in taste, both worshipped the new See also:lights in England and France. Fru Nordenflycht wrote with facility and grace; her collection of lyrics, The Sorrowing Turtledove (1743), in spite of its affectation, enjoyed and merited a great success; it was the expression of a deep and genuine sorrow—the death of her See also:husband after a very brief and happy married life. It was in 1744 that she settled in Stockholm and opened her famous literary See also:salon. She was called " The Swedish See also:Sappho," and See also:scandal has been needlessly busy in giving point to the allusion. It was to Fru Nordenflycht's credit that she discovered and encouraged the talent of two very distinguished poets younger than herself, Creutz and Gyllenborg, who published volumes of poetry in Crentz. collaboration. See also:Count Gustaf See also: Adalrik och Gothilda, which went on appearing from 1742 to 1745, is the best known; it was followed, between 1748 and 1758, by See also:Thecla. Jakob Wallenberg (1746–1778) described a voyage he took to the See also:East Indies and See also:China under the very See also:odd title of See also:Min son pa' galejan (" My Son at the Galleys "), a work full of See also:humour and originality. Johan Ihre (1707–1780), a professor at Upsala, edited the Codex argenteus of See also:Ulfilas, and produced the valuable Svenskt See also:Dialect See also:Lexicon (1766) based on an earlier learned work, the Dialectologia of Archbishop Erik Benzelius (d. 1743). He settled for some time at See also:Oxford. Ihre's masterpiece is the Glossarium sueogothicum (1769), a historical See also:dictionary with many valuable examples from the ancient monuments of the language. In doing this he was assisted by the labours of two other grammarians, Sven See also:Hof (d. 1786) and See also:Abraham Sahlstedt (d. 1776). The chief historians were Sven Lagerbring. (1707–1787), author of a still valuable history of Sweden down to 1457 (Svea .Rikes historia, 4 vols., 1769–1783); Olof See also:Celsius (1716–1794), bishop of Lund, who wrote histories of Gustavus I. (1746–1753) and of See also:Eric XIV. (1774); and Karl Gustaf See also:Tessin (1695–1770) who wrote on politics and on See also:aesthetics. Tessin's Old Man's Letters to a young Prince were addressed to his See also:pupil, afterwards Gustavus III. Count Anders Johan von See also:Hopken (1712–1789), the friend of Louise Ulrica, was a master of rhetorical compliment in addresses and funeral orations. In spite of all the encouragement of the court, drama did not flourish in Sweden. Among the tragic writers of the age we may mention Dalin, Gyllenborg, and Erik See also:Wrangel (1686–1765). In comedy See also:Reinhold Gustaf Modee (d. 1752) wrote three good plays in rivalry of Holberg. In See also:science See also:Linnaeus, or Karl von Linne (1707–1778), was the name of greatest genius in the whole century; but he wrote almost entirely in Latin. The two great Swedish chemists, Torbern Olof See also:Bergman (1735–1784) and Karl Vilhelm See also:Scheele (1742–1786), flourished at this time. In See also:pathology a great name was left by Nils Rosen von Rosenstein (1706–1773), in See also:navigation by See also:Admiral Fredrik Henrik of See also:Chapman (d. 18o8), in See also:philology by Karl Aurivillius (d. 1786). But these and other distinguished savants whose names might be enumerated scarcely belong to the history of Swedish literature. The same may be said about that marvellous and many-sided genius, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), who, though the son of a Swedish poet, preferred to prophesy to the See also:world in Latin. What is called the Gustavian period is supposed to commence with the reign of Gustavus III. in 1771 and to close with the See also:abdication of Gustavus IV. in 1809. This The period of less than See also:forty years was particularly Gustavian rich in literary talent, and the taste of the See also:people period. in literary matters widened to a remarkable extent. Journalism began to develop; the Swedish Academy was founded; the drama first learned to flourish in Stockholm; and literature began to take a characteristically national shape. This fruitful period naturally divides itself into two divisions, See also:equivalent to the reigns of the two kings. The royal personages of Sweden have commonly been protectors of literature; they have strangely often been able men of letters themselves. Gustavus III. (1746–1792), the founder of the Swedish Academy and of the Swedish theatre, was himself a playwright of no mean ability. One of his prose dramas, Siri See also:Brahe och Johan See also:Gyllenstjerna, held the See also:stage for many years. But his best work was his national drama of Gustaf Vasa (1783), written by the king in prose, and afterwards versified by See also:Kellgren. In 1773 the king opened the national theatre in Stockholm, and on that occasion an See also:opera of See also:Thetis och Pelee was performed, written by himself. In 1786 Gustavus created the Swedish Academy, on the lines of the French Academy, but with eighteen members instead of forty. , The first See also:list of immortals, which included the survivors of a previous age and such young celebrities as Kellgren and See also:Leopold, embraced all that was most brilliant in the best society of Stockholm; the king himself pre-sided, and won the first See also:prize for an oration. The works of Gustavus III. in six volumes were printed at Stockholm in 1802–1806. The See also:principal writers of the reign of Gustavus III. See also:bear the name of the academical school. But Karl Mikael See also:Bellman (q.v.; 1740-1795), the most original and one of the Beaman. most able of all Swedish writers, an See also:improvisatore of the first order, had nothing academical in his See also:composition. The See also:riot of his dithyrambic hymns sounded a See also:strange See also:note of nature amid the conventional See also:music of the Gustavians. Of the academical poets Johan Gabriel See also:Oxenstjerna (1750–1818), the See also:nephew of Gyllenborg, was a descriptive idyllist of grace. He translated See also:Paradise Lost. A writer of far more See also:power and versatility was Johan Henrik Kellgren (q.v.; 1751-1795), the Kellgren, See also:leader of taste in his time. He was the first writer of the end of the century in Sweden, and the second undoubtedly was Karl Gustaf of Leopold' (1756-1829), Leopo/e. " the See also:blind seer Tiresias-Leopold," who lived on to represent the old school in the midst of romantic times. Leopold attracted the See also:notice of Gustavus III. by a volume of Erotic Odes (1785). The king gave him a See also:pension and rooms in the See also:palace, admitting him on intimate terms. He was not equal to Kellgren in general poetical ability, but he is great in didactic and satiric writing. He wrote a satire, the Enebomiad, against a certain luckless Per Enebom, and a classic tragedy of See also:Virginia. Gudmund Goran Adlerbeth (1751-1818) made translations from the See also:classics and from the Norse, and was the author of a successful tragic opera, Cora och Alonzo (1782). See also:Anna Maria Lenngren (1754-1817) was a very popular sentimental writer of graceful domestic verse, chiefly between 1792 and 1798. She was less French and more national than most of her contemporaries; she is a Swedish Mrs See also:Hemans. Much of her work appeared anonymously, and was generally attributed to her contemporaries Kellgren and Leopold. Two writers of the See also:academic period, besides Bellman, and a generation later than he, kept apart, and served to See also:lead up to Lidner. the romantic revival. Bengt Lidner (1759-1793), a See also:melancholy and professedly elegiacal writer, had analogies with See also:Novalis. He interrupted his studies at the university by a voyage to the East Indies, and only returned to Stockholm after many adventures. In spite of the patronage of Gustavus III. he continued to lead a disordered, wandering life, and died in poverty. A See also:short narrative poem, The Death of the Countess Spastara (1783), has retained its popularity. Lidner was a genuine poet, and his lack of durable success must be set down to faults of See also:character, not to lack of See also:inspiration. His poems appeared in 1788. Thomas Thorild (1759-1808) was a much stronger nature, and led the revolt against prevailing
taste with far more vigour. But he is an irregular and inartistic versifier, and it is mainly as a prose writer, and especially as a very original and courageous critic, that he is now mainly remembered. He settled in Germany and died as a professor in Greifswald. Karl See also:August Ehrensvard (1745-1800) may be mentioned here as a critic whose aims somewhat resembled those of Thorild. The creation of the Academy led to a great See also:production of aesthetic and philosophical writing. Among critics of taste may be mentioned Nils Rosen von Rosenstein (1752-1824); the rhetorical bishop of Linkoping, Magnus Lehnberg (1758-1808); and Count Georg Adlersparre (176o-1809). Rosen von Rosenstein embraced the principles of the encyclopaedists while he was attached to the Swedish See also:embassy in See also:Paris. On his return to Sweden he became See also:tutor to the See also:crown prince, and held in See also:succession a number of important offices. As the first secretary of the Swedish Academy he exercised great influence over Swedish literature and thought. His prose writings, which include prefaces to the works of Kellgren and Lidner, and an eloquent See also:argument against See also: Kellgren and Leopold were both of them important prose writers. The excellent lyrical poet Frans Mikael See also:Franzen (q.v.; 1772- 1847) and a belated academician Johan See also:David See also:Valerius (1776- 1852), fill up the space between the Gustavian period and the domination of romantic ideas from Germany. It was Lorenzo Hammarskold (1785-1827) who in 1803 introduced the views of See also:Tieck and See also:Schelling by See also:founding the society in Upsala called " Vitterhetens Vanner," and by numerous See also:critical essays. His chief work was Svenska vitterheten (1818, &c.) a history of Swedish literature. Hammar- skold's society was succeeded in 1807 by the famous " See also:Aurora Atterbom. forbundet," founded by two youths of genius, Per See also:Daniel Amadeus Atterbom (1790-1855) and Vilhelm Fredrik Palmblad (1788-1852). These young men had at 1 His works were edited by C. R. Nyblom (2 vols., 1873).first to endure See also:bitter opposition and ridicule from the academic writers then in power, but they supported this with cheerfulness, and answered back in their magazines Polyfem and Fosforos (1810-1813). They were named " Fosforisterna " (" Phosphorists ") from the latter. Another principal member of the school was Karl Frederik See also:Dahlgren (q.v.; 1791-1844), a humorist who owed much to the example of Bellman. Fru Julia Nyberg (1785-1854), under the title of See also:Euphrosyne, was their tenth Muse, and wrote agreeable lyrics. Among the Phosphorists Atterbom was the man of most genius. On the side of the Academy they were vigorously attacked by Per See also:Adam Wallmark (1777-1858), to whom they replied in a satire which was the See also:joint work of several of the romanticists, Markall's Sleepless Nights. One of the innovators, Atterbom, eventually forced the doors of the Academy itself. In 1811 certain young men in Stockholm founded a society for the See also:elevation of society by means of the study of Scandinavian antiquity. This was the Gothic Society, which began to issue the See also:magazine called Iduna as its QSoothk c/eiy. See also:organ. Of its patriotic editors the most prominent was Erik Gustaf Geijer (q.v.; 1783-1847), but he was presently joined by a young man slightly older than himself, Esaias See also:Tegner (q.v.; 1782-1846), afterwards bishop of QeQer. See also:Vexio, the greatest of Swedish writers. Even more enthusi- astic than either in pushing to its last extreme the Tegner. See also:worship of ancient myths and manners was Per Henrik See also:Ling (1776-1839), now better remembered as the father of gymnastic science than as a poet. The Gothic Society eventually included certain younger men than these—Arvid August Afzelius (1785-1871), the first editor of the Swedish folk-songs; Gustaf Vilhelm Gumaelius (1789-1877), who has been somewhat pretentiously styled " The Swedish See also:Walter See also:Scott," author of the historical novel of Tord See also:Bonde; See also:Baron Bernhard von See also:Beskow (q.v.; 1796-1868), lyrist and dramatist; and Karl August See also:Nicander (1799-1839), a lyric poet who approached the Phosphorists in manner. The two great lights of the Gothic school are Geijer, mainly in prose, and Tegner, in his splendid and copious verse. Johan Olof Wallin (1779-1839) may be mentioned in the same See also:category, although he is really distinct from all the See also:schools. Wallin. He was archbishop of Upsala, and in 1819 he published the national hymn-book of Sweden; of the hymns in this collection, 126 are written by Wallin himself. From 18'o to 184o was the blossoming-time in Swedish poetry, and there were several writers of distinguished merit who could not be included in either of the groups enumerated Stagne/tua. above. Second only to Tegner in genius, the brief life and mysterious death of Erik Johan Stagnelius (1793-1823) have given a romantic interest to all that is connected with his name. His first publication was the epic of See also:Vladimir the Great (1817); to this succeeded the romantic poem Blanda. His singular dramas, The Bacchantes (1822), See also:Sigurd See also:Ring, which was posthumous, and The Martyrs (1821), are esteemed by many critics to be his most original productions. His mystical lyrics, entitled Liljor i Saron (" Lilies in See also:Sharon "; 1820), and his sonnets, which are the best in Swedish, may be recommended as among the most delicate products of the Scandinavian mind. Stagnelius has been compared, and not improperly, to See also:Shelley? Erik Sjoberg, who called himself " Vitalis " (1794-1828), was another gifted poet Slithers. whose career was short and wretched. A volume of his poems appeared in 1820; they are few in number and all brief. His work divides itself into two classes—the one profoundly melancholy, the other witty or boisterous. Two humorous poets of the same period who deserve mention are Johan Anders Wadman (1777-1837), an improvisatore of the same class as Bellman, and Christian Erik See also:Fahlcrantz (q.v.; 1790-1866). Among the poets who have been mentioned above, the 2 His collected works were edited by C. See also:Eichhorn (2 vols., Stockholm, 1867-1868). Several of Stagnelius' poems were trans-. lated into English by See also:Edmund See also:Gosse 1886). T6ori/d. Hammerskd/d. See also:majority distinguished themselves also in prose. But the period was not one in which Swedish prose shone with any special lustre. The first prosaist of the time was, without See also:Almqvist question, the novelist, Karl Jonas Ludvig Almqvist, (q.v.; 1793—1866), around whose extraordinary personal character and career a mythical romance has already collected (see ALMQVIST). He was encyclopaedic in his range, although his stories preserve most charm; on whatever subject he wrote his style was always exquisite. Fredrik Cederborgh (1784—1835) revived the comic novel in his Uno von Trasenberg and Ottar Trailing. The historical novels of Gumaelius have already been alluded to. Swedish history supplied themes for the romances of Count Per Georg Sparre (1790—1871) and of Gustaf Henrik Mellin (1803—1876). But all these writers sink before the sustained popularity of the Finnish Fredrika poet oet Fredrika See also:Bremer (q.v.; '8o'—'865), whose Bremer.
stories reached farther into the distant provinces of the world of letters than the writings of any other Swede except Tegner. She was preceded by See also:Sofia Margareta Zelow, afterwards Baroness von Knorring (1797—1848), who wrote a long series of aristocratic novels.
A polemical writer of great talent was Magnus Jakob Crusenstople (1795—1865), of whose work it has been said that " it is not history and it is not fiction, but something brilliant between the one and the other." As an historian of Swedish literature Per \Vieselgren (18o0—1877) composed a valuable work, and made other valuable contributions to history and bibliography. In history we meet again with the great name of Geijer, with that of Jonas Hallenberg (1748—1834), and with that of Anders Magnus Strinnholm (1786—1862), whose labours in the See also: Fredrik August Dahlgren (1816—1895) gained a great reputation as a dramatist by his national opera, Vermlandingarne (1846). He is also the author of translations from See also:Shakespeare and See also:Calderon, and of considerable historical works. Other notable plays of the period were the En Komedi of J. C. Jolin (1818—x884) and the Brollopet pa Ulfasa (1865) of Frans Hedberg (1828—1908). But ]Funeberg is the only great poetic name of this period. In prose there was not even a Runeberg. The best novelist of the time was Emilie Flygare-Carlen (1807—1892). The art was sustained by Karl Anton Wetterbergh (1804—1889), who called himself " Onkel Adam," by August Blanche the dramatist, and by See also:Marie Sofie Schwartz (1819—1892). Fru Schwartz (nee Birat) wrote novels demonstrating the rights of the poor against the rich, of which The Man of See also:Birth and the Woman of the People (Eng. trans., 1868) is a good example. Lars Johan Hierta (1801—1872) was the leading journalist, Johan Henrik Thomander, bishop of Lund (1798—1865), the greatest orator, See also:Matthias Alexander See also:Castren (1813—1852) a prominent man of science, and Karl Gustaf af Forsell (1783—1848), the principal statistician of this not very brilliant period. See also:Elias See also:Lonnrot (q.v.; 1802—1884) is distinguished as the Finnish professor who discovered and edited the Kalevala. The most popular poet at the close of the 19th century was the patriotic Finn, Zakris See also:Topelius (q.v.; 1818—1898). Of less importance were Karl Herman Satherberg (1812—1897), a romantic poet who was also a practising physician of distinction; the elegiac poet Johan Nybom (1815—1889); and the poet, novelist, and dramatist Frans Hedberg (d. 1908), who in his old age made many concessions to the See also:modern taste. The posthumous poems of the bishop of Strangnas, Adam Teodor Stramberg (1820—1889), were collected by Wirsen, and created some sensation. A typical academician was the poet, antiquary and connoisseur, Nils Fredrik Sander (1828—1900). The improvisator of Gluntarne, Gunnar See also:Wennerberg (q.v.; 1817—1901) survived as a romantic figure of the past. Still older was the poetess See also:Wilhelmina Nordstrom (1815—1902), long a schoolmistress in See also:Finland. The aesthetic critic and poet, Carl See also:Rupert Nyblom (1832—1907), continued the studies, translations and original pieces which had created him a reputation as one of the most accomplished general writers of Sweden. His wife, Helene Nyblom, was well known as a novelist. A. T. Gellerstedt (b. 1836), an architect of position, was known as a poet of small range but of very fine quality. Among writers of the earlier generation were Achatius Johan Kahl (1794—1888), the biographer of Tegner; Per Erik Bergfalk (1798—1890), the critic and supporter of Geijer; the distinguished historian and academician, Karl Johan Schlyter (1795—1888) and the historical writers, Fredrik See also: He found a vehicle for his criticism in the See also:Post och Inrtkes Tidningar, of which he was editor. He published his Lyrical Poems in 1876; New Lyrical Poems in 1880: Songs and Sketches in 1885. Four influences may be mentioned as having acted upon young Sweden, and as having combined to See also:release its literature from the old hard-See also:bound conventions. These are English philosophy in the writings of See also:Herbert See also:Spencer, French realism in the practice and the preaching of See also:Zola, Norwegian drama mainly through See also:Ibsen, and Danish criticism in the essays and monographs of Georg See also:Brandes. Unquestionably the greatest name in See also:recent Swedish literature is that of Johan August See also:Strindberg (q.v.; b. 1849). His drama of Master Olof in 1878 began the revolutionary movement. In 1879 the success of his realistic novel, The Red See also:Room, fixed universal attention upon his talent. It was the sensation caused in 1884 by the lawsuit brought against Strindberg's Married (a collection of short stories dealing realistically with some of the seamy sides of See also:marriage) which brought to a See also:head the See also:rebellion against the elegant and superficial conventions which were strangling Swedish literature. He affronts every See also:canon of taste, more by a See also:radical absence, it would seem, of the sense of proportion than by any desire to See also:shock. His diatribes against woman suggest a See also:touch of madness, and he was in fact at one time seized with an attack of See also:insanity. He writes like a man whose view is distorted by See also:physical or See also:mental See also:pain. His phraseology and his turns of invention are too empirically pseudoscientific for the simplicity of nature. With all these faults, and in spite of a terrible vulgarity of mind, an absence of humour, and a boundless confidence in the philosophy of See also:Nietzsche, Strindberg is a writer of very remarkable power and unquestionable originality. His mind underwent singular transformations. After devoting him-self wholly to realism of the coarsest kind, he began in 1889 his series of mystico-pathological novels about life in the See also:archipelago of Stockholm. This led him to a culte du moi, of which the strangest result was an autobiography of crude invective, A See also:Fool's See also:Confession (1893), the See also:printing of which in Swedish was forbidden. He rapidly passed on, through books like Inferno (1897), the See also:diary of a semi-lunatic, up into the sheer See also:mysticism of To See also:Damascus (1898), where he reconciles himself at last to See also:Christianity. His best work is classic in its breadth of style, exquisite in See also:local See also:colour and fidelity to the national characteristics of Sweden. A curious antidote to the harsh See also:pessimism of Strindberg was offered by the delicate and fantastic temperament of O1a Hansson (b. 1860), whose poems came prominently before the public in 1884, and who, in Sensitiva amorosa (1887), preached a See also:gospel of austere self-See also:restraint. Hansson has been as ardent in the See also:idolatry of woman as Strindberg has been in his hostility to the See also:sex. Of those who have worked side by side with Strindberg, the most prominent and active was Gustaf of Geijerstam (b. r858), in his curious and severely realistic studies of country life in his Poor People (1884) and other books. In 1885 he produced a gloomy sketch of student life at Upsala, Erik Grane, which made a great sensation. Since then Geijerstam has published more than forty volumes, and has become one of the most popular writers of the See also:north of Europe. A melancholy interest surrounds the name of See also:Victoria Benedictsson (See also:Ernst Ahlgren, 1850-1889), who committed See also:suicide in See also:Copenhagen after achieving marked success with her sketches of humble life in Fran Skane, and with the more ambitious works See also:Money and Marianne. She was perhaps the most original of the many See also:women writers of modern Sweden, and Money was hailed by Swedish critics as the most important work of fiction since Strindberg's Red Room. Her See also:biography, a most affecting narrative, was published by Ellen See also: 1861) also began as a decided realist, and turned to a more psychological and idealist treatment of life. His most striking work was Judas (1886); he has written some excellent dramas. See also:Late successes in the novel has been those of Hilma Angered-Strandberg (On the See also:Prairie, 1898) and Gustaf Janson (Paradise, 1900). The most remarkable of the novelists of the latest See also:group is See also:Selma Lagerlof (b. 1858), who achieved a great success with Gosta Berlings See also:Saga in 1891—1892. She employs the Swedish language with an extraordinary richness and variety, and stands in the front rank of Swedish novelists. But perhaps the most cosmopolitan recent novelist of Sweden is Per Hallstrom (b. 1866), who spent much of his youth in See also:America, and appeared as an imaginative writer first in 1891. He has published volumes of ballads, short stories and sketches, fantastic and humoristic, all admirable in style. His play, A Venetian Comedy, enjoyed a substantial success in 1904. Among the recent lyrical poets of Sweden, the first to adopt the naturalistic manner was See also:Albert Ulrik See also:Bath (b. 1853), whose earliest poems appeared in 1879. In his rebellion against the sweetness of Swedish See also:convention he proved himself somewhat indifferent to beauty of form, returned to " early national " types of versification, and concentrated his attention on See also:dismal and distressing conditions of life. He is a resolute, but, in his early volumes, harsh and rocky writer. From 1882 onwards Baath was steadily productive. Karl See also:Alfred Melin (b. 1849) has described in verse the life in the islands of the Stockholm archipelago. Among lyrists who have attracted attention in their various See also:fields are Oskar See also:Levertin (1862—1906) and Emil Kleen (1868—1898). Of these Levertin is the more highly coloured and perfumed, with an almost See also:Oriental richness; Kleen has not been surpassed in the velvety softness of his language. But by far the most original and enjoyable lyrical genius of the later period is that of Gustaf Froding (b. r86o), whose collection of poems, called See also:Guitar and See also:Accordion, humorous, amatory and pathetic, produced a great sensation in 1891. Three other volumes followed in 1894, 1895 and 1897, each displaying to further See also:advantage the versatility and sensuous splendour of Froding's talent, as well as its somewhat scandalous recklessness. In 1897 he was struck down with insanity, and after three months' confinement in the See also:asylum at Upsala, although he recovered his senses, all his joyousness and wildness had left him. He became gloomily religious, and in a new volume of poems he denounced all that he valued and enjoyed before his. See also:conversion. A younger poet is K. G. See also:Ossian-Nilssen (b. 1895), the author of several volumes of vigorous dramatic and satiric verse. The writer who was exercising most influence in Sweden at the opening of the loth century was Verner von Heidenstam (b. 1859). He started authorship with a book of verse in 1888, after which time he led a reaction against realism and pessimism, and has turned back to a rich romantic See also:idealism in his novels of See also:Endymion (1889) and Hans Alienus (1892), and in his stories (1897) of the time of Charles XII. Heidenstam also published interesting volumes of literary criticism, and he is a lyrical poet of very high attainment. See also:Miss Ellen Key (b. 1849), a secularist lecturer of great fervour, became an author in See also:biographical and critical studies of remarkable originality. She is distinguished from Selma Lagerlof, who is simply an artist, by her exercise of pure See also:intellect; she is a moral leader; she has been called " the See also:Pallas of Sweden." She published in 1897 a biography of the Swedish author, Almqvist; in 1899 she collected her finest essays in the volume called Thought Pictures; in 1900 appeared, under the title Human Beings, studies of the Brownings and of See also:Goethe; but, the finest of Ellen Key's books is The Century of Childhood (1901), a philosophical survey of the progress of elementary See also:education in the last hundred years. She exercises a very remarkable power over the minds of the latest generation in Sweden. A polemical essayist of elaborate delicacy of style is Hjalmar Soderberg (b. 1869), who has been influenced by Strindberg and by Anatole France. His ironic romance, Martin Birck's Youth, created a sensation in 19o1. Karl Johan Warburg (b. 1852) has done good work both as an essayist and as an historian of literature. But in this latter field by far the most eminent recent name in Swedish literature is that of Professor Johan Henrik Schiick (h. 1855), who has made great discoveries in the 16th and 17th centuries, and who has published, besides a good book about Shakespeare, studies in which a profound learning is relieved by elegance of delivery. Warburg and Schtick have written an excellent history of Swedish literature down to 1888. The poet Levertin, who was also a distinguished critic, wrote a good book about the Swedish theatre. Drama has rarely flourished in Sweden, but several of the poets mentioned above have written important plays, and, somewhat earlier, the socialistic problem-pieces of See also:Anne See also:Charlotte Edgren-Leffler, duchess of Cajanello (1844-1893), possessed considerable dramatic talent, working under a See also:direct impulse from Ibsen; but her greatest See also:gift was as a novelist. The plays of See also:Harald Johan Molander (1858-1900) have been popular in the theatres of Sweden and Finland since his first success with See also:Rococo in 1880. Altogether a remarkable revival of belles-lettres has taken place in Sweden after a long period of inertness and conventionality. It is regrettable, for its own See also:sake, that the Swedish Academy, which in earlier generations had identified itself with the manifestations of original literary genius, has closed its doors to the new writers with an almost vindictive pertinacity. Swedish Philosophy.—Swedish philosophy proper began in the 17th century with the introduction of See also:Cartesianism. The protagonist of the movement was J. Bilberg (1646-1717), who, in various theses and discussions, defended the new ideas against the scholastic Aristotelianism of the orthodox churchmen. A. Rydelius (1671-1738), an intimate friend of Charles XII., endeavoured to find a common ground for the opposing schools, and the Leibnitzio-Wolffian philosophy was maintained by N. Wallerius (1706-1764). Towards the close of the 18th century, a number of thinkers began to expound the philosophy of the Enlightenment under the influence of English and French ideas—J. H. Kellgren (1751-1795), K. G. af Leopold (1756-1829), T. Thorild (1759-1808), K. A. Ehrensvard (1745—1800) ; while the Kantian See also:dialectic was worthily defended by D. Boethius (1751-1810), whose work paved the way for a great idealistic speculative movement headed by B. Hoijer (1767-1812), the poet P. D. A. Atterbom (1790-1855), a follower of Schelling, and J. J. Borelius (b. 1823), the great Swedish exponent of Hegelianism. All the above thinkers reflected the general development of See also:European thought. There exists, however, a body of thought which is the product of the See also:peculiar genius of the Swedish people, namely, the development of the individual soul in accordance with a coherent social order and a strong religious spirit. This Personal Philosophy owes its development to K. J. See also:Bostrom (q.v.), and, though traceable ultimately to Schelling's idealism, received its distinctive character from the investigations of N. F. Biberg (1776•-1827), S. Grubbe (1786-1853) and E. G. Geijer (q.v.) (1783-1847), all professors at Upsala. Bostrom's philosophy is logically expressed and based on the one great conception of a spiritual, eternal, Immutable Being, whose existence is See also:absolute, above and See also:external to the finite world of time and space. It has for a long time exercised almost unquestioned authority over Swedish thought, religious and philosophical. It is strong in its unequivocal insistence on personal purity and responsibility, and in the uncompromising simplicity of its fundamental principle. Bostrom wrote little, but his views are to be found in the works of two groups of thinkers. The older group includes S. Ribbing (1816-1899), C. Y. Sahlin (b. 1824), K. Claeson (1827-1859), H. Edfeldt (b. 1836), the editor of Bostrom's works, A. Nyblaeus (1821-1899) and P. J. H. Leander (b. 1831); the younger writers, less in agreement with one another, but adhering in the main to the same tradition, are E. O. Burman (b. 1845), K. R. Geijer (b. 1849), L. H. Aberg (1851-1895), F. v. Scheele (b. 1853), J. V. A. Norstrom (b. 1856), of See also:Gothenburg, and P. E. Liljeqvist (b. 1865), of Lund. Of these, Nyblaeps compiled a lucid See also:account of Swedish philosophy from the beginning of the 18th century up to and including Bostrom; Ribbing (Pleas Ideelara and Socratische Studien) showed how closely Swedish idealism is allied to See also:Greek. P. Wikner (1837-1888) See also:broke away from the Bostrcmian tradition and followed out a path of his own in a more essentially religious spirit. V. Rydberg (q.v.) (1828-1895) closely followed Bostrom, and in his numerous and varied writings did much to crystallize and extend the principles of idealism. Among prominent modern writers may also be mentioned H. Larrson and A. Herrlin at Lund, and A. Vannerus in Stockholm. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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