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Bergliot
By Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson
(See Note 11)
(Harald Haardraade's saga, towards the end of Chapter 45, reads thus: When Einar Tambarskelve's wife Bergliot, who had remained behind in her lodgings in the town, learned of the death of her husband and of her sort, she went straight to the royal residence, where the armed force of peasants was, and eagerly urged them to fight. But in that very moment the King (Harald) rowed out along the river. Then said Bergliot: "Now miss we here my kinsman, Haakon Ivarson; never should Einar's murderer row out along the river, if Haakon stood here on the river-bank.")
(In her lodgings)
To-day King Harald
Must hold his ting-peace;
For Einar has here
Five hundred peasants.
Our son Eindride
Safeguards his father,
Who goes in fearless
The King defying.
Thus maybe Harald,
Mindful that Einar
Has crowned in Norway
Two men with kingship,
Will grant that peace be,
On law well grounded;
This was his promise,
His people's longing. -
What rolling sand-waves
Swirl up the roadway!
What noise is nearing!
Look forth, my footboy!
- The wind's but blowing!
Here storms beat wildly;
The fjord is open,
The fells low-lying.
The town's unchanged
Since child I trod it;
The wind sends hither
The snarling sea-hounds.
- What flaming thunder
From thousand voices!
Steel-weapons redden
With stains of warfare!
The shields are clashing!
See, sand-clouds rising,
Speer-billows rolling
Round Tambarskelve!
Hard is his fortune! -
Oh, faithless Harald:
Death's ravens roving
Ride o'er thy ting-peace!
Fetch forth the wagon,
Drive to the fighting!
At home to cower
Would cost my life now.
(On the way)
O yeomen, yield not,
Circle and save him!
Eindride, aid now
Thine aged father!
Build a shield-bulwark
For him bow-bending!
Death has no allies
Like Einar's arrows!
And thou, Saint Olaf,
Oh, for thy son's sake!
Help him with good words
In Gimle's high hall!
( Nearer )
Our foes are the stronger ...
They fight now no longer ...
Subduing,
Pursuing,
They press to the river, -
What is it that's done?
What makes me thus quiver?
Will fortune us shun?
What stillness astounding!
The peasants are staying,
Their lances now grounding,
Two dead men surrounding,
Nor Harald delaying!
What throngs now enwall
The ting-hall's high door! ...
Silent they all
Let me pass o'er!
Where is Eindride! -
Glances of pity
Fear lest they show it,
Flee lest they greet me ...
So I must know it:
Two deaths there will meet me! -
Room! I must see:
Oh, it is they! -
Can it so be? -
Yes, it is they!
Fallen the noblest
Chief of the Northland;
Best of Norwegian
Bows is broken.
Fallen is Einar
Tambarskelve,
Our son beside him, -
Eindride!
Murdered with malice,
He, who to Magnus
More was than father,
King Knut the Mighty's
Son's counselor good.
Slain by assassins
Svolder's sharp-shooter,
The lion that leaped on the
Heath of Lyrskog!
Pride of the peasants
Snared in a pitfall,
Time-honored Tronder,
Tambarskelve.
White-haired and honored,
Hurled to the hounds here, -
Our son beside him,
Eindride!
Up, up, ye peasants, he has fallen,
But he who felled him is living!
Have you not known me? Bergliot,
Daughter of Haakon from Hjörungavaag; -
Now I am Tambarskelve's widow.
To you I appeal, peasant-warriors:
My aged husband has fallen.
See, see, here is blood on his blanching hair,
Your heads shall it be on forever,
For cold it becomes, while vain is your vengeance.
Up, up, warriors, your chieftain has fallen,
Your honor, your father, the joy of your children,
Legend of all the valley, hero of all the land, -
Here he has fallen, will you not avenge him?
Murdered with malice within the king's hall,
The ting-hall, the hall of the law, thus murdered,
Murdered by him whom the law holds highest, -
From heaven will lightning fall on the land,
If thus left unpurged by the flames of vengeance.
Launch the long-ships from land
Einar's nine long-ships are lying here,
Let them hasten vengeance on Harald!
If he stood here, Haakon Ivarson,
If he stood here on the hill, my kinsman,
The fjord should not save the slayer of Einar,
And I should not seek you cowards who flinch!
Oh, peasants, hear me, my husband has fallen,
The high-seat of my thoughts through years half a hundred!
Overthrown it now is, and by its right side,
Our only son fell, oh, all our future!
All is now empty between my two arms;
Can I ever again lift them up in prayer?
Or whither on earth shall I betake me?
If I go and stay in the places of strangers, -
I shall long for those where we lived together.
But if I betake me thither, -
Ah, them, themselves I shall miss.
Odin in Valhall I dare not beseech;
For him I forsook in days of childhood.
But the great new God in Gimle? -
All that I had He has taken!
Vengeance? Who speaks of vengeance?
Can vengeance the dead awaken,
Or cover me warm from the cold?
Find I in it a widow's seat sheltered,
Solace to cheer a childless mother?
Away with your vengeance! Let me alone!
Lay him on the wagon, him and our son!
Come, we will follow them home.
That God in Gimle, new and fearful, who all has taken,
Let Him now also take vengeance! Well He knows how!
Drive slowly! For so drove Einar always;
- Soon enough we shall come home.
The dogs to-day will not greet us gladly,
But drearily howl with drooping tails.
And lifting their heads the horses will listen;
Neighing they stand, the stable-door watching,
Eindride's voice awaiting.
In vain for his voice will they hearken,
Nor hears the hall the step of Einar,
That called before him for all to arise and stand,
For now came their chieftain.
Too large the house is; I will lock it;
Workmen, servants send away;
Sell the cattle and the horses,
Move far hence and live alone.
Drive slowly!
- Soon enough we shall come home.
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 11.
BERGLIOT. Einar Tambarskelve was one of the most powerful men in
Norway during the first half of the eleventh century. His mastery of
the bow gave him the epithet Tambarskelve, "bow-string-shaker." He
fought, when eighteen years old, on the Long Serpent at Svolder.
After Erik and Svein were established in power as a result of that
battle, Einar became reconciled and married their sister Bergliot.
In 1023 he went to King Knut the Great in England, who was also King
of Denmark, and urged him to conquer Norway. Knut did so in 1028 and
made his son Svein King of Norway. Einar opposed this, and Magnus
the Good (see Note 6) was called to rule, whose most faithful
vassal Einar became. He followed King Magnus and his co-regent
Harold Hardruler to Denmark, where Magnus died. Here and in Norway
Einar, as the champion of all that was good, opposed many of the
illegal and unrighteous deeds and plans of Harald, and incurred the
latter's bitter enmity. In the year 1055, under the pretext of
reconciliation, Harold lured Einar with his wife and son Eindride
(pronounced as three syllables) to Nidaros (Trondhjem), where
the murder was committed within the hall of the royal residence, as
related in the poem.
Haakon Ivarson was a man of force and influence.
Harald Hardruler was a half brother of Olaf the Saint. Late in the
reign of Magnus the Good, after adventurous wanderings in Russia and
the Orient, he returned to Norway and demanded a share in the
kingdom. By agreement they divided the royal power and their
wealth. Before his death Magnus determined that Harald should be
King of Norway, but Svein Estridson King of Denmark. Harald,
however, tried unsuccessfully to conquer Denmark. He died in
England, being slain at the battle of Stanford Bridge in 1066. His
harshness as King secured him his epithet. The murder of Einar
brought him much hate.
Ting-peace. The spelling "ting" is adopted in place of "thing."
Peasants, for this word see Note 78.
Gimle, the heaven of the new Christian faith.
Heath of Lyrskog, in Jutland. Magnus the Good, at the time also
King of Denmark, won a decisive victory here in 1043 over a much
larger invading army of Wends. (See also Note 23.)
Trönder, one from the region about Trondhjem.
Haakon from Hjörungavaag. Haakon Jarl (970-995) was the last
pagan King in Norway. His defeat in 986 of the Jomsborg vikings,
allies of King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark, in a naval engagement at
Hjörungavaag, a bay in western Norway, was the greatest naval battle
ever fought in that country.
Valhall, the hall where those slain in battle dwell after death.
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 23.
OUR FOREFATHERS. A festival, memorial poem, written just before the
outbreak of the Danish-German war. Danish troops were stationed
along the river Eider, which the Germans crossed on February 1,
1864. The last lines of the poem refer to what is told in the saga
of Magnus the Good about the battle of Lyrskog Heath (see Note 11):
"The night before the battle Magnus was wakeful and prayed to God
for victory. Towards morning he fell asleep and dreamed that his
father, King Olaf the Saint, came to him and said: 'You are now very
sick at heart and full of fear, because the Wends are coming against
you with a great army; but you must not be afraid of the heathen
host, though they be many together. I shall follow you into this
battle and join in the fight, when you hear my horn.' At dawn the
King wakened, and then all heard up in the air the ringing of
a bell, and those of the King's men who had been in Nidaros
[Trondhjem] recognized by its sound the bell which King Olaf had
given to the church of St. Clement. Then Magnus had the signal for
battle blown, and his men made such a furious onset on the Wends,
that fifteen thousand fell and the rest fled."
Note 78.
MAY SEVENTEENTH. In memory of the unveiling of Henrik Wergeland's
statue in Christiania on the 17th of May, 1881, when Björnson also
delivered a great oration. Henrik Arnold Wergeland was born June 17,
1808, in Christiansand, and died August 12, 1845, in Christiania.
Though he studied theology, he devoted his life to poetry and
politics. His earliest writings, farces and poems, showed powerful,
but uncontrolled, genius. His great popularity began in 1829
with his active entrance into public life. He labored for the
enlightemnent of his people through his writings and his personal
influence in journeyings all over the land, and especially through
speeches at political meetings. His chief poetic work, the
rationalistic-republican didactic poem, Creation, Man, and
Messiah, appeared in 1830. It was severely criticised in a special,
polemical writing by Welhaven (see Note 36), who continued his
attack on all Wergeland's views and teachings in his Norway's Dawn.
Thus arose the Wergeland-Welhaven conflict, which was carried on
hotly for many years by their adherents, and contributed much to the
intellectual development of the nation. Wergeland was very
productive as editor, publicist, and poet. In 1840 he was appointed
Keeper of the Archives, and held this government office until his
death.
In his own time Wergeland was in spirit the head of the radical-
national "Peasant party," which was indeed patriotic and democratic,
but too narrowly Norwegian, in opposition to all that was Danish,
European, foreign. During the years preceding 1881 he had come to
be in the constitutional conflict a national hero, the idol of the
peasants, as their political power increased.
Come now the peasants. In this volume of translations "peasant"
is the rendering of the Norwegian word "bonde." The meaning is
"farmer," i.e., in general the independrnt owner of land, which he
cultivates and on which he lives. In Norway the conditions have for
many centuries been more favorable for the "peasant" than in any
other European country; this is due to the topography and to the
absence of a powerful nobility. At the present time scarcely one-
twentieth of the tilled area in Norway is cultivated by tenants.
The Norwegian "peasants" have always had great self-consciousness in
the best sense, and importance in the political, economic, and
social life of the country, especially since the adoption of the
democratic Constitution of 1814. Very often the "peasants" have an
aristocratic pride in a lineage traced back to ancient "kings," and
in their own distinctively "Norse" culture.
Österdal's ... chieftain, a peasant of large stature, named
Hjelmstad, a radical member of the Storting.
The old banner. A flag much used in earlier times as specifically
Norwegian, dating back to King Erik (1280-1299), before the union
with Demnark, showed on a red ground a lion wearing a golden crown
and bearing an axe. As late as 1698 it flew over the fortress
Akershus in Christiania. The future, i.e., the independence
realized in 1905 through the dissolution of the union with Sweden.
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 36.
NORWEGIAN STUDENTS' GREETING TO PROFESSOR WELHAVEN. Johan Sebastian
Cammermeyer Welhaven was born December 22, 1807, lived from 1828 in
Christiania, was lector from 1840 to 1846, and from 1846 to 1868
professor of philosophy in the University; he died October 21, 1873.
His poetical works were: Norway's Dawn, 1834; Poems, 1839; New
Poems, 1845; Half a Hundred Poems, 1848; Pictures of Travel and
Poems, 1851; A Collection of Poems, 1860. A polemical writer, gifted
with wit and fine taste, and a social-political author, Welhaven
represented in his earlier period the "party of intelligence"" over
against the chauvinism of the radical Peasant party of Wergeland
(see Note 78). He was an adherent of Danish culture and of the
esthetic view of art and life, who hated all national exclusiveness
and showed a love of his country no less true and intense
than Wergeland's by chastising the Norwegians of his time for their
big, empty words and their crass materialism. For this he was
rewarded with abuse, and called "traitor to his country" and
"matricide." In reality Welhaven was a dreamer, a worshiper of
nature, a man of tender feeling. His subjective lyric poetry is not
surpassed in richness of content and beauty of form by that of any
other Norwegian. Outside of his ordinary University duties Welhaven
was also active; he was a favorite speaker at student festivities
and musical festivals, notably at the Student Meetings in Upsala,
1856, and in Copenhagen, 1862. But early in 1864 his health failed
and he was unable thereafter to lecture regularly. In August, 1868,
he requested to be retired; on September 24, the University
Authorities granted his request and a pension at the highest rate;
but the Storting, on November 12, reduced this to two-thirds of the
amount proposed. The same day the students brought to Professor
Welhaven their farewell greeting, marching with flags to his
residence, where this poem of homage was sung.
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