Fritofs Saga | Page 4

appeared under the title "Voices of Peace" (Fridsr?ster). In "The Awakened Eagle" (Den vaknade ?rnen), 1815, he celebrates the return of Napoleon from Elba, The Union of Norway and Sweden stirs Tegnér to write a poem "Nore", a high-minded protest against politics of aggression and a plea for justice and a spirit of fraternity.
In "The New Year 1816" (Ny?ret 1816) he scores the Holy Alliance in bitter and sarcastic terms. The liberal ideas of Tegnér are further elucidated in a famous address, delivered in 1817 at the celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. In this event the poet saw the unfolding of the great forces that led to the spiritual and intellectual emancipation of man, and ushered in a new era of freedom and progress. The reactionaries in the realm of literature become the object of his attack in "Epilogue at the Master's Presentation" (Epilog vid magisterpromotionen). Other poems of this period, as "The Children of the Lord's Supper" (Nattvardsbarnen), admirably translated by Longfellow, "Axel", the tragic tale of one of the warriors of Charles XII., and his fair Russian bride, "Karl XII", which breathes the defiant spirit not only of the hero king but of the nation, "Address to the Sun" (S?ng till solen), an eloquent eulogy to the marvelous beauty of the King of Day, merely served to establish Tegnér more firmly in the affection of the people. But his fame was to be placed on a still firmer foundation when the greatest creation of his fertile mind, Fritiofs Saga, appeared.
II.
The genesis of Fritiofs Saga is to be found partly in the renascence of a strong national sentiment in Sweden after the disastrous wars and loss of Finland, early in the nineteenth century, partly in Tegnér's personality and in his profound knowledge and warm admiration of the Old Norse sagas. We have seen how already as a boy he had read the sagas with keen zest and even tried his hand at a heroic poem in stately Alexandrine verse.
To the thoughtful minds of that day it seemed clear that the cause of Sweden's misfortunes was to be found in her loss of a strong manhood, due to a senseless readiness in adopting enervating foreign customs and to a fatal relaxation in morals. In 1811 a handful of enthusiastic students, mostly from Tegnér's native province of V?rmland, formed the Gothic Union (G?tiska f?rbundet) for the purpose of working with united efforts for the regeneration of the nation. This, they believed, could best be achieved by reviving the memories of the old Goths, merely another name for the people of the Saga period, which in turn would help to bring back the vigorous integrity and dauntless courage of the past. The ancient sagas must therefore be popularized.
Tegnér, who already in his "Svea" had bewailed the loss of national power and urged his people to become independent and strong again, joined the Gothic Union, at the same time expressing his disapproval of a too pronounced and narrow-minded imitation of old Gothic life and thought. Erik Gustaf Geijer, the great historian and poet, also a native of V?rmland and in power of mind and loftiness of ideals almost the peer of Tegnér, published in Iduna, the organ of the Gothic Union, a few poems that faithfully reproduce the old Northern spirit and in strength and simplicity stand almost unsurpassed. An extremist in the camp was Per Henrik Ling, an ardent patriot, who, inspired by Danish and German Romanticism, would rehabilitate the nation by setting before it in a series of epics the strong virtues of the past, albeit that these often appeared in uncouth and brutal forms. For the physical improvement of his countrymen Ling worked out a scientific system of exercise, and though his epics were failures, largely because they set up coarse models for an age that aesthetically had risen superior to them, his system of physical training entitles him to an honored place among the great men of Scandinavia.
Tegner had been greatly grieved at Ling's literary mistakes. It seemed to him deplorable that a worthy cause should be doomed to ignominious failure just because unskilled hands had undertaken to do the work. This feeling prompted him to undertake the writing of a great epic based on the old sagas, but excluding their crudities. But it would be a mistake to think that this was the only force that impelled him to write. Tegnér has now reached the heyday of his wonderful poetic powers and he must give expression to the great ideas that stir his soul. And so he proceeds to paint a picture of Fritiof the Bold and his times. The great Danish poet Oehlenschl?ger had already published "Helge", an Old Norse cycle of poems which Tegnér warmly admired. This poem revealed to him