Poems and Songs, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson [top 10 ebook reader TXT] 📗

Our mother-tongue,
The ages foregoing,
The future now growing,
The present glowing,--
We hallow thee!

NOTES

PREFATORY

Björnstjerne Björnson was born in 1832 and died in 1909. The last edition of his Poems and Songs in his lifetime is the fourth, dated 1903. It is a volume of two hundred pages, containing one hundred and forty-one pieces, arranged in nearly chronological order from 1857, or just before, to 1900. Of these almost two-thirds appeared in the first edition (1870), ending with Good Cheer and including ten pieces omitted in the other editions, eight poems and two lyrical passages from the drama King Sverre; the second edition (1880) added the contents in order through Question and Answer and inserted earlier The Angels of Sleep; the third (1900) extended the additions to include Frederik Hegel. This translation presents in the same order the contents of the fourth edition, with the exception of the following ten pieces:

Bryllupsvise Nr. I.
Bryllupsvise Nr. II.
Bryllupsvise Nr. III.
Bryllupsvise Nr. IV.
Bryllupsvise Nr. V.
De norske studenter til fru Louise Heiberg.
De norske studenters hilsen med fakkeltog til deres kgl. höiheder
kronprins Frederik og kronprinsesse Louise.
Til sorenskriver Mejdells sölvbryllup.
Nytaarsrim til rektor Steen.
Til maleren Hans Gudes og frues guldbryllup.

Nine of these are occasional longs in the narrowest sense, with little or no general interest, and showing hardly any of the author's better qualities: five Wedding Songs, a Betrothal Song, a Silver-Wedding Song, a Golden-Wedding Song, and a Students' Song of Greeting to Mrs. Louise Heiberg. The tenth, a characteristic, rather long poem of vigor and value, New Year's Epistle in Rhyme to Rector Steen, is extremely difficult to render into English verse. The translator has thought it best not to include any of Björnson's lyric productions not contained in the collection published with his sanction during his life, the other lyrics in his tales, dramas. and novels, many occasional short poems in periodicals and newspapers which were abandoned by their author to their fugitive fate, two noble lyrical cantatas, and a few fine poems written after the year 1900. The translation aims to reproduce as exactly as possible the verse-form, meter, and rhyme of the original. This has been judged desirable because music has been composed for so many of these songs and poems, and each of them is, as it were, one with its musical setting. But such reproduction seems also, on the whole, to be most faithful and satisfactory, when the translator is not endowed with poetic genius equal to that of the author. The very numerous double (dissyllabic) rhymes of the Norwegian are not easy to render in English. Recourse to the English present participle has been avoided as much as possible. If it still seems to be too frequent, the translator asks some measure of indulgence in view of the fact that the use here of the English present participle is formally not so unlike that of the inflectional endings and of the post-positive article Norwegian. The purpose of the Notes is to assist the better understanding and appreciation of the contents of the book, by furnishing the necessary historical and biographical information. Of the persons referred to it is essential to know their dates, life-work, character, influence, and relation to Björnson. The Notes have been drawn from the accessible encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, bibliographies, and histories. The notes of Julius Elias to his edition of German translations of Björnson's poems made by various writers and published in 1908 have been freely and gratefully used. The Introduction is designed not so much to offer new and original criticism as to present the opinions generally held in Scandinavia, and, of course, chiefly in Norway. The lyric poetry of Björnson has been excellently discussed by Christian Collin in Björnstjerne Björnson. Hans Barndom og Ungdom by Henrik Jaeger in Illustreret norsk literaturhistorie, and by various authors, including Swedes and Danes, in articles of Björnstjerne Björnson. Festskrift I anledning af hans 70 aars födelsdag. To all of these special indebtedness is here acknowledged.

New Haven, Connecticut, June, 1915

Note 1
NILS FINN. "There has hardly been written later so excellent a
continuation of the old Norwegian humorous ballad as this poem (from
the winter of 1856-57),written originally in the Romsdal dialect
with which Björnson wished 'to astonish the Danes.'" (Collin, ii,
147.)

Note 2.
VENEVIL. Midsummer Day=sanktehans=Saint John's (Feast), on June 24,
next to Christmas the chief popular festival in Norway; the time
when nature and human life have fullest light and power.

Note 3.
OVER THE LOFTY MOUNTAINS. "Really Björnson's first patriotic song.
... Describes one of the main motive forces in all the history of
the Norwegian people, the inner impulse to expansion and the
adventurous longing for what is great and distant. ... Written in
the narrow, hemmed-in Eikis valley." (Collin, ii, 308, 309)

Note 4.
OUR COUNTRY. Written for the celebration of the Seventeenth of May
in Bergen in the year 1859. This is Norway's Constitution Day,
corresponding to our Fourth of July, the anniversary of the day in
1814 when at Eidsvold (see Note 5) a representative convention
declared the country's independence and adopted a Constitution. The
celebration day was instituted as a result of King Karl Johan's
proposals for changes in the Constitution during the years 1821 to
1824, especially in favor of an absolute veto. It was taken up in
Christiania in 1824, and spread rapidly to all the cities in the
land, was opposed by the King and omitted in 1828, taken up by the
students of the University in 1829, and soon after 1830 made by
Henrik Wergeland (see Note 78) the chief of Norwegian patriotic
festivals. In 1870 Björnson conceived and put into practice the
"barnetog" or children's procession on this day, when the children
march also, each carrying a flag. Bauta, prehistoric, uncut,
narrow, tall, memorial stone, from the bronze age.
Hows, burial mounds, barrows.

Note 5.
SONG FOR NORWAY. Written in the summer of 1859 in connection
with the tale Arne, but not included in that book. The people of
Norway have adopted this poem as their national hymn, because
it is vigorous, picturesque summary of the glorious history of the
country in whose every line patriotic love vibrates.

Stanza 2. Harald Fairhair (860-933) was the first to unite all
Norway in one kingdom as a sort of feudal state. His success in his
struggles with the petty kings who opposed him was made complete by his victory over viking forces in the battle on the waters of
Hafursfjord, 872. Many of the rebels emigrated, a movement which led
to the settlement of Iceland front 874 on. Haakon the Good (935-
961) was the youngest son of Harald Fairhair, born in the latter's
old age. He was reared in England with King Ethelstane, who had him
taught Christianity and baptized. When he was well settled on the
throne in Norway, he tried to introduce Christianity, but without
success. He improved the laws and organized the war forces of the
land.
Eyvind Finnsson, uncle of Haakon, was a great skald, who sang his
deeds and Norway's sorrow over his death.
Olaf the Saint (1015-1030) was a man of force and daring, as shown
by his going on viking expeditions when only twelve years old. He
became a Christian in Normandy. Returning to Norway in 1015, he
established himself as King and spread his authority as a stern
ruler. With more or less violence he Christianized the whole land.
This and his sternness led to an uprising, which was supported by
the Danish King, Knut the Great. Olaf died a hero's death in the
battle of Stiklestad, and not long after became Norway's patron
saint, to whose grave pilgrimages were made from all the North. His
son, Magnus the Good, (see Note 6), was chosen King in 1035.
Sverre (1182-1202) was a man of unusual physical and mental
powers,calm and dignified, and wonderfully eloquent. Yet he was a
war king, and the civil conflicts of his time were a misfortune for
Norway, although he bravely defended the royal prerogatives and the
land against the usurpation of temporal power by the Church of Rome,
and put an end to ecclesiastical rule in Norway.

Stanza 3. About five centuries of less renown for Norway are passed
over, and this and the following stanza refer to the time of the
Great Northern War, 1700-21, and the danger arising from Charles XII
of Sweden. From 1319 to 1523 Norway was in union with Denmark and
Sweden; from 1523 with Denmark only. In this war, waged by Denmark-
Norway, Russia, and Saxony-Poland against Charles XII, in order to
lessen the might which Sweden had gained by the Thirty Years' War,
Norwegian peasants, men and women, took up arms against the Swedes.
Peasant is in this volume the usual rendering of the word "bonde"
in the original; for its fuller significance see Note 78.
Tordenskjold, Peter (1691-1720), a great Norwegian naval hero,
whose original name was Wessel, and who was born in Trondhjem. He
received the name Tordenskjold when he was ennobled. By his
remarkable achievements he contributed much to the favorable issue
of the Great Northern War; he often had occasion to ravage the coast
of Sweden and to protect that of Norway.

Stanza 4. Fredrikshald. Here, on September 11, 1718, Charles XII met
his death on his second invasion of Norway. The citizens had
earlier burned the City, so that it might not afford shelter to the
Swedes against the cannon of the fortress Fredriksten.

Stanzas 5 and 6. Again a rather long period of peace is passed over.
In 1807 Denmark was induced by Napoleon to join the continental
system. England bombarded Copenhagen and captured it and the Danish
fleet. The war lasted seven years for Norway also, which was
blockaded by the English fleet and suffered sorely for lack of the necessaries of life. But the nations sense of independence grew,
and when the Peace of Kiel in January, 1814, separated Norway from
Denmark, Norway refused to be absorbed by Sweden, and through a
representative assembly at Eidsvold declared its independence,
adopted a Constitution on May 17, 1814, and chose as King, Prince
Christian Frederik, the later King Christian VIII of Denmark. The
Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan led an invasion of Norway in July,
and there was fighting until the Convention of Moss, August 14, in
which he approved the Norwegian Constitution in return for the
abdication of Christian Frederik. Negotiations then led to the
federation of Norway as an independent kingdom with Sweden in a
union. This was formally concluded on November 4, 1815, by the
adoption of the Act of Union, and the election of the Swedish King
Karl XIII as King of Norway.
The last four lines of stanza 6 refer to "Scandinavism," i.e., a
movement beginning some time before 1848 to bring about a close
federation or alliance of the three Northern kingdoms (see Note 21).

Note 6.
ANSWER FROM NORWAY. First printed in a newspaper, April 7, 1860,
with the title "Song for the Common People," this poem refers to a
stage of the long conflict over the question of a viceroy in Norway,
so important in the history of the union of Sweden and Norway. The
Norwegian Constitution gave to the King power to send a viceroy to
reside in Norway, and to name as such either a