Bjornson 363 



Bjoi'iistierne Bjornson is a most voluminous writer, and 

 has written in almost every department of light litera- 

 ture — lyrics, dramas, novels, comedies — besides i^olitical 

 pamphlets and addresses. He is a man of super- 

 abundant energy and self-confidence. He is the opti- 

 mistic spirit of Norse literature, as Ibsen is the pessi- 

 mistic. Intellectually, these two may be compared and 

 contrasted as the Schiller and the Goethe of Norway. 

 Each one is, of course, inferior to his prototype. But 

 each of them is under a deep debt of gratitude to 

 German literature ; and this they have repaid by 

 gaining as high appreciation almost in Germany as in 

 their own country. But it is Bjornson who, in his 

 plays, has gained most from Schiller, and Ibsen who 

 lias modelled some of his finest work upon the poetry 

 of Goethe. 



In another way Bjornson may be called the Muscular 

 Christian of Norway. His writings remind one some- 

 times of the utterances of the Muscular Christian school 

 in England, especially of those of Charles Kingsley. 

 He has something of the robust self-confidence and 

 versatility of the English writer. But as a name in 

 literature, the Norseman stands much the higher. 



Bjornson was the son of a Norse pastor, and was 

 born (in 1832) in the wild and barren Dovrefjeld. But 

 a great part of his childhood was passed in the Eoms- 

 dal. And the traveller who has read Bjornson's beauti- 

 ful descriptions of Norse scenery should especially bear 

 them in mind when he goes up this lovely valley. In 

 this country and in America Bjornson will always be 

 known as essentially the novelist of Norwegian country 

 life. Probably it is as this that he will go down to 



