Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Bjørnstjerne Martinus Bjørnson (8. desember, 1832 - 26. april, 1910) var forfatter, samfunnsdebattant og vinner av Nobelprisen i litteratur i 1903. Bjørnson er en av Norges "fire store" forfatter, sammen med Henrik Ibsen, Jonas Lie, og Alexander Kielland. Han skrev teksten til Norges nasjonalsang.

Bjørnson ble født på gården Bjørgen i den lille bygda Kvikne i Østerdalen. I 1837 ble Bjørnsons far, som hadde vært pastor i Kvikne, overført til Nesset prestedømme, i Romsdal; i dette romantiske området vokste Bjørnson opp. Etter skolegang i nabo byen Molde, ble han 17 år gammel sendt til Christiania for å studere på universitetet. Forfatterinstinktet hadde allerede våknet, Bjørnson hadde skrevet dikt siden han var 11 år. Han gikk ut fra universitetet i Christiania i 1852, og begynte snart å jobbe som journalist, og skrev mest teateranmeldelser.

I 1857 publiserte han Synnøve Solbakken, den første av sine bonderomaner. I 1858 ble denne etterfulgt av Arne, i 1860 av En glad gut og i 1868 av Fiskerjenten. Disse er de viktigste eksemplene på hans bonde-fortellinger, en del av hans forfatterskap som har gjort dype inntrykk i Norge og gjort han berømt i utlandet.

Bjørnson ønsket å "lage en ny saga i lys av bøndene," som han sa, og han trodde dette kunne gjøres, ikke bare i prosa, men i nasjonale drama eller folkestykker. Det første av disse var et en-akts stykke hvor handlingen er lagt til det 12. århundre, Mellom slagene, skrevet i 1855, men ikke publisert før i 1857. På denne tiden ble han spesielt påvirket av studier av Baggesen og Oehlenschläger, i løpet av et besøk til København 1856—1857. Mellom slagene ble fulgt av Halte Hulda i 1858, og Kong Sverre i 1861. Alle disse tidlige forsøk ble imidlertid overgått av den ypperlige trilogien om Sigurd Slembe, som Bjørnson publiserte i 1862. Etter denne ble han regnet blant de ledende yngre poeter i Europa.

Ved slutten av 1857 hadde Bjørnson blitt utnevnt til direktør av teateret i Bergen, en stilling han beholdt, ved hjelp av mye journalistarbeid, i to år, til han returnerte til hovedstaden. Fra 1860 til 1863 reiste han mye i hele Europa. Tidlig i 1865 overtok han ledelsen av Christiania teater, og brakte sin populære komedie De Nygifte og sin romantiske tragedie om Maria Stuart i Skottland til folket. Selv om Bjørnson i sine noveller og stykker har laget mange nydelige sanger, var han aldri noen stor versskriver; i 1870 publiserte han sine dikt og sanger samt den episk sykel kalt Arnljot Gelline; sistnevnte inneholder det fantastiske odet Bergliot, Bjørnsons fineste bidrag til lyrikken.

Between 1864 and 1874, in the very prime of life, Bjørnson displayed a slackening of the intellectual forces very remarkable in a man of his energy; he was indeed during these years mainly occupied with politics, and with his business as a theatrical manager. This was the period of Bjørnson's most fiery propaganda as a radical agitator. In 1871 he began to supplement his journalistic work in this direction by delivering lectures over the length and breadth of the northern countries. He possessed to a surprising degree the arts of the orator, combined "with a magnificent physical prestige".

From 1874 to 1876 Bjørnson was absent from Norway, and in the peace of voluntary exile he recovered his imaginative powers.His new departure as a dramatic author began with En fallit (A Bankruptcy) and Redaktøren (The Editor) in 1874, social dramas of an extremely modern and realistic cast.

The poet now settled on his estate of Aulestad in Gausdal. In 1877 he published another novel, Magnhild, an imperfect production, in which his ideas on social questions were seen to be in a state of fermentation, and gave expression to his republican sentiments in the polemical play called Kongen (The King), to a later edition of which he prefixed an essay on "Intellectual Freedom", in further explanation of his position. Kaptejn Mansana (Captain Mansana), an episode of the war of Italian independence, belongs to 1878.

Extremely anxious to obtain a full success on the stage, Bjørnson concentrated his powers on a drama of social life, Leonarda (1879), which raised a violent controversy. A satirical play, De ny system (The New System), was produced a few weeks later. Although these plays of Bjørnson's second period were greatly discussed, none of them (except A Bankruptcy) pleased on the boards.

When once more he produced a social drama, En handske (A Gauntlet), in 1883, he was unable to persuade any manager to stage it, except in a modified form, though this play gives the full measure of his power as a dramatist. In the autumn of the same year, Bjørnson published a mystical or symbolic drama Over Ævne (Beyond our Powers), dealing with the abnormal features of religious excitement with extraordinary force; this was not acted until 1899, when it achieved a great success.

Meanwhile, Bjørnson's political opinions had brought upon him a charge of high treason, and he took refuge for a time in Germany, returning to Norway in 1882. Convinced that the theatre was practically closed to him, he turned back to the novel, and published in 1884, Det flager i byen og paa havnen (Flags are Flying in Town and Port), embodying his theories on heredity and education. In 1889 he printed another long and still more remarkable novel, Paa Guds veje (In God's Way), which is chiefly concerned with the same problems. The same year saw the publication of a comedy, Geografi og kjærlighet (Geography and Love), which met with success.

A number of short stories, of a more or less didactic character, dealing with startling points of emotional experience, were collected and published 1894. Later plays were a political tragedy called Paul Lange og Tora Parsberg (1898), a second part of Over Ævne (Beyond our Powers II) (1895), Laboremus (1901), På Storhove (At Storhove) (1902), and Daglannet (Dag's Farm) (1904). In 1899, at the opening of the National Theatre, Bjørnson received an ovation, and his saga-drama of Sigurd the Crusader was performed.

A subject which interested him greatly, and on which he occupied his indefatigable pen, was the question of the bondemaal, the adopting of a national language for Norway distinct from the dansk-norsk (Dano-Norwegian), in which most Norwegian literature has hitherto been written. Bjørnson's strong and sometimes rather narrow patriotism did not blind him to what was considered the fatal folly of such a proposal, and his lectures and pamphlets against the målstræv in its extreme form were very effective.

Bjørnson was one of the original members of the Nobel Committee, and was re-elected in 1900. In 1903 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bjørnson had done as much as any other man to rouse Norwegian national feeling, but in 1903, on the verge of the rupture between Norway and Sweden, he preached conciliation and moderation to the Norwegians.

He died on the April 26, 1910 in Paris, where for some years he had always spent his winters, and was buried at home with every mark of honour and regret, a Norwegian warship having been sent to convey his remains back to his own land.

Reference

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Please update as needed.

External links

• Project Gutenberg e-texts of works by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
• Biography from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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