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Answer From Norway To The Speeches In The Swedish House Of Nobles, 1860
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
Have you heard what says the Swede now,
Young Norwegian man?
Have you seen what forms proceed now,
Border-watch to plan?
Shades of those from life departed,
Our forefathers single-hearted,
Who, when words like these were said,
Mounted guard and knew no dread.
Says the Swede now: That our cherished
Norseland's banner red,
That which flew when Magnus perished,
As to-day outspread,
Which o'er Fredrikshald victorious
And o'er Adler waved all glorious,
That the Swedish yellow-blue
Must in shame henceforth eschew.
Says the Swede now: Lost their luster
Have our memories,
Brighter honors shall we muster,
If we borrow his.
Bids us forth to Lützen stumble,
Close this straw-thatched cottage humble,
Drag our grandsire's ancient seat
To the Swedes for honor meet.
Let it stand, that poor old lumber,
To us dear for aye;
Sweden's ground it could but cumber,
And it might not pay.
For, we know from history's pages,
Some sat there in former ages,
Sverre Priest and other men,
Who may wish to come again.
Says the Swede now: We must know it,
He our freedom gave,
But the Swedish sword can mow it,
Send it to its grave.
Yet the case is not alarming,
He must fare with good fore-arming,
For in truth some fell of yore,
There where he would break a door.
Says the Swede now: We a clever
Little boy remain,
Very suitable to ever
Hold his mantle's train.
But would Christie be so pliant,
With his comrades self-reliant,
If they still at Eidsvold stood,
Sword-girt, building Norway's good?
Big words oft the Swede was saying,
Only small were we,
But they never much were weighing,
When the test should be.
On the little cutter sailing,
Wessel and Norse youth prevailing,
Sweden's flag and frigate chased
From the Kattegat in haste.
Sweden's noblemen are shaking
Charles the Twelfth's proud hat;
We, in council or war-making,
Peers are for all that.
If things take the worse turn in there,
Aid from Torgny we shall win there.
Then o'er all the Northland's skies
Greater freedom's sun shall rise.
Extra Info:
TRANSLATED FROM THE NORWEGIAN IN THE ORIGINAL METERS BY ARTHUR HUBBELL PALMER
Professor of the German Language and Literature In Yale University
Note 6.
ANSWER FROM NORWAY. First printed in a newspaper, April 7, 1860,
with the title "Song for the Common People," this poem refers to a
stage of the long conflict over the question of a viceroy in Norway,
so important in the history of the union of Sweden and Norway. The
Norwegian Constitution gave to the King power to send a viceroy to
reside in Norway, and to name as such either a Swede or a Norwegian.
Until about 1830 the viceroy had always been a Swede, thereafter
always a Norwegian. On December 9, 1859, the Norwegian Storting
voted to abolish this article in a proposed revision of the
Constitution. The matter was discussed in Sweden with vehemence and
passion. The storm of feeling raged most violently in March, 1860,
when on the 17th, in Stockholm, this revision was rejected.
However, no viceroy was appointed alter 1859, and in 1873 the
question was amicably settled as Norwegians desired.
While the situation was tense, an unfounded rumor had spread, that
on one occasion the Norwegian flag had been raised over the
residence of the Swedish-Norwegian Minister in Vienna. This caused
loud complaints in Sweden, that "the Norwegian colors had displaced
the Swedish," while in the House of Nobles a member declared that
Norway ought to be "an accessory" to Sweden; that "young,
inexperienced" Norway's demand of equality with Sweden was like a
commoner's importunity for equality with a nobleman. He went on to
say that the Swedish nation must crave again its (pure) flag: "For
in our ancient blue-yellow Swedish flag, that waved over Lützen's
blood-drenched battlefield, are our honor, our memories, and
thousand-fold deaths."
The (pure, i.e., without the mark of union) Swedish flag consists
of a yellow cross on a blue ground, the (pure) Norwegian flag of a
blue cross within a white border on a red ground; in each the cross
extends to the four margins. At the date of this poem each flag
showed a mark of union, a diagonal combination of the colors of
both, in the upper field nearest the staff. (For a brief history of
the flag of Norway, see Note 66.)
Stanza 2. Magnus the Good, son of Olaf the Saint, reigned from 1035
till his death in 1047. He was victorious in conflict with the
Danish King Knut the Hard, and by agreement received Denmark after
his death. Magnus died in Denmark on one of several successful
expeditions against the rebellious Svein Jarl.
Fredrikshald, see Note 5.
Ad(e)ler, Kort Sivertsen (1622-1675), was a distinguished admiral,
born in Norway. He reorganized the Danish-Norwegian fleet, which
late in the seventeenth century several times defeated the Swedish.
Stanza 3. Lützen. In the battle of Lützen, November 16, 1632,
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed.
Grandsire's ancient seat, symbol of Norway's ancient power and
glory. In one of the Swedish speeches were these words: "If Norway
had had a Gustavus Adolphus, a Torstenson, a Charles the Twelfth, if
its name like ours had gone forth victorious in history, no Swede
would deny its right to stand before us. This, however, is not the
case. ..."
Stanza 4. Sverre Priest, see Note 5. When young he was a priest.
Stanzas 5 and 6. Christie, Y. F. K. (1779-1849), was a vice-
president of the convention of Eidsvold, April 10-May 20, 1814, and
president of the first extraordinary Storting after the convention
of Moss, August, 1814. To him more than any other man was due the
securing of Norway's independence and welfare in the framing and
adoption of the Constitution and the Act of Union. In a sense he
was the real founder of Norway's liberty (see Note 5).
Stanza 7. Wessel=Tordenskjold, see Note 5.
Stanza 8. Torgny. At the Ting in Upsala, February, 1018, when the
Swedish King Olaf refused peace and his daughter's hand to the
Norwegian King, Olaf the Saint, the aged and revered peasant lawman,
Torgny, the wisest and most influential man in the land, rebuked the
King, declaring that the peasants wished peace with Norway, and
concluding thus: "If you will not do what we say, we shall attack
and kill you and not suffer from you breach of peace and law." The
King yielded, and made a promise which he afterwards broke.
Note 5.
SONG FOR NORWAY. Written in the summer of 1859 in connection with
the tale Arne, but not included in that book. The people of Norway
have adopted this poem as their national hymn, because it is vigorous,
picturesque summary of the glorious history of the country in whose
every line patriotic love vibrates.
Stanza 2. Harald Fairhair (860-933) was the first to unite all Norway
in one kingdom as a sort of feudal state. His success in his struggles
with the petty kings who opposed him was made complete by his victory
over viking forces in the battle on the waters of Hafursfjord, 872.
Many of the rebels emigrated, a movement which led to the settlement
of Iceland front 874 on. Haakon the Good (935- 961) was the youngest
son of Harald Fairhair, born in the latter's old age. He was reared
in England with King Ethelstane, who had him taught Christianity and
baptized. When he was well settled on the throne in Norway, he tried
to introduce Christianity, but without success. He improved the laws
and organized the war forces of the land.
Eyvind Finnsson, uncle of Haakon, was a great skald, who sang his deeds
and Norway's sorrow over his death.
Olaf the Saint (1015-1030) was a man of force and daring, as shown by
his going on viking expeditions when only twelve years old. He became
a Christian in Normandy. Returning to Norway in 1015, he established
himself as King and spread his authority as a stern ruler. With more
or less violence he Christianized the whole land. This and his sternness
led to an uprising, which was supported by the Danish King, Knut the
Great. Olaf died a hero's death in the battle of Stiklestad, and not
long after became Norway's patron saint, to whose grave pilgrimages
were made from all the North. His son, Magnus the Good, (see Note 6),
was chosen King in 1035.
Sverre (1182-1202) was a man of unusual physical and mental powers,calm
and dignified, and wonderfully eloquent. Yet he was a war king, and the
civil conflicts of his time were a misfortune for Norway, although he
bravely defended the royal prerogatives and the land against the usurpation
of temporal power by the Church of Rome, and put an end to ecclesiastical
rule in Norway.
Stanza 3. About five centuries of less renown for Norway are passed over,
and this and the following stanza refer to the time of the Great Northern
War, 1700-21, and the danger arising from Charles XII of Sweden. From 1319
to 1523 Norway was in union with Denmark and Sweden; from 1523 with Denmark
only. In this war, waged by Denmark- Norway, Russia, and Saxony-Poland
against Charles XII, in order to lessen the might which Sweden had gained
by the Thirty Years' War, Norwegian peasants, men and women, took up arms
against the Swedes.
Peasant is in this volume the usual rendering of the word "bonde" in
the original; for its fuller significance see Note 78.
Tordenskjold, Peter (1691-1720), a great Norwegian naval hero, whose
original name was Wessel, and who was born in Trondhjem. He received
the name Tordenskjold when he was ennobled. By his remarkable achievements
he contributed much to the favorable issue of the Great Northern War;
he often had occasion to ravage the coast of Sweden and to protect
that of Norway.
Stanza 4. Fredrikshald. Here, on September 11, 1718, Charles XII met
his death on his second invasion of Norway. The citizens had earlier
burned the City, so that it might not afford shelter to the Swedes
against the cannon of the fortress Fredriksten.
Stanzas 5 and 6. Again a rather long period of peace is passed over.
In 1807 Denmark was induced by Napoleon to join the continental system.
England bombarded Copenhagen and captured it and the Danish fleet.
The war lasted seven years for Norway also, which was blockaded by
the English fleet and suffered sorely for lack of the necessaries
of life. But the nations sense of independence grew, and when the
Peace of Kiel in January, 1814, separated Norway from Denmark,
Norway refused to be absorbed by Sweden, and through a representative
assembly at Eidsvold declared its independence, adopted a Constitution
on May 17, 1814, and chose as King, Prince Christian Frederik, the
later King Christian VIII of Denmark. The Swedish Crown Prince Karl
Johan led an invasion of Norway in July, and there was fighting
until the Convention of Moss, August 14, in which he approved the
Norwegian Constitution in return for the abdication of Christian
Frederik. Negotiations then led to the federation of Norway as an
independent kingdom with Sweden in a union. This was formally
concluded on November 4, 1815, by the adoption of the Act of Union,
and the election of the Swedish King Karl XIII as King of Norway.
The last four lines of stanza 6 refer to "Scandinavism," i.e., a
movement beginning some time before 1848 to bring about a close
federation or alliance of the three Northern kingdoms (see Note 21).
Note 66.
THE PURE NORWEGIAN FLAG. The poems here grouped were written in 1879
during the active beginning of the so-called "Flag-conflict" in
behalf of the removal from the flag of Norway the mark of union with
Sweden. For a description of the flags of Norway and Sweden, see
Note 6.
The history of the flag of Norway is briefly this: In 1748 the use
of the Dannebrog (see Note 25) was fixed by law for Denmark and
Norway. In February, 1814, a decree of Prince Regent Christian
Frederik made Norway's flag to be the Dannebrog with Norway's arms
(a crowned lion bearing an axe) in the upper square nearest the
staff. Article 11 of the Constitution of 1814 declared: Norway
shall have its own merchant-flag; its war-flag shall be a
union-flag. Because of the Barbary Coast pirates, however, the
Swedish flag with the mark of union was used south of Cape
Finisterre, and north of it Christian Frederik's Norwegian flag. In
1821 the present pure Norwegian flag was established by Royal
resolution as the merchant-flag, to be used north of Cape
Finisterre; in 1838 its use was extended by the King to all waters.
The war-flag was still the Swedish flag with a union-mark consisting
of a white diagonal cross on a red ground. In 1844 King Oskar I by
resolution decreed that both the merchant-flag and the war-flag of
Norway should be the flag of 1821, with the addition of a mark of
union. There was at once some criticism of the union-mark in the
merchant-flag, but in general the situation was quietly accepted for
a generation. This was due to Scandinavism, which began to flourish
soon after 1844. Towards 1870, however (i.e., after 1864),
Scandinavism lost its force, and the pure flag began to be used
within Norway more and more. The real conflict began in 1879 with a
motion in the Storting on February 17 to reënact the flag-law of
1821. There was bitter opposition from Conservatives in Norway, and
naturally from Sweden, and the conflict gradually broadened to
embrace everything involved in the union with Sweden, in proportion
as the national spirit of Norway was quickened and strengthened. The
famous flag-meeting in Christiania on March 13, 1879, and Björnson's
speech there were the first decisive blow. Essentially the law of
1821 was passed by three Stortings, in 1893, 1896, and 1898, and
proclaimed as law without the King's sanction.
Thor's hammer-mark. Thor's weapon was a hammer=the blue lightning.
The symbol of this was the T-mark, to which shape the name cross has
also been given; this mark was much used in the viking period as a
sign of Thor's protection. In the flag the blue cross is within a
white cross on a red ground. Colors of freedom. On the institution
of the flag of 1821, its red, white, and blue were especially
acceptable in Norway, as being the colors characteristic of free
states, typified by the French tricolor.
Torgny, see Note 6.
Ridderstad. The author and journalist, Karl Fredrik Ridderstad
(1807-1886), who had published in his newspaper a conciliatory poem
in defense of the Swedish view, to which Björnson here makes answer.
Note 25.
TO THE DANNEBROG. The original title was "The 19th of April, 1864."
Dybböl [Düppel]. This strongly fortified Danish place in
Schleswig was taken by the Germans on April 18, 1864.
Dannebrog, the traditional name of the Danish flag, consisting of
a red ground whereon is a broad white cross, extending to all four
margins. According to an old legend the original Dannebrog ("broge"
is an old Danish word, meaning a piece of colored cloth) soared down
from Heaven during the battle of Reval in 1219 and brought victory
to the Danes, while a voice was heard promising the Danes a complete
victory as often as they raised this banner against their enemies.
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