SELMA LAGERLÖF--SWEDISH REALIST AND IDEALIST
The prize of 1909 has been awarded:
Lagerlöf, Selma, born 1858: “because of the noble idealism, the
wealth of fancy and the spiritual quality that characterize her
works.”[67]
“I declare it to be my express desire that in the awarding of the
prizes no consideration whatever be paid to the nationality of the
candidates, that is to say, that the most deserving be awarded the
prize, whether of Scandinavian origin or not.” These words from the
will of Alfred Nobel had been faithfully obeyed during the first
eight years of the awards in literature. Only once had the prize
been given to a Scandinavian, to Björnson, the Norwegian, in 1903.
When the announcement came that the winner for 1909 was the Swedish
writer, Selma Lagerlöf, the most severe critics of the Nobel Foundation
Committee in former years were either commendatory or silently
acquiescent. Here was an author who richly deserved the prize, for
she was already known throughout Europe and America for her unique
fiction, in which photographic realism was always blended with a
dominant note of idealism. The juvenile book which combined geography,
fancy, humor, and fascination for old and young, _The Wonderful
Adventures of Nils_, and other books had followed the strange tale
of folklore and character study, _The Story of Gösta Berling_; these
writings were outstanding evidences of her literary gifts. It was an
honor to womanhood everywhere that the Nobel prize was given to Selma
Lagerlöf, first of the countrymen of Nobel to be thus immortalized in
literature. In her years of teaching and her later messages from the
press, she had shown her sincere purpose “to benefit mankind.”
[Illustration:
_By courtesy of The American-Scandinavian Foundation_
SELMA LAGERLÖF]
It is interesting to note that the family name of this woman means
“laurel leaf,” a symbol of her fame. In _Mårbacka_, one of her later
books to be translated into English, the reader finds detached
photographs of the home and environment of this author’s girlhood. Mrs.
Velma Swanston Howard, who has been so successful as translator of Miss
Lagerlöf’s books, knows perfectly the languages of both Sweden and
England; she is a friend of the author, with kinship in her traditions
and spirit, and thus has sustained that indefinable but pervading
“atmosphere” which characterizes all of Miss Lagerlöf’s fiction. The
setting of _Mårbacka_ is alive with elements of Nature and humanity,
with folklore and “wonderful tales of old Varmland” which became the
basis for many of her later books. The spacious manor house, where
Selma Lagerlöf was born sixty-seven years ago, becomes familiar to
readers of this autobiography. The nursery chairs, with individual
names and portraits of Johan, Anna, and little Selma Ottiliana Louisa,
were treasured heirlooms; the beds that “parted company,” perhaps,
in the night and the old owl in the lumber-loft above the bedroom,
contributed infantile “thrills” and memories.
A gay-hearted, courageous, popular man was her father, Lieutenant
Lagerlöf, retired from the army but entertaining former associates in
his home and recounting, for his daughter’s education, tales of earlier
history of Sweden and his family. The germ-idea of Gösta Berling,
hero of her first romance, came after a reminiscence that her father
had told her one morning after breakfast, his memory of “the most
fascinating of men,” one who could sing, write poetry, dance so that
all feet moved in unison, and could bend everyone’s will to his own
mood--and yet one who lacked certain qualities of manly strength. The
mother of Selma Lagerlöf came from two generations of ministers; she
was quiet, practical, intuitive, a fine administrator of her large
household and frequent guests. Aunt Lovisa gave a touch of romance to
the family circle by a sad chapter in her past that is recounted in
“The Bridal Crown,” the tragic result (according to legend) of the
substitution of whortleberry for myrtle in the wreath for the bride’s
hair. The nurse, Back-Kaisa, large and stern yet devoted to the family,
was another interesting character at Mårbacka; from the old housekeeper
and the grandmother the children learned stories, sagas, and bits of
family histories.
When Selma Lagerlöf was three and a half years old, after bathing in
a fresh-water pond with her father, she developed a form of infantile
paralysis. Months of inactivity followed; some lasting results of
this disease have been handicaps of the author throughout her life.
With humor and realistic portrayal of a child’s point of view of this
period, she tells in _Mårbacka_, the chapter “Grand Company,” how
she increased in social importance in the family, having exclusive
attention of the grim nurse, and dainties to eat in place of the usual
food, much to the jealous disgust of her brother and sister. A sojourn
at Stromstead by the sea brought new vigor and recovery of motion to
the little girl; with amazement to herself and her family she walked to
investigate a brilliant, stuffed “bird of paradise.” The sprightly zest
in living, which characterizes the author’s personality, is reflected
in all her books. Animals as pets, poultry of the farmyard, and birds
and flowers are vital factors in her earlier and later tales.
Among important influences of her childhood was the singing of Bellman
Ballads, with their humor, pathos, and haunting music. One day when
Miss Lagerlöf had won a place among twenty-five chosen candidates at
Teachers’ College in Stockholm, and had been listening to a lecture
about Bellman and Runeberg and their ballads, she had her “flash of
inspiration.” She determined to tell stories about her own Varmland;
she would become narrator of her “Cavaliers” and would incorporate
into her tales the legends, folklore and real characters of the home
district. She had cherished ambitions to write verse and even plays,
from the days when, as a young girl, she visited her uncle in Stockholm
and went to the theatre with the old housekeeper, becoming impressed
by peasant plays and scenes from Nosselt’s _History_. She had lain
awake at night, composing rhymes and neglecting the sleep which would
have fitted her for the tasks of the next day in “composition and
arithmetic.”[68]
After graduation she taught at Landskrona, in the province of Skåne,
always hoping to find time to write, always meeting disappointments
because of the demands of the classroom, often telling orally some of
her tales to her pupils after school hours, always returning to her old
home, Mårbacka, in vacations and gaining new impetus for her literary
aspirations. Her first chapter of _The Story of Gösta Berling_ was
composed on a Christmas holiday evening when she, with members of her
family, was returning from a party at a distant neighbor’s house. A
blizzard was raging and she sat in the sleigh, covered with furs, while
the old horse, urged by the aged coachman, tried to plough through the
drifts, in defiance of the wild winds. In her mind was formulated that
chapter of the Christmas night at the smithy, which is an arresting
episode in the complete novel. She made first a metrical version;
then she tried it in dramatic form and, finally, wrote it as a short
story. Later she wrote other episodes--that of the flood at Ekeby and
another of the ball. In 1890, at the urgence of her sister, she sent
some of these episodic stories to a prize competition, offered by the
magazine, _Idun_, for the best novelette of one hundred pages. A few
weeks later the journal announced that some of the manuscripts were “so
confusedly written that they could not be considered for the prize”;
Miss Lagerlöf was sure that hers was among this rejected class. Then
came a telegram, signed by three classmates, with the words, “Hearty
Congratulations.”
The editor offered to publish the novel, in expanded form, if Miss
Lagerlöf could have it ready in a short time. Again, she was in despair
when a friend, Baroness Aldersparre, arranged financial matters so that
the teacher could be given a year’s leave of absence--and “the miracle
happened.” When she had completed this initial story, combining Swedish
legend, history of the days of the Cavaliers and the pensioners and
the old forges, with humor and delicate idealism, she was dissatisfied
because it seemed to her “wild and disjointed.” There are passages
where the sentences are detached, places where the links in her chain
of plot are weak. In structure she has gained skill, as is evident
by a comparison of her earlier fiction with such masterworks as the
first part of _Jerusalem_ and _The Emperor of Portugallia_. With this
improved technic, she has kept her spontaneity, her vital realism and
intuition, her spiritual insight. After the publication of one of her
novels, the _London Times_ said, with true emphasis upon her unusual
combination of qualities: “She is an idealist pure and simple in a
world given over to realism, yet such is the perfection of her style
and the witchery of her fancy that a generation of realists worship
her.” An optimism which defies apparent failures, akin to that of
Browning, brings about the redemption of her characters from Gösta
Berling, drunken poet-preacher and fascinating vagabond, and flighty
Marianne Sinclair to Lilliecrona, the restless violinist, and Glory
Golden Sunnycastle, heroine of _The Emperor of Portugallia_.
Mrs. Velma Swanston Howard said, in a recent interview with the writer
of this book, that Miss Lagerlöf, like her translator, considers this
story of Jan, who calls himself “The Emperor of Portugallia,” and his
daughter, Glory, as her best work in fiction. Thousands of readers will
echo the preference. To the incisive, ruthless realism in this tale she
has added sympathy that grips the heart, poetic setting and sagas, and
a message that is more impressive because it is dramatic rather than
sermonic. The threads of this story are seldom tangled; the pattern
stands out with distinctness and artistry.
_Invisible Links_, a collection of short stories, was published in
1894, with peasants, fisherfolk, children, and animals all “linked”
in interrelations of spirit; Miss Lagerlöf then received a yearly
stipend for her services to literature, through the friendly interest
of the Swedish Academy and King Oscar and his son, Prince Eugen. With
a friend she went to Italy and Sicily, gaining impressions that bore
harvest in _Miracles of Antichrist_, issued in 1897 and translated
into English two years later by Pauline Bancroft Flach, who had done
the same service for _The Story of Gösta Berling_ and _Invisible
Links_. Mingling traditions and poetry of old Sicily with reactions
to modern socialism and its effects upon established religion, Miss
Lagerlöf wrote with deep fervor and colorful imagination. The slight
plot is evolved about the ruse of the Englishwoman who coveted an image
of Christ as a child, in a church in Rome, and substituted an image,
seemingly the same but with the legend upon the crown, “My Kingdom
is only of this World.” By a miracle, a few weeks later, the false
image is cast down and the true Christchild stands in the doorway. The
Antichrist is taken away to Sicily where miracles of helpfulness are
recorded by its agnostic followers. Miss Lagerlöf seeks to preach,
through the words of the Pope to Father Gondo, the ideal of unity
between Christianity and antichristianity: “You could take the great
popular movement in your arms, while it is still lying like a child
in its swaddling clothes, and you could bear it to Jesus’ feet; and
Antichrist would see that he is nothing but an imitation of Christ, and
would acknowledge him his Lord and Master.”[69]
_From a Swedish Homestead_, which was published in 1899, contains the
strong, mystical novelette, “The Story of a Country House.” A student
at Upsala University loses his reason as a result of seeing his flock
of sheep frozen to death in a storm when, by his forethought, the
tragedy might have been averted. Known as “The Goat,” he wanders about
the countryside, selling toys and trinkets, until his redemption and
sanity are achieved through his love for a girl of noble character.
Among the other short tales in this same volume is “Santa Catarina
of Siena,” a reflection of the Italian trip, and “The Emperor’s
Money Chest,” which is allegorical yet photographic of Belgium in an
industrial crisis.
Two other books preceded the award of the Nobel prize--_Jerusalem_
and _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_, with its sequel. In 1899,
the Swedish government gave to Miss Lagerlöf a commission to go to
Palestine. She was to report, on her return, upon conditions which she
might discover there in the Swedish colony which had migrated from Nås,
a parish of Dalecarlia, a few years previously. Urged by promoters
of missionary enterprise, among them Mrs. Edward Gordon of Chicago,
scores of peasants and householders had sold their homesteads and left
their families to join this colony in the Holy Land. Rumors had come to
Sweden of direful conditions there--of disease and hunger, of depleted
morale and bickerings among colonists and missionaries. “Jerusalem
kills!” became a common phrase of the day. Miss Lagerlöf undertook
investigation and made a report on existent evils and exaggerated
rumors. She accomplished a far more important work for literature than
this report. She gathered material for one of her most emotional,
graphic books, _Jerusalem_. Against the background of facts, both in
Dalecarlia and Palestine, she wove a story of intense feeling, with
folklore, psychological insight, and characterization of a fine type.
The portrayals of the Ingmarsson family and the women, Brita, Karin,
and Gertrude, whose fates were interlinked with those of the later
generation of the ancestral family of Dalecarlia, are vivid.
Humor relieves the tragic intensity of this book, so well rendered
into English by Mrs. Howard who has, says Mr. Henry Goddard Leach in
the Introduction, been able “to reproduce the original in essence as
well as verisimilitude.” An example of the descriptive style of this
story of Swedish life under religious tension is found in the opening
sentences of the chapter, “The Departure of the Pilgrims” of Part
I.[70] “One beautiful morning in July, a long train of cars and wagons
set out from the Ingmar Farm. The Hellgumists had at last completed
their arrangements, and were now leaving for Jerusalem--the first stage
of the journey being the long drive to the railway station.
“The procession, in moving towards the village, had to pass a wretched
hovel which was called Mucklemire. The people who lived there were a
disreputable lot--the kind of scum of the earth which must have sprung
into being when our Lord’s eyes were turned, or when he had been too
busy elsewhere.
“There was a whole horde of dirty, ragged youngsters on the place, who
were in the habit of running loose all day, shrieking after passing
vehicles, and calling the occupants bad names; there was an old crone
who usually sat by the roadside, tipsy; and there were a husband and
wife who were always quarrelling and fighting, and who had never been
known to do any honest work. No one could say whether they begged more
than they stole, or stole more than they begged.
“When the Jerusalem-farers came alongside this wretched hovel, which
was about as tumbledown as a place can become when wind and storm
have, for many years, been allowed to work havoc, they saw the old
crone standing erect and sober at the roadside, on the same spot where
she usually sat in a drunken stupor ... and with her were four of the
children. All five were now washed and combed, and as decently dressed
as it was possible for them to be....
“All the Jerusalem-farers suddenly burst into tears, the grown-ups
crying softly, while the children broke into loud sobs and wails....
When they had all passed by, Beggar Lina also began to weep.
“‘Those people are going to Heaven to meet Jesus,’ she told the
children. ‘All those people are going to Heaven, but we are left
standing by the wayside.’”
Another literary outcome of the visit of Miss Lagerlöf to Palestine
was a renewed interest in legends about Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
Always deeply religious, with an unusual ability to blend worship with
tradition and never lose the distinctive flavor of each element, she
wrote the tales that were collected as _Christ Legends_, translated
by Mrs. Howard in 1908. Here are new, impressive versions of such old
myths as “The Wise Men’s Well,” “Saint Veronica’s Kerchief,” and “Robin
Redbreast.”
The Swedish school authorities wished for a good geography which should
be popular with the children and satisfy the teachers. The National
Teachers’ Association appealed to Miss Lagerlöf for such a book and the
results were _The Wonderful Adventures of Nils_ and _Further Adventures
of Nils_, appearing in 1906 and 1907. These books, so widely read in
schools and homes in every civilized country to-day, are worthy a place
on the shelves beside _Alice in Wonderland_ of the past and _Doctor
Doolittle_ of the present type of juveniles. The boy, Nils Holgersson,
and his “goosey-gander,” with companions on the earth and in the air,
appeal to the imagination of all ages, while the information about
Sweden’s outlines and landmarks is both accurate and entertaining.
Such had been the literary output of Miss Lagerlöf before she was
chosen for the Nobel winner of 1909. Already she had been given a gold
medal for her work by the Swedish Academy and the degree of LL.D. by
the University of Upsala. Five years after the award she was elected
to membership in the Swedish Academy, “the eighteen immortals”--the
first woman to be thus honored. When the prize was given to her, with
a grand fête at Stockholm, she was the guest of honor at a banquet at
the Grand Hotel, given by King Gustav V. Her acceptance was in the form
of a unique speech, a story, briefly told, of her summons to her father
to aid her in saying the right words, this father who, long dead, had
been her inspiration for her first work in literature and her spiritual
guide in many crises. Wistful beauty and delicate humor were blended in
the closing words:[71] “Father sits and ponders a while; then he wipes
away the tears of joy, shakes himself, and strikes his fist on the arm
of the chair. ‘I don’t care to sit here any longer and muse on things
which no one, either in heaven or on earth, can answer!’ he says.
‘If you have received the Nobel Prize, I shan’t trouble myself about
anything but to be happy.’
“Your Royal Highness--Ladies and Gentlemen--since I got no better
answer to all my queries, it only remains for me to ask you to join
me in a toast of gratitude, which I have the honour to propose to the
Swedish Academy.”
Miss Lagerlöf was fifty-one years old when this honor came to her; in
the years since then she has exemplified, in spoken and written words,
“the noble idealism, the wealth of imagination, the soulful quality
of her style.” Her speech, in 1911, when the International Suffrage
Congress was held in Stockholm, was widely read and translated. In
this, as in so many of her stories, she stressed the idea of home and
its influence throughout every avenue of betterment in the world. This
year marked, also, the publication of _Lilliecrona’s Home_, translated
in English three years later by Anna Barwell. The setting was Varmland
and the hero’s home, Lövdalla, closely resembles the home of the
author, Mårbacka. This is, perhaps, the most poetic and mystical of
all her stories. The violinist who found in “music and music alone his
home, his place of rest,” is a haunting character, sharing many traits
with Gösta Berling. His life-passage is turbulent, often dramatic,
sometimes melancholy, ending in a happy romance for him and Maia Lisa,
the pastor’s daughter. There are scenes of emotional vigor, like “The
Bride’s Dance” and “The Accusation.” These are comparable to the more
familiar chapters in _The Story of Gösta Berling_, like that where
the autocratic Mistress of Ekeby is driven forth by her pensioners
because they discover that she has vowed a soul each year to the devil
(in expiation for her secret sin) or the redemptive power of Countess
Elizabeth in reclaiming Gösta’s manhood. Beautiful descriptions of
apple orchards in bloom are found in the later book, interwoven with
romantic legends like the excitement for the pastor’s daughter when
young Lilliecrona comes forward in her dream and offers her water
“after the magic pancake,” a sure prophecy that he will be her husband.
Against the same background of her girlhood home is placed the later,
strong story of _The Emperor of Portugallia_. This is less episodic
and more unified than some of her other fiction. Jan, the dull,
plodding man with no zest in life until he holds in his arms his little
daughter, whom he calls Glory Goldie Sunnycastle, is a vital character;
we share his pride in the beauty and charm of Glory, his faith in her
even when rumors would smirch her moral character, not without basis,
as she goes out into the world to save the home for Jan and his wife,
Katrina, his final act of self-sacrifice when, with clouded mind but
spiritual vision, he would save her from the demons of “Pride and
Hardness, Lust and Vice.” This story has been well called in France “an
epic of fatherhood--a Swedish _Père Goriot_.”
In 1922 appeared in the United States _The Outcast_, the English
version of _Bannlyst_, as its title was in Swedish when it was
published in 1918. The World War entered as a motif in the latter part
of the story, sometimes with strained effects. As a work of artistic
fiction it seems inferior to _The Story of Gösta Berling_ or _The
Emperor of Portugallia_. It has virility however, and much intensity
of feeling. Although she lived in a neutral country Miss Lagerlöf was
deeply stirred by the war and the terrible sacrifices of life. She
resented all evidences of brutal humanity. The sacredness of human
life forms her keynote in _The Outcast_. Sven Elversson, who had lived
through a fearful experience upon an Arctic expedition and had been
accused of eating human flesh in an hour of imminent famine, returns
to his mother and his home to find himself denounced by the villagers
and even by the minister. To save his mother from further torture of
spirit, after he has tried in vain to overcome the prejudice of the
people by his charity and Christlike deeds, he goes away to the woods
of the Far North. Here he wanders, and is called “The Outcast,” until
he meets the beautiful wife of the bigoted minister who had preached
against Sven, the man who, in unfounded jealousy, had cast off his
wife. The love scenes in this book are elemental in their simplicity,
yet have poetic touches. Then comes the Battle of Jutland and the
frightful scenes when the bodies of the dead are washed upon the shores
of his home town. Sven returns and organizes a group of men to bury
the dead; in the pocket of one of the victims is found a letter which
exonerates Sven from the false charge of cannibalism. It is a daring,
grotesque tale in parts, with local color and superstition interwoven
with good character-drawing and a dominant message of faith.
An early folk story which has been recently translated by Arthur
G. Chater, is entitled _The Treasure_. It is slight in volume and
literary value compared with such major books as _Jerusalem_ and _The
Emperor of Portugallia_. It has features of the spectacular with
restrained dramatic power. It lends itself to scenario effects because
of the pictorial background and the brilliant contrasts in characters
and sentiments. In Sweden of the sixteenth century, in the days of
Frederick II of Denmark (who was also ruler of Sweden), occurred this
legendary tale. It mingles the sea, with its galleys and its wild
storms, with the parsonage and the hidden treasure chest which was
looted. All the family had been murdered by these mysterious robbers
except a foster child, Elsalill. The supernatural element is used with
fine effects; this girl is haunted by the ghost and messages from her
foster sister who was killed. Elsalill is in anguish of spirit because
she loves the bold, persuasive, and richly apparelled Sir Archer,
although she finds that he is one of the robber-murderers. How her body
becomes his shield from the sheriff, even to her death and his escape,
forms the romantic climax of this tale.
Miss Lagerlöf’s early ambition to become a dramatist has never wholly
died; she has written a few plays that have been staged with success
in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Among these has been a dramatization
of _The Girl from the Marshcroft_; this story has been shown as a film
in many places in America as well as abroad. The setting in rural
picturesqueness, with tragic and romantic notes mingled, affords
dramatic opportunities. Mrs. Howard says that _The Story of Gösta
Berling_ has been shown at the cinema in Sweden and elsewhere in
Europe. “Will Miss Lagerlöf ever come to the United States?” we ask her
friend and translator. The reply is a probable negative. She is deeply
interested in America and reads many books by our authors, especially
those of mystical or informing trend. She had an uncle who lived in
Seattle and, on the walls of her dining-room, are found landscapes
of Western America. She is not very strong, although never lacking
in energy of mind and purpose. The freedom and vivacity of American
women impress her as she receives many visitors, either at her summer
home at Mårbacka or in the winter at Falun, close to the scenes of the
first part of _Jerusalem_. She reads six languages with ease and is
conversant with the major interests of every country. She has a keen
humor and rare graciousness.
Miss Lagerlöf is intensely racial and national in her literary
reflections; she is international in her sympathies and insight into
problems of life. Love of home is one of the primal qualities of her
personality and writing. She has applied her creed of “keeping the
imagination young” by never losing her own delight in sagas, hero
tales, and “belief in fairies” that will enhearten and redeem humanity.
Edwin Björkman, in _Voices of Tomorrow_, has stressed her ability
and courage “to dream and feel and aspire.” Her literary work varies
in excellence; sometimes it is weak in structure and ineffective in
artistry; in other and major portions she has clothed the commonplace
incidents of life with original, new vitality and revealed their
meanings with imaginative beauty. Her characters and settings are
racial but her impulses and messages are universal, unconfined by land
or age.
FOOTNOTES:
[67] Inscription with the Nobel Prize Award in Literature, 1909.
[68] _Selma Lagerlöf; The Woman, Her Work, Her Message_ by Harry E.
Maule, Garden City, N. Y., 1917. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
[69] _Miracles of Antichrist_ by Selma Lagerlöf, translated by Pauline
Bancroft Flach, Garden City, N. Y., 1899. By permission of Doubleday,
Page & Co.
[70] _Jerusalem_ by Selma Lagerlöf, translated by Velma Swanston
Howard, Garden City, N. Y., 1916. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.
[71] _Selma Lagerlöf: The Woman, Her Work, Her Message_ by Harry E.
Maule, Garden City, N. Y., 1917. By permission of Doubleday, Page & Co.