Headed "_Hemkomsten_" this poem forms the introduction to Part III of
_Hans Alienus_, which bears the same general title. In _Hans Alienus_,
the chief character, bearing that name, roams about Europe and the
Orient in the guise of a friar. There is no unity or sequence in point
of time, the pilgrim visiting the pope in the Vatican, Pontius Pilate in
Jerusalem, Sardanapalus in ancient Ninive, and so on, then returning to
modern Sweden to spend his last days. This oddly fantastical romance
serves as the vehicle for Heidenstam's idealistic quest of beauty and
his philosophy of life--a somewhat immature and immoderate Epicureanism.
The latter part of this story of mingled fact and fiction is symbolical
of the poet's return from foreign parts to his native soil. As events
have gone in Heidenstam's literary career, it foreshadowed his return
from extravagant Oriental dreams to purely Northern ideals.