When still young, Björnson began to deal with politics, and throughout
his whole life he has worked in one direction. He has fought
unweariedly to secure the independence of Norway in the (almost purely
dynastic) union with its larger neighbor, Sweden. For four hundred
years Norway, as is well known, was a Danish and indeed a misgoverned
Danish province, until, in the year 1814, it was united with Sweden,
as a free kingdom, with a wellnigh republican constitution. Since that
time the house of Bernadette has made repeated efforts to limit the
independence and curtail the constitutional rights of the sparsely
populated rocky land. Beyond all else it has striven to amalgamate
the land with Sweden, and externally it has so far succeeded that
Norway is viewed throughout Europe, even in Germany, as a province of
Sweden, a sort of "seditious Ireland." As early as 1858, when editor of
"Bergensposten," Björnson fought against the amalgamation plans, and it
was largely due to his efforts that those representatives of Bergen,
who had voted for a closer tariff union between Sweden and Norway, were
not re-elected to the Storthing. In 1839, as editor of "Aften-bladet,"
in Christiania, he successfully contested the right of the king to
place a Swedish royal governor at the head of Norwegian affairs. In
1866-67, as editor of the "Norsk Folkeblad," Björnson was one of the
most valiant opponents of the so-called "union proposition," an attempt
of the government to make a closer union between the two realms that
were bound together in one dynasty. Since the dispute concerning the
king's veto (previously only recognized as suspensive), between King
Oscar and the Storthing, Björnson has become one of the most prominent
political leaders of Norway. Especially since his visit to the United
States, in the year 1880, he has burst forth from the chrysalis as
the greatest popular orator of Scandinavia, teeming with marvellously
captivating and, at the same time, thoroughly calm eloquence. As
soon as his presence at a public assemblage is an established fact,
thousands of peasants stream together to hear him. After the great
president of the Storthing, Johan Sverdrup, no man in Norway has so
powerful an influence as an orator.
The two countries, Norway and Denmark, for so many hundred years
politically united and still united through a common language and a
common ancient literature,--almost more intimately united, since they
became outwardly separated, than before,--have common aspirations and
aims in all political questions and in all problems of civilization.
The same struggle for freedom and modern enlightenment which Björnson
and his comrades in thought carry on in Norway, is fought in Denmark by
the younger school of authors. Norwegians and Danes labor each in their
own way to till the common soil of language and literature. I believe
that the result will be similar to that which Björnson has described
in the little legend that is the prelude to "Arne," and virtually to
his tales of peasant life in general, where juniper, oak, fir, birch,
and heather resolve to clothe the naked mountain lying before them. The
effort long failed; it was all plain enough: the mountain did not wish
to be clad. Whenever the trees had worked their way forward a little,
there appeared a brook that grew and grew, and finally threw them all
down.
"Then the day came when the heather could 'peep with one eye over the
edge of the mountain. 'Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!' said the heather,
and away it went. 'Dear me! what is it the heather sees?' said the
juniper, and moved on until it could peer up. 'Oh dear, oh dear!' it
shrieked, and was gone. 'What is the matter with the juniper to-day'
said the fir, and took long strides onward in the heat of the sun. Soon
it could raise itself on its toes and peep up. 'Oh dear!' Branches and
needles stood on end in wonderment. It worked its way forward, came
up, and was gone. 'What is it all the others see, and not I?' said the
birch, and lifting well its skirts, it tripped after. It stretched its
whole head up at once. 'Oh!--oh!--is not here a great forest of fir and
heather, of juniper and birch, standing upon the table-land waiting for
us?' said the birch; and its leaves quivered in the sunshine so that
the dew trembled. They meet the work done on the other side. The trees
of the mountains find the forest of the table-land. 'Aye, this is what
it is to reach the goal!' said the juniper."[5]
[1] Björn signifies bear; Björnstjerne, the constellation The Great
Bear.
[2] See Arne, pp. 167-169 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston) and The
Norway Music Album, pp. 173-176 (Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston).
[3] Since this was written it has been placed on the stage by
Björnson's own son Björn Björnson, now manager of the Christiania
Theatre.--TR.
[4] See Synnöve Solbakken, p. 16 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston), and
Norway Music Album, pp. 131, 132 (Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston).
[5] See Arne, pp. 12, 13 (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston). Since this
essay was written, Björnson has published three dramas, "En Hanske" (A
Gauntlet), 1883; "Over Ævne" (Beyond his Power), 1883; and "Geografi
og Kjærlighed" (Geography and Love), 1885; and one novel "Det flager i
Byen og paa Havnen" (Flags in City and Harhor), 1884, besides several
poems and an enormous number of contributions to the press on politics,
religion, and every important topic of the day.--TR.
[Illustration: HENRIK IBSEN.]