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SWEDISH

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 221 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SWEDISH  LITERATURE Swedish literature, as distinguished from compositions in the See also:

common norraena tunga of old Scandinavia, cannot be said to exist earlier than the 13th See also:century . Nor until the See also:period of the See also:Reformation was its development in any degree rapid or copious . The See also:oldest See also:form in which Swedish exists as a written See also:language (see SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGE) iS the See also:series of See also:manuscripts known as Landskapslagarne, or " The Common See also:Laws." These are supposed to be the See also:relics of a still earlier See also:age, and it is hardly believed that we even possess the first that was put down in See also:writing . The most important and the most See also:ancient of these codes is the " See also:Elder See also:West See also:Gota See also:Law," reduced to its See also:present form by the law-See also:man Eskil about 1230 . Another of See also:great See also:interest is See also:Magnus Eriksson's " See also:General Common Law," which was written in 1347 . These ancient codes have been collected and edited by the learned jurist, K . J . Schlyter (1795—1888) as Corpus See also:juris Sveo-Gotorum antiqui (4 vols., 1827—1869) . The See also:chief See also:ornament of See also:medieval Swedish literature is See also:Urn styrilse kununga ok hofdinga (" On the Conduct of See also:Kings and Princes "), first printed by command of Gustavus II . See also:Adolphus, in 1634 . The writer is not known; it has been conjecturally dated 1325 . It is a See also:hand-See also:book of moral and See also:political teaching, expressed in terse and vigorous language .

St See also:

Bridget, or Birgitta (1303—1373), an See also:historical figure of extraordinary interest, has See also:left her name attached to several important religious See also:works, in particular to a collection of Uppenbarelser (" Revelations "), in which her visions and ecstatic meditations are recorded, and a version, the first into Swedish, of the five books of See also:Moses . This latter was undertaken, at her See also:desire, by her See also:father-See also:confessor Mattias (d . 1350), a See also:priest at See also:Linkoping . The See also:translation of the See also:Bible was continued a century later by a See also:monk named Johannes Budde (d . 1484) . In See also:verse the earliest Swedish productions were probably the folk-See also:song.l The age of these, however, has been commonly exaggerated . It is doubtful whether any still exist which are as old, in their present form, as the 13th century . The bulk are now attributed to the 15th, and many are doubtless much later still . The last, such as " Axel och Valborg," " Liten Karin," " See also:Kampen Grimborg," and " Habor och Signild," See also:deal with the adventures of romantic medieval See also:romance . Almost the only See also:positive See also:clue we hold to the date of these poems is the fact that one of the most characteristic of them, ` Engelbrekt," was written by See also:Thomas, See also:bishop of Strengnas, who died in 1443• Thomas, who left other poetical pieces, is usually called the first Swedish poet . There are three rhyming See also:chronicles in medieval Swedish, all See also:anonymous . The earliest, Erikskronikan,2 is attributed to 1320; the romance of Karl Magnus, Nya Karlskronikan, describing the period between 1387 and 1452, which is sometimes added to the earlier See also:work, See also:dates from the See also:middle of the 15th century; and the third, Sturekronikorna, was probably written about 15oo .

The collection of rhymed romances which bears the name of See also:

Queen Euphemia's Songs must have been written before the See also:death of the See also:Norwegian queen in 1312 . They are versions of three medieval stories taken from See also:French and See also:German See also:sources, and dealt with the See also:Chevalier au See also:lion, of See also:Chrestien de See also:Troyes, with See also:Duke See also:Frederick of See also:Normandy, and with See also:Flores and Blancheflor . They possess very slight poetic merit in their Swedish form . A little later the romance of See also:King See also:Alexander' was translated by, or at the command of, Bo Jonsson Grip; this is more meritorious . Bishop Thomas, who died in 1443, wrote many political songs; and a number of narrative poems date from the See also:close of the century . A brilliant and pathetic relic of the close of the medieval period exists in the Love Letters addressed in 1498 by Ingrid Persdotter, a See also:nun of Vadstena, to the See also:young See also:knight Axel See also:Nilsson . The first book printed in the Swedish language appeared in 1495 . The 16th century added but little to Swedish literature, and that little is mostly connected with the newly-founded university of See also:Upsala . The See also:Renaissance scarcely made itself See also:felt in Scandi- navia, and even the Reformation failed to waken the See also:genius of the See also:country . See also:Psalms and didactic spiritual poems were the See also:main products of Swedish letters in the 16th century . Two writers, the See also:brothers Petri, sons of a See also:smith at See also:Orebro, take an easy prominence in so barren a period . Olaus Petri (1493–1552) and The Petri See also:Laurentius Petri (1499–1573) were Carmelite monks who adopted the Lutheran See also:doctrine while studying at See also:Wittenberg, and came back to See also:Sweden in 1518 as the apostles of the new faith .

Olaus, who is one of the noblest figures in Swedish See also:

annals, was of the executive rather than the meditative class . He became See also:chancellor to Gustavus See also:Vasa, but his reform- See also:ing zeal soon brought him into disgrace, and in 1540 he was condemned to death . Two years later he was pardoned, and allowed to resume his See also:preaching in See also:Stockholm . He found See also:time, however, to write a Swedish See also:Chronicle, which is the earliest See also:prose See also:history of Sweden, a See also:mystery-See also:play, Tobiae comedia, which is the first Swedish See also:drama, and three See also:psalm-books, the best known being published in 1J30 under the See also:title of Nd.gre gudhelige vijsor (" Certain Divine Songs ") . His Chronicle was based on a number of sources, in the treatment of which he showed a discrimination which makes the work still useful . Laurentius Petri, who was a man of calmer temperament, was See also:archbishop of all Sweden, and edited or superintended the translation of the 1 Skanska folkvisor, edited by E . G . See also:Geijer and A . A . See also:Afzelius (3 vols., Stockholm, 1879) . 2 See Cederschiold, Otn Erikskronikan (1899) . 2 See also:Editions of these chronicles and romances have been issued by the " Svenska Fornskrift Sallskapet " (Stockholm) : See also:Ivan Lejonriddaren (ed .

See also:

Stephens), Hertig Fredrik of Normandie (ed . Ahlstrand) Flores och Blancheflor (ed . G . E . Klemming), Alexander (ed . Klemming), Carl Magnus (ed . Klemming, in Prosadikter Fran medeltiden) . Bible published at Upsala in 1540 . He also wrote many psalms . Laurentius Andreae, 1552, had previously prepared a translation of the New Testament, which appeared in 1526 . He was a polemical writer of prominence on the See also:side of the Reformers . Finally, Petrus See also:Niger (Peder Svart), bishop of See also:Vesteras (d .

1562), wrote a chronicle of the See also:

life of Gustavus I. up to 1533, in excel-See also:lent prose . The same writer left unpublished a history of the bishops of Vesteras,' his predecessors . The latter See also:half of the 16th century is a See also:blank in Swedish literature . With the See also:accession of See also:Charles IX., and the consequent development of Swedish greatness, literature began to assert itself in more vigorous forms . The See also:long life of the royal librarian, Johannes Bure or Buraeus (1568–1652), t3uraces. formed a See also:link between the age of the Petri and that of See also:Stjernhjelm . Buraeus studied all the sciences then known to mankind, and confounded them all in a sort of Rabbinical cultus of his own invention, a universal See also:philosophy in a multitude of unread-able volumes.' But he was a patient See also:antiquary, and advanced the knowledge of ancient Scandinavian See also:mythology and language very considerably . He awakened curiosity and roused a public sympathy with letters; nor was it without significance that two of the greatest Swedes of the century, Gustavus Adolphus and the poet Stjernhjelm, were his pupils . The reign of Charles IX. saw the rise of See also:secular drama in Sweden . The first See also:comedy was the Tisbe of Magnus Olai Asteropherus (d . 1647), a coarse but witty piece on the See also:story of Pyramus and Thisbe, acted by the schoolboys of the See also:college of Arboga in 161o . This play is the See also:Ralph Roister Doister of Swedish literature . A greater dramatist was Johannes Messenius (1579–1636), who was the son of a See also:miller near Vadstena and had been carefully educated abroad by the See also:Jesuits .

Being discovered plotting against the See also:

government during the See also:absence of Gustavus in See also:Russia, he was condemned to imprisonment for life—that is, for twenty years . Before this disaster he had been See also:professor of See also:jurisprudence in Upsala, where his first historical comedy Disa was performed in 1611 and the tragedy of Signill in 1612 . The See also:design of Messenius was to write the history of his country in fifty plays; he completed and produced six . These dramas 5 are not particularly well arranged, but they form a little See also:body of theatrical literature of singular interest and value . Messenius was a genuine poet; the lyrics he introduces have something of the See also:charm of the old See also:ballads . He wrote abundantly in See also:prison; his magnum See also:opus was a history of Sweden in Latin, but he has also left, in Swedish, two important See also:rhyme-chronicles . Messenius was imitated by a little See also:crowd of playwrights . Nikolaus Holgeri Catonius (d . 1655) wrote a See also:fine tragedy on the Trojan See also:War, Troijenborgh, in which he excelled Messenius as a dramatist . Andreas Prytz, who died in 16J5 as bishop of Linkoping, produced several religious chronicle plays from Swedish history . Jacobus Rondeletius (d . 1662) wrote a curious " See also:Christian tragi-comedy " of Judas redivivus, which contains some amusing scenes from daily Swedish life .

Another See also:

good play was an anonymous Holofernes and See also:Judith (edited at Upsala, 1895, by O . Sylwan) . These plays were all acted by schoolboys and university youths, and when they went out of See also:fashion among these classes the drama in Sweden almost entirely ceased to exist . Two historians of the reign of Charles IX., Erik Goransson Tegel (d . 1636) and Aegidius Girs (d . 1.639), deserve mention . The chancellor Magnus See also:Gabriel de la Gardie (1622-1686) did much to promote the study of Swedish antiquities . He founded the College of Antiquities at Upsala in 1667, and bought back the See also:Gothic Codex argenteus which he presented to the university library . The reign of Gustavus Adolphus was adorned by one great writer, the most considerable in all the See also:early history of Sweden . The title of " the Father of Swedish See also:poetry " hasSt/ernhIetm. been universally awarded to Goran Lilja, better known by his adopted name of Georg Stjernhjelm (q.v.; 1598–1672) . Stjernhjelm was a man of almost universal attainment, but it is mainly in verse that he has left his See also:stamp upon 4 Selections from his writings were edited by G . E .

Klemming, (Upsala, 1883-1885) . 5 Edited for a learned society (Upsala, 1886, &c.) by H . See also:

Schack . the literature of his country . He found the language rough and halting, and he moulded it into perfect smoothness and See also:elasticity . His See also:master, Buraeus, had written a few Swedish hexameters by way of experiment . Stjernhjelm took the form and made it See also:national . The claim of Stjernhjelm to be the first Swedish poet may be contested by a younger man, but a slightly earlier writer, Rosennane.Gustaf Rosenhane (1619-1684), who was a reformer on quite other lines . If Stjernhjelm studied Opitz, Rosenhane took the French poets of the Renaissance for his See also:models, and in 165o wrote a See also:cycle of one See also:hundred sonnets, the earliest in the language; these were published under the title Venerid in 1680 . Rosenhane printed in 1658 a " Complaint of the Swedish Language " in thirteen hundred rattling rhyming lines, and in 1682 a collection of eighty songs . He was a metrist of the See also:artistic See also:order, skilful, learned and unimpassioned . His zeal for the improvement of the literature of his country was beyond question .

Most of the young poets, however, followed Stjernhjelm rather than Rosenhane . As See also:

personal See also:friends and pupils of the former, the brothers See also:Columbus deserve See also:special See also:attention . They were sons of a musician and poet, See also:Jonas Columbus (1586-1663) . Each wrote copiously in verse, but Johan (164o-1684), who was professor of poetry at Upsala, almost entirely in Latin, while See also:Samuel (1642-1679), especially in his Odae sveticae, showed himself an See also:apt and fervid imitator of the Swedish hexameters of Stjernhjelm, to whom he was at one time secretary, and whose See also:Hercules he dramatized . His works were included by P . Hanselli in vol. ii. of Samlade vitterhets arbeten, &c . Of a rhyming See also:family of Hjarne, it is enough to mention one member, See also:Urban Hjarne (1641-1724), who introduced the new form of classical tragedy from See also:France, in a See also:species of transition from the masques of Stjernhjelm to the later See also:regular rhymed dramas . His best play was a Rosimunda . Lars Johansson (1642-1674), who called himself "Lucidor the Unfortunate," has been the subject of a whole See also:tissue of romance, most of which is fabulous . It is true, however, that he was stabbed, like See also:Marlowe, in a midnight brawl at a See also:tavern . His poems were posthumously collected as See also:Flowers of See also:Helicon, Plucked and Distributed on various occasions by Lucidor the Unfortunate . Stripped of the myth which had attracted so much attention to his name, Lucidor proves to be an occasional rhymester of a very See also:low order .

Haquin Spegel (1645-1714), the famous See also:

arch-bishop of Upsala, wrote a long didactic epic in alexandrines, See also:God's Labour and See also:Rest, with an See also:introductory See also:ode to the Deity in rhymed hexameters . He was also a good writer of See also:hymns . Another ecclesiastic, the bishop of Skara, Jesper Svedberg (1653-1735), wrote sacred verses, but is better remembered as the father of See also:Swedenborg . See also:Peter Lagerlof (1648-1699) cultivated a See also:pastoral vein in his ingenious lyrics Elisandra "and Lyci!lis; he was professor of poetry, that is to say, of the See also:art of writing Latin verses, at Upsala . Olof Wexionius (1656-169o?) published his Sinne-Afvel, a collection of graceful See also:miscellaneous pieces, in 1684, in an edition of only too copies . Its existence was presently forgotten, and the name of Wexionius had dropped out of the history of literature, when Hanselli recovered a copy and reprinted its contents in 1863 . We have hitherto considered only the followers of Stjernhjelm; we have now to speak of an important writer who followed in t)adtsyeroathe footsteps of Rosenhane . Gunno Eurelius, afterwards ennobled with the name of See also:Dahlstjerna (q.v.; 1661-1709), early showed an interest in the poetry of See also:Italy . In 1690 he translated See also:Guarini's Pastor Fido, and in or just after 1697 published, in a See also:folio See also:volume without a date, his Kunga=Skald, the first See also:original poem in ottava rima produced in Swedish . This is a bombastic and vainglorious epic in See also:honour of Charles XI., whom Eurelius adored; it is not, however, without great merits, richness of language, flowing See also:metre, and the breadth of a genuine poetic See also:enthusiasm . He published a little collection of lamentable sonnets when his great master died . Johan See also:Paulinus Liljenstedt (1655-1732), a Finn, was a graceful imitator of See also:Ronsard and Guarini .

Johan Runius (1679-1713), called the " See also:

Prince of Poets," published a collection entitled Dudaim, in which there is nothing to praise, and with him the See also:generation of the 17th century closes . See also:Talent had been shown by certain individuals, but no healthy school of Swedish poetry had been founded, and the latest imitators of Stjernhjelm had lost every vestige of See also:taste and See also:independence . In prose the 17th century produced but little of importance in Sweden . Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632) was the most polished writer of its earlier half, and his speeches take an important See also:place in the development of the language . The most original mind of the next age was See also:Olaf Rudbeck (1630-1702), the famous author of Atland eller Manhem . He spent nearly all his life in Upsala, See also:building anatomical laboratories, conducting musical concerts, laying out botanical gardens, arranging medical lecture rooms—in a word, expending ceaseless See also:energy on the See also:practical improvement of the university . He was a genius in all the known branches of learning; at twenty-three his physiological discoveries had made him famous throughout See also:Europe . His Atland (or Atlantika) appeared in four folio volumes, in Latin and Swedish, in 1675-1698; it was an See also:attempt to summon all the authority of the past, all the sages of See also:Greece and the bards of See also:Iceland, to prove the inherent and indisputable greatness of the Swedish nation, in which the fabulous See also:Atlantis had been at last discovered . It was the See also:literary expression of the See also:majesty of Charles XI., and of his autocratical dreams for the destiny of Sweden . From another point of view it is a monstrous hoard or See also:cairn of rough-hewn antiquarian learning, now often praised, sometimes quoted from, and never read . Olof Verelius (1618-1682) had led the way for Rudbeck, by his See also:translations of Icelandic sagas, a work which was carried on with greater intelligence by Johan Peringskjold (1654-1720), the editor of the Heimskringla (1697), and J . Hadorph (1630-1693) .

The French philosopher See also:

Descartes, who died at See also:Christina's See also:court at Stockholm in 165o, found his chief, though See also:posthumous, See also:disciple in Andreas Rydelius (1671-1738), bishop of See also:Lund, who was the master of Dalin, and thus connects us with the next See also:epoch . His chief work, Nodiga fornuftsofningar ... (5 vols.) appeared in 1718 . Charles XII., under whose special patronage Rydelius wrote, was himself a metaphysician and physiologist of merit . A much more brilliant period followed the death of Charles XII . The See also:influence of France and See also:England took the place of that of See also:Germany and Italy . The taste of See also:Louis XIV., tempered by the study of See also:Addison and See also:Pope, gave its See also:tone to the academical court of Queen See also:Louise Ulrica, who founded in 1758 the See also:academy of literature, which See also:developed later into the academy of literature, history and antiquities . Sweden became completely a slave to the periwigs of literature, to the unities and See also:graces of classical France . Nevertheless this was a period of great intellectual stimulus and activity, and Swedish literature took a solid shape for the first time . This Augustan period in Sweden closed somewhat abruptly about 1765 . Two writers in verse connect it with the school of the preceding century . See also:Jacob Frese (1692 ?-1728 ?), a Finn, whose poems were published in 1726, was an elegiacal writer of much See also:grace, who foreshadowed the idyllic manner of See also:Creutz .

See also:

Atterbom pronounces Frese the best Swedish poet between Stjernhjelm and Dalin . Samuel von Triewald (1688-1743) played a very imperfect See also:Dryden to Dalin's Pope . He was the first Swedish satirist, and introduced Boileau to his country-men . His See also:Satire upon our Stupid Poets may still be read with entertainment.' Both in verse and prose Olof von Dalin (q.v.; 1708-1763) takes a higher place than any See also:Dan writer since Stjernhjelm . He was inspired by the study of his great See also:English contemporaries . His Swedish See also:Argus (1733-1734) was modelled on Addison's Spectator, his Thoughts about Critics (1736) on Pope's See also:Essay on See also:Criticism, his See also:Tale of a See also:Horse on See also:Swift's Tale of a Tub . Dalin's See also:style, ' The works of the chief writers between Sternhjelm and Dalin were edited by P . Hanselli (Upsala, 1856, &c.) as Samlade vitterhetsarbeten-af svenska forfattare . Rudbeck . whether in prose or verse, was of a finished elegance . As a prose writer Dalin is chiefly memorable for his History of the Swedish See also:Kingdom (4 vols., 1746–1762) . His great epic, Swedish Freedom (1742) was written in alexandrines of far greater smoothness and vigour than had previously been attempted .

When in 1737 the new Royal Swedish See also:

Theatre was opened, Dalin led the way to a new school of dramatists with his Brynhilda, a regular tragedy in the style of See also:Crebillon pere . In his comedy of The Envious Man he introduced the manner of See also:Moliere, or more properly that of See also:Holberg . His songs, his satires, his occasional pieces, without displaying any real originality, show Dalin's tact and skill as a workman with the See also:pen . He See also:stole from England and France, but with the See also:plagiarism of a man of genius; and his multifarious labours raised Sweden to a level with the other literary countries of Europe . They formed a basis upon which more national and more scrupulous writers could build their various structures . A See also:foreign critic, especially an English one, will never be able to give Dalin so much See also:credit as the Swedes do; but he was certainly an unsurpassable master of pastiche . His works were collected in 6 vols., 1767 . The only poet of importance who contested the laurels of Dalin was a woman . Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718 1763) was the centre of a society which took the Fratvorden-name of Tankeb are Orden and ventured to See also:rival ftycht . Ygg that which Queen Louise Ulrica created and Dalin adorned . Both See also:groups were classical in taste, both worshipped the new See also:lights in England and France . Fru Nordenflycht wrote with facility and grace; her collection of lyrics, The Sorrowing Turtledove (1743), in spite of its affectation, enjoyed and merited a great success; it was the expression of a deep and genuine sorrow—the death of her See also:husband after a very brief and happy married life .

It was in 1744 that she settled in Stockholm and opened her famous literary See also:

salon . She was called " The Swedish See also:Sappho," and See also:scandal has been needlessly busy in giving point to the allusion . It was to Fru Nordenflycht's credit that she discovered and encouraged the talent of two very distinguished poets younger than herself, Creutz and Gyllenborg, who published volumes of poetry in Crentz. collaboration . See also:Count Gustaf See also:Philip Creutz (q.v.; 1731–1785) was a Finlander who achieved an extraordinary success with his idyllic poems, and in particular with the beautiful pastoral of Atis och Camilla, long the most popular of all Swedish poems . His friend Count Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg Gyllenborg (1731–1808) was a less accomplished poet, less delicate and touching, more rhetorical and artificial . His epic Tdget ofver Bait (" The Expedition across the See also:Belt ") (1785) is an See also:imitation, in twelve books, of See also:Voltaire's Henriade, and deals with the prowess of Charles X . He wrote fables, allegories, satires, and a successful comedy of See also:manners, The Swedish Fop . He outlived his chief contemporaries so long that the new generation addressed him as " Father Gyllenborg." Anders Odel (1718–1773) wrote in 1739 the famous " Song of See also:Malcolm See also:Sinclair," the Sinclairsvisa . The writers of verse in this period were also exceedingly numerous . In prose, as was to be expected, the first half of the 18th century was See also:rich in Sweden as elsewhere . The first Swedish Prose novelist was See also:Jakob Henrik Mork (1714–1763) . His Writers. romances have some likeness to those of See also:Richard- son; they are moral, long-winded, and slow in See also:evolution, but written in an exquisite style, and with much knowledge of human nature .

Adalrik och Gothilda, which went on appearing from 1742 to 1745, is the best known; it was followed, between 1748 and 1758, by See also:

Thecla . Jakob Wallenberg (1746–1778) described a voyage he took to the See also:East Indies and See also:China under the very See also:odd title of See also:Min son pa' galejan (" My Son at the Galleys "), a work full of See also:humour and originality . Johan Ihre (1707–1780), a professor at Upsala, edited the Codex argenteus of See also:Ulfilas, and produced the valuable Svenskt See also:Dialect See also:Lexicon (1766) based on an earlier learned work, the Dialectologia of Archbishop Erik Benzelius (d . 1743) . He settled for some time at See also:Oxford . Ihre's masterpiece is the Glossarium sueogothicum (1769), a historical See also:dictionary with many valuable examples from the ancient monuments of the language . In doing this he was assisted by the labours of two other grammarians, Sven See also:Hof (d . 1786) and See also:Abraham Sahlstedt (d . 1776) . The chief historians were Sven Lagerbring . (1707–1787), author of a still valuable history of Sweden down to 1457 (Svea .Rikes historia, 4 vols., 1769–1783); Olof See also:Celsius (1716–1794), bishop of Lund, who wrote histories of Gustavus I . (1746–1753) and of See also:Eric XIV .

(1774); and Karl Gustaf See also:

Tessin (1695–1770) who wrote on politics and on See also:aesthetics . Tessin's Old Man's Letters to a young Prince were addressed to his See also:pupil, afterwards Gustavus III . Count Anders Johan von