(1848 and 1860), "Stories of Ensign Stål," national in scope, dealing with the unsuccessful struggle of the Finnish people with the Russians in 1808-1809. Each of these poems is written in a different meter. They are intensely patriotic and gloriously poetical. Runeberg wrote with a classic simplicity. He represents an advance over the other writers of his time in the direction of realism and unconventionality.1 Sweden produced a considerable body of poetry during the last quarter of the century. Viktor Rydberg (1828-1895), international in scope and Classical in style, has left a great many imaginative and finished lyrics. Count Carl Snoilsky (1841-1903), whose life was spent mainly abroad, wrote descriptive poems, ballads, and a number of the choicest and most poetical of lyrics. Among the gifted poets that represent the wave of Realism which swept over Sweden at the close of the century, three are especially esteemed: Gutaf Fröding, poet of nature and of peasant life; Oscar Levertin, an introspective poet; and Verner von Heidenstam, extraordinarily popular, winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1916, writer of poems at first personal and then national and highly inspirational in their appeal. During the last century in Sweden poetry has transcended prose and dramatic literature. There have been many writers, however, slow degrees. In 1835 some twelve thousand lines were published; in 1849 there appeared an edition of about twenty-three thousand lines, arranged in fifty runos, or cantos. [This is the famous "Kalevala," which contains the old mythological traditions of the Finnish people in the form of epic songs, It was composed by a number of bards at various periods, and it possesses a characteristic Finnish quaintness and melancholy. Unlike other national epics it is largely domestic and lyrical rather than heroic and warlike. It opens with a poetical description of the origin of the world. There is other mythological material, but the poem has to do chiefly with the adventures of the three sons of Kalewa, and it involves a curiously interesting love story. "Kalevala" is written in an eight-syllable poetic form familiar to us in "Hiawatha." Longfellow utilized this verse in imitation of the verse of the old Finnish epic. The Kirby translation of "Kalevala" (two volumes) is obtainable in the Everyman's Series. 1 Edmund Gosse has an attractive essay on Runeberg in his "Northern Studies." See also the translations in the valuable volume "Anthology of Swedish Songs," by Charles Wharton Stork, in the Scandinavian Classics series. Улей life distorted of pessimin in these other fields. Ludvig Almqvist (1793-1866), remembered chiefly for his romances, was a versatile author and possessed an interesting personality. Fredrika Bremer (1801-1865), novelist and short-story writer, has achieved considerable fame throughout Europe. Johan August Strindberg (1849-1912) calls for more extended reference, as he is the chief representative of the modern Realistic school in Sweden and is considered by some to be the leading Swedish author. Strindberg was educated at the University of Upsala and later held positions as teacher, actor, journalist, and librarian. His play "Master Olof" (1878) and his realistic novel, or book of sketches, "The Red Room" (1879), were revolutionary in their influence. Two collections of stories,-"Married” (1884 and 1886),—his autobiographical novel, and his numerous plays have been widely read. LA compressed bitterness, a fanatical hatred of woman, a marked gloom and pessimism, and certain vulgar traits of mind and life naturally repel the reader of Strindberg. Yet he possessed genius of a sort, united with great descriptive power, brilliancy, and originality.] "Awan-white There have been a number of interesting women writers in Sweden. In the recent period Ellen Key1 has proved an influential lecturer, educator, and author. The popularity of Selma Lagerlöf Lagerlöf (born 1858) has also passed beyond the limits of her own land. She fallowed has a strong imaginative and romantic turn of mind, and the vaa period riety of her work is especially noticeable. In 1907, at Upsala, she was given a laurel wreath and acclaimed as the most popular of living Swedish writers. Two years earlier she had secured the Nobel prize for literature. "Gösta Berling," "The Wonderful Story of Nils," "Jerusalem," "From a Swedish Homestead," "The Miracles of the Antichrist," and "The Emperor of Portugallia" are popular مه her fanciful Stories -received very enthuseas in Europe and America alike. The last-named book presents a re ically. Sigrid markable study: its close is tragic and pathetic, but the earlier Maerbacker-best 1 Pronounced Kay. Reference List BAIN. Scandinavia. Cambridge University Press. BURCHARDT. Norwegian Life and Literature (mainly nineteenth century). Oxford University Press. GAYLEY. Classic Myths (for the Norse mythology). Ginn and Company. CRAIGIE. The Icelandic Sagas. Cambridge University Press. GOSSE. Northern Studies. Simmons. BOYESEN. Essays on Scandinavian Literature. Charles Scribner's Sons. CAMPBELL. The Comedies of Holberg. Harvard University Press. GOSSE. Life of Ibsen. Charles Scribner's Sons. MOSES. Henrik Ibsen. Mitchell Kennerley. BRANDES. Ibsen; Björnson. The Macmillan Company. SHAW. The Quintessence of Ibsenism. Brentano's. Translations: Volsunga Saga (Magnusson and Morris). Story of Burnt Njal, the Heimskringla, and the Kalevala (the epic of the Finnish people) are in Everyman's Library. E. P. Dutton & Company. Laxdæla Saga (Temple Classics). E. P. Dutton & Company. About fifteen important volumes of translations from Scandinavian writers available in series published by American-Scandinavian Foundation, New York. Send for list. Björnson. The Macmillan Company. Ibsen. Charles Scribner's Sons. Strindberg. Various publishers. Selma Lagerlöf. Doubleday, Page & Company. Saxo Grammaticus (Elton and Powell). David Nutt, London. Suggested Topics The origin and general character of the sagas. Striking scenes from the "Burnt Njal." The "Volsunga Saga" and the "Nibelungenlied" compared. The comedies of Holberg. Tegnér and his poems. A study of one of Björnson's peasant tales. Brand and Peer Gynt-character studies and comparisons. The modern problem play as developed by Ibsen. A study of "A Doll's House." The plays of Strindberg. Recent Norwegian fiction. Selma Lagerlöf and her work. CHAPTER XII ENGLISH LITERATURE THE ENGLISH PEOPLE At the dawn of authentic history the island of Great Britain was occupied by an Aryan people known as the Celts, the two main branches being the Britons in the south and east and the Gaels in the north and west. The various Roman invasions, together with the conquest and occupation of the land, extending from the coming of Julius Cæsar in 55 B. C. to the final withdrawal of the Romans about A.D. 410, had no effect of importance upon the Celtic people, the land, or the language. The English people dwelt originally along the North Sea from the mouth of the Elbe to Jutland. They were a Teutonic people, consisting of three tribes, the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons, from the first of which we have the words "England" and "English." These people, overrunning and conquering the present England in the latter half of the fifth century, became and have since remained the dominant element in the English race. There was of course some admixture of Celtic blood, but the Celts were almost entirely exterminated or driven into Ireland, Wales, and the north of Scotland. The Danish occupation (1013-1042) was too brief to make any decided contribution. The Norman Conquest (1066) resulted in the Normans' becoming English rather than the reverse. And in its subsequent history of nearly nine centuries, although subjected to foreign influences of great and lasting importance in many ways, the English stock has remained fundamentally the Anglo-Saxon with which it started. That stock had at the beginning and has always retained certain characteristic traits. The most noticeable, perhaps, is the seafaring tendency. The English in their German home were "sea-wolves living on the pillage of the world," as an old chronicler puts it. They have been sea-rovers and far wanderers ever since-and pirates as well, until piracy gave place to the establishment of colonies, protectorates, and spheres of influence. And so through the spirit of daring and hardihood and love of the sea the mighty British Empire has arisen. Another element in the English character has been its strong emphasis upon domestic life. The bond of kinship and the consistently high place of woman in the household have been especially prominent in English life and literature. In the early heathen poem of "Beowulf" Queen Wealhtheow occupies a chair beside her husband Hrothgar in the great hall. Another trait has been the insistence upon the idea of selfgovernment in the political field, a survival of the primitive AngloSaxon assembly-a tendency to curb and restrain the ruler in the interest of the people. There is many a dark and humiliating page in English history, but in the long run that history shows a steady progress in the direction of government by the people. Such landmarks as Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights, the struggle between king and Parliament, and in our own times between the Lords and the Commons, between the mother country and its dependencies, between capital and labor, bear witness to the insistence of the English people upon this great political principle. One other quality of importance is the generally conservative temper of the English people. They have a very deep and strong regard for established conventions, institutions, and usages. "Every Englishman loves a lord," but, we are bound to add, only as long as he behaves himself. The Englishman's deep-seated conservatism goes hand in hand with a constant though very gradual modification of the existing order to form a better one. Let there be, says Tennyson, "Some reverence for the laws ourselves have made, And there have been some very fundamental changes, which, however, have been nearly always accomplished little by little, by way of expediency and opportunism-sometimes even by sheer accident-rather than by revolution. |