246 
TH E AMERICAK-SCANDINAVIAN REVIEW 
A Tribute to Brandes 
An Ode written by Mr. Albert Van Sand, 
secretary of the New York Chapter of As- 
sociates, was read on the occasion of Brandes s 
birthday by Miss Margaret Wycherly, who is 
now playing in Shaw’s Back to Methuselah. 
The Ode, which was read with great effect, 
is as follows: 
ODE TO GEORG BRANDES 
Age— w ith your mantle of youth worn lightly 
over your shoulders; 
Spirit—with powers unimpaired and with 
searching glances undimmed; 
Great Son of Denmark — hear!—we salute 
you! 
Flame from the North, your burning spirit 
rose 
In bold defiance of your time and day — 
The staid traditions that once held their 
sway 
With dreary formulas for verse and prose. 
Broud mind, alone you stood and saw the 
lights, 
And dared to champion the rising youth 
Of freer spirit and of greater truth, 
Who, searching, strived to reach the bolder 
heights. 
Tears have gone by, and all the howling mob 
That once, in dull derision, smeared your 
name, 
Have lived to see the splendor of your fame. 
And know the Son of Zeus no man can rob. 
For fifty years the world of letters bowed 
To your decrees, and still you hold the 
reins, 
And still your keen and brilliant mind 
sustains 
The budding genius among the crowd. 
Blow, wind, to the northern seas, 
Finger in the beech trees there, 
Whisper with your coolest breeze, 
So the hearts of Denmark hear: 
,( He is the blood of your own blood, 
And his birth you proudly claim; 
But the world has nursed his powers, 
And is parent to his fame/ 3 
Spirit of Youth! Fountain of wisdom and 
light, 
Thinker and. Seer, Teacher of beauty and 
right! 
Ford of the silent, vast 
Empire of your thought, 
Out of the great minds you 
Have us a treasure wrought. 
Ancient and modern lore, 
Half-hidden on the shelf, 
Clearly to see you taught, 
Genius-born yourself. 
Spirit of Youth, Fountain of wisdom and light. 
Thinker and Seer, Teacher of beauty and 
right, 
Ages shall witness not vainly you strove — 
Hear our plaudit and take our love. 
Albert Van Sand. 
Brandes as a Critic 
Professor Robert Herndon Fife, chairman 
of the Department of Germanic Languages 
at Columbia University, in his address before 
the New York Chapter of Associates of the 
Foundation, on the celebration of the 
eightieth birthday of Georg Brandes, quoted 
the words of Brandes about himself: I am 
not a philosopher, for I am too small. I am 
not a critic, for I am too big. Professor 
Fife said that to characterize Brandes ac¬ 
curately we should have to invent a new word. 
“He has drawn together in himself all the 
streams of culture of the later nineteenth and 
earlier twentieth century as expressed in 
European letters and esthetics. He has not 
consciously created an esthetic or philosophic 
system. He has, however, fused together 
the million fragments of European culture 
and thrown over them the light of his own 
bright realism. What he has wrought and 
represents is not a brilliant mosaic of ideas, 
but a genuinely unique picture of the best in 
European culture during two and a half 
generations.” Professor Fife went on . to 
speak of what Brandes had done in flinging 
open the doors of Denmark for modern Euro 
pean thought. “This was a great patriotic 
service. But there was another just as great, 
and here it is that the whole North owes a 
debt to Brandes’s powerful pen. He first 
opened the way for Scandinavian authors to 
an understanding audience in Germany, 
France, and England. Through his articles 
and essays the reading public of the world 
outside got their first knowledge of Danish 
writers like Jacobsen. He leveled the path 
on which Ibsen walked into world-wide popu¬ 
larity. He discovered and proclaimed to the 
world the genius of Strindberg, Sweden s 
greatest master of the psychological drama. 
Before his fiftieth birthday Brandes was the 
recognized ambassador of Northern letters at 
the European court of culture.” 
