Viking Tales of the North
The Author
of Fridthjof's Saga
Page 1
Sketch of
the Life and Career
of the
Author of
“Fridthjof’s Saga.”
By F. M. Franzén,
Bishop of
Hernösund, Sweden.
Being Written During the Life of Tegnér, It Has Been
Brought Down to His Death by the
American Editors
Three of the provinces
of Sweden vie with each other in claiming to themselves the name, so glorious
for the whole kingdom, so beloved by the whole nation,— Tegnér. The first
is the iron-veined Wermland, where the great bard, was born and grew in
years. The second, the fruitful Scania, at whose famed university he suddenly
sprang forth an accomplished teacher, instead of what he had been, an
extraordinary and for the most part a self-taught pupil, and whence his
poetical renown flew through the whole of Sweden, and soon through Europe
itself. The pleasant Smaland is the third. Here, as the chief of its diocese
and the guardian of its educational institutions, he has gained yet greater
consideration and yet fresher honors. Indeed, he belongs originally to
this bishopric, partly through his father, who was born there, and partly
by his name, which is ancestors took form the village of Tegna (Tegnaby),
at present a part of the diocese estates. Thus his very name seems to
have announced to Tegnér his future station.
His father, who was also
called Esaias Tegnér, and who was a good preacher, a cheerful companion
and an active agriculturist, had been nominated to the rectory of Millesvik.
It was while he was yet waiting till he could occupy the parsonage, and
was living at the house of the assistant minister at Kyrkerud, in the
living of By, that his spouse, whose maiden name was Sara Maria Seidelius,
bore him on the 13th
of November, 1782, his fifth son, Esaias.
While not yet nine years
old he lost his father, and for want of means, his elder brothers having
all to be supported as students, Assessor Branting, a Smaland man, consequently
from the same province, and probably also a near friend of his father,
took the lad into his office-room. He soon acquired whatever belonged
to his employment, and accompanied his foster-father to all the meetings
for the collection of the taxes. As the bailiwick was extensive, theses
journeys taught him to know and admire the beauty with which his province
reflects its woods and mountains in its many lakes. A proof of this we
find in his fine poem, “To my Home-region,: the first which introduced
him to the notice of the public.
Tegnér cannot himself
remember when he first began to write verse. While yet a child he sang
of every event at all remarkable in his uniform life. Nay, he even undertook
a considerable poem under the name of “Atle,” the subject of which was
taken from “Björner’s Kämpadater.” Thus the same collection of old sagas,
in which at a more mature age he found the rough sketch of his “Fridthjof.”
The northern sagas were
among his first and dearest acquaintances at a time when, ignorant of
every language but his mother tongue, he read everything he could meet
with, particularly in history and the belles-letters. He sat with a book
in his hand wherever he happened to find himself, sometimes on a stone
and sometimes on a ladder; and one day during harvest, when he was to
watch a field-gate, he altogether forgot his task, so swallowed up was
he in what he was reading, let the cattle wander through into the yet
unmown meadow.
Thus grew he up like a
wild apple-tree in the forest, till he was fourteen years of age. Then
was it that Branting, who had long remarked his passion for reading, accidentally
discovered the profit he drew from it. One evening, as they were traveling
home from Carlstad, and the stars were shining bright above them, his
foster-father, who was a pious man of the good old-fashioned school, took
occasion to speak of the handiworks of God, and of the evident omnipotence
and wisdom he had discovered therein. The boy’s answer showed a knowledge
of the system of the world, and of the laws for the motions of the heavenly
bodies, at which the old man was astonished. How do you know that? He
inquired. I have read about it in Bastholm’s “Philosophie för Olärde:
(Philosophy for the Unlearned), he replied. Branting was silent; but some
days after he observed: You must become a student. How decisive were these
words! How important, not only in the life of Tegnér, but in the literature
of his country, in which his name has created a new epoch! And how manifold
is the good, both in the church and in the schools of Sweden, which must
have been lost had it not been for that one sentence! It was on that expression
that depended all the renown and pleasure which his works, translated
as they have been into so many languages, have excited throughout Europe.
Well does the memory of the honorable Branting deserve the distinction
to be handed down to posterity conjoined with the name of his immortal
foster-son. But was it his work alone? Though we cannot, it is true, regard
it as direct inspiration that he should being talking about the stars
to the simple office-boy, in whose mind lay concealed so great a subject,
still, in the whole of this circumstance generally we must acknowledge
the guiding hand of Providence,–that hand so evident, but so oft unseen,
in the life of the individual, no less than in the history of the world.
To study had long been
the secret longing of the boy, but he had not dared to represent his wishes,
And even now, however great his joy at this glimpse of unexpected light,
he could not help objecting his want of means. God will provide for the
sacrifice, answered Branting. You are born for something better than what
you can become with me; you must go to your eldest brother, he will guide
your studies, and I shall not forget you.
This promise he fulfilled,
not only by considerable sums to assist in keeping him at the university,
but by a fatherly sympathy in all that regarded him: and this notwithstanding
he was now compelled to abandon the hope he had long secretly cherished,
of being able to leave him his place, together with his youngest daughter.
In the month of March,
1796, Esaias removed to his brother Lars Gustaf, who was then a candidate
of philosophy, and was living at Wermland. The latter, a man who had already
distinguished himself for uncommon learning, who at the university promotion
was a rival of his younger brother, Elof, for the first degree, and who,
as many thought, ought to have gained the preference, now became the tutor
of the youngest. The wonderful progress which he made is a proof what
determined resolution united to commanding talent can accomplish, especially
in the warming season of impetuous youth.
After nine months; instruction
from his brother, who employed the old solid method of teaching, he was
able to study for himself. He now, during the course of 1797, made himself
familiar with a multitude of Latin authors, particularly the poets. The
latter fixed themselves so firmly in his uncommonly strong memory, that
he to this day can repeat large extracts from their works. In Greek also,
and in French, he advanced rapidly without any assistance.
So early as the following
year, however, when he had not yet completed his sixteenth winter, the
youth was compelled to undertake the instruction of others in order to
find means for his own further education. The iron master (owner of iron
works) Myhrman, who was afterward councilor of mines, invited him to become
the tutor of his children. In this also was a special dispensation, which
influenced not only his private and immediate circumstances, but also
his future happiness. The spot, too, at which he resided was distinguished
for a wild but imposing scenery. It belong to those extensive woodlands
to which “Yfvakarl,” (1) as
Karl (Charles) the Ninth is called in this district, summoned his colonists
from Finland. The owner of the work was an intelligent and persevering
iron founder, but at the same time a man uncommonly educated for his employment.
Being himself well versed not only in several modern languages, but also
in the Latin tongue, his library contained even several Greek classics.
Among these was a folio, which soon became the object of the poetical
stripling’s most zealous researches. It was a Homer. Notwithstanding all
the difficulties thrown in his way by the many anomalous dialects, and
by his own still imperfect knowledge of the language as a whole, and of
is various peculiarities, he was not be dismayed. Even then the great
characteristic of his mind was never to give way; besides which it exhibited
all that energy which distinguishes a great genius. With Xenophon, also,
and with Lucian he became familiar. But the bard who principally divided
his time and attention with old Homer was his Horace; and here it was
he first became acquainted with his writings, In the midst of all this
he by no means neglected the literature of France, whose most classical
productions adorned this gentleman’s shelves. Thus it was that he was
even now laying the foundation of that independence with which he afterward
withstood all one-sided or narrow-minded judgements over the literature
both of antiquity and of modern times. But as he did not find a single
German poet in this library, and only learned that language through the
medium of common elementary books, he acquired a prejudice against it
which did not for a long time become entirely dissipated. With English,
on the contrary, he became poetically acquainted through McPherson’s translation
of Ossian. This work produced such an effect upon his imagination that
he learned the language without help.
In the usual pleasures
and amusements of youth, and in society in general, he mixed little, if
at all. Nor, indeed, did he miss them, for his books gave him full employment.
He even seldom allowed himself time at this period to write verses. A
report, however, of Bonaparte’s death in Egypt occasioned his composing
a lyric poem which gave Myhrman, who exceedingly admired the French hero,
great hopes of the youthful minstrel. But the production thus grounded
on so false a rumor has never yet been published. (2)
Having now reached his
seventeenth year, he repaired to Lund, in the autumn of 1799, and commenced
his academic course. His object at first was only to prepare for his entrance
into the royal chancery. Still he would give a public proof of his proficiency
in the Greek and Roman languages, and accordingly wrote a Latin treatise
on Anacreon. Armed with his document he hastened to Dr. Norberg, a scholar
famous for his oriental erudition, and to whose professorship the literature
of Greece also belonged at that time. This interview produced never-changing
impression on the mind of the young student, not only through the encouraging
kindness with which he had received him, but through his whole bearing
and manners, which united the charms of original genius with a naive and
innocent simplicity. From the beautiful picture which Tegnér was prefixed
to the poem dedicated to him “Nattvardsbarben” (3)
(the Children of the Sacrament), we may be at least allowed to copy the
following features:
Yes! The East’s fast friend
art thou, the North’s proud glory,
A man of fable’s vanish’d
days of gold,
And speech and manners
hast of patriarchs hoary,
and, wise as eld, the
child’s pure heart does hold.
Norberg is one of those
men who have had the greatest influence on Tegnér’s career. By counseling
him to change his studies at once from the civil official examination
to the degree of master of arts, he kept him at the university, fixed
him to literary pursuits, and prepared the way for him to the station
which he now occupies in the pale of the Swedish church.
Norberg offered him gratis
instruction in Arabic. But the learning of the East ad no attractions
for the young skald. The great orientalist was also a perfect master of
the Roman tongue, and contended for the palm with Professor Lundblad,
whose Latin school was then in its highest luster. The style of the former
resembled that of Tacitus in shortness, expressiveness and antithetic
pregnancy of diction. The latter, on the other hand, who had studied in
Leipzig, and had there formed himself on the model of Ernesti, had introduced
his Ciceroniannism into Sweden. To this school it was that, both by example
and by precept, he strictly kept the young men who were under his charge.
To choose between these two “masters of their art” was not so easy for
the stripling student. Tegnér decided for the Lundblad party, being induced
to take that step by his brother Elof, who was then reader (docens) at
the university, and who was considered one the very finest pupils Lundblad
had produced.
ENDNOTES:
1.
Karl the Great (Charlemagne) Back
2. The report of Bonaparte’s death, dated Vienna, was published in a newspaper
called Sveriges Posttigningar, in the issue of Dec. 29, 1798. Tegnér’s poem
is lost (American Editors.) Back
3. Translated into English by H. W. Longfellow. (American Editors.) Back
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