2H NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 



lent studies of various phases of medieval life has been completed by Professor Valdemar 

 Vedel (b. 1865); and Axel Olrik (b. 1864) has finished his work on the heroic age of 

 Denmark, the northern lore and legend of the Eddas, Beowulf, etc. 



Among Danish historians Professor Troels Frederik Lund (b. 1840) brought out in 

 1910-12 four volumes of historical essays, some of them new, dealing with the renascence 

 period of Denmark and other European countries, a companion to his standard work 

 on the history of Denmark and Norway during the sixteenth century. Edvard Holm 

 (b. 1833) has once more returned to the field of historical study in his two volumes on 

 the foreign history of Denmark and Norway 1800-14 (19 12), based on the latest researches 

 of the Napoleonic period. The question of Sleswick has found an impartial historian 

 in M. Mackeprang, Nordslesiiig 1864-1909 (1910), and H. Rosendal has also published 

 two volumes on the history of this Duchy in ancient and modern times. 



(W. R. PRIOR.) 

 NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 1 



The first decade of the twentieth century will forever be memorable in Norwegian 

 literature for the passing away of the four great classics of the preceding epoch: Ibsen, 

 Bjornson, Lie and Kielland. Since their death Knut Hamsun (b. 1859), Hans Kinck 

 (b. 1865) and Gunnar Heiberg (b. 1857), are the leading literary figures, the two former 

 chiefly as novelists, the latter as a dramatist. Of the generation of authors who entered 

 literature during the nineties and a little earlier few others can be said to have made 

 permanent reputations. After the constitutional crisis of 1905 economic and social 

 problems came to the forefront in Norwegian public life, and the new ideas became 

 prominent in the field of fiction. Johan Falkberget (b. 1879), originally a miner, intro- 

 duced the modern industrial worker into Norwegian literature, painting with great talent, 

 especially in Black Mountains (1907) and Blasting of Rocks (1908), the life of the miners 

 and of the lumberers, with a striking background of natural scenery. Kristofer Uppdal 

 (b. 1878), writing in the landsmaal (the composite dialect of the peasants), describes in 

 The Dance through the Mists (1911) the hard life of the navvies, which he knows from 

 personal experience, while Oskar Braaten (b. 1881) in The Factory and its Surroundings 

 (1910), also in the landsmaal, sketches the conditions of the industrial workers in a factory 

 district in the neighbourhood of Christiania. Broader in their conceptions of life and 

 its phenomena than these authors are Eilert Bjerke (b. 1887), whose Free Birds is one 

 of the most powerful works in recent Norwegian literature, and Rolf Hjort Schoyen (b. 

 1887), who in his Masquerade (1910) indulges in whims and striking thoughts in an 

 exuberant style; and their older contemporary Sigmun Rein (b. 1873), in his fine novel 

 Wanderings (1910), has shown marked literary power. The chief contemporary lyric 

 poets are Herman Wildenvey (b. 1886), who especially in his Poems (1908) and his 

 Round-Abouls (1910) displays a troubadour talent, highly appreciated, and Olaf Bull 

 (b. 1882), whose first volume of Poems (1911) is remarkable for beauty and maturity. 



One of the most characteristic features in Norwegian literature within the last ten 

 years is the growing tendency in the direction of developing a particular county or dis- 

 trict literature, as it were, nearly each county getting an author of its own familiar with 

 its life and manners, its way of thinking, and its special dialect, through which the 

 whole composition takes a peculiar colour. The most important of these authors are 

 Jacob Bull (b. 1853), of Osterdalen, with his Eline Vangen (1907), Andreas Haukland 

 (b. 1873), of North Norway, with his Settlers (1907), and Ove Arthur Ansteinsson (b. 

 1884), of the midland counties round Lake Mjosen, with his Ener Tuve (1910). Among 

 the landsmaal representatives of the county literature Jens Tvedt ranks highest with his 

 sketches from West Norway country life. His most characteristic works are Madli 

 under the Apple-tree (1900) and its continuation God's Reward (1906). The chief woo/- 

 lyrist is Anders Hovden (b. 1860). Among the novelists mention may be made of 

 B. Lie (b. 1868), whose best work is Against Superior Odds (1907). 



The psychology of Woman has become an element of importance in recent Norwegian 

 literature, especially as analysed by female authors. Ragnhild Jolsen (1875-1908) in her 



1 See E. B. xix, 817, 818. 



