About This Book
From the PREFACE.
"The Fisher Maiden" was written in 1867 and 1868, and was published simultaneously in Norway and Germany. The popularity of the story is sufficiently demonstrated by the fact that it has appeared in four German and in two English translations, the present being the third.
The characters are, perhaps, less ideal than those of his peasant stories, and the style throughout indicates that the author has entered upon a new era in his literary development. His aim here is to show how irresistible is the power of innate vocation and natural talent, and to vindicate the theatre as a place not only of amusement, but also of instruction, against the unjust criticisms of the clergy.
In the weird poem, in the eleventh chapter, on the young viking, Mr. Bjornson depicts, in strangely profound sentences, his own career, his early struggles, and the victory he so quickly gained. Indeed, as Bjornson said to me in 1872, "The Fisher Maiden" is Bjornson himself, and in the young viking he has given, in a few enigmatic strokes, a picture of both the heroine and the author. Nowhere does Mr. Bjornson's patriotism burst forth in purer and nobler strains than in the short poem that follows soon after that on the young viking. It is all aglow with love and pride and confidence and hope, and is a perfect mirror of the poet's feelings and aspirations in the midst of his great success.
The poems in this volume are translated by Augusta Plesner and Frederika Richardson, with the exception of the one at the end of chapter iv., beginning, "Ah, sweet is Love's first meeting " and the one in chapter ix., beginning "Joy now is kindled," both of which are by Auber Forestier.
-RASMUS B. ANDERSON."
