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Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson (1832-1910)

During his lifetime, Bjørnson was designated “Norway’s beating heart” and “Norway’s uncrowned king”. Not only did he give the country the nucleus of its modern literature, in terms of stories, dramas, novels, poems and songs, but he also profoundly influenced its political direction, challenged its private and public morals, and initiated educational change. During his lifetime, he was a prolific playwright, novelist, poet and journalist, the director of three theatres, the editor of three newspapers, and the chosen orator of his nation for several public occasions. Childhood The eldest of four siblings, Bjørnson spent his early years in the remote village of Kvikne. From the age of six, he lived in Nesset, outside Molde in Romsdal, moving house in accordance with his father’s appointments as a Lutheran minister. Bjørnson’s upbringing among the “bonde” (often translated as “peasant”, but meaning more precisely an independent farmer), partic

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35804 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. Arne. 1858.

This peasant story evinces a common theme in Bjørnson’s work: the difficult passage from childhood to adulthood. It is complicated, however, by the protagonist’s overwhelming sense of guilt and fear, derived from the domestic violence in his home. The opening chapter of Arne establishes its folkloric basis: entitled “How the Cliff was Clad”, it enacts the afforestation of the mountain, using the personified interacting figures of the Cliff, the Juniper, the Oak, the Stream, the Fir, the Birch, and the Heather. Although the Cliff resists colonisation, the process is over hundreds of years, inevitable. On reaching the summit, the trees realise that the forest has also established itself on the plain, showing that their efforts have not been unique; they are simply merging with the rest of nature. This chapter suggests that, for all the stresses and strains of individual effort, everything ultimately merges into the communal: one is simply a tiny element in a gre

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35838 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. Mary. 1906.

Like The Heritage of the Kurts , this novel is firmly rooted in a sense of place, set in a tiny coastal settlement, whose name reflects the influence of Danish rule over Norway: “The original name of the place was Krokskogen. In the documents of the Danish government officials this was transformed into Krogskoven” (1). It is a place that seems to be especially favoured by nature: “the west wind cannot find its way in here . . . islands detail and chasten it before they allow it to pass” (2). Merchants of Dutch-Spanish origin married into the Norwegian peasant stock, producing a “vigorous . . . race” by the name of Krog (5). After the passing of several generations, two brothers pursue their separate fortunes: Hans Krog emigrates to the shores of Lake Michigan to join his uncle, while the modest and shy Anders builds up a grocery business at home. When the latter is in his forties, his young cousin, Marit, visits from America. The Krogskoven house is familiar to M

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=36245 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. Laboremus. 1901.

This is one of Bjørnson’s urban social dramas, focusing on issues of truth and fidelity in human relationships. Act 1 The play is set in a first-class German hotel. The wealthy Mr Wisby is waiting for his wife on the morning after their wedding. Lydia, a beautiful and talented pianist, enters, and tenderly they discuss the spontaneity of their decision to marry. Lydia observes: “You, dearest, didn’t go around asking other people about me. You came straight from your big place to ask me: ‘Will you be my wife?’ That’s the way it should be” (230). They resolve to “let nothing old ever come between [them]” (231) and to “keep all outsiders at a distance” (232). However, their affectionate exchanges grow tense when Wisby admits that during the night, he was troubled by an apparition of his first wife, now dead. Lydia declares that this ghost will always haunt them: “I shall always see her behind you. Don’t come to me anymore – for you are not alo

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35809 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. Arnljot Gelline. 1870.

Like the protagonist of the play Sigurd Slembe (1862), the hero of this epic poem, Arnljot Gelline, is based on saga-literature, mainly the stories of Olaf the Holy, and the missionary king Olav Trygvason in the Heimskringla of the Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson. Arnljot Gelline was a minor historical figure in the latter saga, but Bjørnson here affords him a central role. The murder of his father when he was only eight provides the motive for Gelline’s violent revenge; he converts to Christianity, and dies in support of King Olaf at The Battle of Sticklestad (which took place on August 31, 1030). The poem occupied Bjørnson, on and off, for over ten years. He dedicated the poem to the Folk-High-Schools of the North, as a tribute to Bishop Grundtvig. It was written in the literary language of Denmark, as was then the norm for many Norwegian writers. Partially alliterative, partially colloquial, each of the fifteen Songs has its own characteristic verse-form;

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35811 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. The Editor [Redaktøren]. 1874.

During Bjørnson’s stay in Rome, from 1873 to 1875, he wrote En Fallit [ The Bankrupt ] and Redaktøren [ The Editor ] , both of which were first performed in Stockholm in 1875, and published in that same year. They are early examples of contemporary and problem drama in Scandinavia. The Editor is based on Bjørnson’s own experiences as a politician. It raises the issue of the ethical responsibility in politics, and explores the effects of journalistic persecution and partisan fanaticism. Act 1 The Prosperous distiller Evje lives with his wife and only daughter, Gertrud, in circumstances of “snug comfort” (3). Gertrude is engaged to a politician, Harald Reyn: he is ambitious, hoping to become a cabinet minister, but, on the eve of the election, is attracting negative press. Mr and Mrs Evje discuss these critical reports with the doctor: “our house [is] invaded by these abominations” (5). When Harald arrives, they

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35812 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. The King [Kongen]. 1877.

This play explores the issues of constitutional monarchy from the perspective of a king who is sympathetic to socialist notions, but who is surrounded by courtiers and officials that have vested interests in resisting republicanism. At first the king is something of a Prince Hal: he indulges in a life of pleasure seeking, hoping that he would be able to dull his sense of the sharp contrast between his position and his ideals. His conscience, however, forces him to consider positive action, planning to transform the monarchy into something more consonant with contemporary demands. Although in spirit and ambition he is a Henry V, he is thwarted by prejudice, ignorance and tragedy. The play is a curious mixture of genres: it contains elements of the masque, of melodrama, of realism, of romance, of comedy and of tragedy. The translator-editor of the translated edition omitted Bjørnson’s original verse interludes, between each act: cryptic dialogues between genii and unseen cho

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35891 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. Sigurd Slembe. 1862.

This trilogy of plays represents the violent period in twelfth century Norway when royal succession laws recognised the claims of illegitimate sons, resulting in many political factions and, ultimately, civil war. This is a play about allegiance and betrayal, about ambition and indifference. Among the chieftains, politicians and soldiers, plotting and counter-plotting is common; this sense of confusion and uncertainty is reinforced by Bjornson’s use of vigorous, fast-paced scenes. The eponymous protagonist is based on Sigurd, son of Thora Saxesdatter, husband of Audhild Torleiv. In the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturlsson (1178/9-1241), Sigurd is described as having been set to book-learning in his childhood and he became a cleric and was ordained deacon. But when he became full-grown in age and in strength, then he was the most valiant of men, and strong, a big man, and in all accomplishments he was superior to all those of his own age and almost

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35915 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. Dust [Stóv]. 1877.

This haunting tale plays on binaries of ethereality and substance, of appearance and reality. It also addresses two of Bjørnson’s common themes of religion and education. The story is related by a narrator whose two journeys to Skogstad, to the large gard belonging to the Atlung family, frame the events. The journey to Skogstad through the winter forest is an otherworldly experience, “a snow-romance” (232). The snow-engulfed trees create both a solemnity “of well-laden giants” (229) and a comedy of “clumsy dwarfs” (230). The view is at once infinite, setting the white landscape against the black fjord, and at once small-scale, noting for example, “the most delicate twig, a distended, transparent white wing” (231). The metamorphic effect of the dusting of snow contextualises the disparity between appearance and reality to be found at the heart of the Atlung household. Bjørnson would use landscape in the same way in a later short story, En Dag (

Works

/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38736 Bjørnson, Bjørnstjerne Martinus. Dust [Magnhild]. 1877.

This novel explores the issue of the unequal marriage, a theme also taken up in plays such as The Newly Married Couple (1865), The Gauntlet (1883) and Laboremus (1901). Magnhild highlights the problem of poor and uneducated women being pressurized into marriages with older disabled men (see, for instance, In God’s Way ). At the age of eight or nine, Magnhild’s life was changed by a landslide which swept away her fourteen relatives and her home, the “gard”. Her remarkable survival gives rise to the notion that Magnhild “must be destined to something” (12), a leitmotif that runs through the novel. The local priest, “in order to set a good example” (18), takes Magnhild in. Although she is allowed to have lessons with the priest’s two children, she is generally overlooked: “as new clothes were never made for her she was naturally fell to wearing theirs” (21). Magnhild is advised to “remember that she was a poor g

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