1. Introduction. The Ancient Scandinavians; their Influence on the English
Race.--2. The Mythology.--3. The Scandinavian Languages.--4. Icelandic, or
Old Norse Literature: the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda, the Scalds, the
Sagas, the "Heimskringla," The Folks-Sagas and Ballads of the Middle
Ages.--5. Danish Literature: Saxo Grammaticus and Theodoric; Arreboe,
Kingo, Tycho Brahe, Holberg, Evald, Baggesen, Oehlenschläger, Grundtvig,
Blicher, Ingemann, Heiberg, Gyllenbourg, Winther, Hertz, Müller, Hans
Andersen, Plong, Goldschmidt, Hastrup, and others; Malte Brun, Rask, Rafn,
Magnusen, the brothers Oersted.--6. Swedish Literature: Messenius,
Stjernhjelm, Lucidor, and others. The Gallic period: Dalin, Nordenflycht,
Crutz and Gyllenborg, Gustavus III., Kellgren, Leopold, Oxenstjerna. The
New Era: Bellman, Hallman, Kexel, Wallenberg, Lidnor, Thorild, Lengren,
Franzen, Wallin. The Phosphorists: Atterborn, Hammarsköld, and Palmblad.
The Gothic School: Geijer, Tegnér, Stagnelius, Almquist, Vitalis,
Runeberg, and others. The Romance Writers: Cederborg, Bremer, Carlén,
Knorring. Science: Swedenborg, Linnaeus, and others.
1. INTRODUCTION.--It is a singular fact that the progressive and expanding
spirit which characterizes the English race should be so universally
referred to their Anglo-Saxon blood, while the transcendent influence of
the Scandinavian element is entirely overlooked. The so-called Anglo-
Saxons were a handful of people in Holstein, where they may still be found
in inglorious obscurity, the reluctant subjects of Denmark. The early
emigrants who bore that name, were, it is true, from various portions of
Germany; but even if the glory of our English ancestry be transferred from
Anglen, and spread over the whole country, we find a race bearing no
resemblance to the English in their more active and powerful qualities,
but an intellectual people, possessed of a patient and conceding nature,
which, without other more aspiring attributes, doubtless would have left
the English people in the same condition of political slavery that the
Germans continue in to this day. Of all those institutions so commonly and
gratuitously ascribed to them, of representative government, trial by
jury, and such machinery of political and social independence, there is
not a vestige to be found in any age in Germany, from the Christian era to
the present time. During the period of their dominion in England, the
Anglo-Saxons, so far from showing themselves an enterprising people were
notoriously weak, slothful, and degenerate, overrun by the Danes, and soon
permanently subjected by the Normans. It is evident, from the trifling
resistance they made, that they had neither energy to fight, nor property,
laws, nor institutions to defend, and that they were merely serfs on the
lands of the nobles or of the church, who had nothing to lose by a change
of masters. It is to the renewal of the original spirit of the Anglo-
Saxons, by the fresh infusion of the Danish conquerors into a very large
proportion of the whole population, in the eleventh century, that we must
look for the actual origin of the national character and institutions of
the English people, and for that check of popular opinion and will upon
arbitrary rule which grew up by degrees, and which slowly but necessarily
produced the English law, character, and institutions. These belong not to
the German or Anglo-Saxon race settled in England previous to the tenth or
eleventh century, but to that small, cognate branch of Northmen or Danes,
who, between the ninth and twelfth centuries, brought their paganism,
energy, and social institutions to conquer, mingle with, and invigorate
the inert descendants of the old race. That this northern branch of the
common race has been the more influential in the society of modern Europe,
we need only compare England and the United States with Saxony, Prussia,
Hanover, or any country of strictly ancient Teutonic descent, to be
satisfied. From whatever quarter civil, religious, and political liberty
and independence of mind may have come, it was not from the banks of the
Rhine or the forests of Germany.
The difference in the spirit of the two branches of the same original race
was immense, even at the earliest period. When the Danes and Norwegians
overran England, the Germans had, for six centuries, been growing more and
more pliant to despotic government, and the Scandinavians more and more
bold and independent. At home they elected their kings, and decided
everything by the general voice of the _Althing_, or open Parliament.
Abroad they became the most daring of adventurers; their Vikings spread
themselves along the shores of Europe, plundering and planting colonies;
they subdued England, seized Normandy, besieged Paris, conquered a large
portion of Belgium, and made extensive inroads into Spain. They made
themselves masters of lower Italy and Sicily under Robert Guiscard, in the
eleventh century; during the Crusades they ruled Antioch and Tiberias,
under Tancred; and in the same century they marched across Germany, and
established themselves in Switzerland, where the traditions of their
arrival, and traces of their language still remain. In 861 they discovered
Iceland, and soon after peopled it; thence they stretched still farther
west, discovered Greenland, and proceeding southward, towards the close of
the tenth century they struck upon the shores of North America, it would
appear, near the coast of Massachusetts. They seized on Novogorod, and
became the founders of the Russian Empire, and of a line of Czars which
became extinct only in 1598, when the Slavonic dynasty succeeded. From
Russia they made their way to the Black Sea, and in 866 appeared before
Constantinople, where their attacks were bought off only on the payment of
large sums by the degenerate emperors. From. 902 to the fall of the
empire, the emperors retained a large body-guard of Scandinavians, who,
armed with double-edged battle-axes, were renowned through the world,
under the name of Varengar, or the _Väringjar_ of the old Icelandic Sagas.
Such were the ancient Scandinavians. To this extraordinary people the
English and their descendants alone bear any resemblance. In them the old
Norse fire still burns, and manifests itself in the same love of martial
daring and fame, the same indomitable seafaring spirit, the same passion
for the discovery of new seas and new lands, and the same insatiable
longing, when discovered, to seize and colonize them.
2. THE MYTHOLOGY.--The mythology of the northern nations, as represented
in the Edda, was founded on Polytheism; but through it, as through the
religion of all nations, there is dimly visible, like the sun shining
through a dense cloud, the idea of one Supreme Being, of infinite power,
boundless knowledge, and incorruptible justice, who could not be
represented by any corporeal form. Such, according to Tacitus, was the
supreme God of the Germans, and such was the primitive belief of mankind.
Doubtless, the poet priests, who elaborated the imaginative, yet
philosophical mythology of the north, were aware of the true and only God,
infinitely elevated above the attributes of that Nature, which they shaped
into deities for the multitude whom they believed incapable of more than
the worship of the material powers which they saw working in everything
around them.
The dark, hostile powers of nature, such as frost and fire, are
represented as giants, "jotuns," huge, chaotic demons; while the friendly
powers, the sun, the summer heat, all vivifying principles, were gods.
From the opposition of light and darkness, water and fire, cold and heat,
sprung the first life, the giant Ymer and his evil progeny the frost
giants, the cow Adhumla, and Bor, the father of the god Odin. Odin, with
his brothers, slew the giant Ymer, and from his body formed the heavens
and earth. From two stems of wood they also shaped the first man and
woman, whom they endowed with life and spirit, and from whom descended all
the human race.
There were twelve principal deities among the Scandinavians, of whom Odin
was the chief. There is a tradition in the north of a celebrated warrior
of that name, who, near the period of the Christian era, fled from his
country, between the Caspian and the Black Sea, to escape the vengeance of
the Romans, and marched toward the north and west of Europe, subduing all
who opposed him, and finally established himself in Sweden, where he
received divine honors. According to the Eddas, however, Odin was the son
of Bor, and the most powerful of the gods; the father of Thor, Balder, and
others; the god of war, eloquence, and poetry. He was made acquainted with
everything that happened on earth, through two ravens, Hugin and Munin
(mind and memory); they flew daily round the world, and returned every
night to whisper in his ear all that they had seen and heard. Thor, the
god of thunder, was the implacable and dreaded enemy of the giants, and
the avenger and defender of the gods. His stature was so lofty that no
horse could bear him, and lightning flashed from his eyes and from his
chariot wheels as they rolled along. His mallet or hammer, his belt of
strength and his gauntlets of iron, were of wonderful power, and with them
he could overthrow the giants and monsters who were at war with the gods.
Balder, the second son of Odin, was the noblest and fairest of the gods,
beloved by everything in nature. He exceeded all beings in gentleness,
prudence, and eloquence, and he was so fair and graceful that light
emanated from him as he moved. In his palace nothing impure could exist.
The death of Balder is the principal event in the mythological drama of
the Scandinavians. It was foredoomed, and a prognostic of the approaching
dissolution of the universe and of the gods themselves. Heimdall was the
warder of the gods; his post was on the summit of Bifrost, called by
mortals the rainbow--the bridge which connects heaven and earth, and down
which the gods daily traveled to hold their councils under the shade of
the tree Yggdrasil. The red color was the flaming fire, which served as a
defense against the giants. Heimdall slept more lightly than a bird, and
his ear was so exquisite that he could hear the grass grow in the meadows
and the wool upon the backs of the sheep. He carried a trumpet, the sound
of which echoed through all worlds. Loke was essentially of an evil
nature, and descended from the giants, the enemies of the gods; but he was
mysteriously associated with Odin from the infancy of creation. He
instilled a spark of his fire into a man at his creation, and he was the
father of three monsters, Hela or Death, the Midgard Serpent, and the wolf
Fenris, the constant terror of the gods, and destined to be the means of
their destruction.
Besides these deities, there were twelve goddesses, the chief of whom was
Frigga, the wife of Odin, and the queen and mother of the gods. She knew
the future, but never revealed it; and she understood the language of
animals and plants. Freya was the goddess of love, unrivaled in grace and
beauty--the Scandinavian Venus. Iduna was possessed of certain apples, of
such virtue that, by eating of them, the gods became exempted from the
consequences of old age, and retained, unimpaired, all the freshness of
youth. The gods dwelt above, in Asgard, the garden of the Asen or the
Divinities; the home of the giants, with whom they were in perpetual war,
was Jotunheim, a distant, dark, chaotic land, of which Utgard was the
chief seat. Midgard, or the earth, the abode of man, was represented as a
disk in the midst of a vast ocean; its caverns and recesses were peopled
with elves and dwarfs, and around it lay coiled the huge Midgard Serpent.
Muspelheim, or Flameland, and Nifelheim or Mistland, lay without the
organized universe, and were the material regions of light and darkness,
the antagonism of which had produced the universe with its gods and men.
Nifelheim was a dark and dreary realm, where Hela, or Death, ruled with
despotic sway over those who had died ingloriously of disease or old age.
Helheim, her cold and gloomy palace, was thronged with their shivering and
shadowy spectres. She was livid and ghastly pale, and her very looks
inspired horror.
The chief residence of Odin, in Asgard, was Valhalla, or the Hall of the
Slain; it was hung round with golden spears, and shields, and coats of
mail; and here he received the souls of warriors killed in battle, who
were to assist him in the final conflict with the giants; and here, every
day, they armed themselves for battle, and rode forth by thousands to
their mimic combat on the plains of Asgard, and at night they returned to
Valhalla to feast on the flesh of the boar, and to drink the intoxicating
mead. Here dwelt, also, the numerous virgins called the Valkyriur, or
Choosers of the Slain, whom Odin sent forth to every battle-field to sway
the victory, to make choice of those who should fall in the combat, and to
direct them on their way to Valhalla. They were called, also, the Sisters
of War; they watched with intense interest over their favorite warriors
and sometimes lent an ear to their love. In the field they were always in
complete armor; led on by Skulda, the youngest of the Fates, they were
foremost in battle, with helmets on their heads, armed with flaming
swords, and surrounded by lightning and meteors. Sometimes they were seen
riding through the air and over the sea on shadowy horses, from whose
manes fell hail on the mountains and dew on the valleys; and at other
times their fiery lances gleamed in the spectral lights of the aurora
borealis; and again, they were represented clothed in white, with flowing
hair, as cupbearers to the heroes at the feasts of Valhalla.
In the centre of the world stood the great ash tree Yggdrasil, the Tree of
Life, of which the Christmas tree and the Maypole of northern nations are
doubtless emblems. It spread its life-giving arms through the heavens, and
struck its three roots down through the three worlds. It nourished all
life, even that of Nedhog, the most venomous of serpents, which
continually gnawed at the root that penetrated Nifelheim. A second root
entered the region of the frost giants, where was the well in which wisdom
and understanding were concealed. A third root entered the region of the
gods; and there, beside it, dwelt the three Nornor or Fates, over whom
even the gods had no power, and who, every day, watered it from the
primeval fountain, so that its boughs remained green.
The gods were benevolent spirits--the friends of mankind, but they were
not immortal. A destiny more powerful than they or their enemies, the
giants, was one day to overwhelm them. At the Ragnarök, or twilight of the
gods, foretold in the Edda, the monsters shall be unloosed, the heavens be
rent asunder, and the sun and moon disappear; the great Midgard Serpent
shall lash the waters of the ocean till they overflow the earth; the wolf
Fenris, whose enormous mouth reaches from heaven to earth, shall rush upon
and devour all within his reach; the genii of fire shall ride forth,
clothed in flame, and lead on the giants to the storming of Asgard.
Heimdall sounds his trumpet, which echoes through all worlds; the gods fly
to arms; Odin appears in his golden casque, his resplendent cuirass, with
his vast scimitar in his hand, and marshals his heroes in battle array.
The great ash tree is shaken to its roots, heaven and earth are full of
horror and affright, and gods, giants, and heroes are at length buried in
one common ruin. Then comes forth the mighty one, who is above all gods,
who may not be named. He pronounces his decrees, and establishes the
doctrines which shall endure forever. A new earth, fairer and more
verdant, springs forth from the bosom of the waves, the fields bring forth
without culture, calamities are unknown, and in Heaven, the abode of the
good, a palace is reared, more shining than the sun, where the just shall
dwell forevermore.
Traces of the worship of these deities by our pagan ancestors still remain
in the names given to four days of the week. Tuesday was consecrated to
Tyr, a son of Odin; Wednesday, Odin's or Wooden's day, to Odin; Thursday,
or Thor's day, to Thor; and Friday, or Freya's day, was sacred to the
goddess Freya.
3. THE LANGUAGE.--The Scandinavian or Norse languages include the
Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian dialects.
The Icelandic or Old Norse, which was the common language of Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, in the ninth century, was carried into Iceland, where,
to the present time, it has wonderfully retained its early
characteristics. The written alphabet was called Runic, and the letters,
Runes, of which the most ancient specimens are the inscriptions on Rune
stones, rings, and wooden tablets.
The Danish and Swedish, may be called the New Norse languages; they began
to assume a character distinct from the Old Norse about the beginning of
the twelfth century. The Danish language is not confined to Denmark, but
is used in the literature, and by the cultivated society of Norway.
The Swedish is the most musical of the Scandinavian dialects, its
pronunciation being remarkably soft and agreeable. Its character is more
purely Norse than the Danish, which has been greatly affected by its
contact with the German.
The Norwegian exists only in the form of dialects spoken by the peasantry.
It is distinguished from the other two by a rich vocabulary of words
peculiar to itself, and by its own pronunciation and peculiar
construction; only literary cultivation is wanted to make it an
independent language like the others.
4. ICELANDIC OR OLD NORSE LITERATURE.--In 868 one of the Norwegian vikings
or sea rovers, being driven on the coast of Iceland, first made known the
existence of the island. Harold, the fair-haired, having soon after
subdued or slain the petty kings of Norway, and introduced the feudal
system, many of the inhabitants, disdaining to sacrifice their
independence, set forth to colonize this dreary and inhospitable region,
whose wild and desolate aspect seemed to attract their imaginations. Huge
mountains of ice here rose against the northern sky, from which the smoke
of volcanoes rolled balefully up; and the large tracts of lava, which had
descended from them to the sea, were cleft into fearful abysses, where no
bottom could be found. Here were strange, desolate valleys, with beds of
pure sulphur, torn and overhanging precipices, gigantic caverns, and
fountains of boiling water, which, mingled with flashing fires, soared up
into the air, amid the undergroans of earthquakes, and howlings and
hissings as of demons in torture. Subterranean fires, in terrific contest
with the wintry ocean, seemed to have made sport of rocks, mountains, and
rivers, tossing them into the most fantastic and appalling shapes. Yet
such was the fondness of the Scandinavian imagination for the wild and
desolate, and such their hatred of oppression, that they soon peopled this
chaotic island to an extent it has never since reached. In spite of the
rigor of the climate, where corn refused to ripen, and where the labors of
fishing and agriculture could only be pursued for four months of the year,
the people became attached to this wild country. They established a
republic which lasted four hundred years, and for ages it was destined to
be the sanctuary and preserver of the grand old literature of the North.
The people took with them their Scalds and their traditions, and for a
century after the peopling of the island, they retained their Pagan
belief. Ages rolled away; the religion of Odin had perished from the
mainland, and the very hymns and poems in which its doctrines were
recorded had perished with it, when, in the middle of the seventeenth
century, the Rhythmical Edda of Samund was discovered, followed by the
Prose Edda of Snorre Sturleson. These discoveries roused the zeal of the
Scandinavian literati, and led to further investigations, which resulted
in the discovery of a vast number of chronicles and sagas, and much has
since been done by the learned men of Iceland and Denmark to bring to
light the remote annals of northern Europe.
These remains fall into the three divisions of Eddaic, Scaldic, and Saga
literature. Samund the Wise (1056-1131), a Christian priest of Iceland,
was the first to collect and commit to writing the oral traditions of the
mythology and poetry of the Scandinavians. His collection has been termed
the "Edda," a word by some supposed to signify grandmother, and by others
derived, with more probability, from the obsolete word _oeda_, to teach.
The elder or poetic Edda consists of thirty-eight poems, and is divided
into two parts. The first, or mythological cycle, contains everything
relating to the Scandinavian ideas of the creation of the world, the
origin of man, the morals taught by the priests, and stories of the gods;
the second, or heroic cycle, contains the original materials of the
"Nibelungen Lied" of Germany. The poems consist of strophes of six or
eight lines each, with little of the alliteration by which the Scalds were
afterwards distinguished. One of the oldest and most interesting is the
"Voluspa," or Song of the Prophetess, a kind of sibylline lay, which
contains an account of the creation, the origin of man and of evil, and
concludes with a prediction of the destruction and renovation of the
universe, and a description of the future abodes of happiness and misery.
"Vafthrudnir's Song" is in the form of a dialogue between Odin, disguised
as a mortal, and the giant Vafthrudnir, in which the same subjects are
discussed. "Grimner's Song" contains a description of twelve habitations
of the celestial deities, considered as symbolical of the signs of the
zodiac. "Rig's Song" explains, allegorically, the origin of the three
castes: the thrall, the churl, and the noble, which, at a very early
period, appear to have formed the framework of Scandinavian society. "The
Havamal," or the High Song of Odin, is the complete code of Scandinavian
ethics. The maxims here brought together more resemble the Proverbs of
Solomon than anything in human literature, but without the high religious
views of the Scripture maxims. It shows a worldly wisdom, experience, and
sagacity, to which modern life can add nothing. In the Havamal is included
the Rune Song.
Runes, the primitive rudely-shaped letters of the Gothic race, appear
never to have been used to record their literature, which was committed to
the Scalds and Sagamen, but they were reserved for inscriptions on rocks
or memorial stones, or they were cut in staves of wood, as a rude calendar
to assist the memory. Odin was the great master of runes, but all the
gods, many of the giants, kings, queens, prophetesses, and poets possessed
the secret of their power. In the ballads of the Middle Ages, long after
the introduction of Christianity, we find everywhere the boast of Runic
knowledge and of its power. Queens and princesses cast the runic spell
over their enemies; ladies, by the use of runes, inspire warriors with
love; and weird women by their means perform witchcraft and sorcery. Some
of their rune songs taught the art of healing; others had power to stop
flying spears in battle, and to excite or extinguish hatred and love.
There were runes of victory inscribed on swords; storm runes, which gave
power over sails, inscribed on rudders of ships, drink runes, which gave
power over others, inscribed on drinking horns; and herb runes, cut in the
bark of trees which cured sickness and wounds. These awful characters,
which struck terror into the hearts of our heathen ancestors, and which
appalled and subdued alike kings, warriors, and peasants, were simple
letters of the alphabet; but they prove to what a stupenduous extent
knowledge was power in the dark ages of the earth. The poet who sings the
Rune Song in the Havamal does it with every combination of mystery,
calculated to inspire awe and wonder in the hearer.
The two poems, "Odin's Raven Song" and the "Song of the Way-Tamer," are
among the most deeply poetical hymns of the Edda. They relate to the same
great event--the death of Balder--and are full of mystery and fear. A
strange trouble has fallen upon the gods, the oracles are silent, and a
dark, woeful foreboding seizes on all things living. Odin mounts his
steed, Sleipner, and descends to hell to consult the Vala there in her
tomb, and to extort from her, by runic incantations, the fate of his son.
This "Descent of Odin" is familiar to the English reader through Gray's
Ode. In all mythologies we have glimpses continually of the mere humanity
of the gods, we witness their limited powers and their consciousness of a
coming doom. In this respect every mythology is kept in infinite
subordination to the true faith, in which all is sublime, infinite, and
worthy of the Deity--in which God is represented as pure spirit, whom the
heaven of heavens cannot contain; and all assumption of divinity by false
gods is treated as a base superstition.
The remaining songs of the first part of the Edda relate chiefly to the
exploits, wanderings, and love adventures of the gods. The "Sun Song,"
with which it concludes, is believed to be the production of Samund, the
collector of the Edda, In this he retains some of the machinery of the old
creed, but introduces the Christian Deity and doctrines.
The second part of the elder Edda contains the heroic cycle of Icelandic
poems, the first part of which is the Song of Voland. the renowned
northern smith. The story of Voland, or Wayland, the Vulcan of the North,
is of unknown antiquity; and his fame, which spread throughout Europe,
still lives in the traditions of all northern nations. The poems
concerning Sigurd and the Niflunga form a grand epic of the simplest
construction. The versification consists of strophes of six or eight
lines, without rhyme or alliteration. The sad and absorbing story here
narrated was wonderfully popular throughout the ancient Scandinavian and
Teutonic world, and it is impossible to say for how many centuries these
great tragic ballads had agitated the hearts of the warlike races of the
north. It is clear that Sigurd and Byrnhilda, with all their beauty, noble
endowment, and sorrowful history, were real personages, who had taken
powerful hold on the popular affections in the most ancient times, and had
come down from age to age, receiving fresh incarnations and embellishments
from the popular Scalds. There is a great and powerful nature living
through these poems. They are pictures of men and women of godlike beauty
and endowments, and full of the vigor of simple but impetuous natures.
Though fragmentary, they stand in all the essentials of poetry far beyond
the German Lied, and, in the tragic force of passion which they portray,
they are superior to any remains of ancient poetry except that of Greece.
Their greatness lies less in their language than their spirit, which is
sublime and colossal. Passion, tenderness, and sorrow are here depicted
with the most vivid power; and the noblest sentiments and the most heroic
actions are crossed by the foulest crimes and the most terrific tragedies.
They contain materials for a score of dramas of the most absorbing
character.
The Prose or Younger Edda was the work of Snorre Sturleson (1178-1241),
who was born of a distinguished Icelandic family, and, after leading a
turbulent and ambitious life, and being twice supreme magistrate of the
republic, was at last assassinated. The younger Edda repeats in prose the
sublime poetry of the elder Edda, mixed with many extravagances and
absurdities; and in point of literary and philosophical value it bears no
comparison with it. It marks the transition from the art of the Scalds to
the prose relation of the Sagaman. This work concludes with a treatise on
the poetic phraseology of the Scalds, and a system of versification by
Snorre.
The Bard, or Scald (literally smoothers of language, from _scaldre_, to
polish), formed an important feature of the courts of the princes and more
powerful nobles. They often acted, at the same time, as bard, councilor,
and warrior. Until the twelfth century, when the monks and the art of
writing put an end to the Scaldic art, this race of poets continued to
issue from Iceland, and to travel from country to country, welcomed as the
honored guests of kings, and receiving in return for their songs, rings
and jewels of great value, but never money. There is preserved a list of
two hundred and thirty scalds, who had distinguished themselves from the
time of Ragnor Lodbrok to that of Vladimir II., or from the latter end of
the eighth, to the beginning of the thirteenth century. Ragnor Lodbrok was
a Danish king, who, in one of his predatory excursions, was taken prisoner
in England and thrown into a dungeon, to be stung to death by serpents.
His celebrated death song is said to have been composed during his
torments. The best of the scaldic lays, however, are greatly inferior to
the Eddaic poems. Alliteration is the chief characteristic of the
versification.
The word Saga means literally a tale or narrative, and is used in Iceland
to denote every species of tradition, whether fabulous or true. In amount,
the Saga literature of ancient Scandinavia is surprisingly extensive,
consisting of more than two hundred volumes. The Sagas are, for the most
part, unconnected biographies or narratives of greater or less length,
principally describing events which took place from the ninth to the
thirteenth century. They are historical, mythic, heroic, and romantic.
The first annalist of Iceland of whom we have any remains was Ari the Wise
(b. 1067), the contemporary of Samund, and his annals, for the most part,
have been lost. Snorre Sturleson, already spoken of as the collector of
the Prose Edda, was the author of a great original work, the
"Heimskringla," or Home-Circle, so called from the first word of the
manuscript, a most admirable history of a great portion of northern Europe
from the period of the Christian Era to 1177, including every species of
Saga composition. It traces Odin and his followers from the East, from
Asaland and Asgard, its chief city, to their settlement in Scandinavia. It
narrates the contests of the kings, the establishment of the kingdoms of
Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, the Viking expeditions, the discovery and
settlement of Iceland and Greenland, the discovery of America, and the
conquests of England and Normandy. The stories are told with a life and
freshness that belong only to true genius, and a picture is given of human
life in all its reality, genuine, vivid, and true. Some of the Sagas of
the "Heimskringla" are grand romances, full of brilliant adventures, while
at the same time they lie so completely within the range of history that
they may be regarded as authentic. That of Harold Haardrada narrates his
expedition to the East, his brilliant exploits in Constantinople, Syria,
and Sicily, his scaldic accomplishments, and his battles in England
against Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, where he fell only a few days
before Godwin's son himself fell at the battle of Hastings. This Saga is a
splendid epic in prose, and is particularly interesting to the English
race. The first part of the "Heimskringla" is necessarily derived from
tradition; as it advances fable and fact all curiously intermingle, and it
terminates in authentic history.
Among the most celebrated Sagas of the remaining divisions are the "Sagas
of Erik the Wanderer," who went in search of the Island of Immortality;
"Frithiof's Saga," made the subject of Tegnér's great poem; the Saga of
Ragnor Lodbrok, of Dietrich of Bern, and the Volsunga Saga, relating to
the ancestors of Sigurd or Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen Lied.
There are, besides, Sagas of all imaginable fictions of heroes, saints,
magicians, conquerors, and fair women. Almost every leading family of
Iceland had its written saga. The Sagamen, like the Scalds, traveled over
all Scandinavia, visited the courts and treasured up and transmitted to
posterity the whole history of the North. This wonderful activity of the
Scandinavian mind from the ninth to the thirteenth century, both in amount
and originality, throws completely into the shade the literary
achievements of the Anglo-Saxons during the same period.
When Christianity superseded the ancient religion, the spirit and
traditions of the old mythology remained in the minds of the people, and
became their fireside literature under the name of "Folk Sagas." Their
legends and nursery tales are diffused over modern Scandinavia, and
appear, with many variations, through all the literature of Europe. Among
them are found the originals of "Jack the Giant Killer," "Cinderella,"
"Blue Beard," the "Little Old Woman Cut Shorter," "The Giant who smelt the
Blood of an Englishman," and many others.
The Folk Sagas have only recently been collected, but they are the true
productions of ancient Scandinavians.
The art of the Scald and Sagaman, which was extinguished with the
introduction of Christianity, revived after a time in the Romances of
Chivalry and the popular ballads. These ballads are classified as heroic,
supernatural, historic, and ballads of love and romance; they successively
describe all the changes in the life and opinions of society, and closely
resemble those of England, Scotland, and Germany. They are the common
expression of the life and feelings of a common race, under the prevailing
influences of the same period, and the same stories often inspired the
nameless bards of both countries. They are composed in the same form and
possess the same curious characteristic of the refrain or chorus which
distinguishes this poetry in its transition from the epic to the lyric
form. They express a peculiar poetic feeling which is sought for in vain
in the epic age--a sentiment which, without art and without name, wanders
on until it is caught up by fresh lips, and becomes the regular
interpreter of the same feelings. Thus this simple voice of song travels
onward from mouth to month, from heart to heart, the language of the
general sorrows, hopes, and memories; strange, and yet near to every one,
centuries old, yet never growing older, since the human heart, whose
history it relates in so many changing images and notes, remains forever
the same.
Though the great majority of the popular ballads of Scandinavia are
attributed to the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the
composition of them by no means ceased then. This voice of the people
continued more or less to find expression down to the close of the last
century, when it became the means of leading back its admirers to truth
and genuine feeling, and, more than anything else, contributed to the
revival of a new era in literature.
5. DANISH LITERATURE--In taking leave of the splendid ancient literature
of Scandinavia, we find before us a waste of nearly four centuries from
the thirteenth, which presents scarcely a trace of intellectual
cultivation. The ballads and tales, indeed, lingered in the popular memory
and heart; fresh notes of genuine music were from time to time added to
them, and they form the connecting link between the ancient and modern
literature. Saxo Grammaticus and Theodoric the monk, in the thirteenth
century, adopted the Latin language in their chronicles of Denmark and
Norway, and from that time it usurped the place of the native tongue among
the educated. In the sixteenth century the spirit of the Reformation began
to exert an influence, and the Bible was translated into the popular
tongue. New fields of thought were opened, a passion for literature was
excited, and translations, chiefly from the German, were multiplied; a
knowledge of the classics was cultivated, and, in time, a noble harvest of
literature followed.
The first author who marks the new era is Arreboe (1587-1637), who has
been called the Chaucer of Denmark. His chief work was the "Hexameron," or
"The World's First Week." It abounds with learning, and displays great
poetic beauty. The religious psalms and hymns of Kingo (1634-1703) are
characterized by a simple yet powerfully expressed spirit of piety, and
are still held in high esteem. His Morning and Evening Prayers, or, as he
beautifully terms them, "Sighs," are admirable.
Many other names of note are found in the literature of this period, but
the only one who achieved a world-wide celebrity, was Tycho Brahe (1546-
1601), who, for a time, was the centre of a brilliant world of science and
literature. The learned and celebrated, from all countries, visited him,
and he was loaded with gifts and honors, in return for the honor which he
conferred upon his native land. But at length, through the machinations of
his enemies, he lost the favor of the king, and was forced to exile
himself forever from his country. The services rendered to astronomy by
Tycho Brahe were great, although his theory of the universe, in which our
own planet constituted the centre, has given way before the more profound
one of Copernicus.
Holberg (1684-1754), a native of Norway, is commonly styled the creator of
the modern literature of Denmark, and would take a high place in that of
any country. In the field of satire and comedy he was a great and
unquestionable master. All his actors are types, and are as real and
existent at the present hour as they were actual when he sketched them.
Besides satires and numerous comedies, Holberg was the author of various
histories, several volumes of letters, and a book of fables.
The principal names which appear in Danish literature, from Holberg to
Evald, are those of Stub, Sneedorf, Tullin, and Sheersen. Evald (1743-
1780) was the first who perceived the superb treasury of poetic wealth
which lay in the far antiquity of Scandinavia, among the gods of the
Odinic mythology, and who showed to his nation the grandeur and beauty
which the national history had reserved for the true poetic souls who
should dare to appropriate them. But the sound which he drew from the old
heroic harp startled his contemporaries, while it did not fascinate them.
The august figures which he brought before them seemed monstrous and
uncouth. Neglected in life, and doomed to an early death, the history of
this poet was painfully interesting; a strangely brilliant web of mingled
gold and ordinary thread--a strangely blended fabric of glory and of
grief. Solitary, poor, bowed down with physical and mental suffering, from
his heart's wound, as out of a dark cleft in a rock, swelled the clear
stream of song. The poem of "Adam and Eve," "Rolf Krage," the first
original Danish tragedy, "Balder's Death," and "The Fishermen," are his
principal productions. "Rolf Krage" is the outpouring of a noble heart, in
which the most generous and exalted sentiments revel in all the
inexperience of youth. "Balder's Death" is a masterpiece of beauty,
sentiment, and eloquence of diction. It is full of the passion of an
unhappy love, and thus expresses the burning emotions of the poet's own
heart. The old northern gods and mythic personages are introduced, and the
lyric element is blended with the dramatic. The lyrical drama of "The
Fishermen" is perhaps the most perfect and powerful of all Evald's works.
The intense interest it excites testifies to the power of the writer,
while the music of the versification delights the ear. His lyric of "King
Christian," now the national song of Denmark, is a masterly production of
its kind.
During the forty years which succeeded the death of Evald, Denmark
produced a great number of poets and authors of various kinds, who
advanced the fame of their country; but the chief of those who closed the
eighteenth century are Baggesen (1764-1826) and Rahbek (1760-1830). Though
they still wrote in the nineteenth century, they belonged in spirit
essentially to the eighteenth. The life of Baggesen was a genuine romance,
with all its sunshine and shade. He was born in poverty and obscurity, and
when a child of seven years old, on one occasion, attracted the momentary
attention of the young and lovely Queen Caroline, who took him in her arms
and kissed him. "Still, after half a century," he writes, "glows the
memory of that kiss; to all eternity I shall never forget it. From that
kiss sprang the germ of my entire succeeding fate." After a long and
severe struggle with poverty, he suddenly found himself the most popular
poet of the country, and for a quarter of a century he was the petted
favorite of the nation. Supplanted in public favor by the rising glory of
Oehlenschläger, he had the misfortune to see the poetic crown of Denmark
placed on the head of his rival; and the last years of his life were
embittered by disappointment and care. The works of Baggesen fill twelve
volumes, and consist of comic stories, numerous letters, satires and
impassioned lyrics, songs and ballads, besides dramas and operas. His
"Poems to Nanna," who, in the northern mythology, is the bride of Balder,
are among the most beautiful in the Danish language, and no poet could
have written them until he had gone through the deep and ennobling baptism
of suffering. In these, Nanna is the symbol of the pure and eternal
principle of love, and Balder is the type of the human heart, perpetually
yearning after it in sorrow, yet in hope. Nanna appears lost--departed
into a higher and invisible world; and Balder, while forever seeking after
her, bears with him an internal consciousness that there he shall overtake
her, and possess her eternally. One of Baggesen's characteristics was the
projection of great schemes, which were never accomplished. He was too
fond of living in the present--in the charmed circle of admiring friends--
to achieve works otherwise within the limit of his powers. Bat with all
his faults, his works will always remain brilliant and beautiful amid the
literary wealth of his country.
In the early part of the nineteenth century the new light which radiated
from Germany found its way into Denmark, and in no country was the result
so rapid or so brilliant. There soon arose a school of poets who created
for themselves a reputation in all parts of Europe that would have done
honor to any age or country. A new epoch in the language began with
Oehlenschläger (1779-1856), the greatest poet of Denmark, and the
representative, not only of the North, but, like Scott, Byron, Goethe, and
Schiller, the outgrowth of a great era as well, and the incarnation of the
broader and more natural spirit of his time. In 1819 he published the
"Gods of the North," in which he combines all the legends of the Edda into
one connected whole. He entered fully into the spirit of these grand old
poems, and condensed and elaborated them into one. In the various regions
of gods, giants, dwarfs, and men, in the striking variety of characters,
the great and wise Odin, the mighty Thor, the good Balder, the malicious
Loke, the queenly Frigga, the genial Freya, the lovely Iduna, the gentle
Nanna--in all the magnificent scenery of Midgard, Asgard, and Nifelheim,
with the glorious tree Yggdrasil and the rainbow bridge, the poet found
inexhaustible scope for poetical embellishment, and he availed himself of
it all with a genuine poet's power. The dramas of Oehlenschläger are his
masterpieces, but they form only a small portion of his works. His prose
stories and romances fill several volumes, and his smaller poems would of
themselves have established almost a greater reputation than that of any
Danish poet who went before him.
Grundtvig (b. 1783) is one of the most original and independent minds of
the North. As a preacher he was fervid and eloquent; as a writer on the
Scandinavian mythology and hero-life, he gave, perhaps, the truest idea of
the spirit of the northern myths.
Blicher (1782-1868) was a stern realist, who made his native province of
Jutland the scene of his poems and stories, which in many respects
resemble those of Crabbe.
Ingemann (1789-1862) is a voluminous writer in every department of
literature. His historical romances are the delight of the people, who, by
their winter firesides, forget their snow-barricaded woods and mountains
in listening to his pages.
Heiberg (1791-1860) as a critic ruled the Danish world of taste for many
years, and by his writings did much to elevate dramatic art and public
sentiment. The greatest authoress that Denmark has produced is the
Countess Gyllenbourg (1773-1856). Her knowledge of life, sparkling wit,
and faultless style, make her stories, the authorship of which was unknown
before her death, masterpieces of their kind.
The greatest pastoral lyrist of this country is Winther (1796-1876). His
descriptions of scenery and rural life have an extraordinary charm. Hertz
(1796-1870) is the most cosmopolitan Danish writer of his time. Müller
(1809-1876) is celebrated for his comedies, tragedies, lyrics, and
satires, all of which prove the immense breadth of his compass and the
inexhaustible riches of his imagination.
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) is known to the English reader by his
stories and legends for the young, his romances, and autobiography. He was
born of humble peasants, and early attracted the attention of persons in
power, who, with that liberality to youthful genius so characteristic of
Denmark, enabled him to enter the university, and afterwards to travel
over Europe. The "Improvisatore" is considered the best of his romances.
Three writers connect the age of romanticism with the present day,--Plong
(b. 1812), a vigorous politician and poet; Goldschmidt (b. 1818), author
of novels and poems in the purest Danish; Hastrup (b. 1818), the author of
a series of comedies unrivaled in delicacy and wit.
Among the names distinguished in science are those of Malte Brun in
geography; Rask, Grundtvig, Molbech, Warsaae, Rafn, Finn Magnusen and
others in philology and literary antiquities. Of the two brothers Oersted,
one, a lawyer and statesman, has done much to establish the principles of
state economy, while the discoveries of the other entitle him to the
highest rank in physical science.
6. SWEDISH LITERATURE.--The first independent literature of modern
Scandinavia was, as we have seen, the popular songs and ballads which,
during the Middle Ages, kept alive the germ of intellectual life. The
effect of the Reformation was soon seen in the literature of Sweden, as of
other countries. The first intellectual development displayed itself in
the dramatic attempt of Messenius and his son, who changed and substituted
actual history for legendary and scriptural subjects. The genius of
Sweden, however, is essentially lyrical, rather than dramatic or epic.
Stjernhjelm (1598-1672) was a writer of great merit,--the author of many
dramas, lyrics, and epic and didactic poems. He so far surpassed his
contemporaries that he decided the character of his country's literature
for a century; but his influence was finally lost in the growing Italian
and German taste. The principal names of this period are those of Lucidor,
a wild, erratic genius; Mrs. Brenner, the first female writer of Sweden,
whose numerous poems are distinguished for their neat and easy style; and
Spegel (d. 1711), whose Psalms, full of the simplest beauty, give him a
lasting place in the literature of the country. The literary taste of
Sweden, in the seventeenth century, made great progress; native genius
awoke to conscious power, and the finest productions of Europe were quoted
and commented on.
During the eighteenth century, French taste prevailed all over Europe; not
only the manners, etiquette, and toilets of France were imitated, the
fashion of its literature was also adopted. Corneille, Racine, Molière,
and Boileau stamped their peculiar philosophy of literature on the greater
portion of the civilized world. Imagination was frozen by these cold,
glittering models; life and originality became extinct, imitator followed
upon imitator, until there was a universal dearth of soul; and men gravely
asserted that everything had been said and done in poetry and literature
that could be said and done. What a glorious reply has since been given to
this utterance of inanity and formalism, in a countless host of great and
original names, all the world knows. But in no country was this Gallomania
more strongly and enduringly prevalent than in Sweden. The principal
writers of the early part of the Gallic period are Dalin, Nordenflycht,
Creutz, and Gyllenborg. As a prose writer, rather than a poet, Dalin
deserves remembrance. He established a periodical in imitation of the
"Spectator," and through this conferred the same benefits on Swedish
literature that Addison conferred on that of England,--a great improvement
in style, and the origination of a national periodical literature.
Charlotte Nordenflycht (b. 1718) is called the Swedish Sappho. Her poetry
is all love and sorrow, as her life was; in a better age she would have
been a better poetess, for she possessed great feeling, passion, and
imagination. She exerted a wide influence on the literary life of her
time, in the capital, where the coteries which sprung up about her
embraced all the poets of the day. Gyllenborg and Creutz were deficient in
lyric depth, and were neither of them poets of the first order.
Of the midday of the Gallic era, the king, Gustavus III. (1771-1792),
Kellgren, Leopold, and Oxenstjerna are the chiefs. Gustavus was a master
of rhetoric, and in all his poetical tendencies fast bound to the French
system. He was, however, the true friend of literature, and did whatever
lay in his power to promote it, and to honor and reward literary men. In
1786 he established the Swedish Academy, which for a long time continued
to direct the public taste. As an orator, Gustavus has rarely found a
rival in the annals of Sweden, and his dramas in prose possess much merit,
and are still read with interest.
Kellgren (1751-1795) was the principal lyric poet of this period. His
works betray a tendency to escape from the bondage of his age, and open a
new spring-time in Swedish poetry. For his own fame, and that of his age,
his early death was a serious loss. Leopold (1756-1829) continued to sway
the literary sceptre, after the death of Kellgren, for the remainder of
the century. He is best known by his dramas and miscellaneous poems. His
plays have the faults that belong to his school, but many of his poems
abound with striking thoughts, and are elastic and graceful in style. The
great writer of this period, however, was Oxenstjerna (1750-1818), a
descriptive poet, who, with all the faults of his age and school, displays
a deep feeling for nature. His pictures of simple life, amid the fields
and woods of Sweden, are full of idyllic beauty and attractive grace.
As the French taste overspread Europe at very nearly the same time, so its
influence decayed and died out almost simultaneously. In France itself,
long before the close of the eighteenth century, elements were at work
destined to produce the most extraordinary changes in the political,
social, and literary condition of the world. Even those authors who were
most French were most concerned in preparing this astounding revolution.
In many countries it was not the French doctrines, but the French events,
that startled, dazzled, and excited the human heart and imagination, and
produced the greatest effects on literature. Those who sympathized least
with French views were often most influenced by the magnificence of the
scenes which swept over the face of the civilized world, and antagonism
was not less potent than sympathy to arouse the energies of mind. But even
before these movements had produced any marked effect, Gallic influence
began to give way, and genius began freely to range the earth and choose
its materials wherever God and man were to be found.
The heralds of the new era in Sweden were Bellman, Hallman, Kexel,
Wallenberg, Lidner, Thorild, and Lengren. Bellman (1740-1795) is regarded
by the Swedes with great enthusiasm. There is something so perfectly
national in his spirit that he finds an echo of infinite delight in all
Swedish hearts. Everything patriotic, connected with home life and
feelings, home memories, the loves and pleasures of the past, all seem to
be associated with the songs of Bellman. Hallman, his friend, wrote
comedies and farces. His characters are drawn from the bacchanalian class
described in Bellman's lyrics, but they are not sufficiently varied in
their scope and sphere to create an actual Swedish drama. Kexel, the
friend of the two last named, lived a gay and vagabond life, and is
celebrated for his comedies. Wallenberg was a clergyman, full of the
enjoyment of life, and disposed to see the most amusing side of
everything. Lidner and Thorild, unlike the writers just named, were grave,
passionate, and sorrowful. Lidner was a nerve-sick, over-excited genius;
but many of his inspired thoughts struck deep into the heart of the time,
and Swedish literature is highly indebted to Thorild for the spirit of
manly freedom and the principles of sound reasoning and taste which he
introduced into it.
One of the most interesting names of the transition period is that of Anna
Maria Lengren (1754-1811). She has depicted the scenes of domestic and
social life with a skill and firmness, yet a delicacy of touch that is
perhaps more difficult of attainment than the broad lines of a much more
ambitious style. Her scenes and personages are all types, and her heroes
and heroines continually present themselves in Swedish life in perpetual
and amusing reproduction. These poems will secure her a place among the
classical writers of her country.
The political revolution of 1809 secured the freedom of the press, new men
arose for the new times, and a deadly war was waged between the old school
and the new, until the latter triumphed. The first distinguished names of
the new school are those of Franzén and Wallin. Franzén (1772-1847), a
bishop, was celebrated for his lyrics of social life, and in many points
resembles Wordsworth. The qualities of heart, the home affections, and the
gladsome and felicitous appreciation of the beauty of life and nature
found in his poems, give him his great charm. Archbishop Wallin (1779-
1839) is the great religious poet of Sweden. In his hymns there is a
strength and majesty, a solemn splendor and harmony of intonation, that
have no parallel in the Swedish language.
Among other writers of the time are Atterbom, Hammarsköld, and Palmblad.
The works of Atterbom (b. 1790) indicate great lyrical talent, but they
have an airy unreality, which disappoints the healthy appetite of modern
readers. Hammarsköld (1785-1827) was an able critic and literary
historian, though his poems are of little value. Palmblad, besides being a
critic, is the author of several novels and translations from the Greek.
These three writers belonged to the Phosphoric School, so called from a
periodical called "The Phosphorus," which advocated their opinions.
The most distinguished school in Swedish literature is the Gothic, which
took its rise in 1811, and which, aiming at a national spirit and
character, embraced in that nationality all the Gothic race as one
original family, possessing the same ancestry, original religion,
traditions, and even still the same spirit, predilections, and language,
although broken into several dialects. This new school had truth, nature,
and the spirit of the nation and the times with it, and it speedily
triumphed. First in the rank of its originators may be placed Geijer
(1783-1847), who was at once a poet, musician, and historian; his poems
are among the most precious treasures of Swedish literature. In his
"Chronicles of Sweden" he penetrates far into the mists and darkness of
antiquity, and brings thence magnificent traces of men and ages that point
still onward to the times and haunts of the world's youth. The work
presents all that belongs to the North, its gods, its mythic doctrines,
its grand traditions, its heroes, vikings, runes, and poets, carrying
whole ages of history in their trains. In his hands the dry bones of
history and chronology live like the actual flesh and blood of the present
time. As Geijer is the first historian of Sweden, so is Tegnér (1782-1848)
the first poet; and in his "Frithiof's Saga" he has made the nearest
approach to a successful epic writer. Although this poem has rather the
character of a series of lyrical poems woven into an epic cycle, it is
still a complete and great poem. It is characterized by tender, sensitive,
and delicate feeling rather than by deep and overwhelming passion. In the
story he has, for the most part, adhered to the ancient Saga. Tegner is as
yet only the most popular poet of Sweden; but the bold advance which he
has made beyond the established models of the country shows what Swedish
poets may yet accomplish by following on in the track of a higher and
freer enterprise. The other most prominent poets of the new school are
Stagnelius (1793-1828), who bears a strong resemblance to Shelley in his
tendency to the mythic and speculative, and in his wonderful power of
language and affluence of inspired phrase; Almquist (d. 1866), an able and
varied writer, who has written with great wit, brilliancy, and power in
almost every department; Vitalis (d. 1828), the author of some religious
poetry; Dahlgren, an amusing author, and Fahlcrantz, who wrote "Noah's
Ark," a celebrated humorous poem. Runeberg, one of the truest and greatest
poets of the North, is a Finn by birth, though he writes in Swedish; with
all the wild melancholy character of his country he mingles a deep feeling
of its sufferings and its wrongs. His verse is solemn and strong, like the
spirit of its subject. He brings before you the wild wastes and the dark
woods of his native land, and its brave, simple, enduring people. You feel
the wind blow fresh from the vast, dark woodlands; you follow the elk-
hunters through the pine forests or along the shores of remote lakes; you
lie in desert huts and hear the narratives of the struggles of the
inhabitants with the ungenial elements, or their contentions with more
ungenial men. Runeberg seizes on life wherever it presents itself in
strong and touching forms,--in the beggar, the gypsy, or the malefactor,--
it is enough for him that it is human nature, doing and suffering, and in
these respects he stands preeminently above all the poets of Sweden.
Besides the poets already spoken of, there are many others who cannot here
be even named.
If the literature of Sweden is almost wholly modern, its romance
literature is especially so. Cederborg was not unlike Dickens in his
peculiar walk and character, and in all his burlesque there is something
kind, amiable, and excellent. He was followed by many others, who
displayed much talent, correct sketching of costumes and manners, and
touches of true descriptive nature.
But an authoress now appeared who was to create a new era in Swedish
novel-writing, and to connect the literary name and interests of Sweden
more intimately with the whole civilized world. In 1828, Fredrika Bremer
(1802-1865) published her first works, which were soon followed by others,
all of which attracted immediate attention. Later they were made known to
the English and American public through the admirable translations of Mrs.
Howitt, and now they are as familiar as "Robinson Crusoe," or the "Vicar
of Wakefield," wherever the English language is spoken. Wherever these
works have been known they have awakened a more genial judgment of life, a
better view of the world and its destinies, a deeper trust in Providence,
and a persuasion that to enjoy existence truly ourselves is to spread that
enjoyment around us to our fellow-men, and especially by the daily
evidences of good-will, affection, cheerfulness, and graceful attention to
the feelings of others, which, in the social and domestic circle, are so
small in their appearance, but immense in their consequences. As a teacher
of this quiet, smiling, but deeply penetrating philosophy of life, no
writer has yet arisen superior to Fredrika Bremer, while she has all the
time not even professed to teach, but only to entertain.
The success of Miss Bremer's writings produced two contemporaneous female
novelists of no ordinary merit--the Baroness Knorring (d. 1833) and Emily
Carlon (b. 1833). The works of the former are distinguished by a brilliant
wit and an extraordinary power of painting life and passion, while a kind
and amiable feeling pervades those of the latter. Among the later
novelists of Sweden are many names distinguished in other departments of
literature.
In conclusion, there are in Sweden hosts of able authors in whose hands
all sciences, history, philology, antiquities, theology, every branch of
natural and moral philosophy and miscellaneous literature have been
elaborated with a talent and industry of which any nation might be proud.
Among the names of a world-wide fame are those, of Swedenborg (1688-1772),
not more remarkable for his peculiar religious ideas than for his profound
and varied acquirements in science; Linnaeus (1707-1778), the founder of
the established system of botany; and Scheele (1742-1786), eminent in
chemistry.
If the literature of Scandinavia continues to develop during the present
century with the strength and rapidity it has manifested during the last,
it will present to the mind of the English race rich sources of enjoyment
of a more congenial spirit than that of any other part of the European
continent; and the more this literature Is cultivated the more it will be
perceived that we are less an Anglo-Saxon than a Scandinavian race.
The last few years in Sweden have been a period of political rather than
literary activity, yielding comparatively few works of high aesthetic
value, Rydborg, a statesman and metaphysician, has produced a powerful
work of fiction, "The Last Athenian," and other works of minor importance
have been produced in various departments of literature.
LITERATURE OF NORWAY.--Norway cannot be said to have had a literature
distinct from the Danish until after its union with Sweden in 1814. The
period from that time to the present has been one of great literary
activity in all departments, and many distinguished names might be
mentioned, among them that of Björnson (b. 1832), whose tales have been
extensively translated. Jonas Lie who enjoys a wide popularity, Camilla
Collett, and Magdalene Thoresen are also favorite writers. Wergeland and
Welhaven were two distinguished poets of the first half of the century.
Kielland is an able novelist of the realistic school, and Professor
Boyesen is well known in the United States for his tales and poems in
English. Henrick Ibsen is the most distinguished dramatic writer of Norway
and belongs to the realistic school. Among other writers of the present
time are Börjesson whose "Eric XIV." is a masterpiece of Swedish drama;
Tekla Knös, a poetess whose claims have been sanctioned by the Academy;
and Claude Gérard (_nom de plume_), very popular as a novelist. Charles
XV. and Oscar II. are poets of merit.