NORWEGIAN LITERATURE. Norwegian
literature is commonly considered to have begun
with the separation of Norway from Denmark
and the adoption of the Norwegian Constitution
in 1814. The history of literature in Norway, however, reaches back a thousand years before this time to Bragi (c.800), the first skald who is historically known to have composed poetry in the Old Norse language. His principal poem is the Ragnarsdrapa, which owes its preservation, in common with much of the skaldic petry of old Norway, to the Icelander Snorri Sturluson, who incorporated it in his Snorra Edda.
There are a number of other poets in this and
the succeeding period in Norway. After Bragi, the next in importance is Thjodolf of Hvin (c.855-930), whose principal poem is the Haustlöng, also contained in the Snorra Edda. Besides this poetry by known authors, most of the anonymous poems of the Elder Edda, composed, it is thought, between 877 and 1025, are doubtless ultimately of Norwegian origin. To the Old Norse prose literature of the thirteenth century Norway also made important contributions. At the head of these works stands the Thidrekssaga, the story of Dietrich of Bern, written about 1250 by an unknown author, and extremely valuable as a storehouse of Germanic legend. The Karlamagnussaga, the story of Charlemagne, from this same century, and the narrative of Barlaam A and Josaphat, Barlaamssaga ok Josaphats, are also by Norwegian authors. There are in addition to these several old law codes of value as historical material, and the unique dialogue between father and son, the Konungsskuggsja, or Speculum regale, written in the reign of Sverre (1184-1202), and possibly by the King himself.
After the accession of Olaf, the son of Margaret, in 1380, Norwegian history for four centuries becomes Danish history. Under Danish rule Norway underwent complete national extinction and became but a province of Denmark. Even the Reformation failed to arouse her from this lethargy, and not until 1814, when Norway was ceded to Sweden by the Peace of Kiel, was there evidence of a national awakening. The literary history of this whole period in Norway coincides with the history of Danish literature, with which it is inseparably connected.
After the Eufemiarisur of about 1300, so called
from the German queen of Haakon Magnusson, who had these paraphrases of German originals—Iwein, Duke Frederick of Normandy, and Flore and Blancheflur—made in the Norwegian language, there is no poetry until the period of learning subsequent to the Reformation. The first names at this time are Peder Dass (1647-1708), and Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter (1635-1716). The former, a Norwegian clergyman, wrote secular and religious poems which have made him to this day the favorite poet of the common people of Norway. The names that follow are those of Norwegians, but, as has been indicated, their place is in Danish and not in Norwegian literature. This is true of Ludvig Holberg (1084-1754), the father of the Danish drama; of Kristian Biaumann Tullin (1728-1765), the poet of nature; of Johan Herman Wessel (1742-1785), the dramatist and poet, after Ewald, the second great name in the literature of the so-called ‘Age of Enlightenment.’
An important factor in the development of a
national Norwegian literature, as it was a matter
of the greatest significance for Danish literature
itself, was the formation of the Norske Selskab, or ‘Norwegian Society,’ in Copenhagen, in 1772. The intentions of the ‘Society’ were by no means to make propaganda for things Norwegian, as opposed to things Danish, but it is interesting to note that among its members are a number of poets who already exhibited a distinctly national feeling, which in choice of material and natural environment, and in inherent spirit, is not Danish, but Norwegian. The Norwegian poets of the period—Johan Nordal Brun (1745-1816), who wrote Zarina, the first Danish tragedy produced on the stage, and some of the most popular of the patriotic songs of Norway; Claus Fasting (1746-91), distinguished for his epigrams and criticism; Claus Frimann (1746-1829); Envold Falsen (1755-1808)—important as they were, have but little meaning at the present time. Edvard Storm (1749-94), who wrote ballads and songs in Norwegian peasant dialect, some of which are known throughout Norway to this day, was the only Norwegian writer of importance who held to the Danish side of this controversy, which so strikingly marks the last days of what may be called the Danish period in the literary history of Norway.