A
sort of parallel might be drawn for American readers by taking
two such men as Whitman and Longfellow, opposing them to one
another in the most outspoken fashion, assuming for both a
sharply polemic manner, and ranging among their respective
followers all the other writers of their time. Then imagine the
issue between them to be drawn not only in the field of letters,
but also in the pulpit, the theatre, and the political arena, and
some slight notion may be obtained of the condition of affairs
which preceded the advent of Bjornson and the true birth of
Norwegian literature with "Synnove Solbakken."
The work which was thus destined to mark the opening of a new
era in Norwegian letters was written in the twenty-fifth year of
its author's life. The son of a country pastor, Bjornstjerne
Bjornson was born at Kvikne, December 8, 1832. At the age of
six, his father was transferred to a new parish in the Romsdal,
one of the most picturesque regions in Norway. The impression
made upon his sensitive nature by these surroundings was deep
and enduring. Looking back upon his boyhood he speaks with strong
emotion of the evenings when "I stood and watched the sunlight
play upon mountain and fiord, until I wept, as if I had done
something wrong, and when, borne down upon my ski into one valley
or another I could stand as if spellbound by a beauty, by a longing
that I could not explain, but that was so great that along with
the highest joy I had, also, the deepest sense of imprisonment
and sorrow.
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